Every single time I post about how we shouldn't be gathering/traveling, without fail someone will post some extreme example of how they are the exception to the rule as if I am now entirely discredited and should stop urging people to stay home.

Examples like:

"Well my family tested and quarantined for two weeks so we could drive to another state in an RV with no stops & spend a week visiting our mother who has terminal cancer who asks us to come but we only visited outdoors wearing masks. So how DARE you say we were wrong to travel!"

Can I just say once and for all that these examples don't actually discredit these urgings to stay home, rather they are the very model of "the exception that proves the rule."

What do I mean?

If everyone else actually stayed home, avoided gatherings/travel, and got these pandemic numbers under control? We would actually HAVE the wiggle room needed to make those exceptions for cases that deserve them.

The same goes for people who hold up disabled students or kids of single working parents in response to school closures. The exception proves the rule. If those students NEED a way to attend in person safely, it's even MORE important for everyone else to be asked to stay home.

Are there some reasons for gathering/traveling/going to school/etc that are better than others? ABSOLUTELY.

But the idea that those situations disprove the need for most everyone to stay home and avoid gatherings just doesn't hold up.

We need to stay home FOR those people.

It's just like people who respond to every urging about staying home and isolating with "well some people dont have the privilege of isolating because they HAVE to go out and work."

Y'all, that's not the "gotcha" you think it is.

"Well some people have no choice but to be exposed because of their jobs" isn't actually a counterpoint to "people need to stay home and stop gathering."

It's WHY we need to stay home.

We stay home to protect the people who can't.

So if you see a post urging people to stay home/stop gathering and think that pointing out your extreme example of being the exception to the rule is going to discredit what I've said?

Please hear me when I say: it only proves a need for these guidelines all the more.