Just last week, it seemed OK to have lunch out or maybe meet up with friends for a game of pickup soccer.
Now, in the fast-moving world of the coronavirus response, that’s no longer the case. More and better social distancing is required. But what’s still acceptable?
We reached out to public health experts, who, admittedly, vary in their recommendations. But their main message remains: The better individuals are now at social distancing to slow transmission of the virus, the better off we’ll all be eventually.
Already, California has told people 65 and older to stay at home. In the San Francisco Bay Area, where community spread is a growing concern, just about everyone else has been ordered to do so, too. California is also among the states that have ordered restaurants, gyms and other facilities to close. And the Trump administration has instructed Americans to avoid gatherings of more than 10 people for the next 15 days and avoid sit-down meals in bars, restaurants and food courts. More restrictions from states, localities and the federal government could follow.
In the coming days, those rules and recommendations may expand as federal, state and local health officials weigh conditions on the ground. So what to do now?
“We ought to make risk-based decisions,” said Dr. Georges Benjamin, executive director of the American Public Health Association.
Expect change. Maybe daily. But also take a deep breath. Some things are still all right.
“At the end of the day, we have to take care of our kids, our family, we have to eat,” said Benjamin. “What people ought to do is think about how best to reduce risk and do as many less risky things as they can.”
So what about walking around the neighborhood?
“Yes, but not in groups,” said Benjamin, who added that he would wave at his neighbors while out for a stroll but “would not have a long conversation.”
If you do chat outside, maintain 6 feet of separation.
Dinner parties? Food for those shut in their homes?
“Inviting people over depends on whether or not they have symptoms, whether they have traveled overseas,” Benjamin suggested. “I would not have a BBQ on my deck with a bunch of people.”
If you bring food to a shut-in or a neighbor, “leave it on the porch,” he said, and always, always make sure you wash your hands before preparing the meal.
In a blog post titled “Social distancing: This is not a snow day,” Dr. Asaf Bitton, an assistant professor at the T.H. Chan School of Public Health at Harvard, takes a hard line, recommending no play dates or sleepovers for children. No sharing of toys with other families. Even playing outside with other kids is a no-go “if that means direct physical contact” such as in basketball or soccer.
Limit trips to stores. Cooking food at home, he wrote, is less risky than takeout. Don’t have other families over for dinner.
School closings won’t slow transmission if parents allow close play dates, or even activity on playgrounds, said Elizabeth Stuart, a professor of mental health, biostatistics and health policy at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, in an interview with KHN.
Playgrounds are a problem because they put children, and their watching parents, in close proximity. There is also a chance the virus could remain on surfaces.
But some people need more flexible guidelines, especially those with young children or those who can’t work from home, such as health care workers.
For them, a “closed-network strategy” might work, Stuart, two epidemiologists and a health policy expert wrote in a piece that ran in USA Today.
Kaiser Health News (KHN) is a national health policy news service. It is an editorially independent program of the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation which is not affiliated with Kaiser Permanente.
The post Take A Deep Breath: Making Risk-Based Decisions In The Coronavirus Era appeared first on Urban Faith.
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