For The Love Of God, Please Stay Home

Stop leaving your house and start taking COVID-19 seriously

Photo by Helena Lopes on Unsplash

The only thing in the news these days is Coronavirus. Coronavirus is going to kill millions. Coronavirus is going to decimate our society. Coronavirus is our black swan. We don’t really know what the symptoms are and we don’t really know how it spreads.

The only thing we do know is that the only way to stop it at this point is aggressive social distancing. Every expert I cited in every previous link says the same thing: the only way to stop what’s coming is to stay home. Stay home from work, stay home from school, stay home from playdates, clubs, and restaurants, stay home from coffee shops and your friend’s apartment. Wherever you’re thinking of going, don’t. Make a big grocery store trip, buy all the food you need for a while, and stay home.

So far only one measure has been effective against the coronavirus: extreme social distancing.
— Cancel Everything, The Atlantic

At this point, containment through contact tracing and increased testing is only part of the necessary strategy. We must move to pandemic mitigation through widespread, uncomfortable, and comprehensive social distancing. That means not only shutting down schools, work (as much as possible), group gatherings, and public events, but also…