It’s Time for a Stay-At-Home Order in South Carolina

Issue:

South Carolina is one of only 9 states (as of April 3), that have not issued stay-at-home orders. Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said stay-at-home orders should be extended to the entire nation. Experts say the delays in keeping people at home could make areas without restrictions more vulnerable to outbreaks in coming weeks.

Action:

Please contact Governor McMaster and urge him to issue a stay-at-home order for South Carolina.

Talking points:

• Evidence shows that no state, city or county is immune to this virus.
• Public health experts agree that stay-at-home orders should be nationwide.
• Areas with stay-at-home orders have significantly reduced local travel.
• Disease experts say reductions in travel may help to sharply curb the spread of the coronavirus.

Background:
Health experts warn that the coronavirus can easily exploit gaps in a state-by-state patchwork of social distancing. Stay-at-home orders have nearly halted travel for most Americans but in places that waited to enact such orders people have continued to travel widely, potentially exposing more people as the coronavirus outbreak accelerates, according to an analysis of cellphone location data by The New York Times.

• The report on the divide in travel patterns, suggests that Americans in wide swaths of the West, Northeast and Midwest have complied with orders from state and local officials to stay home. Disease experts who reviewed the results say those reductions in travel — to less than a mile a day, on average, from about five miles — may be enough to sharply curb the spread of the coronavirus in those regions, at least for now.
• In areas where public officials have resisted or delayed stay-at-home orders, people changed their habits far less.
• Broadly higher levels of travel suggest more contact with others and more chances to spread or contract the disease, researchers said.
• Counties with lax travel policies risk not only becoming the next hot spots of the disease, but also acting as reservoirs for the virus that reignite infection in places that have tamped it down, they said.
• Read more

SIAN Contact: Pam Madaio
SIAN Email: seaislandsactionnetwork@gmail.com