It's shameful and deadly that there are so few public health, medical, and political leaders pointing out the inadequacy of voluntary social distancing as our public health approach to #COVID19.
Especially as "voluntary" is in a setting of family obligations, employment pressures, financial need, misinformation, and inadequate testing.
Public health/medical colleagues I've talked to are near unanimous in supporting a lockdown with financial/logistical supports.
The top posts in this private Fb group for health workers say the same: facebook.com/groups/8159989…
Yet media, politicians, and health leaders are quiet.
I don't blame people who aren't social distancing.
The guidance is unclear. Where is it relevant? What activities?
This is one major problem with voluntary social distancing. It outsources and externalizes the information gathering, responsibilities, and stress to individuals.
We need our leaders to make the tough decisions.
We'll all breath a sigh of relief that it's a clear 2 weeks of lockdown and not weeks or months on end of mass death and overwhelmed health systems and questions of should we do a lockdown? Should we have done one earlier?
More steps like this.
Now, to make sure parents are home and bills are paid, #COVID19LockdownNow with the necessary financial and logistical supports.
And this is very good step for essential workers and for the transmission.
But we can still do better as the outsourced childcare may hasten spread.
#COVIDLockdownNow would reduce transmission by having all non-essential workers at home.
These are good steps but:
– half occupancy for restaurants is still a sizable amount of COVID19 spread
– asymptomatic youth will be major vectors of spread, so we need mandates not suggestions, for all not just the most vulnerable #COVID19LockdownNow.
Better to have this than not have this, but come on, this leaves a huge amount of transmission on the table.
We should do a 2 week #COVID19LockdownNow and then go back to less stringent guidelines like this.
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