14-Day Quarantines Should Keep You Home
Don’t plan a summer trip to New England, New York or New Jersey.
Unfortunately this will just have to wait.
Photographer: Joe Raedle/Getty ImagesJust in time for the July 4 holiday, a whole new series of rules and regulations surrounding interstate travel have suddenly sprung up in the Northeastern United States. These may be motivated by the desire of governors and their constituents to minimize Covid-19 cases in their own states, but there’s also a wider scientific rationale for the various 14-day quarantine requirements in place in New York, New Jersey, and the six New England states. In fact, the main benefit of the lengthy quarantine period may be convincing most people to stay home — or at least, very close to it.
Keeping people in their home states can cut coronavirus spread everywhere, says Arnout van de Rijt, a sociologist and network theorist at the European University Institute.