The Atlantic Daily: Lock Yourself Down
The picture is grim as is. Please consider canceling your holiday plans.
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More than 1,000 American hospitals report that they don’t have enough staff to manage the influx of coronavirus patients.
That’s 22 percent of hospitals in the U.S..
This frightening statistic, courtesy of my colleague Alexis C. Madrigal, is a quantitative summary of the horror story already unfolding. Nationwide, beds are filling. So are body bags. Health-care workers are scared.
“It keeps rising and rising, and we’re all running on fear,” one told Ed Yong.
A change is coming; vaccines look promising. But relief appears to be at least another season away. In the meantime, our writers have some practical advice for Americans.
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Lock yourself down now. “It’s time to buckle up and lock ourselves down again, and to do so with fresh vigilance,” Zeynep Tufekci writes.
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Cancel Thanksgiving. “Telling people not to gather for a holiday is, of course, an unpopular message,” James Hamblin writes. “So I’m doing it.”
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The golden rule of pandemic winter safety is simple, Rachel Gutman explains: Don’t spend time indoors with people outside your household.
Tonight’s Atlantic-approved isolation activity:
Get lost in the meditative reads in this week’s Books Briefing.
Finding it difficult to stomach the Kardashians right now?
The family, our critic argues, is proving “that a certain kind of celebrity is ill-suited for—and might even become obsolete during—the coronavirus era.”
Today’s break from the news:
Tour America from your couch. Our “Fifty” project, from photo editor Alan Taylor, highlights extraordinary photography of each U.S. state. This week’s selection is known as the Treasure State. Can you guess which state that is?
Thanks for reading. This email was written by Caroline Mimbs Nyce, with help from Haley Weiss and Isabel Fattal.
In recognition of how many loved ones the pandemic has taken from us, we are planning a special installment of The Friendship Files for those who have lost friends to COVID-19. If this applies to you and you would be open to being interviewed, please email friendshipfiles@theatlantic.com and tell us about your friend.
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