PORTLAND, Ore. – Michael Kesten
took a mental note of the smaller-than-
usual crowd at his gym, and asked a few
regulars why there weren’t more people
working out.
Maybe it was an adjustment to day-
light saving time, someone suggested.
Then they reached another conclu-
sion almost immediately: It must be be-
cause so many people were taking seri-
ously the “social distancing” recom-
mendation amid the coronavirus out-
break in the U.S. Then, another
consensus: what a bunch of over-reac-
tors.
That was Sunday, March 8 – which
Kesten, a 69-year-old communications
consultant, now says, “seems like a year
ago.”
In the last week, as the threat of
coronavirushas become more realistic,
both the Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention and local government
officials have all but begged Americans
to practice “social distancing,” whichessentially involves self-quarantining
in an effort to contain the spread of the
virus.
But many people aren’t doing it – in
fact, they’re doing the opposite.
Over the weekend, photos and
videos flooded social media and cable
news of large crowds gathering every-
where, from Disney World to popular
brunch spots to workout classes. This
has evoked a variety of reactions, from
outraged, self-isolating individuals‘Social distancing’ running into resistance
The threat is real, but attitudes and mixed messaging mute the response
Lindsay Schnell
USA TODAY
Slowing the spread
Work or engage in schooling from
home whenever possible.Avoid social gatherings in groups of
more than 10 people.
Avoid eating or drinking at bars, res-
taurants, and food courts; use drive-
thru, pickup, or delivery options.Avoid discretionary travel, shopping
trips, and social visits.
Do not visit nursing homes or retire-
ment or long-term care facilities un-
less to provide critical assistance.
See SOCIAL, Page 2D SOURCE: whitehouse.govWith at least 70% of America’s
schools shutting down and a chorus of
prominent voices calling to close the
rest, millions of parents entered a
strange new reality this week: at-
tempting to manage their children’s
education from the confines of home.
The new landscape of remote work
coupled with remote schooling is bi-
zarre and chaotic. And it stands to get
worse before it gets better: Districts
and states vary wildly in their ability to
deliver educational services at a time
of social isolation.
President Donald Trump on Mon-
day called for limiting gatherings of
people to no more than 10 for the next
15 days and suggested school-age stu-
dents take classes from home. Al-
though it has not called for all schools
to close, the Centers for Disease Con-
trol and Prevention has said to avoid
crowds of 50 or more people.
Traditional schools that stay open
may be technically defying these rec-
ommendations. But they lack firm
guidelines.
“Nobody is taking the bull by the
horns and saying, ‘This is what we’re
doing or should be doing,’ ” said Dan
Domenech, head of the American As-
sociation of School Administrators.
“We need more guidance.”
On Tuesday, Domenech’s group and
the CDC scheduled a joint call to offer
guidance to school leaders. But 10 min-
utes before it was scheduled to start,
the AASA said the CDC had canceled.
Health officials offered no explanation.
In a statement, the group of school ad-
ministrators then blasted the govern-
ment for the confusion caused by vary-
ing recommendations.
The lack of guidance notwithstand-
ing, a nationwide shutdown of schools
looks increasingly to be a case of when,
rather than if. And it’s becoming clear
the nation’s schools could be closed for
months. On Tuesday, Kansas Gov.
Laura Kelly said in-person teaching
was over for the school year, making it
the first state to do so.Schools
caught in
a learning
curve
Ready or not, they may
be forced to go online
Erin Richards
USA TODAYEvelyn Rose, 10, chats with her class
at Shanghai American from San
Antonio, Texas. MINDY ROSESee SCHOOLS, Page 2DAUSTIN, Texas – Thousands of asy-
lum seekers crammed in border towns
near the Texas-Mexico border awaiting
U.S. immigration hearings are at risk of
dying from coronavirus because of poor
health access and unsafe conditions,
advocates say.
In Matamoros, where about 2,000
migrants live in a sprawling outdoor
camp where they sleep in tents and
share portable bathrooms and sinks,
health advocates warned that the coro-
navirus could spread rampantly. The
camp is across the Rio Grande from
Brownsville.
Last week, Global Response
Management, the nonprofit that oper-
ates the only health clinic in the camp,
launched plans to erect a two-tent,
20-bed field hospital in the camp to
house coronavirus patients if and when
the virus arrives, said Helen Perry, the
group’s executive director.
“We are very concerned,” she said.
“You have a vulnerable, displaced com-
munity in poor living conditions with-
out access to health care, where food is
communal and housing is communal.
It’s a recipe for explosive infection and
transmission.”
Migrants in the camp are part of the
U.S. government’s Migrant Protection
Protocols, or MPP, program, also known
as Remain in Mexico, where asylum
seekers to the U.S. are placed in seven
Mexican border towns, from Matamo-
ros to Tijuana, to await their court hear-
ings.
More than 60,000 immigrants have
gone through the program since it
launched in January 2019. In a recent
court filing, a Customs and Border Pro-
tection official said about 25,000 mi-
grants are in the program.
The Executive Office for Immigration
Review, or EOIR, which oversees the mi-
grants’ court hearings, announced
Sunday that it was postponing all non-
detained immigration hearings through
April 10. It’s unclear whether migrants
waiting in Mexico classify as “detained,”
but their hearings went on as scheduled
Monday.
The unions representing immigra-
tion judges, agents for Immigration and
Customs Enforcement and immigrationattorneys released a statement Mon-
day calling for the temporary closure
of all 68 immigration courts across the
U.S. to protect immigration judges, at-
torneys and the ICE agents overseeing
the courts.
“Failing to take this action now will
exacerbate a once in a century public
health crisis,” the release read.
Even if EOIR cancels hearings for
migrants in Mexico, the agency would
struggle to notify the thousands of mi-
grants in the program, many of whom
travel frequently between shelters or
to other Mexican cities to avoid falling
prey to criminal gangs and cartels that
operate in the border towns, said Elis-
sa Steglich, co-director of the Immi-
gration Clinic at the University of Tex-
as School of Law in Austin, who offers
legal advice to migrants in the pro-
gram.Asylum seekers in Tijuana, Mexico, and six other towns that border the United States live in sprawling outdoor camps
where they sleep in tents and share portable bathrooms and sinks. PHOTOS BY NICK OZA/USA TODAY NETWORK
Migrants in border towns
at high risk of infection
Asylum seekers languish
in crowded conditions
Rick Jervis
USA TODAY
Elvia Nunez, 36, fled Honduras with her two daughters after she says gunmen
killed her husband in front of her family. She now waits at the Tijuana shelter.“People are going to
start dying. The conditions
are abysmal here.”
Taylor Levy
El Paso-based immigration attorneySee MIGRANTS, Page 2DK1K1USA TODAY| WEDNESDAY, MARCH 18, 2020 | SECTION DE3NATION’S HEALTH
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