A panic has spread throughout Coronado–not the pink-eye virus. From the grapevine, 20 basketball players have been infected, but in reality, the numbers are actually 4 or 5. Pink-eye is not some debilitating plague; no games or practices were missed because all players identified with the virus were administered medicine.

Why this spread in pink-eye occurred amongst the basketball team is that a person–unknowing that they had the virus–participated in practice as usual. Contact was spread through the basketballs, where players might wipe their faces, and from there, the virus could enter their eyes through the sweat on their faces.

Mr. Thomas, the boys varsity basketball coach, has taken precautionary measures such as advising that the players use hand sanitizer before and after practice, to decrease the odds of infection.

For germophobic students, know that the virus is contained, and the chances of the other basketball players being infected is small, so yours are astronomically miniscule.

As Mr. Thomas said, “about 0.04% of the school population has pink-eye–less than 1%. It is not a big deal. We dealt with it internally as a team.”

Panic over pink-eye is more dangerous than pink-eye itself. The worst thing you can do is create mass hysteria. Pay no more attention to this “epidemic” than you do to a slight cough.