When she flew back to her hometown of Wuhan, China on the last day of 2019, she thought she had her spring semester all figured out.
“I was planning to leave from Wuhan on January 28th,” she recalled. “My original plan was actually to spend the first week of the semester at a conference in LA with Google. I was looking forward to skipping a week of class and to [return to Smith for] an easy semester where I could spend time with my friends.”
At the time, rumors of a mysterious new virus had reached her, but nobody was paying much attention. It was flu season, after all, and the early symptoms of the coronavirus are similar to that of a common cold. Not only that, but the Chinese New Year celebrations had fallen earlier this year, in January instead of February, making it possible for Chinese students returning home from US colleges to celebrate with family as well as meet up with friends in the city. She was told the illness came from a wildlife market and that it wasn’t transmissible between humans. Though her parents made some small noises about maybe not going outdoors as much, they didn’t think it was serious enough to stop her from going out to meet friends.
“Most people, including me, were like, ‘Well, I never eat wildlife animals, so it doesn’t really concern me at all,’” she said. In any case, Wuhan is a highly developed city, with a high concentration of educated young professionals – it was thought that if anything were to happen, Wuhan’s advanced medical technologies and medical resources would be enough to deal with it.
Around January 20th, people began to panic. News that the coronavirus was transmissible between humans had become established fact, just as stories of coronavirus-related deaths and cases in other countries were coming to light. She had developed mild cold symptoms herself, though she and her parents decided not to seek medical care, given the low likelihood of it actually being the coronavirus. It wasn’t worth it to get checked out, with all the city’s sick and paranoid flooding healthcare facilities and contracting each other’s illnesses in waiting rooms. “Hospitals are the most dangerous places right now,” her parents told her.
Three days later, she woke up to the announcement that all transportation in and out of the city of Wuhan would shut down at 10 am. The city of 11 million people was about to begin a historic quarantine that would see not only planes and trains out of Wuhan cancelled, but also suspended buses and subways within it.
She had woken up at 6 am, a few hours before the quarantine would start. She strategized with her family that there was still hope for her to make it out of Wuhan, if she drove straight to the airport. But she was still coughing from her cold and they were afraid that the authorities, eager to thwart any trace of the virus coming out of Wuhan, would quarantine her in some outside facility when she landed in another city. Staying with family until all traces of her cold died down seemed like the best option, given that it seemed economically not very sustainable to keep Wuhan quarantined for more than a few days.
“It took me a really long time to get over that,” she said. “I was really really freaking out and I contacted school and talked to my dean and my professors. They [were all] really nice and supportive because a lot of them were paying attention to the news and a few knew where I am from. But no one knew how [things would work out.]”
And so it happened that when the Spring semester started a few weeks ago, one Smith student was still over 7000 miles away across the world, looking on over social media as her friends and classmates all returned to campus from break.
The student, who wishes to remain anonymous, is still in her family’s apartment in the city of Wuhan, which she has not left in more than three weeks.
“My parents go to work and they have some responsibilities, but they really try not to go out as much [beyond that] because there is a small risk that I would be infected. If I were infected it would really mess up my future,” she said over video call.
All the uncertainties and upheaval of the past few weeks have not been easy to live through. Though she had entertained plans of keeping up with her studies over recorded lectures and notes, she found that it was difficult to be in the emotional and mental place to focus on her academics.
“My life is not in danger [from the virus] and I have food,” she reflected. “I’m not the worst victim of this – there’s people literally dying. But I’m really angry [and unhappy because] I don’t leave my apartment.”
It’s unclear how long the Wuhan quarantine will last. Even if the student were able to leave the city, she will still be subject to the February 2nd travel restrictions declared by the US government that denies entry to foreign nationals who have been in China in the past 14 days. If she were to return to campus, she would likely need to fly to a third country for two weeks before traveling back to the states.
The International Students and Scholars Office (ISSO) is no stranger to helping international students navigate US regulations, even during complex global situations. ISSO Dean Caitlin Szymkowicz said that in these cases, what the office can do is to present students with options to maintain F1 visa status, as well as helping to decode what these options might mean for concerned students and faculty across campus.
The student said that she is being supported well by her class dean and her professors and is in communication with the ISSO. Though her initial plans for the spring semester may have been disrupted, the student is confident that she’ll make her way back to Smith eventually.
“What’s important to remember is that people have interruptions in plans all the time for many different reasons,” said Dean Szymkowicz, noting that while Smith students often have detailed plans for the future, missteps and deviations do not spell long term failure. “Life is not linear. Our goal is to get students their degree and what they need out of their education.”
When asked what concerned Smith community members could do to help, the student said that she appreciates understanding and accommodation of her situation and that there is always room for medical supply donations for the huge amount of infected people in Wuhan. According to the New York Times, the death toll in Hubei province alone from last Thursday’s official announcements reached 1,310. Though there have been some efforts to bring more medical help and supplies into Wuhan, the hospitals are still overcrowded and understaffed. The student hopes to raise awareness for the serious situations in her home city. “I am not the only victim in this situation,” she emphasized in an email. “I hope readers understand that.”
Sophie Guthrie ’21 contributed reporting for this piece.
