In uncertain times, knowing what to do is important. Knowing the value of actions taken is equally important. So… if you’ve wondering why on earth you need to practice social distancing, or why concerts and hockey games and other large events are being cancelled — read on.

I found this article on someone else’s FB timeline (can’t remember whose – sorry) and am sharing it as it provides an extensive look at the spread of Covid-19 and the impact of various measures by different countries to address it.

Please note — it is not peer-reviewed — it is one man’s compilation of existing data from China and other countries and forecasts based on that data. The picture he paints with his graphs and data is telling. And scary. But do remember — it is based on facts not fiction.

It’s not about ‘when’ Covid-19 will hit your area. It’s about what measures we can all take to mitigate against its impact — will it be a tsunami or will we be able to ‘flatten the curve’ — which isn’t about stopping the virus dead. It’s all about preventing a catastrophic number of deathly ill people descending upon our health care systems all at once resulting in high mortality rates and the collapse of the very systems we need to preserve life.

I am by nature an optimist. I don’t tend to scare easily. But I am scared. I’m worried about my husband who suffers from chronic lung disease. My pregnant daughter who is at high-risk of premature delivery which would entail her infant daughter requiring ICU. I am afraid for her husband, my son-in-love who, like my husband, also suffers from chronic lung disease. I am scared for other family members and friends with compromising health conditions. I am scared for each of us.

How will we weather this virus’s advancement into our communities? Will we walk beside each other (keeping a safe distance of course) and care for each other and support one another in times of need?

Or will we fall apart?

I am opting for option A. Walk safely together, offering what support we can, cheering one another on and doing everything we can do, individually and collectively, to ensure one another’s safety and well-being.

I believe we can do this — but it only takes one infected person to step into the social distance between us — to put many at risk.

Social distancing is key.

As someone who likes to create intimate gatherings of family and friends, who hugs strangers and wants everyone to feel included, social distancing feels uncomfortable. Foreign.

Too bad.

I gotta get over myself.

Social distancing, along with the prescribed frequent washing of hands and covering my mouth should I cough, are the only ways I can ensure my presence in the circle of family and friends and my contributions to my community and the strangers I encounter (from a safe distance) are not putting their health and well-being at risk along with my own.

My husband has a lung disease. Covid 19 attacks the respiratory system. I must do whatever I can to protect him, and all my relations, so that I am not a harbinger of disease in his, and other’s, lives. I’d rather be an emissary of well-being, support and Love than a conduit by which Covid-19 gains access.

So, I’ll say it again. Social distancing is key.

The article is long — but it is worth the read. It is scary — but it is worth the read. It also gives a really clear explanation of why…. Social distancing is key.

And just to be clear — social distancing does not mean cutting yourself off from people’s lives. It means keeping a safe distance so that your presence in their life and their’s in yours, continue to add beauty and value. It’s a reciprocal reaction founded in love and supported by evidence. Social distancing works.

CLICK HERE to read the article.