How to practice social isolation and still live: #wolfpackpact
As a family with 2 young children and a new mandate to work from home, we’ve been thinking hard about how to be socially responsible, medically safe and still productive. It turns out, it isn’t simple or straightforward.
Across 3 families, we currently have a plan to have a couple of babysitters watch our kids so we can work from home and the one doctor in our group can help at the hospitals. But, we have to make sure we do this safely and re-evaluate constantly.
We’ve had a lot of debate and have come up with a pact that we are adhering to. It would be powerful if all of America could all agree to this pact. We’re calling it The Wolfpack Pact.
We’ve gotten blessing from 4 surgeons in the Boston area that this is a reasonable and safe approach, so we’re going with it. Will you?
Here’s the letter I wrote to our friends laying it out:
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All -
In an effort to make this clear and easy for everyone to both feel comfortable and be responsible society members, here’s what I propose we each commit to:
- No social visits until we see numbers from the CDC or some other globally recognized medical institution suggesting we are almost rid of Corona Virus in the US (note: this could take months)
- No eating out at restaurants (note: we should order take out to support local businesses)
- We wash our hands every time we enter/leave a home, cough/sneeze or go to bathroom
- We only go to grocery/convenience/liquor stores on an as needed basis (note: there WILL be needs for all 3!)
- When we leave a store, we immediately sanitize our hands in our car
- We each commit to going outside at least once a day for a walk for fresh air and UV exposure
- If any of sense a tickle in our throat, a dry cough sustained for more than 6 hours or abnormal difficulty breathing, we stay in our bedrooms at least 24 hours or until the symptoms have fully passed (whichever comes later); if this happens, it’s the duty of the rest of us to make sure that person(s) is well taken care of with medicine and food
- We have a sense of humor about this. We can be serious, responsible and fun at the same time.
- We celebrate happy hour, virtual or physical, every day by 6p (no joke!)
- We continue to re-evaluate our plan and the situation at least every 24–48 hours and recommit
- In the event that things change and having either babysitter come is no longer responsible, we commit to paying them some high % of the wages we had originally committed to, so they are not penalized. Will be annoying, but we can afford it so we should do it.
What we are most concerned with is not medical practitioners, who are both knowledgable and with access to resources, but everyone else we come in contact with. Like drunk driving incidents, the accidents usually aren’t your fault, but the recklessness of those around us. We believe that we should lead by example, being as separate from as many people in our community as possible while the risk of spreading is exceptionally high, so that we limit the maximum lifecycle of this virus, let it die organically and allow our society to return to its chaotic, normal operation :).
It is likely that at least one of us is carrying today. To the extent someone gets the full blown symptoms of the virus, it’s likely a material inconvenience for us, nothing more. But, if we require hospitalization, it will take the spot of someone who will likely need it far more than us. Our medical system is unfortunately massively under-resourced for the imminent needs our country will require. The more aggressively we limit exposure, the faster this thing will pass and the more American lives will be saved.
Let us know your thoughts.
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Please share this on Twitter and Facebook, where many 60+ digest news, if you will commit to following this pact. We can save our country if we save it together.
#wolfpackpact
