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I find it shocking how many people still really don’t understand how this virus spreads. In fact, I think most people I know don’t understand it. They think going out, “being careful”, is plenty safe.
They think no symptoms = safe. Got a test last week = safe. Six feet = safe. https://twitter.com/jason_kint/status/1272995681888763904
They think no symptoms = safe. Got a test last week = safe. Six feet = safe. https://twitter.com/jason_kint/status/1272995681888763904
Science understands this virus far better now than it did last winter. This is what we know for sure:
The virus replicates inside a human body before that person has any symptoms. Trillions of copies are made & breathed out before they are sick. They may never get sick.
The virus replicates inside a human body before that person has any symptoms. Trillions of copies are made & breathed out before they are sick. They may never get sick.
The virus particles hang in the air. They float around — far further than 6 feet. It does take a bunch of them for the next person to get infected. A breeze outside can prevent the next human from being exposed to enough particles to get infected. Masks help tremendously.
Distance does help. Anything to keep one human from breathing enough particles for another to get infected. But indoors, especially where people are talking or singing... the virus will float around and infect people. Who will go on to infect even more, days before they are sick.
If people live together, then they are spending a lot of time together indoors, without masks, breathing virus particles out where someone else breathes them in. It’s incredibly hard for everyone else to not get infected. Kids included. Trillions and trillions of 
are made.
are made.
A test will only tell someone if they have enough particles in their upper respiratory track when the sample is taken to cause a positive result. If they are too few particles (maybe they’ve only been infected a short time), it’ll be negative. If they get infected they next day…
it’ll be negative. A negative test only tells you that you weren’t super infectious when the test was done.
You can get infected on the way home from the place you got the test.
You can get infected on the way home from the place you got the test.
Being tested one day, hoping on a plane 3 days later to go directly to visit family is not safe. Even if you don’t have a fever. Even if you feel perfectly fine the whole time you are there. And so do they.
No health expert anywhere thinks that plan works.
No health expert anywhere thinks that plan works.
It’s so infuriating because we in the United States (& UK & much of Europe) have been lied to and lied to and lied to. The propaganda was intended to confuse people & spin us around in circles. And it worked. We are so confused now.
I know so many people— politically progressive people who’d never dream of voting for Trump —who just don’t understand how it’s possible to transmit the virus by the choices they are making. They’re driving 250 miles to visit family for the weekend. Going over to friend’s houses.
Their kids are coming home from college to stay, & they just don’t bother with that whole 14-day quarantine thing. No one is checking up on them. They don’t *have* to do it. Maybe they’ll get a test on like day 5 to double check, but meanwhile their home is small & it’ll be fine.
If people only knew what’s happening on the other side of the globe. Health officials are in charge. Information is clear. Protocols are mandatory. Travel = real quarantine. And so there are hardly any / no cases. People can live their real lives. They have for months, safely.
If what I’m saying doesn’t sound right to you, then you should investigate this for yourself. Look up what other countries have done. Look at their numbers. Watch recent videos of health experts explain how the virus transmits. Read official guidelines from places that beat it.
