Flatten the curve.
That's the big emphasis that many doctors, officials, and news reporters are pushing as they are explaining the goal of putting an end to the corona virus, or COVID-19. Schools across the country to an online format and the unemployment rate is extraordinarily high as businesses everywhere have closed and furloughed their employees. Social distancing has become the new social norm but some people are just not complying to this.
Many people argue that the answer to COVID-19 is not to stay in your homes and do nothing but you should continue to live your lives like nothing is happening. Some people continue to go out, shop, and hang with friends because they believe that the virus is not going to hit them. Protests around the country have sparked as people argue that the country should not be closed.
The economy, of course, is suffering because people are not working or buying things like they normally would and some state's unemployment systems could literally not handle the influx of people trying to claim unemployment such as Florida. To me, self-quarantine is a no brainer: if you stay at home, then you are not putting yourself or anyone else at risk of being infected.
Through these protests comes people defying the stay at home orders by gathering in large groups, blocking hospital staff, and creating threats to communities everywhere. I've seen some news reports of people believing that if kids were going back to school that only 2-3% would get infected and die and I just have to ask: why risk that?
One protest in particular in the state of Michigan found people congregating outside of the Capitol Building, ignoring all orders to be in quarantine on April 16th. The governor of Michigan, Gretchen Whitmer, made the point that by protesting the stay at home order in the manner they did, the protestors more than likely extended the amount of time that everyone would have to stay at home.
It has become exceedingly clear that in order to flatten the curve and get life to resume to normal, people are going to have to social distance and stay at home. The United States has a culture where people are increasingly individualistic whereas, in places like China and South Korea, a sense of community brought people to stay at home and drop the exposure rates of COVID-19 quickly. It's my hope that more people realize this so we can go back to normal.
