Prognosis
Who Would Have Predicted This? Americans Excel at Staying Home
An estimated 90% of citizens have complied with social distancing guidelines
An elementary school teacher meets with her first-grade students on Google Meet from her home in Brookline, Massachusetts on March 27.
Photographer: David L. Ryan/The Boston Globe via Getty ImagesThis article is for subscribers only.
Americans, it turns out, are excellent at following social-distance and stay-at-home orders.
It’s an unexpected finding. When the coronavirus outbreak picked up steam in Wuhan in January, the Chinese government cracked down, forcing residents to stay in their homes. At the time, it was hard to envision independence-loving Americans would ever agree to behave with similar compliance. Skeptics said it would never happen.