Take Action Against COVID

A friend called me for medical advice two weeks ago. He’s single, in his thirties and generally healthy, but he’d developed a dry cough with mild congestion. After a self-administered Covid-19 test turned up negative results, he remained suspicious he could be infected. He was set to fly west in a couple of days for a conference and dreaded the thought of infecting other passengers. I recommended a PCR test if he wanted to be more certain. When the lab results came back positive, he spent the next five days at home alone (per CDC guidance). If you were in his shoes, chances are you, too, would make a reasonable effort to avoid infecting others. In the near future, that won’t be the case. Americans are playing it safe—for now PROMOTED A whopping 91% of Americans no longer consider Covid-19 a “serious crisis.” Social distancing has reached a low point as public-health restrictions continue to ease up. Yet, there’s still one aspect of the pandemic Americans are taking very seriously. As a society, we still expect people who test positive for Covid-19 to stay home and minimize contact with others. As a result of these expectations, 4 in 10 workers (including 6 in 10 low-income employees) have missed work in 2022. Overall, the nation’s No. 1 concern related to Omicron is “spreading the virus to people who are at higher risk of serious illness.” MORE FROMFORBES ADVISORBest Travel Insurance CompaniesByAmy DaniseEditorBest Covid-19 Travel Insurance PlansByAmy DaniseEditor Most Americans are eager to move on from the pandemic, but those who are sick continue to avoid actions that may potentially spread the virus. Call it what you will—group think, peer pressure or the fear of violating cultural taboos—people don’t want to put others in harm’s way. That’s true, according to polls, regardless of one’s party affiliation or vaccination status. .variables { display: none; } @font-face { font-display: swap; font-family: "Merriweather"; font-style: italic; font-weight: 700; src: local("Merriweather Bold Italic"), local("Merriweather-BoldItalic"), url("https://i.forbesimg.com/assets/fonts/merriweather/merriweather-bolditalic-webfont.woff2") format("woff2"), url("https://i.forbesimg.com/assets/fonts/merriweather/merriweather-bolditalic-webfont.woff") format("woff"); /* Chrome 6+, Firefox 3.6+, IE 9+, Safari 5.1+ */ } @font-face { font-display: swap; font-family: "Merriweather"; font-style: normal; font-weight: 700; src: local("Merriweather Bold"), local("Merriweather-Bold"), url("https://i.forbesimg.com/assets/fonts/merriweather/merriweather-bold-webfont.woff2") format("woff2"), url("https://i.forbesimg.com/assets/fonts/merriweather/merriweather-bold-webfont.woff") format("woff"); /* Chrome 6+, Firefox 3.6+, IE 9+, Safari 5.1+ */ } @font-face { font-display: swap; font-family: "Merriweather"; font-style: italic; font-weight: 400; src: local("Merriweather Italic"), local("Merriweather-Italic"), url("https://i.forbesimg.com/assets/fonts/merriweather/merriweather-italic-webfont.woff2") format("woff2"), url("https://i.forbesimg.com/assets/fonts/merriweather/merriweather-italic-webfont.woff") format("woff"); /* Chrome 6+, Firefox 3.6+, IE 9+, Safari 5.1+ */ } @font-face { font-display: swap; font-family: "Merriweather"; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; src: local("Merriweather"), url("https://i.forbesimg.com/assets/fonts/merriweather/merriweather-regular-webfont.woff2") format("woff2"), url("https://i.forbesimg.com/assets/fonts/merriweather/merriweather-regular-webfont.woff") format("woff"); /* Chrome 6+, Firefox 3.6+, IE 9+, Safari 5.1+ */ } /* latin-ext */ @font-face { font-display: swap; font-family: "Work Sans"; font-style: normal; font-weight: 600; src: local("Work Sans SemiBold"), local("WorkSans-SemiBold"), url("https://i.forbesimg.com/assets/fonts/work-sans/work_sans_600_latin_ext.woff2") format("woff2"); } /* latin */ @font-face { font-display: swap; font-family: "Work Sans"; font-style: normal; font-weight: 600; src: local("Work Sans SemiBold"), local("WorkSans-SemiBold"), url("https://i.forbesimg.com/assets/fonts/work-sans/work_sans_600_latin.woff2") format("woff2"); } /* latin-ext */ @font-face { font-display: swap; font-family: "Work Sans"; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; src: local("Work Sans"), local("WorkSans-Regular"), url("https://i.forbesimg.com/assets/fonts/work-sans/work_sans_400_latin_ext.woff2") format("woff2"); } /* latin */ @font-face { font-display: swap; font-family: "Work Sans"; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; src: local("Work Sans"), local("WorkSans-Regular"), url("https://i.forbesimg.com/assets/fonts/work-sans/work_sans_400_latin.woff2") format("woff2"); } @font-face { font-family: "Graphik Wide"; font-style: normal; font-weight: 600; src: url("https://i.forbesimg.com/assets/fonts/graphik-wide/graphik-wide-semibold.woff2") format("woff2"), url("https://i.forbesimg.com/assets/fonts/graphik