Today, Explained - Six feet away

Episode Date: March 19, 2020

Vox’s Brian Resnick (safely) meets Sean in a Washington, D.C. park to deliver the Five Commandments of social distancing. Start your #SixFeetAwaySong journey at vox.com/today-explained. (Transcript here.) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hey, I'm Sean Ramos from We're Doing a New Thing, and today I explained a coronavirus update to keep you on top of some of the biggest stories of the day. Here's what we have so far on Thursday, March 19th. Two days ago, I told you the United States had just crossed 5,000 cases. Now, well over 10,000 people have officially tested positive for COVID-19, including two members of Congress, one from Florida and another from Utah. A new report from the CDC says Americans of all ages are getting seriously sick with COVID-19, not just older adults. Older adults are at greater risk of dying, but of 508 patients hospitalized stateside

who were studied, 38% were between 20 and 54, and nearly half of the sickest patients were adults under 65. So be careful millennials and be careful boomers. The State Department says that American citizens living abroad should get ready to come home or stay wherever they are for a long time. The timeline hasn't exactly been finalized, but even more travel restrictions are imminent. Australia and New Zealand are shutting their doors to foreigners.

India is banning all international flights into the country. And there have now been more COVID-19 deaths in Italy than in China. The death toll in Italy climbed over 3,400 today. And meanwhile, in China today, for the first time in a long time, no new local infections were reported. And a new study says that people who became sick with COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, had a lower death rate than previously thought.

1.4% of those who got sick died instead of earlier estimates of 2% to 3.4%. You can write us with your coronavirus questions, email todayexplainedatvox.4%. You can write us with your coronavirus questions, email todayexplained at vox.com, or tweet at us. The show is at today underscore explained. I'm at Ramis Firm.

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about your gambling or someone close to you, please contact Connex Ontario at 1-866-531-2600 to speak to an advisor free of charge. BetMGM operates pursuant to an operating agreement with iGaming Ontario. Okay, I'm standing in a park in northeast Washington, D.C. It's basically the first time I'm leaving the house to not go to the grocery store.

And on my way here, I passed a dog that immediately stopped in its tracks and was practicing safe social distancing, as far as I could tell. And I thought, hmm, maybe I can ask Brian Resnick, Vox's science reporter, to come to said park with me to explain social distancing. Because he lives very close to me, it turns out, in Washington, D.C. And Brian, here you are. Yeah. Let me bring this microphone over to you. Just to make sure everything's clear, we're as far away as recommended, around six feet. I mean, you're the only person I've seen this week.

So this is a joy. It's always a joy, Brian. Even though there's still some distance between us. You know, we've been getting a ton of questions about social distancing, Brian. I wonder, are there like golden rules to this game? Are there like the fundamental social distancing best practices? Is there a Ten Commandments for social distancing? Not Ten Commandments, but I do have five. You know, there's a thousand rules that you can think of or a thousand situations like,

oh, should I go to the grocery store when? But we're going to try to break it down into just like five big picture rules. Okay, so let's do it. Let's go one by one, starting with, this is a biggie, commandment one. So I think the most important commandment is the first one. And it's your responsibility to not just protect yourself, but to protect others. So that's the whole point of all this social distancing. We're not just keeping ourselves safe and well, we're keeping other people who we could spread this virus to safe

and well. So do you feel this way because people aren't protecting others? They're just protecting themselves? Do you feel like a selfishness? Let's look around here. I mean, there's no one in this park, but I certainly saw like kids playing on my way over here. Should they not be playing with each other? So today I saw, I think CBS News got it, in Miami, like a bunch of spring breakers who were like all in their teens or early 20s talking about how like they didn't want to ruin their fun. But the thing is, young people can get this disease and not necessarily get the worst symptoms or necessarily die from it in high numbers, but they can disproportionately spread

it to some of the most vulnerable people among us. And so like the first commandment is about like, this is a collective human virus. It's going to infect humans. You are human who can carry it and to spread it to someone. You don't want to be the cause of someone's death. Okay. Commandment one, protect others as you would thine self. Brian, commandment two. Okay. Commandment one, protect others as you would thyself. Brian, commandment two. Okay, commandment two is... You have like a cute little Oscar speech prepared for this. I do, because, you know, this is important.

And actually, you know, we've like put some thought into it. It's important to get this right, so I've written it down. The second one is to obey your public health department. So this one, yes, there is a general recommendation or guideline from the federal government that we should not congregate in groups of 10 people. But depending on where you live in your situation and in your city or state, the situation can look very different. For example, in the Bay Area, people are being asked to shelter in place, which basically means means don't leave the home under most conditions, if not necessary at all. So listen to your public health department or mayor's office or sometimes governor's office.

And remember, too, the overall federal guideline is groups of 10 or more you should really avoid. And also, when in doubt, avoid. If you find yourself thinking, oh, do I really need to go see this person and if the answer is no like there's just so much not known about this virus and also because testing hasn't been very good and widespread we don't know where it is and unfortunately right now in this really uncertain period where it is starting to spread exponentially, better safe than sorry may be a good place to start. Okay, commandment two, obey thine public health department. Brian Resnick, commandment three. Okay, commandment three is if you feel sick, any member of your household feels sick, or if you feel like you've been exposed to this virus, please stay home, please quarantine yourself,

or if you're sick, put yourself in isolation and do not touch or contact or go near people who are not sick. If you think thyself sick, self-isolate or quarantine. Okay, Brian, commandment four. This is a big one too. Social distancing is a little bit of a misnomer it's physical distancing we're supposed to be physically apart from one another but that doesn't mean we can't uh care about each other and check in on each other so like

social distancing does not mean emotional distancing does not letting people be lonely by themselves especially the older people who may not have a lot of mobility to begin with, and they're even more isolated because we're being told not to go near older people. So check in on them. Brian, this is my favorite commandment yet. It's a good one. It's hopeful. It's the most proactive one. We can help each other because isolation and loneliness is going to be a terrible

problem for a lot of people who are already isolated and lonely and it's going to be a tough time for a lot of people and just to check on them but not like physically check on them commandment for my favorite yet not going to do god voice because i liked it so much social distance is physical distance. Call your mom. Call your grandma if you still got one. Keep in touch with your people. Brian, commandment five.

So commandment five is a simple one too. If you have to remember one number, actually five is six because you're supposed to stay six feet away from other people. This virus spreads by droplets that spread out of your mouth and nose, especially when you cough or sneeze. And like six feet is like the splash zone. So if you can, if you have to go out, try to maintain six feet of distance between other people. Commandment five is actually commandment six feet away. And luckily

my arm is extremely long and I'm staying six feet away as I hold this microphone in front of Brian Resnick. I am trying my best to stay six feet away from you. And I will continue to do so after the break. But you know, first, we got some messages for you. You need to stay six feet away. Six feet away, six feet away You called me twice in a row, asking me out I said let's stay in, and I don't wanna be alone So I need you to know, I need you to know

That you need to stay six feet away, six feet away You need to stay six feet away, six feet away six feet away If you were my hands, I would wash you like the CDC says you deserve And if you were Corona, I would flatten your, flatten your, flatten your curve. You need to stay six feet away. Six feet away. You need to stay six feet away. Six feet away. I know this isn't the first time you've heard a song on our show, but this one's different because we want this song to bring people together in times of quarantine.

We want you to participate. You've heard Noam's version of Six Feet Away. Now we want to hear yours. Record your own version of this song, or if you're not musically inclined, there's a dance too. You can find it over at vox.com slash today dash explained. While you're there, you can download the song and keep it, share it, use it for reference while making your cover or doing your dance. But whatever you do, share stuff with the hashtag six feet away song. Again, find the song at vox.com slash today dash explained. Share it on Twitter or Facebook or Instagram or wherever you share stuff with the hashtag six feet away song. Can't wait to hear and see what you do. Support for today explained comes from ramp.

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Okay, Brian. We're back in the park. We actually never left, but the show left us. A question we keep seeing over and over again is, like, can I have two people over for dinner? If you have two people over for dinner, and the whole time you're eating dinner, you're somehow six feet away from each other

because you have, I don't know, an expansive apartment or something, is that okay, or is that foolish? I believe sharing food is like a big risk for communicating diseases among people. Yeah, so, you know, because you're touching the same utensils. The general rule right now, and unfortunately there's just uncertainty, you know, testing hasn't been great, we don't know where this virus is. The general rule right now is that if you can avoid people, it's probably the right thing to do. Although, you know, we'll know more soon, hopefully, that can make those decisions easier. What about ordering food then? Like, if I get takeout from my favorite restaurant that I still want to support in this time where restaurants are closing down and laying people off.

Could I get it from the noodles? Could I get it from the, you know, pizza? Yeah, I think getting delivery, because the food itself will be, you know, it's like hot and like viruses will be killed, you know, in the cooking process. What about sushi? Sushi? What about sushi? It's often cold. Oh, wow. You just really threw me there

anyway i have seen people getting deliveries where the delivery driver just like puts it on the front of their house like you don't like touch them you don't go near them and then like once you get the delivery i've seen it recommended that yeah you could take the food out of its container. You can like wash the container, you know, like take out food is an option. Okay. So let's say you just go to the local grocery and just go to the local pharmacy. Are you still at risk of contracting COVID-19 in those situations? Because maybe someone touched that box of Cheerios before you did, or maybe someone had touched those tongs from which you selected some prepared foods. Maybe grocery stores aren't even doing prepared foods as much

anymore, but could you catch this from stuff you touch at the grocery store? And should you be avoiding the pharmacy, which you might need in times like these? Obviously people need food, people need their medicines. I mean, you can go out and get those things it's like at least for most parts of the country like the order is not to shelter in place although like i said you know remember that commandment listen to your public health department if they do not want you leaving your home that was commandment uh two i believe yeah yeah so like see what your local situation is like but yeah yeah, if you're going to the grocery store, maybe it's not a good idea to if you see a huge crowd in there, maybe, you

know, go a different time. If you go to the pharmacy, see if they do delivery. A lot do these days. Okay, you wrote a story for Vox.com recently saying that we might need to be practicing your five commandments and abstaining from delivery and dinner parties and maybe only going to the grocery store and the pharmacy for a year maybe more please explain yeah so i was talking to a bunch of epidemiologists this week about this and there was a new report out and i have to say it sucks like dude Like these conversations did not make me feel good and I was kind of sorry to report on them. But the truth of the matter is that if social distancing works and this virus stops spreading as aggressively as it can, if people don't seem to be dying in the numbers that we fear. That means social

distancing works. And then if you lift it, this virus, which can spread undetected for a variety of reasons, is still out there. So you can't necessarily just declare an early victory and make life go back to normal in a few months. Even China and South Korea, which really do seem to be getting a handle on their situation through aggressive policies, including social distancing, like they're not in the clear yet. It might take like a stepwise approach where we're going to have to see what the right balance is between letting our economy work at all and having people live. Let me interrupt you for a second there to just reiterate that after a year, these restaurants aren't just going to be taking a hiatus.

They might be done, right? We might lose the things in our society that we most cherish if we do this for a year. Tell me more about the cost-benefit analysis there. This is a terrible choice. Choosing between our society or economy running, people's livelihoods, and hundreds of thousands of people potentially dying. It's a horrible choice. It's choosing between life and all of the things that make your life rich.

I think about the things I love, like going to the movies, going to see live music, supporting museums, the theater. And I will say, all this can change. There's a lot of parameters of this virus that aren't completely well understood. And once we understand them better, we could probably make less broad sweeping recommendations. It's the uncertainty and the potential of harm that makes these kind of draconian-seeming policies. We need them because we just don't know. But if there's a treatment that stops people from dying from this, that changes the outlook. If there's a vaccine a year from now,

you know, that obviously changes it. The more we learn about how this is transmitted from one person to the next, like if we learn that, oh, wow, it doesn't seem like kids are like really transmitting this virus very much, then perhaps it's okay to reopen schools. But these projections are no joke. Like I think the projection if we were to do nothing, and we are doing things, like we're not doing nothing, like millions would die in this country and you know more around the world and then by doing things you know there's still a level of suffering and and unfortunately death that will probably occur but you know we're just going to need to find out what the balance is and in time at least what I'm hearing is like it's not going to be a few weeks.

It might be a few months. I think it's okay to recognize, like, it's all, like, upsetting. Last week, for instance, I felt completely terrible that I couldn't go to a friend's funeral and, like, cancel plans and cancel tickets. And it just, like, I knew, like, I know this as well as anyone. They'll flatten the curve. And, you know, I've been reporting on this, but it still felt terrible. And I still didn't want to, like, make the call to my friends and tell them, like, I wasn't going to be there. So.

I'm sorry about the funeral, Brian. It's okay. I'm, like, ultimately glad I didn't travel because, like, the day after was, like, the, all the European vacationers coming back. And that did not seem like a good situation to be in. I'm glad we had this time together. You know, this is like checking in on people. You can come by. You don't live that far away, Sean. You can come check in on me.

I can wave to you from my window, at least. I kind of need you to. Come to my window. Come on inside. Wait by the light of the moon. Come to my window. I'll be home soon. I don't, I'm not singing. All right. I think those were the lyrics. This is Sean Ramosferm and Brian Resnick reporting from a park in northeast Washington, D.C. Practice social distancing. It's worth it.

But that's the bottom line. You got it.