“Stay at home” has become a mantra, the only mental tool for many people who see every Wuhan coronavirus issue as a nail. I have some thoughts.
Being self-sufficient enough to stay at home is perhaps not as common as we might like. A much discussed Federal Reserve study found that 40% of Americans could not manage a $400 emergency; however accurate that is (there are substantive critiques of that study), it does speak to the degree to which many are managing household needs on a just-in-time basis. They aren’t able to stay at home for two months.
“Just stay at home” ignores the extent to which this virus, like all viruses, spreads through personal social networks, not simple geography. It’s ludicrous to accuse someone of spreading the virus by leaving your home to visit someone else when you both know you aren’t infected. And contrary to what some seem to believe, you can know.
The exception is coming into contact with a contaminated surface. But that’s why we are washing our hands properly for 20 seconds, or using sanitizer or wipes when we’re out and come into contact with door handles and such. This virus is not aerosolized in the atmosphere leading to getting infected by leaving your home. It takes sustained exposure to an infected person for airborne community spread, and that’s not likely with some simple social distancing and hand washing. Leaving your home is not the issue.
So much is uncertain, and the data available is incomplete and in some cases contested, which makes it impossible to know what the risks are. It seems to me many people are responding to that uncertainty, and fear of the worst, by landing on a solution, a tool, that is clear and simple and certain, giving them at least a feeling of control and safety. I think it’s a false sense of security, though, and as a strategy it breeds unseen and unintended consequences we’ll find out later are very harmful, and regrettably unnecessary.
Thoughts of a citizen 