This column, from the weekly opinion piece MATTER OF FACT, first appeared on BrooklynReporter.com, the Home Reporter and Spectator dated May 22, 2020
Life in the age of coronavirus is hard. Matters of life and death, health concerns, unemployment, and economic devastation are certainly the most difficult challenges people are facing, but the basic ways we have all had to readjust the way we go about our lives from day to day have not been easy.
Working in different ways, schooling kids at home, avoiding other people in public, and not being able to see family we don’t live with have completely altered some of the most fundamental aspects of our lives. Overwhelmingly, people have followed the guidelines and the rates of infection, hospitalizations, and deaths from COVID-19 have decreased.
Needing to work or school from home are generally decisions that have been made for us by public health orders and the employers and schools who are complying with them, but the responsibility to socially distance and avoid close contact with those we don’t live with is still ours alone. As the time we have spent like this is now measured in months and the weather gets nicer, it becomes harder to maintain widespread compliance.
I needed to travel to Manhattan on a recent Saturday. After caring for the quick errand I needed to take care of, my wife and I took the opportunity to visit Central Park with our kids on what was a beautiful spring Saturday. Though many other New Yorkers were enjoying the outdoors, there was plenty of room for our boys to play, while remaining safely distanced from anyone else.
We walked through one particular field that had attracted a lot of picnickers — couples, families, those by themselves — all with plenty of space between them. As we took a break and sat in the grass, we noticed a group 20 feet away from us. Three couples, one with an infant, and another adult were gathered closely on two blankets. Only three of them had masks, which were all down around their necks. I can’t say for certain what their living situations are, but it seems highly unlikely they are all from the same household.
“Just like the vaccine everyone is holding out hope for, socially distancing is only effective if there is mass participation, isolating the virus and starving it of paths to spread from person to person.”
A plain-clothes officer with his shield around his neck was walking through the field, offering masks to everyone. When he offered them to this group of seven adults and they declined, he lingered for a moment, giving them a sideways look. The group seemed to become a bit nervous, likely because they realized he knew they were not in compliance with official public health orders.
The officer moved on and these seven adults resumed their conversation. There is no real way to know for sure who is bending the rules. It is impossible to identify everyone who is cutting corners and force them to comply. It is still on all of us to do the right thing because the virus doesn’t care if you make an exception to the guidelines that you have decided is okay.
The odds are, even if you go ahead and get together with some friends or family who have been doing the right things, you will all be fine. And even if most people continue to follow the guidelines to a tee, in a city of over 8 million people, even a small percentage flouting the protective measures can amount to hundreds of thousands not taking the necessary precautions.
Just like the vaccine everyone is holding out hope for, socially distancing is only effective if there is mass participation, isolating the virus and starving it of paths to spread from person to person.
It definitely is not easy. Even though it is frustrating to see those who may decide to pick and choose which parts of the guidelines they will adhere to and when, it can’t deter the vast majority of us who are making all of the necessary personal sacrifices recommended by public health officials from staying the course.
