Another day of social distancing, another newsletter. Keep on sending me those emails, links and memes. If you missed a prior newsletter, you can find it   here . And continuous thanks for staying home, staying safe, washing hands and masking up!
  
Pandemic management is a lot like parenting. The parents, in this case, are the governors and the mayors: they own the authority and call the shots. They’re actually more like the godparents who said that they would happily take custody of the kids if anything tragic ever befell the actual parents, never really believing that scenario would come to pass. The kids in this analogy… well, there are a bunch of them representing different cross-sections of society. Some are rule followers (or maybe they are just nervous Nellies), the people staying home almost all of the time and masking up when they don’t. Others are resilient scrappers, faced with loss after loss but busting their butts to keep their boats afloat. And an increasingly vocal group are just like the rebellious teenagers, except in this case instead of sneaking out in the middle of the night and stealing the car to go drink or hook up, they are flocking to the beaches and  refusing to get out of the water  or showing up to voice their opinions at the statehouse and proving their point with a  display of weaponry .

These shenanigans often work, slowly exhausting parents to the point that some might eventually bend the rules they have just made. That’s certainly the case for me – when negotiations with my kids begin, it doesn’t take long before I wonder why I set a certain limit, shut down a proposed plan, or blew off a new idea, and my kids quickly sniff out the cracks in my façade. Coronavirus has put the local leader “parents” in an all too familiar quandary, because the citizen “kids,” like our own insistent children, might actually have a point. Besides, everyone is tired of sheltering at home, and some places are approaching the pandemic with far more laxity. Faced with enough persistence, most parents will give in, or at least compromise. That was the story in  Ohio  this weekend when the governor set a strict mask-wearing rule only to walk it back. This dance is sure to be replicated in other places and situations over the weeks and months to come.

Ultimately, the path through parenting isn’t (ever) clear cut. But then we remember why we set any given limit in the first place: to keep our kids safe and healthy. If that percolating plan or that brilliant idea actually puts our kids in harm’s way, we cannot in good conscience change our answer, regardless of how compelling their counterarguments. And so, governors and mayors, I am asking you to parent even though you didn’t exactly sign up for this version of the job. When your constituents push back – because it’s completely predictable, even developmentally appropriate for some of them, to do so – treat them like rebellious teenagers. Go back to basics and ask yourselves  Am I keeping them safe and healthy?  Your answer will determine how deeply you should dig in your limit-heels.
 
And now, a look towards the future. For those of you desperate to glance into a crystal ball and know what post-shut-down coronavirus curves will look like, here are  3 scenarios .
 
For those of you wondering  what school might look like  when it eventually goes back into session, here’s a version of how it looks in Hangzhou, China.
 
How about air travel? Sadly, this image is not a meme… it’s an infographic walking through  what flying and the airport experience might become  over the next several months (hopefully not lasting years). Note the very depressing clock at the top right suggesting that you will need to arrive 4 hours before takeoff in order to clear security, thermal scanning, and disinfection.
 
So what can we do to be proactive? A lot, actually. First WEAR MASKS. They may not be a panacea, but they will minimize spread. Second, WASH YOUR HANDS. Still? Yeah, still. It’s going to be a mainstay piece of advice for a long time. And finally, practice SELF-CARE. Healthy living is the cornerstone of every piece of medical advice for good reason. My dear friend Dr. Elisa Song combines eastern and western medicine in her pediatric practice. Elisa and I trained together way back when. What I have always loved about her approach is her healthy respect for science and data. She has a series of great primers like this one offering   wholistic approaches to the virus . And since Elisa’s two young kids both had coronavirus – with one of them landing in the hospital – her posts describing the experience are particularly profound. 
 
Little side note before we end: apparently you all really liked the Frankie Goes to Hollywood reference last time. Huge props to my friend Mike, who replied:  What’s next? The Safety Dance? Cause if your friends don’t mask and if you don’t mask, well they’re no friends of mine.
 
And now, this video – it might be 4 minutes long, but well worth it.