- As the coronavirus death toll continues to rise, Dr. Anthony Fauci recently outlined 8 activities people should avoid.
- The list of ill-advised activities includes going to bars and restaurants.
- According to the CDC, the number of COVID-19 cases in the U.S. now exceeds 4.7 million.
When the number of new coronavirus cases started to spike back in June, not everyone thought there was cause for concern. Indeed, a surprising number of people took the position that an increase in coronavirus cases wasn’t cause for alarm because it wasn’t accompanied by a rise in coronavirus-related deaths. All told, many people naively assumed that a rapid increase in coronavirus cases was simply a function of more expansive testing.
Fast forward a few weeks and it has since become clear that the situation in many states is quite dire. Over the past two weeks, we’ve seen a drastic increase in coronavirus-related deaths, particularly in states like Florida and Texas. And over the past seven days alone, NBC News reports that there was a coronavirus death every 80 seconds. All told, the number of COVID-19 deaths in July eclipsed 26,000.
With the death rate rising, it’s abundantly clear that something needs to be done. Not too long ago, a group of 150 doctors and health professionals penned a letter urging lawmakers to institute another shutdown and mandate the closing of all non-essential businesses.
Chiming in on the matter, Dr. Anthony Fauci recently laid out eight activities that people should avoid partaking in for the time being. While many of the entries on Fauci’s list might seem like common sense, the fact that we still need to convince people to wear masks and adhere to social distancing guidelines underscores that we can’t give the public at large too much credit when it comes to coronavirus safety.
To that end, Fauci recently cautioned people to avoid the following activities and places:
- Indoor gatherings
- Outdoor gatherings
- Bars
- Restaurants
- Air Travel
- Public Transportation
- Going to the Gym
- Sharing food
The first point — indoor gatherings — is worth touching on in further detail given that Fauci earlier this week said that we need to pay particularly close attention to the coronavirus’s ability to spread rapidly in indoor spaces.
“We need to pay a little bit more attention now to the recirculation of air indoors,” Fauci said during an interview with JAMA, “which tells you that mask-wearing indoors when you’re in a situation like that is something that is as important as wearing masks when you’re outside dealing with individuals who you don’t know where they came from or who they are.”
Regarding the aerosolization of the coronavirus, Fauci added that it is happening to a degree and that “we’ve got to make sure that we’re humble enough to accumulate new knowledge and use it as we get it.”
It’s also worth mentioning that some states like Illinois have scaled back their re-opening efforts on account of people not adhering to COVID-19 safety guidelines. To this point, some non-essential businesses that re-opened a few weeks ago — like bars — have since been shut down yet again.
