Living in a time of social distancing: This isn’t panic, it’s mere precaution
The goal here is to “flatten the curve” and give essential time for health care providers to help the afflicted.
Starting Monday, Maryland’s public schools will be closed for at least two weeks. Colleges and universities have similarly emptied. Senior centers have been shut down, large gatherings banned, sporting events and concerts at all levels, canceled.
America is on hiatus for an unknown duration.
Such actions, while uncommon, are not unprecedented. As recently as May of 2009, then-Gov. Martin O’Malley ordered five schools with suspected cases of swine flu to be closed and took some heat at the time. But shuttering all schools statewide over health concerns? That hearkens back to the deadly outbreak of 1918 when H1N1 or Spanish Flu took millions of lives worldwide, and “self-quarantine” wasn’t a mild advisory so much as an urgent survival skill.
All of it — the closings, the precautions, the warnings associated with COVID-19 — is justified. Not because we are panicked, nor because these are minor inconveniences that involve equal sacrifice; they are not. The goal here is to “flatten the curve"; slow the spread of the disease; give essential time for hospitals, health care providers, even test manufacturers, to provide help to the afflicted.
This is the prudent thing to do under the circumstances. Whatever the threat to you individually, whether you are elderly with complicating factors or young and vital, we are all potential carriers. We have an obligation to look out for each other. And, thanks to technology, this has never been more feasible. We live in the information age, the era of laptops, tablets and smart phones. We can do this.
Yet because this is not a common occurrence, there are many among us who see this as an overreaction, an abuse of government authority or worse. The especially conspiratorial minded see these preparations as an effort to submarine Donald Trump’s reelection by triggering a collapse of stock prices and raising the likelihood of a full-blown economic recession. Fortunately, most people are not taking cues from partisans or their shills on this. We are listening to voices of reason like immunologist Anthony S. Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases or, closer to home, Gov. Larry Hogan, a Republican. Their honest, straightforward assessments, their willingness to admit uncertainty and doubt, and their cautious but hopeful outlook have proven invaluable.
Indeed, it’s clear that the United States was ill prepared for such an outbreak for a variety of reasons. Where other countries, most notably South Korea, had the capacity to test for coronavirus and thus isolate the afflicted, which seems to have throttled the outbreak there, the U.S. does not yet. The fear is that we might become another Italy, where commercial activities have been largely suspended, the country virtually on lockdown. President Trump’s declaration of a national emergency was helpful in providing aid to states and local governments, but the squabbling over paid sick and an unwise payroll tax holiday hardly inspired confidence. And yet, we must soldier on — guarding against the worst, hoping for the best.
Humans will be humans, of course. The toilet paper rush was a bit much. We could surely do with an end to those “case of Corona” memes on social media, too. And a more critical and detailed assessment of exactly how this nation’s public health infrastructure and leadership performed (or rather failed to) is a task for a latter day. This is not a time for fear and dread, but a moment of caution and resilience. Think of it as a tornado watch. We hunker down until the storm passes, not because we are certain of calamity but because we recognize the risk.