Do something to prevent COVID-19 before it hits too close to home | Letter to the editor

Remember the movie “Six Degrees of Separation?” It was the idea that we may be more closely connected to people than we think.

The theory was that we are all six degrees or less of separation from every other person in the world. I know someone who knows someone who knows someone. Each of those is a degree. With COVID-19 we have the same connection. If I have the disease there are no degrees of separation. If I know someone who has it or who has died from it, that is one degree. If I know someone who knows someone, two degrees. And so on. The fewer degrees of separation, the more real the virus will become.

Until today, I didn’t know anyone who had contracted it (my granddaughter possibly had it, but testing wasn’t available). That made the virus a bit of an abstract concept. Today I found out that a friend’s mother recently passed away from COVID-19 (two degrees). I never met her mother, but suddenly, the virus became a real thing that impacts people I care about. As the disease spreads, I know that will happen for more and more people.

Not all will be to the level of someone we know dying. It may be someone who thinks they had it or it might be someone who got sick or is sick but will recover. Regardless, it makes it more real and changes our perception.

For everyone who is not taking it seriously and following guidelines from the CDC and the health professionals, I hope you wake up before the degrees of separation get too close. Before you put yourself in a risky position, think about the people around you. Do you want to be the cause of their illness?

Jenni Casale

Palemtto

This story was originally published April 6, 2020 at 8:31 AM with the headline "Do something to prevent COVID-19 before it hits too close to home | Letter to the editor."