Several countries across the world have taken
extreme lockdown measures to contain the spread
of the coronavirus.
But could that happen in a country
as big as the United States?
And what would it take?
I'm chatting with Business Insider senior science reporter
Aria Bendix over Skype to address
some of these burning questions.
So Aria, is it possible that the US could go
into a total lockdown?
It's possible.
I mean, we've seen them really implement stricter measures,
especially over the last couple of days.
You know, almost a week ago, it was limiting public events
with more than 500 people.
We've seen that reduced to about 250, and now down to 10.
So they'll continue to implement stricter measures
as we continue to see cases of the death count rise.
But what would need to happen for us to get to that point?
So there's no hard and fast line.
I'm not sure that government officials even know.
And obviously right now, we're implementing restrictions
on a statewide basis or even on a citywide basis.
So it'll be up to individual leaders to determine
when they're either the case count or the death count
has gotten too high
and we're not implementing the appropriate measures
to sort of contain the spread.
But as we continue to see cases rise,
we're just going to have to get stricter and stricter
with what we do to try and contain this virus.
And some cities are doing just that.
But what do cities need to do
if they want to implement something similar to a lockdown?
So it's not that hard to do.
We've already seen San Francisco implement
a shelter-in-place measure.
And that means that unless someone has an essential need
to be outdoors, or to get to their job,
that they can actually be fined or face imprisonment
for going outside for an unnecessary reason.
That obviously doesn't include, you know,
walking your pet or getting to work,
and they're actually, you know, emphasizing
that they are going to be compassionate about these rules.
We obviously understand these are difficult times,
but it's pretty dire straits at this point.
So what does that mean for us?
Will we be fined if we go outside?
Yeah, I mean, we have seen past precedent for it.
In San Francisco, you can already receive a fine
if you are going out for a nonessential reason.
In Italy, we've seen that you have to carry around
actually a piece of paper explaining your reason
for being outdoors.
South Korea has also implemented fines.
I think ultimately, especially in the US, they're trying
to exercise compassion with those types of rules,
that they do implement them.
Understand that this is difficult time
and that people do want to have some fresh air,
but ultimately, this is a necessary measure to sort
of protect public safety at large.
And this is a question that I feel like many
in my circle want to know the answer to,
but have some countries implemented these rules,
but with exceptions for people with dogs or pets?
Yeah, there are exceptions for people with dogs or pets.
We actually know that pets can't contract the virus.
But we understand that they need to be outdoors
to sort of do their business.
So that's one of the reasons why,
you know, pet owners would have a legitimate excuse
for being outdoors.
They should still make sure to practice
that safe distancing of 6 feet from another person.
And it should only be just a reason to walk your dog
and get back inside if your city has already implemented one
of those self-isolating policies.
So Aria, as a country,
when did we start taking this seriously?
So I just spoke to a laboratory researcher in Seattle
who actually developed his lab's own COVID-19 tests,
and he was telling me that the US actually started
taking this pandemic now seriously
about two to three days ago, and that was
when we started implementing some
of those stricter social isolation measures.
It was actually also when we realized that we were sort of
in the same boat as China and Italy
in terms of our death count,
in the way that cases have risen.
We probably should have been a bit more proactive
with our social distancing measures,
because we do know that that's one
of the most effective ways of containing this virus.
And the fact that we've waited until now,
means that we might have to resort
to more drastic measures in the future.