Seven million Bay Area residents were ordered to stay home to slow the spread of the deadly coronavirus. | Photo by JOSH EDELSON/AFP via Getty Images

The choices we make today will help those closest to us This week, for the first time, Los Angeles County?s health department started releasing the number of COVID-19 cases by location. The places were familiar. Where I lived. Where I worked. Where my children went to school. Threaded by the public transit I rode. Seeing the numbers alongside the neighborhood names, it was suddenly clear that the novel coronavirus sweeping the globe has likely been just down the block for some time.
The federal government has issued a 15-day plan for the country to stop the spread of COVID-19, based on the newest Centers for Disease Control and Prevention?s social distancing guidelines: don?t go to work or school if possible, limit gatherings to 10 people, and avoid bars, restaurants, and shopping centers. In other words: stick close to home. This incredible visualization by the Washington Post helps to explain why the next two weeks are so critical. Just watching the simulations?each dot is a person, and the interactions are randomized every time it plays?it?s clear that social distancing only really works when enough people eliminate all contact with every other person around them.
In South Korea, consider that one infected person?a single person!?may have infected a cluster of 1,000 people by participating in seemingly innocent acti...