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This Is Not A Snow Day

What 'social distancing' means -- and doesn't
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This is happening in a lot of places, I bet:

I think what’s happening is that people are not thinking clearly about what “social distancing” means, or perhaps they haven’t had it explained to them. They’re acting like school is being let out for a snow day. That’s not it! Governments and institutions are doing this so you will stay at home, and avoid catching, and spreading, this deadly virus. Your kids go to a play date, or you go to a bar, you pick up the virus, then you bring it into your house, and to all the vulnerable people you meet. Think about how a visit to grandma by your child, who has been earlier in the day at a playdate, could kill grandma. It really is that serious.

If we don’t take this seriously now, and change our behavior, the government is going to have to mandate curfews, as they have done in Italy. We are a free people, and that means a responsible people. Let’s act like it.

It’s hard to get into this mindset, though. All week, I’ve been thinking about church this coming Sunday, worrying about it. Is it a good idea to go into an enclosed space standing packed in with a bunch of folks? That kind of thing. But I also thought about how important God is to me in this time, and how I shouldn’t let fear keep me away from worship. Was it fear, though, or prudence? Happily, Archbishop Alexander, my ordinary, asked the faithful to stay away from the liturgy for the time being. The priest and a skeleton crew of the healthy will be serving the liturgy; according to Orthodox belief, the Divine Liturgy is something God does through us, and must continue even if no one is in church to hear it. Here’s his statement. Excerpt:

Everyone in the parish or mission, other than the priest (and deacon), a reader, a server, and no more than two (2) chanters or singers (all of whom are physically strong and at low risk for COVID-19), should remain at home, even at the time of the Divine Liturgy. The holy body and precious blood of our Lord can never be a source of disease, it is after all for the healing of soul and body, but the COVID-19 virus can still be passed through the congregation. Out of love for our neighbor, we must do everything we can to protect the vulnerable by slowing the rate of infection not only in our parishes, but in the greater community, and thereby allowing the hospitals and medical community to more adequately care for those most at risk.

It was a huge relief to read this, and not just as a personal matter. I know there are bound to be people, especially older people, who felt bound to go to church as a matter of personal courage, and who feared that their anxiety over getting sick was a sign of little faith. Now the archbishop has taken the burden of that decision away from us. It is a mercy.

I deeply appreciate the way +Alexander phrased it: that we are staying away from church “out of love for our neighbor” — as an act of charity. This is exactly right, and is why it is an extraordinary Lenten sacrifice. By not gathering for worship, we reduce the chances of community transmission of the virus, and do our part to “flatten the curve” — that is, slow the rate of transmission so as not to overwhelm hospitals. I wouldn’t tell anybody that they couldn’t worship God in community on Sunday, but I do ask all of you to consider whether or not it is more charitable to your neighbor to stay home, and pray with your family, than to gather in this crisis. When you see staying home not as an imposition, but as an opportunity to show love for and solidarity with your neighbor, it changes.

Similarly, it may be boring and anxiety-producing to sit at home, especially with little kids bouncing off the wall. But it is selfish to go to the bars and clubs, or to set up play groups. It defeats the purpose of social distancing. It is inaccurate to view what’s happening now as like a snow day, or some other natural disaster upsetting the normal rhythm of life. A blizzard or a hurricane is an external threat to the community, in a sense, but the virus epidemic is both external and internal. It is in its nature to exploit community solidarity to kill us. 

Keep in mind that you, personally, might not be afraid to get sick, and therefore judge the risk of going out to the bar, or to church, worth it. But you are making that judgment for everyone you meet later, if you happen to contract the virus at a group meeting. You won’t get sick for a week or two, but you will still be shedding virus. Your grandmother, and everybody else in your life, can’t know where you’ve been in the past two weeks, and make a call about whether or not to visit with you. Show some love by denying yourself. This is not about you; this is about all of us. Don’t be a kinder, gentler version of these guys. 

UPDATE: What the heck is going on in the Catholic Diocese of Fort Worth? Erin Manning e-mails:

Rod, I don’t know if other Catholics from the DFW area have contacted you about this, but we’re in an awful situation here in DFW with the conflicting directions between the Dallas bishop and Bishop Olson of Fort Worth (our bishop).

I summarized the situation briefly on my blog last night, but what it amounts to is this: Bishop Burns of Dallas has cancelled Masses; Bishop Olson of FW is directing pastors to only allow 250 Catholics at a time into churches, and suggests they add Masses or Sunday Celebrations in the Absence of a Priest to make this happen.
Our diocese has 90 parishes, 123 priests, and a million Catholics. Out of 4 Masses at my parish only one regularly has fewer than 250 people (and not much fewer–about 200 to 225). People asking our parish via social media how they were going to respond to the bishop’s directives were told, essentially: We’re not. We have no way to do so, especially by Saturday night (directive was issued late Friday, by the way).
A parish in Denton that serves the local university posted a welcome to Dallas-area Catholics looking for Mass on Twitter; Bishop Olson joined the conversation to remind people “Only 250 at a time.” So the bishop is perfectly well aware that some of Dallas’s 900,000 Catholics will be joining us for Mass and that his pastors have no plan to do anything but welcome the extra Mass-goers. What else could they possibly do?
This is beyond irresponsible of Bishop Olson. I don’t think he has the slightest grasp of the gravity of the situation. There’s a stunning article in America magazine in which a scientist is begging bishops to cancel all Masses right now, but Bishop Olson has set up Fort Worth’s Catholics to become the epicenter of the pandemic’s local spread.
I don’t usually ask you directly to write about something, but I’m asking on this, because of the seriousness of the situation. Bishop Olson blocked me on Twitter last year and I’m not the kind of person he listens to. I’ve already tagged our local media on Twitter about this, because Tarrant County has asked churches to limit their crowds to 250 or less or cancel gatherings, and I want to raise awareness that the bishop can repeat “no more than 250” to pastors all he wants but he has given them no help and no realistic way to accomplish this.
I admit it: I was one of those who thought your early alarms on COVID-19 were premature, especially since the data we had coming out of China was not clear. But the picture has clarified dramatically since the middle of February, hasn’t it? It’s too late now for measures like wiping down pews and cancelling the Sign of Peace; we ought to have been doing those things a month ago, but a month ago our family was one of the few who did the “bow of peace” (and boy did we get funny looks for doing that).
Pray for us in Fort Worth, anyway; if Masses begin as usual tonight and crowds from Dallas rush to join us, an awful lot of DFW Catholics are going to have signs of coronavirus in a week or two.
Come on, Bishop Olson, do not put your priests and your people in this position!

UPDATE.2: My wife suggests this article from Ariadne Labs, full of practical advice about what “social distancing” means. Excerpt:

2. No kid playdates, parties, sleepovers, or families/friends visiting each other’s houses and apartments.

This sounds extreme because it is. We are trying to create distance between family units and between individuals. It may be particularly uncomfortable for families with small children, kids with differential abilities or challenges, and for kids who simply love to play with their friends. But even if you choose only one friend to have over, you are creating new links and possibilities for the type of transmission that all of our school/work/public event closures are trying to prevent. The symptoms of coronavirus take four to five days to manifest themselves. Someone who comes over looking well can transmit the virus. Sharing food is particularly risky – I definitely do not recommend that people do so outside of their family.

We have already taken extreme social measures to address this serious disease – let’s not actively co-opt our efforts by having high levels of social interaction at people’s houses instead of the schools or workplaces. Again – the wisdom of early and aggressive social distancing is that it can flatten the curve above, give our health system a chance to not be overwhelmed, and eventually may reduce the length and need for longer periods of extreme social distancing later (see what has transpired in Italy and Wuhan). We need to all do our part during these times, even if it means some discomfort for a while. This won’t be forever, but we need to be committed and intentional about our actions now.

Read it all, share it widely. We can do this!

(I took down the previous Update 2, of the Italian air force, because I just learned that video was actually made last year. Alas.)

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