People prioritize tanning over the national emergency. 

Source: Mashable India

“This is a packed scene here at the beach,” said the WFLA anchor while riding over Clearwater Beach in Florida, this past Monday.

While the rest of the world practices self-imposed isolation and quarantine, America does what it does best – treat coronavirus as a hoax. It’s all sunshine and bubbles until it affects them. The sight we witnessed on Monday can’t be overlooked as the beach was buzzing with spring-break activities. As of now, 7,991 people have died from the vicious coronavirus infection. In the USA alone, 6,524 cases have been identified with more than seven fatalities. WHO is calling it a pandemic, but wait – people don’t care. 

The nation would hesitate before taking a flight with a hijabi but wouldn’t think twice before going to the beach amidst a deadly pandemic. 

This virus is expected to affect 20 to 60% of the world population. Having confusing symptoms, it was underestimated in the beginning, but Italy, Japan, and China are on complete lockdown now.

Meanwhile, people are disobeying the commands of the government and health experts. They’re told to maintain social distance, but it seems as if they need to be reminded of what it means. 

Let’s be clear: It means you can’t hit the beach, Susan!

Source: Tampa Bay Times

It’s not like Florida hasn’t had a local case yet. On the contrary, 155 people have tested positive.

The video has gone viral, and health experts have some serious words of wisdom to impart to the people of Florida. 

“This is how it is going to spreads. In order for social distancing to work, everyone has got to do it. It’s not going to work unless everyone buys into it,” said Dr. Timothy Murphy, who’s an infectious disease researcher at the University of Buffalo. 

Even after getting infected, it takes at least five days for the symptoms to show. In some cases, people are not experiencing symptoms at all. However, just because you don’t face serious consequences, doesn’t mean people around you won’t. It all boils down to whether or not your immune system is strong enough to deal with this virus. Hence, people above the age of 60 are at serious risk of dying. 

“Even if you yourself are a healthy 20-something person, you’ll go home and transmit that infection to someone else who might not be as successful in fighting off that infection. Clearly, being on a beach with hundreds of people is going against that recommendation,” Amanda Simanek asserted, who is an epidemiologist at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

To simplify the term social distancing, you can say that everyone has to stay six feet away from one another. Therefore, by following the advice of all these health experts, we can combat this pandemic with ease. 

Amita Avadhani, who specializes in infectious disease prevention, has only one recommendation: “Every step a young person takes is going to make a difference. You could be a healthy carrier. That cycle needs to be broken down.”