The best thing everyday Americans can do to fight coronavirus?

By 16 national health care leaders, including our department's Ezekiel Emanuel

The coronavirus pandemic seemed so far away just weeks ago.

No one likes to be isolated and sit at home and be bored.

You want to be near friends as you work from home.

The numbers you’re hearing about the virus seem too big to believe.

You’re worried about your neighbors and the impact on local businesses and workers

You feel healthy, and how much worse can it be than the flu, after all?

COVID-19 is spreading, and you won’t know you’re infected until you’ve already infected others. Right now, you have no immunity to prevent you from getting the disease. It’s especially lethal for older people or those with underlying conditions. This will come to communities in waves and will be a marathon, not a sprint, so pay attention to local events. And our hospitals won’t have sufficient resources — people, beds, ventilators or protective gear — if cases keep spreading as fast as they are in Italy.