Phillip Picardi writes:

The headlines have not been bringing good news. The infection and death rate of COVID-19 (known colloquially as coronavirus) is steadily rising, with the CDC estimating a worst-case scenario of between 160 and 214 million infected people in the United States alone, with the potential for more than a million deaths. To avoid this nightmare scenario, many companies have asked their employees to work from home, live television talk shows have pivoted to skeleton crews and empty audiences, and major sporting events—from NBA games to the Masters to March Madness—have been postponed or canceled. The stock market plunged, suffering the worst single day since 1987. Some places across the country have been deemed official containment zones, requiring the aid of the National Guard. The WHO officially named the virus a pandemic. And finally, President Trump, after much hand-wringing and buck passing, declared a national state of emergency. That was just last week.

The key message to emerge from this chaotic news cycle is simple: COVID-19 is something all of us should be taking seriously. Health professionals are warning about a crisis of care that could result in a breakdown of our medical system. And the news has created what can only be described as mild pandemonium: Americans all over the country are emptying the shelves of grocery stores; there has been a near complete sell-out of hand sanitizer and face masks; travel has already been restricted from Europe; the wealthy are retreating to their vacation homes to wait out the worst of what’s to come.

And yet, photos still percolated on social media of St. Patrick’s Day celebrations at bars, of Friday night dinners in packed restaurants, of group selfies in public places. All of this comes as even more data reveals that COVID-19 is insidiously, highly contagious even in people who are showing little to no symptoms.

Young people are extremely unlikely to die from COVID-19. But we, the carriers of this economy-crumbling, society-stopping disease are also the ones arrogant enough to continue on with life as usual, flaunting our invincibility, infecting spaces, surfaces, and other people with our own contamination. In doing so, we are willingly contributing to the spread of a pandemic, and to the eventual deaths of people far more vulnerable to this disease than we are.

If you haven’t yet, heed this call: Social isolation is not a plea from your paranoid friends, it is not a precaution we suggest you take, it is not an ineffective method to contain this virus. Social isolation is a social justice issue—and it is absolutely urgent. [Continue reading…]