In the past year and a half, many students have changed their behavior regarding travel, events, and other activities due to the COVID-19 pandemic — with the previous school year having included COVID-19 testing, indoor hiding and Zoom fatigue.
The Sun spoke to Professor Laura Niemi, a psychologist, about the ethical dilemmas that young people, especially college students, face while making public health decisions during the pandemic.
According to Niemi, realizing that some activities are risky but still want to participate presents an ethical dilemma for many people. Travel is one such example, especially since so many students are leaving Ithaca for fall break and Thanksgiving this semester.
“People manage their close and close relationships as best they can without feeling like they are hurting other people they don’t know,” Niemi said.
Niemi added that the dilemma facing university students is balancing the quality of their university experience with the joint effort to protect others by limiting the spread of COVID-19. Throughout the pandemic, Cornell students have cited a lack of in-person socialization as a strain on mental health.
“It looks like we have to make a trade-off,” Niemi said. You see students grappling with this, trying to figure out ‘How much should my behavior change? ”
According to Niemi, social relationships with others play a major role in decision making because building relationships with peers is very important for teens.
Victoria Varlack ’22 said she and her flatmates are balancing social contact with public health precautions by spending most of their time in a small circle.
Despite taking precautions, Farlak said being a college student during the pandemic has been challenging. She was a sophomore when the pandemic started and didn’t expect it to last for the rest of her career at Cornell.
“At the end of sophomore year, I was kind of hoping the epidemic would be over in a few months,” Farlak said.
Niemi explained how moral judgment plays a role in the social nature of college students.
“I think people can feel ashamed, embarrassed, or even have to lie when they are diagnosed [with COVID-19]Niemi said. “I think it’s an ethical issue how we deal with it and how do we talk about it with students.”
However, Farlak said that pointing fingers at those who engage in irresponsible behavior is likely not an effective way to get individuals to change those behaviors. Experts also support the idea that public defamation is ineffective.
“I think it’s important to hold others accountable, but I think most of the time, that incites a defensive attitude of someone doing something that might be wrong, and I don’t think that’s productive,” Farlak said.
The COVID-19 vaccine, which became publicly available this year, also played a role in student behavior. Last spring, Farlak said there was a major shift in student behavior, when people became much more comfortable returning to “normal”. For example, large outdoor gatherings at the end of last semester were very frequent.
Ethical judgments about behaviors during the COVID-19 pandemic can also be traced back to politics. COVID-19 has become a politically polarizing issue in the United States, especially due to mask mandates and vaccine discussions.
Niemi found that differences in moral values, along with demographic factors such as political orientation, gender, education and income level, had a stronger effect on attitudes in people who have contracted COVID-19 than on attitudes toward people who have contracted other illnesses.
“This suggests that COVID-19 is somewhat unusual at the moment, as our ethical values are not only informing us about how we should act and react to COVID-19 protection advice, but also policy,” Niemi said.
With the university having its official Thanksgiving holiday for the first time since fall 2019, many students are making plans to leave campus. However, for those aiming to be vigilant about the pandemic, leaving campus has never been as simple as it was two years ago.
Erin Fox 23 was looking forward to going to her friend’s house in Buffalo, New York, this Thanksgiving but planned to take safety measures to reduce the risk of COVID-19.
“I’ll be seeing her family pretty much exclusively over Thanksgiving,” Fox said before the break. “I’ll get tested before and after I go, and I’ll probably wear a mask around my roommate until the test comes back negative.”
Fox said that although the vaccine and booster shots have given her a sense of a return to normalcy, she still finds it important to remain vigilant, especially during the winter break.
“Once I get home [in San Diego for winter break]I’ll meet my friends, maybe that’s it. I probably won’t go to big places, Fox said. “I know some people will go to different countries during the winter break, but personally, I haven’t gotten there yet.”
When it comes to taking COVID-19 safety measures while enjoying the holidays, Fox said transparency about vaccination status among family and friends is something she finds important.
Despite the challenges of navigating our college experiences during the pandemic, students have been able to adapt.
“I’m glad we were able to adjust the way we were doing in college so that we could really take classes on a personal level,” Farlak said. “It’s definitely a huge adjustment to trying to get expectations in my mind to keep up with reality.”