The United Nations recently declared that the COVID-19 pandemic is the gravest challenge faced by humanity since World War II.  It is time to take the threat seriously and stay home except for essential tasks. And essential means just that — essential. Leave your home for food, medical care, and other basics of life. Painting your living room, buying that new outfit you’ve been wanting, ordering new carpet, putting down mulch, buying new furniture — none of these are essential.

Consider:

• The novel coronavirus can live on your shoes for five days according to experts. Just walking around can give the virus a leg-up! Plus taking your shoes on and off may contaminate your hands and bring the virus inside your home.
• Multiple studies suggest that the virus can spread via asymptomatic people. So you may be feeling fine, while passing the virus on the dozens of others.
• While mortality rates are highest among the elderly and those with pre-existing medical conditions, the COVID-19 virus can make people of all ages very, very ill. That includes time in ICU or dying. And millennials and Gen-Z are included.
• Even with current measures, up to 240,000 people in America alone may die from the disease. And the numbers may be much higher in countries that lack essential infrastructure and health care.
• World health systems are collapsing due to the novel virus. That means if it continues to spread, there may not be adequate resources to care for you, your friends, or loved ones when you get sick.
• Not only at nurses, doctors and others who care for us at high risk of infection, but the pandemic is causing many anxiety, depression and other mental health issues.
• Doctors worldwide suffer from a shortage of personal protective equipment — the respirators, gloves, and other items needed to keep them safe.
• Worst-case scenario modeling shows failing to social distance could result in 2.2 million deaths in America alone.

We are all in this together. So please, stay safe. Stay home. And ask your friends, family, and loved ones to do the same. 

And if you know someone who is elderly, alone, shut-in, or suffers from life-limiting illness, call them and check in on them 

So go ahead. Hit the couch. Binge watch Downton Abbey. Have some ice cream. See if you can bang out 100 pushups. But stay home. Stay safe, Save lives.