The past few weeks have seen the dramatic rise in coronavirus outbreaks all over the world. 

To stay safe, the World Health Organization (WHO) advises people to wash their hands, cover their mouth when sneezing, and avoid touching their eyes, mouth, and nose. 

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the coronavirus can be spread through coughing and sneezing. It is unclear whether it is spread by touching objects that have been touched by infected people. 

Students at World Journalism Preparatory School have varying levels of concern regarding the coronavirus. 

Junior Vipraal Budhram stated, “What concerns me is that there is no cure for it yet and it spreads easily. Also, I live in Flushing, so that concerns me because it has a high East Asian population, and even though no one has been diagnosed yet in New York, I know that there is a possibility that some people may have it.”

Others have different concerns of how the virus affects views about Asian people. 

WJPS senior Veronica Portnov said, “Honestly, I’m not terribly concerned about the dangers of the virus itself. I’m much more concerned about the societal implications. It seems that the emergence of this virus brought forth a lot of prejudice and racism against Chinese people. Basically, people are using this virus as an excuse to say these things, thinking it’s acceptable because now there’s a ‘reason.’ I feel like this is just going to keep getting worse.”