MISSOULA — Montana State University student Ronnie Black who has moderate-to-severe asthma recently took to social media to voice her displeasure over people not taking coronavirus and social distancing seriously.
“I’ve seen a lot of people posting stories and stuff from Spring Break, and even after where they’re like, 'this is how we do social distancing.' They’re like, 'we’re social distancing over here together this way', and that’s not social distancing. You’re not doing it, it’s not effective, it’s not helpful," said Black who is from Plains.
Black, is now in what has become the hot spot for COVID-19 in Montana as Gallatin County has surpassed 60 cases, some of which are in their 20s.
Black has spent almost the entirety of the last three weeks at home with her roommate. She says that even the common cold knocks her out for weeks at a time, and the prospect of getting the disease makes her nervous.
She stresses the importance among younger people of social distancing, adding you never know what medical condition someone near you might be facing.
“A lot of people that you know personally probably have medical histories you are unaware of because a lot of people keep their medical histories private. I do have an illness that is really putting me at a high risk for this situation, but you couldn’t really tell that from looking at me," Black said.
"I have a friend with asthma, I know they have asthma, I don’t know how bad it is you know. I don’t know what they’re thinking about of all this,” she continued.
“I have a friend with diabetes, I don’t know how that’s going to affect them, you know are they still going to be able to get all of the care that they need for that regardless of whether or not they get the infection.”
Black says she will remain self-quarantined until the threat of being exposed to COVID-19 has passed.
