There is, perhaps, no greater lesson in interdependence than a pandemic. If COVID-19 demonstrates nothing else, it is how each of our actions have a significant effect on all beings. Harry Stevens makes the strongest verbal and visual case I have seen for “social distancing” in the Washington Post. If you read nothing else about the virus, I strongly suggest this piece. My takeaway: the math does not care about your opinion on our shared responsibility to limit the spread of the virus. Social distancing is the only way to avoid overwhelming our nations’ health care systems by spreading the transmission of the virus over a longer period of time. People that ignore that fact are either willfully ignorant, or being fed misinformation by irresponsible people with microphones abusing public trust for their own short-sighted self interest.
Yet, despite the calls from nearly every government official and public health expert to exercise social distancing, social media is rife with images of people lining up to pack into crowded bars in New York. It is not just Americans. This piece from the Associated Press details how Italians treated school closures like a vacation.
Some of the comparisons I have heard and seen that compare the current number of deaths from COVID-19 with the number that die from flu and other unrelated (and often absurd) causes are missing the point. It is true that, at this moment, the exact number of deaths from COVID-19 is not as high as other causes that don’t get as much attention. But Stevens’s article demonstrates how, without appropriate social distancing, that number could spike so quickly that there will be more critically ill patients than hospital beds in our country. And, by the way, none of our other diseases are going away for the next several weeks.
Please do humanity a favor and exercise appropriate social distancing - and remind your friends and family to do the same. For some, this is an inconvenience. For many, it is tragic, as their income depends on people walking into their bar or gym. But, painful as it may be, anything other than human life can be recovered or rebuilt.
Thank you for reading.
Yet, despite the calls from nearly every government official and public health expert to exercise social distancing, social media is rife with images of people lining up to pack into crowded bars in New York. It is not just Americans. This piece from the Associated Press details how Italians treated school closures like a vacation.
They cited irresponsible behavior by many citizens, who despite the earlier warnings not to gather in large numbers, headed to beaches or ski resorts, and hung out together in town squares, especially after the closure of schools.Unsurprisingly, cases in Italy spiked 20% in one day.
Some of the comparisons I have heard and seen that compare the current number of deaths from COVID-19 with the number that die from flu and other unrelated (and often absurd) causes are missing the point. It is true that, at this moment, the exact number of deaths from COVID-19 is not as high as other causes that don’t get as much attention. But Stevens’s article demonstrates how, without appropriate social distancing, that number could spike so quickly that there will be more critically ill patients than hospital beds in our country. And, by the way, none of our other diseases are going away for the next several weeks.
Please do humanity a favor and exercise appropriate social distancing - and remind your friends and family to do the same. For some, this is an inconvenience. For many, it is tragic, as their income depends on people walking into their bar or gym. But, painful as it may be, anything other than human life can be recovered or rebuilt.
Thank you for reading.
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