Responsible Behavior: How Do You Stay-At-Home?

So many people are helping in so many ways to stop the deadly COVID-19 pandemic. People are responding with innumerable acts of kindness as we fight the raging storm of an invisible enemy. Facing more restrictive orders and directives, we continue to exhibit a degree of obedience and patience unparalleled in our lives.

There seem to be two general categories of compliant response by the public. I am basing this conjecture on personal observation and reports about social interaction from friends and acquaintances.

1. One group errs on the side of caution by refusing to expose themselves and others to the virus with exceptions of infrequent excursions for strictly essential goods such as food and prescription drugs. They wear masks and defensively avoid inconsequential contact while practicing social distancing and no group contact.

2. The other group practices limited contact, but they continue a routine based on their personal assumptions of risk versus precious personal freedoms. They grudgingly distance themselves from others; they do not wear masks; and some remain lax about family contact as they visit businesses in moderate to large size groups.

Consider:

• A person may be carrying and transmitting the virus without knowing it. Eighty percent of people with COVID-19 have mild symptoms like fever, cough, runny nose, and general tiredness, which matches the common cold. Researchers say 25 percent to 50 percent of people with COVID-19 are unaware they have the virus.
• Someone does not have to be around an infected person to get infected. Infected people can cough and generate respiratory droplets, which then land on nearby surfaces. Or people with the viruses on their hands can deposit the viruses onto a door handle when they open the door.

• About 20 percent of infected people develop a more severe illness and may need to be hospitalized; 3 percent of all those infected die. However, the virus is particularly aggressive among the elderly and those with chronic illnesses, resulting in a death rate several times higher for these vulnerable individuals.

Daniel P. Chin, global health expert, says …

“This virus is particularly difficult to control because it causes complacency among the vast majority of people who have the infection, which facilitates its transmission from person to person while causing the greatest harm to the most vulnerable individuals.”

The information begs the question: “Why would any responsible human or group organize and conduct outings that increase NONESSENTIAL social contact?”

The answer to that question lies deep in the heart of an individual's concern for public safety. It requires a thorough understanding of the words “limitation” and “essential.” Some prefer a loosely implied connotation of those terms favoring broad interpretations based largely on personal preferences and past customs while others grasp the deep gravity of the denotation of those words as they apply to the unique subtleties of all dangers during a global pandemic – the COVID-19 virus that is right on their very doorstep.

In which group do you count yourself? For how long are you going to maintain the stay-at-home routine you practice? I hope you commit to the policy that makes us all just a little safer. Working together, we will defeat the unwanted foe.

“The purpose of life is to obey the hidden command which ensures harmony among all and creates an ever better world. We are not created only to enjoy the world, we are created in order to evolve the cosmos.”

– Maria Montessori