Buzz
As restrictions ease, we’re faced with unusual questions: Is meeting a friend safe? Can we visit the park or dine out without worry? No matter how many experts you consult, there’s no straightforward yes-or-no answer.
Certain activities carry higher risks than others, and we must adapt to this reality instead of seeking rigid rules for safety. Strict guidelines work well when specific actions can effectively mitigate risk: getting vaccinated, wearing a seatbelt, or ensuring a campfire is fully extinguished.
However, there’s no straightforward solution for our current challenge: avoiding COVID-19 and preventing the virus from spreading. If adhering to strict stay-at-home orders isn’t feasible (as they were only meant as a temporary measure and aren’t sustainable long-term), it’s essential to start viewing risk on a spectrum.
Spending time with others carries more risk than being alone. Prolonged, close interactions are riskier than briefly passing someone on the street. Sitting six feet apart indoors likely poses more risk than maintaining the same distance outdoors.
Using insights from epidemiologists Julia Marcus and Ellie Murray, we can create risk spectra like the one shown. Staying home is the safest option, followed by walking with others, then having a picnic, and finally attending an indoor party. No matter where you fall on this spectrum, you can further reduce risk by wearing a mask, maintaining distance, limiting the number of attendees, and avoiding shared items like utensils or toys.
Armed with this understanding, you can make thoughtful choices to minimize risk. For instance, I wouldn’t attend a large party like those before the pandemic, but I recently hosted a small birthday gathering. Only two guests from another household attended. We stayed outdoors, keeping more than six feet apart at all times—they remained in the driveway while I stayed on the deck.
Does the spectrum guarantee complete safety? No. However, viewing risk through this lens is a crucial strategy to combat quarantine fatigue. Imposing overly rigid rules often leads to frustration, rule-breaking, and a sense of failure, causing people to give up entirely. Instead of falling into that trap, let’s use this continuum as a guide to make thoughtful, balanced decisions.
