By Radwan Farraj
CUNY students started the fall semester with fewer concerns about COVID-19 and the potential danger of monkeypox. Cases of monkeypox in New York City and COVID-19 cases have declined recently with CUNY’s COVID-19 Safety Tracker reporting 74 coronavirus cases from the university’s testing sites in its most recent count.
Governor Kathy Hocul declared a state of emergency on July 29 in response to the previously rising monkeypox cases in NY. About 19,962 cases of monkeypox have already been confirmed to be present in the United States, with New York making up 3,403 of those total cases as of press time, according to the CDC.
CUNY Chancellor Félix V. Matos Rodríguez published a statement in early August explaining that the university was keeping watch of the situation, and provided information about monkeypox and how to stay safe.
“CUNY will always make the health and safety of its students, faculty and staff our top priority,” said Chancellor Rodríguez. He continued to assure that CUNY would continue to work with government health agencies and public health experts to inform its communities. At this time, CUNY has not implemented new protocols to deal with monkeypox and rolled back the COVID mask mandate in March 2022. Many who contract monkeypox experience symptoms like fevers and severe rashes. The fatality rate of monkeypox is 3-6%, according to the World Health Organization.
“I’m not concerned about monkeypox or COVID-19 being spread now that students are on campus to be honest,” opined Parsley Georges, a junior at BC. “People should be worried about monkeypox because the symptoms don’t look fun, still monkeypox isn’t fatal so there is no need to be hysterical about it.”
Though monkeypox and COVID cases are lowering across the city, some Brooklyn College students still have concerns about the viruses.
“I still think people should take the virus seriously. I always think about how we are at our most vulnerable when we think everything is okay. So it feels dangerous to think that everything is back to normal,” said BC student Paola Munoz, who noted that though she has concerns, the worry of being exposed comes “from time to time.”
CUNY’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate for all students and staff remains in place, where many except those with approved medical or religious exemptions must submit proof of vaccination before the semester’s start.
Although Georges and others are unaware of what measures are in place to prevent the spread of monkeypox infection, he added, “I think more should be done to prevent sickness I just don’t know what can be done that doesn’t include taking classes back to online.”