Look both ways. It’s likely the earliest safety rule we all learn.
Safe passage is best ensured by anticipating from where danger may arise, and plan accordingly. Typically, the strategy is to wait till all is clear. Just “how clear” becomes the point of debate and decision. In crossing a street, traffic is the norm, and the way will never be totally clear in both directions for miles and miles. It only needs to be clear for the duration of safe passage.
Safety in crossing other gaps, such as relaxing the rules of Shelter in Place during the COVID-19 pandemic in order to return to work, is less easy to discern. We’ve not had to close down society to quell an infectious virus in modern times before. The virus is still very much unknown as to second waves of emergence in a community, re-infection of victims, markers of immunity, silent carriers, individuals at greatest risk of fatality if infected, and balancing the trade-off between protection from infection and damage from economic collapse.
Cross this street, we must. The nations and states each need to protect health while fostering economic vigor. Innovation, tracking, assessment, and re-interpretation of the indication of safe-to-cross warrant careful and open notation so that all can learn what works, and what doesn’t. This will be risky. This will require sorting out cultural and moral values. This will eventually be celebrated as solutions become norms. Until then, we need to allow some trial-and-error efforts so that the parameters of risk and safety can become better understood. It will become very clear in the rearview mirror, but not before we try.
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At the risk of data overload, The New York Times has a thorough display tracking the Coronavirus outbreak across the U.S. It’s worth some exploration.
