Covid-19: Why You Really Can't 'Visit Just One Friend'
Reprinted by permission from Futurity News because Skagit County just experienced a spike in confirmed cases of Covid-19! After weeks of social distancing during the Covid-19 pandemic, you might ask: What could be the harm of visiting just one friend? A new website shows the answer. Unfortunately, that visit could potentially undo the goal of social distancing, which is to give the COVID-19 virus fewer opportunities to spread. According to the website , which researchers at the University of Washington set up, easing the social distancing rules so that each household could have contact with just one or two others would reconnect most households in a community, providing conduits through which the COVID-19 virus could spread. The site—which launched on April 3 and has the apt title “Can’t I please just visit one friend?”—is the creation of a team led by Steven Goodreau, professor of anthropology, and Martina Morris, professor emerita of sociology and statistics. Goodreau