Short Wave - Keep Your Distance

Episode Date: March 20, 2020

It's a phrase we're hearing a lot now, social distancing. Practicing it is essential to slowing the spread of the coronavirus. But what does it really mean? NPR's Maria Godoy gives us advice on what good social distancing looks like in our daily lives - from socializing with friends to grocery shopping to travelling.See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.NPR Privacy Policy

Did I disconnect? Am I still here? Yep. Okay. Why are you laughing at me? It sounded like the closet collapsed. You're listening to Shortwave from NPR. This Monday, the White House announced new guidelines for Americans to follow in order to avoid the coronavirus.

Therefore, my administration is recommending that all Americans, including the young and healthy, work to engage in schooling from home when possible. Americans have been encouraged to practice social distancing. Avoid gathering in groups of more than 10 people. Avoid discretionary travel. And avoid eating and drinking at bars, restaurants, and public food courts. Basically, that means keeping yourself physically away from other people, avoiding gatherings and trying to stay at least six feet away from each other. According to the White House, these guidelines came after assessing models

or computer simulations of the current outbreak. What had the biggest impact in the model is social distancing, small groups, not going in public and large groups. Coronavirus response coordinator Dr. Deborah Birx made it clear that everyone needs to practice social distancing, even if there isn't an outbreak in your community. Experts say this could be our lives for months, perhaps even until a vaccine becomes available. There's a lot of different advice out there, and I think some people don't get it. I've heard of people complaining that their neighbors are having backyard parties. That's NPR Science Desk Senior Editor Maria Godoy, talking to us from her closet. She's been reporting on social distancing.

And I'm so excited to talk with her because, like, a lot of my colleagues, I haven't seen Maria in a while. Hi, Maddie. I miss you so much. I miss your face. I miss your face. Okay. No, no, we're good. Tell me how much you miss me. We have all the time for that. Oh, I really miss your 90s hip-hip-hop references.

There's no one in this house that gets it. Listen, Salt and Peppa, 1993. Here we go. Strictly biz. You know what color it is? You know what time it is? All right. Oh, I really miss you. So today on the show, we'll clear up some of the gray areas of social distancing. We'll talk about how it helps and how to do it right. I'm Maddie Safaya, and this is Shortwave, the Daily Science podcast from NPR.

Okay, so Maria, just before we... get started, we should say that everything is changing super fast. And as we learn more information about all of the stuff, things will change. So this advice is based on interviews that you, the shortwave team, and other NPR folks have had with public health officials and doctors as of Thursday, March 19th. Correct. And, you know, if you hear deferring advice, part of the reason is because the advice changes as a situation on the ground changes. But what we're going to talk about here are some of the best practices that experts we talked to agreed on. And again, remember, listen to your local public health officials because the situation where you are might look a little

different. Yeah, absolutely. And those public health officials have been talking about how social distancing can, quote, flatten the curve. Maria, what does that actually mean? Okay, so this is really important. This is why I'm sitting in a closet with a blanket over my head. The idea is that social distancing can help slow the spread of the virus, so you're not getting this huge spike in the number of people getting sick all at once. If that were to happen, there just wouldn't be enough hospital beds or mechanical ventilators for everyone who needs them. And the U.S. hospital system would be just overwhelmed.

You know, on Fox News this week, the U.S. Surgeon General, Dr. Jerome Adams, he said, we could be on the same track as Italy. We are at a critical inflection point in this country. people, we are where Italy was two weeks ago in terms of our numbers. When you look at the projections, there's every chance that we could be Italy. Yeah, and we do not want that. Italy was slow to stop mass gatherings and get tested started. And now a lot of Italian hospitals are totally overwhelmed.

Yeah, it's sad. But the good news is that we have some power to try and slow down how hard this pandemic hits us here in the U.S. right now by practicing good social distancing. Yeah, absolutely. Okay, so real talk Godoy. I've talked to some of my friends and they're like, you know, I'm not that worried about getting sick. It wouldn't be that bad.

But the thing is, is that people my age can get really sick. And sometimes when your symptoms aren't so severe, you're more likely to go out in the world and infect other people, right? Right. First of all, I'm going to slap your friends who aren't worried. But you are making a really important point. Public health officials are worried about young people going out, especially to large gatherings because they think they're invincible. And even if they get sick, it's not going to be bad for them.

But in fact, new data from the CDC shows a sizable percentage of people who are getting sick enough to need to be hospitalized in the U.S. are young. They're not just elderly. Yeah. Okay. So let's do it. Let's go through some scenarios. based on the guidelines from the White House this week, we should not be eating inside restaurants and bars,

even if you live in a place that has no confirmed cases. Right. You should not be dining in at any restaurant, but if that restaurant is doing pickup or delivery, you know, that's a good option. If you are picking up food, make sure to wash or disinfect your hands. If you're doing delivery online, you can often leave delivery instructions, you know, just have them drop it off outside. And, you know, there are a lot of service.

industry folks right now who really are struggling. If you can tip the restaurants, tip the delivery people, tip well. There's also people urging folks to buy gift cards to their favorite restaurants so they can support them now, give them cash to pay workers, and then they can use those gift cards later. Okay, but is there any way, you know, for us to still eat together? Can I, like, have a few people over to my house? Plague spreader. No, you are. So the new CD-D. The basic guidance is to avoid social visits for now, especially during this 15-day period that started on March 16th. You basically, you should be thinking virtual. You know, why aren't we doing this over FaceTime?

We should be FaceTime chatting. We should be having a, you know, a video chat dinner party. And you can see me in my sweats. Okay. But there is an interesting idea going around, Maria. And that is this idea of essentially having a pact between two households. For example, two couples who agree to socially distance from everyone but each other, like going pandemic steady with each other. Pandemic steady, yeah.

Yeah, I heard of that. And Maria, I just wanted to ask you a question. Does your family want to go study with my family? Maddie, you're really more of my sidepiece because you don't have kids. Honestly, I do not trust you not to fool around on me. Wow. Wow, wow, wow, wow, wow. Well, okay, that is fair. Plus, we actually talked with Caroline Bucky from the Harvard School of Public Health about this, and she agreed with you. She was like, no, that's too risky. That is way too many exposures for each household. I totally agree. Plus, I'm a genius, yeah. Well, okay. All right. I promise this is my last question about food, because you know that's always my main priority. What about grocery shopping?

Okay, so this is one of those trips you have to make. It's not discretionary. We all got to eat. And the experts we talk to say, try going to the grocery store during off-peak hours, so you're not one in a million in line. Right now, some grocery stores are offering wipes that you can use to wipe down the handles on the cart or basket.

You should do that when you get there. Or you can use hand sanitizer if you have any. If I don't have either, I've been using paper towels I take with me to cover it. obviously wash your hands before you go, wash your hands when you get home, and it wouldn't hurt to wash your hands after you unpack. And then, you know, wash them again for fun because we are washing all the time now. If you're in a high risk group like the elderly or immunosuppressed, you can and probably should ask someone else to shop for you or have groceries delivered instead.

We've actually, we're helping our senior neighbors showed them how to use online delivery. So I think if you can reach out, we showed them over the fence at a six-foot distance while we were chatting in the yard. I really like that. That's a really good idea. Yeah. So let's talk about child care. Is daycare a no-go? So interestingly, the new CDC guidelines haven't really tackled that question yet, but we know that there are parents who are serving critical jobs who need daycare. They don't have the option to stay home. And in that case, a pediatrician named Andrea to Nia Cruz from Baylor College Medicine suggests try to find a daycare setting with a small number of kids. So don't send them in if they're sick and make sure kids have gotten their flu shot. And just to be clear, that's not going to protect them against coronavirus. But it is still flu season and you basically want to avoid, you know, having to see a health care worker for any reason right now.

So you're not overwhelming your system. She also says daycare providers should wipe down toys, especially plastic ones, often with disqualming. disinfecting cleaners such as chlorox wipes or a bleach solution. Okay, so Maria, the one thing that bummed me out, I mean, besides the pandemic in general, is that we shouldn't be traveling pretty much at all. I mean, I knew airports were not good, but I thought like driving to a secluded place could be fine, but it's not. The CDC is telling people to avoid discretionary travel. So yeah, there are a lot of cheap flights right now.

I wouldn't do it. But even if you're going to drive the whole goal of this 15-day hunkering down period is to keep your germs to yourself. And that means minimizing contact with other people outside your immediate household. That's hard to do when you're traveling because you've got to stop for gas, etc. Okay. So, Maria, this has been a lot of you can't do this kind of talk. But I do have a nice thing to share with you. Oh, what? The public health expert, we talked to you last night. who said we couldn't enter into a relationship with each other, did say that it was okay to meet somebody outside to hang out a little bit. Like a little walk outside, no touching, six feet away from each other. But, you know, you can see a person. That's nice. Yeah, that is nice. You know,

get some fresh air and you can still see each other. Just, you know, don't come too close. Okay, but Maria, on a serious note, how has reporting this affected your life? I mean, And after working on this story, I started feeling bad about all the places I went, like, one week ago. Have you felt anything like that? Do you think that's normal? Oh, my God. Yeah. I totally think it's normal. I've been thinking about that. And last weekend, I went to, like, a crowded high school musical and a bounce house birthday party, like one of those places where there's millions of kids and you go from room to room and bounce and they touch everything in sight. Yeah, I've been feeling guilty. Like, maybe I shouldn't have done that. But we can only change our actions from today on, right? We can't change the past. We can hopefully change the future by staying home.

Okay, Maria, bring it home for us. Any last social distancing thoughts? Yeah, you know, I guess I would just say that I know a lot of people might feel like all of this is a total overreaction. You know, especially if you're someone living in a place where there haven't been any coronavirus cases yet. But people are worried about young people going out. but I also know a lot of my friends are having trouble convincing their parents that this is serious. But we have learned from other places like South Korea and Singapore and Hong Kong that acting early on in this pandemic has a massive impact on how quickly it grows.

For the people in charge of our health care system, that means we need adequate testing. So we know how many cases are out there. For the rest of us, it means social distancing. We get to be heroes by staying home. I mean, how easy is that in a way? Think about it. Okay, Maria Godoy. From my recording closet to yours, thank you so much.

Oh, you got it, Maddie. I miss you. This episode was produced by Rebecca Ramirez, edited by Viet Le, and fact-checked by Emily Bonn. Thanks for listening to Shortwave from NPR. Stay away from each other out there. Ooh, but we can't do virtual goodbye kisses.