I was sitting in class the other day with a headache and a congestion. Around me, someone coughed, someone else sneezed, and two people sniffled – all within the same 10 seconds. If you’re sitting in a classroom with other people right now, take a moment to listen to the sounds around you. Chances are, many people are experiencing minor cold symptoms.

There’s a couple potential reasons this might be. Maybe the change in the weather affected our sinuses. Maybe everyone’s throats are still sore from hollering at homecoming and pep rallies. Maybe one person got sick and spread it to everyone else. Maybe it’s just the people in my own class that are sick and there’s no big reason for it and I’m making a big deal out of a coincidence. Maybe coughs and sneezes are more noticeable than they were before because of the paranoid stigma around them now as symptoms for COVID-19.

But this hasn’t just been a Newman-wide problem. Even the New York Times has noticed the growing trend of cold-symptoms. In June of this year, they took this issue into consideration and looked at what might be causing it.

Their article (https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/22/well/live/colds-summer-immunity.html?smid=url-share) suggested that “[m]onths of pandemic restrictions aimed at Covid-19 had the unintended but welcome effect of stopping flu, cold and other viruses from spreading. But now that masks are off and social gatherings, hugs and handshakes are back, the run-of-the-mill viruses that cause drippy noses, stuffy heads, coughs and sneezes have also returned with a vengeance”.

Our bodies, which had previously been used to encountering viruses and germs daily, haven’t had to deal with such encounters during quarantine and social distancing. At this point, our immune systems are slightly ‘out of shape’ because they haven’t been actively meeting and kicking out microbial intruders. As people steadily beginning to interact more (due to lifted restrictions), their immune systems get put on the spot without a warmup practice. Thus, people are slightly more susceptible to getting sick than they were before the pandemic. Overall, Tara Parker-Pope of the New York Times was not surprised to see many people with the cold over the summer.

Now, this logic makes perfect sense, except for the fact that it’s November and not June. So what makes Newman’s situation different?

A couple of factors can explain why Newman, as its own community, would experience this phenomenon. Firstly, many fall sports have been in close contact with each other for the first time in a year, which provides more possibility for viruses to spread. But furthermore, as fall sports enter their more competitive pinch points of the season, the teams interact with a lot of other teams too, which extends that even more. And speaking of important times for fall sports, Spirit Week could easily have been a catalyst; with full school and high school pep-rallies and groups decorating hallways, many people were close together, which is something Newman hasn’t truly seen since before March of 2020.

It’s not that coming together is a bad thing – in fact, the interactions Newman encourages are welcoming and arguably essential to get the community running smoothly again.

So as always, remember to wash your hands and cover your nose when you sneeze. It’s simply a common cold – just like old times.