Coronavirus lockdown: Why social distancing saves lives
The Corona virus pandemic has cities and countries around the world in lockdown.
It's scary, really lonely, but it's going to save lives and here's why.
[MUSIC]
If you're anything like me, you're getting really used to the feeling of social isolation.
In my case that involves leaving the CNET studio, I can't go into work so I'm getting quite used to my tiny tiny apartment and cursing my neighbors for the music they're playing.
You might actually be in the same situation cities and countries around the world asking their citizens to shelter in place.
Basically don't leave the house unless you have to for things like Food, medical supplies, helping relatives.
It makes sense when you're sick, right?
You stay away from people but when you feeling healthy, it feels like overkill, doesn't it?
But it's really important to know that young and healthy people aren't immune to COVID19 So from the statistics we've seen older people are more likely to die from this disease, but we're still seeing really serious illness and hospitalization for younger people.
20% of coronavirus cases according to CDC ages 20 to 44 Okay, France more than 50% of coronavirus patients in ICU under 60 years old.
You can get it.
Well, I can't transmit it if I'm not symptomatic.
No, you can transmit it.
If you're not symptomatic.
Those numbers are likely to change.
But that's why this disease has reached pandemic level because it's spread so easily and so quickly and it can be spread by people who don't show any symptoms.
Covid-19 is not the same as the flu.
In fact, it's not even the same as the 1918 influenza outbreak, the so called Spanish flu.
It's just as contagious as influenza, but it is far more deadly.
Okay, so you say I won't go visit nursing homes, but it's not just the elderly and frail who are at risk here.
It might be your parents who are a little bit older.
It might be a friend who has diabetes, it might be your neighbor who has an underlying condition that you don't know about.
So the best advice is to act like you already had this illness because you might and you might not know about it.
And that's why we're being asked to practice something called social distancing.
It's actually just physical distancing.
This is a respiratory disease.
So the virus is spread through coughs and sneezes, and we don't know how long it lasts on hard surface.
So if you stay at home and stay away from people, you literally just minimize the number of people you come in contact with the number of surfaces you touch.
So just stay at home, work from home, don't go out and if you do have to go to the grocery store, make sure you keep six feet between you and anyone else.
It sounds kind of strange, but Arnold Schwarzenegger actually had it right here.
[BLANK_AUDIO]
We don't go out we don't go to restaurants.
We don't do anything like that anymore here with whiskey and we know they have a good time.
But this is an important just for you and your personal donkey.
The power of social distancing is that it stops everyone getting sick at once.
And that's vital because there's only so much that our health system can handle.
And this is where something called flattening the curve comes in.
Now, you might have seen this diagram doing the rounds.
Both curves represent roughly the same number of people getting sick, but that first curve shows what happens when everyone gets sick at once.
And if that happens, that curve becomes a massive spike.
There's very little time between the first cases and when we start to see a lot of cases, and hospitals get overwhelmed.
We don't have enough hospital beds.
Doctors run out of ventilators, for people who can't breathe, and they start having to make really incredibly tough decisions about who gets treatment.
And that could mean a choice between who lives and who dies.
But if we could slow the spread of this virus, then we flatten the curve.
We stay below that magical line of hospital capacity and everyone gets a good chance of medical care.
I can't believe I'm saying this but it's kind of like surge pricing on New Year's Eve.
If everyone wants to leave right after midnight when the fireworks are finished, then there's not enough taxis and Ubers for everyone, but if we spread out the time, then everyone can get a ride home.
Or, you can just stay indoors on isn't that really cool?
We're not used to this though.
It's hard.
It's really scary.
People are losing their jobs in massive numbers.
And right when we're entering this period of huge uncertainty and we're all scared, we're being told that we can't go and see our friends or just go and blow off some steam.
But it's important to remember that doctors and nurses are working so hard to say this all right now, so let's just do them a solid and stay indoors.
And remember, social distancing doesn't have to mean that you can't be social.
Join up with some friends and do some gaming nights on Twitch.
Maybe you can share a couple of recipe ideas on your Instagram Stories.
Call your mom and you can do what I'm doing, and I'm setting up Skype calls with my friends in Australia to talk about trashy TV.
Just remember, this isn't forever.
If we all do our part we'll get through this, and just like Annie says, we'll be back.
All right guys, I'm sorry about the terrible joke at the end there.
I'm going kind of insane in my apartment.
Thank you for putting up with me.
I know it's kind of echoey we're doing the best that we can.
If you do wanna know more about coronavirus, I've made a couple of videos on how the virus works and what a pandemic actually means.
You can check them out
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