'Stay Home For Us' Is The Viral Message From Health Care Workers We Need To Listen To
"I stay at work for you"
- by
Grace Back
Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, people are being urged to stay inside. Despite these orders, many have chosen to leave the home to attend parties (seriously?) and over 20,000 people were spotted at Bondi Beach on Saturday (which you can read about here). Now, a viral message is being heard from healthcare workers across the world, and it's a simple one: stay home.
The main objective of self-isolation is to 'flatten the curve' of the virus so as to not overwhelm our already stretched healthcare facilities. How we do that is simple: by social distancing and self-isolating at home, only leaving unless absolutely necessary (and with added safety measures).
“We are concerned Australia has not moved fast enough to contain community transmission by taking the type of significant community control measures like those that have stalled community transmission in Singapore and Hong Kong," said the Australian Medical Association in a statement. “The AMA has for some time called for banning of large public gatherings. This is an overdue need to protect and ensure the health of the Australian community. Mass gathering bans should have been established earlier.”
Doctors and nurses are saying flatly, "We stay at work for you. You stay at home for us." Many of whom have families of their own to protect and worry about, nevertheless people who flippantly ignoring safety precautions.
Remember, it's not necessarily about individuals getting infected with the virus but how many others they could be infecting. You could catch it and take two weeks to show any symptoms (or not show symptoms at all) and in that time you’ve gone about your daily life and spread it exponentially. In fact, within a month, an extra 400 people could be infected.
The message has gone viral: "We stay at work for you. You stay at home for us".
Grace Back
Grace Back is a journalist and was formerly the Digital Culture Editor across ELLE and marie claire Australia. When not stuck in a seemingly endless Instagram scroll, you'll find Grace with her head in a good book.
