No, it means don't go to football matches. Don't go to cinema. Don't go to a convention. Don't ride on a train for a leisure trip. That the distancing can't be done 100% perfectly does not mean that all distancing is worthless and therefore that NO distancing should even be attempted. Even slowing the spread of the illness may be worthwhile.

Don't go over to friends houses?

I am getting mixed messages, I'm not sure why I think asking for another opinion on the internet will help, but there it is.

you want to be a part of this effort? don't go.

Link to an established authority saying not to occasionally visit friends or you are spreading panic.

It's not that it's necessarily "spreading panic" but that "believe whoever you want on the internet" is not an effective public health communications strategy.

But that appears to be what we've got.

The shaming approach of "you want to be part of this effort?" (whatever that means) is unlikely to be an effective communications strategy either.

I don't know why I asked, I already had my choice of various opinions on the internet (usually given from a position of moral superiority and judgement).

I seriously don't understand why the U.S. public health infrastructure is failing so horribly here; if you want to maximize compliance, it seems obvious that you should be giving consistent and pervasive instructions, there should be literally a planned "marketting" campaign, with a consistent message. If people are getting different messages from different places of course they will be confused and compliance will be less.

Instead, we have "which chain letter on facebook and/or shaming and blaming comment on HN does my gut tell me seems right?" What the fuck America.

i'll clarify: the effort in question is to stop being a potential carrier of a novel disease for which nobody is immune for and thus has potential to put great many people in a hospital for weeks at a time putting strain onto a system which is hardly idle. you might catch the virus and probably won't be able to tell the difference from common cold or flu. somebody you meet might end up intubated and anesthesiologically paralyzed for a week. or dead.

so don't go if you don't want to be that person.

italian and spanish prime ministers good enough for you? don't have better at hand, sorry

Social distancing is just minimizing contact, not avoiding all contact (self-isolation/quarantining). E.g. try to go out for groceries once a week and pick a time to avoid the crowds.

> what are you supposed to do if you live in Manila? Mumbai? Dhaka?

Rejoice that you are with 99% certainty way under 70 years old.

Metro Manila, a region of 12 million people, entered a month-long lockdown on Sunday as Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte considers a plan to impose a curfew on the area to try to contain the coronavirus outbreak.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-03-15/manila-en...