I have heard numerous complaints about how other people are breaking the quarantine rules to hang out with their friends. They think these people are ignorant because they’re leaving their homes to hang out with a few other people, and they supposedly don’t even care that they could be spreading COVID-19.
While this is a worthy complaint, consider how packed the Lowe’s parking lot has been the last number of weeks. It is unacceptable for me to see a couple of my friends that I haven’t been able to see in two months, while hundreds of people can go to a public store to get yard supplies a few times every week? It definitely doesn’t seem like new flowers for your garden box are all that essential.
In Washington’s phased approach to COVID-19, when Phase 2 starts you can only meet with five people per week. Even then, those groups have to be outdoors. I think that groups of five people should be acceptable. The risk of hanging out with a few other people is nothing compared to the risk of all these people going to hardware stores for no good reasons. Social interaction is necessary for good mental health. New tulips are not.