The Pandemic in My Neighborhood
We have so little data for how we’re supposed to live in this social-distancing world.
Sign of the times in Berkeley.
Photographer: Josh Edelson/AFP/Getty Images
A series of dispatches from America in the age of Covid-19.
At the same time much of Northern California was ordered to shelter in place, it was granted lots of exceptions to the order. You could go out for groceries and prescription drugs and dog walking. You could go out if you performed an “essential service.” You could go out for a walk or a run or a bike ride so long as you kept 6 feet between you and other human beings. Instantly many more people than usual in Berkeley took to the streets and, instantly, you could see that no one was quite sure how to behave. No one had ever tried to estimate 6 feet every time they passed another person, and people had different ideas of how much it was. Basically everyone avoided eye contact and small talk — as if any human interaction, no matter how remote, might cause a coronavirus infection.