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Joseph A. Ramirez

Dr. Lindberg

ENGL 1302-202

2-10-2022

The Effects of SARS-CoV-2 Against the Mental Wellness

Amongst Academic Students of Universities

The SARS-CoV-2, or COVID 19 disease, has been a part of our lives for 2 years thus far.

Some people don’t see any sort of hope within the next years because of misinformation,

slandering, politics, and constant mutation of the virus because people are still not masking—nor

vaccinating themselves. In the CDC’s official website, after a virus has replicated into a

population, there is a chance that viruses can undergo an “antigenic drift (CDC)’ where the

surface proteins on the virus will mutate (CDC). If a virus moves away from the phylogenetic

tree, in basic terms—a diagram that shows the evolution from a common ancestor (Nature), then

the immune system will not recognize the strand and become susceptible to the virus (CDC). In

some way, the relationship between humanity and a pathogen is beginning to become a vicious

cycle. Due to this long-lasting cycle, all college students have been pressured by not only the

demanding academia, but by the pressures of the outside world that attempt to creep into their

lungs—causing them to suffer. Even if it’s not present within the confines of their lungs, the

virus still hurts us in some way or another. Students have been feeling depression, anxiety, fear,

anger—there are many emotions that we cannot count that would identify our feelings about the

pandemic and to ourselves. This paper will recognize the effects of what the pandemic has
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caused onto college students, and a way how college students can combat our negative feelings

—hopefully feeling relaxed and aware of ourselves.

Emotions have surely been affected by the virus itself, we cannot deny. Shut away by

government in cause of a killing microorganism...Depression was the primary emotion that has

slammed students. Due to the mass shutdowns of all cities, students were either affected by

bordem, isolation, or loneliness. Because of this isolation, this is where the student may induce

anxiety or depression. When the semesters begin—and all universities have switched to a virtual

space—students will only be pressured intensely because of the academia further even before the

coronavirus. Later in the pandemic, students began to feel negative emotions. “Students, who

had poorer sleep quality and mental health issues initiated drinking alcohol, taking pills, and

seeking internet counselling to relieve neurological or psychiatric symptoms. The unsupervised,

self-initiated intervention against mental and sleep disorders of students can lead to more

disastrous outcomes. (Tao et all)”

Student must not lose hope during these trying times. Even if the worse things will appear

in our mist, students are still able to combat their negative emotions.

Finally, students are living in the middle of the pandemic. Humanity has already

experienced the beginning of the pandemic. The worse has already happened, but the light at the

end of the tunnel is still so distant. If students were to take these precautions and ways they could

treat their emotions, they might be able to be a better version of themselves and grow from the

pandemic. Some students have already accepted themselves, and changed their fixiated ways to

be a better person, both to themselves and to others. It will take some trips, but eventually, all

students will see themselves as a good person.

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Work Cited

https://www.nature.com/scitable/topicpage/reading-a-phylogenetic-tree-the-meaning-of-41956/

#:~:text=A%20phylogenetic%20tree%2C%20also%20known,genes%20from%20a%20common

%20ancestor.&text=Tree%20diagrams%20have%20been%20used,the%20time%20of

%20Charles%20Darwin.

https://www.cdc.gov/flu/about/viruses/change.htm#:~:text=One%20way%20flu%20viruses

%20change,)%20and%20NA%20(neuraminidase).

https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/variants/about-variants.html?

CDC_AA_refVal=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.cdc.gov%2Fcoronavirus%2F2019-ncov%2Fvariants

%2Fvariant.html
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