April 28, 2020 • 8 mins
The quarantine fatigue is real! Researchers analyzing smartphone data are finding that more Americans are venturing out despite stay-at-home orders. Work trips have remained about the same, but personal trips are starting to increase and so are trips between counties and state lines. There is also some confusion as states announce plans to open back up, some think that they can start easing up on staying at home. The U.S. has never ordered so many to stay at home all at once, and we might be seeing the limits that citizens are willing to handle. Katherine Shaver, reporter at The Washington Post, joins us for how people are over quarantine.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
It's Tuesday a I'm Oscar Ramrrors from the Daily Dive
podcast in Los Angeles, and this is your daily coronavirus update.
The quarantine fatigue is real. Researchers analyzing smartphone data are
finding that more Americans are venturing out despite stay at
home orders. Work trips have remained about the same, but
personal trips are starting to increase, and so were trips
(00:22):
between counties and state lines. There's also some confusion in
states announced plans to open back up. Some think they
can start easing up on staying at home. The US
has never ordered so many to stay at home all
at once, and we might be seeing the limits that
citizens are willing to handle. Katherine Shaver, reporter at the
Washington Post, joins us for how people are over quarantine.
(00:43):
Thanks for joining us, Katherine, good to be here, Thank you.
I wanted to talk about quarantine fatigue. It's real, and
researchers right now are finding that Americans are starting to
venture out a little bit more despite a lot of
stay at home orders. A quick story case and point
on all this. I live in California, in Los Angeles,
and we've seen this happen across the country. In some
(01:04):
other states, but local officials have made these efforts to
keep public beaches, parks, and big open spaces accessible for
people for mental and physical well being. This past weekend,
we had a heat wave and people went out to
the beach in droves in Orange County specifically, the whole
state isn't open up like that, and we saw a
bunch of pictures. The governor of California kind of was
(01:25):
shaking his finger at people, saying that's not the way
to do it. But people are getting tired of staying
at home, and as this thing keeps going, we don't
have a lot of end dates in sight. People are
getting restless. So Captain tell us a little bit more
about this. Because researchers have been tracking smartphone data to
see how people are staying at home or not. They've
been looking at the location data from our smartphone apps,
(01:47):
and basically, on any day when a phone travels more
than a mile, they assume that that phone is not
staying home that day that it made a trip. And
they've been looking at this since the middle of March.
When they stay at homeowners began to effect and the
data is aggregated, it's anonymous or not tracking where you
and your cell phone are individually going. But as they
started to look at it, the percentage of people staying
(02:09):
home with the percentage of their phone staying home grew
gradually for several weeks after mid March, and then a
kind of plateaued at about thirty three to percent of
the country on average. But what really worried them was
starting the week of April, they noticed that the percent
started to decline, and in fact, by the end of
the week April seventeen, it had dropped at on average nationwide.
(02:31):
So they're really worried about this shift and momentum. And
the reason they're really worried is it's not like people
started going back to work. The percentage of trips that
were non work trips pretty much stayed the same. But
the number of trips that people were taking for personal reasons,
going out to the store, maybe going you know, driving
out to apart to take a walk, those are the
trips that went up, and so that's what really concerned them.
(02:52):
What there was this shift and momentum of people who
apparently are getting restless, board lonely, and really starting to
venture out more. And it's pretty noteworthy. I mean, really,
this is the first pandemic that many of us have
experienced that you know, everybody always goes back to the
Spanish flu of nineteen eighteen. That's so long ago, and
really this hasn't been done in the modern era, and
(03:13):
nobody knows how much people will tolerate. There's other countries
that have lockdown orders that have happened before, but the
United States doesn't really do that, and we don't know
how much people will take. And you mentioned some of
the numbers. You know, a dip from like thirty four
or thirty three down it doesn't seem like much, but
these sample sizes are so big because they're looking at
so much data that any movement there is kind of significant.
(03:37):
And what I found was really interesting was the public
health experts I spoke with said, we know how long
people are willing to maybe stay quarantined in their house.
Like during H one and one, some people were quarantined.
During Stars one, some people were quarantined, but usually that's
for about fourteen days to twenty one days max. And
those are usually such targeted quarantines that local health officials
(03:58):
can check it with folks every day. And how are
you feeling just a reminder you need to stay isolated,
keep going, and that's how they prevent quarantine fatigue in
those situations. But you're right, nobody has any idea how
on a nationwide scale, when you don't have somebody calling
you every day and saying keep going, Nobody knows how
long people are going to be willing to put up
(04:18):
with cavin fever for the greater good or to protect
my family. So they're very intrigued by all of this
and what do they need to do to kind of
keep people going into these extraordinary circumstances. It's so tough
even for health officials and local government officials. It would
be almost impossible, probably the wrong way to approach it
if they said, you know what, guys were really going
(04:39):
to be locked down until June. That's why we're getting
these kind of well the orders extended until May fifteenth.
The order is extended to because if you just say, hey,
we're gone for two months, people are gonna start rebelling
initially and then beyond that, you know, you see some
other states starting to reopen thing. There could be a
little bit of that kind of jealousy thing almost like
why can they go out and play and we can't.
(05:01):
So I'm sure you're gonna start seeing this a lot
more everywhere, and the confusion that so's also some governors
are starting to say, well, we're formulating those plans, we
will start opening soon, and people are probably taking that
as well. I can start easing my own restrictions. Now
I'm wearing my face mask. Let's just go out now.
I spoke with one public health expertise said, it's kind
(05:22):
of like a kid right before Christmas. You start hearing
about governors talking about reopening economies, and people start thinking, well, really,
how bad could it be. We'll put on my face mask,
I'll stay six feet away from people. But they say
they're really concerned because the more people are venturing out,
the more likely they are to be in places like
grocery stores or drug stores. And you can do all
you can to try to limit your exposure, but you
(05:43):
are still increasing the risk of transmission. Beyond that, it
takes a little bit of time to gather the data
and then crunch the numbers. We won't know for a
couple of weeks. Let's say if these people that have
started moving a little bit early might have come down
with coronavirus, increased number of cases is or hospitalizations or
death We won't know that for some time as well.
(06:03):
The medical experts I talked to said they're very curious
about whether the increase in travel is going to lead
to an increase in hospitalizations and deaths. They say they
can't really look at whether, at least for an increase
in just cases overall, because testing is still so limited
that that's not really a reliable indicator. But it's going
to take at least several weeks to start saying if
more people end up in the hospital or more people
(06:24):
end up dying, and then they might be able to
look back and say, hey, that's when that county started
to have people venture out, or that's when that state
lifted restrictions and people started going out. About one last
note about how people are moving. Personal daily trips had
increased about four and then trips between counties and states
also increased. And basically if you're out or you haven't
(06:46):
moved for more than ten minutes or so, you're kind
of still classified as staying at home. But everything is
basically starting to increase in some form or another. The
way they say that we're going to start saying this.
It's not like people hit the wall and us run
screaming out of their homes and saying, you know, I'm
I'm going back to life as normal. It's really more
of kind of a slippery slope where we start bending
(07:07):
the rules. Or maybe a few weeks ago, we would
go to the grocery store on Monday and we would
get everything we needed for the next eight days and
we wouldn't go back out again. But maybe now by Friday,
my bananas are starting to get a little brown, or
I'm running a little low on ice cream, and I'm
also thinking, you know, I've been stuck at home for
five days. I just want to get a breath of
fresh air, change of scenery. I'm just going to run
out to Target and maybe making another run. So now
(07:30):
I've made two trips in my week instead of one.
And that's what they're really concerned about. We all just
start loosening up just a little bit, and that's what
they're afraid of. An aggregate could become a real problem.
The numbers are starting to show it, and itcnotally. I
can tell you that that quarantine fatigue is real. People
are just telling me all over the place they're itching
to get out and making these shorter trips, and and
(07:51):
doing it more frequently. So we'll have to be vigilant
with all of this to stop the spread. But it's hard.
It really is. Catherine Shaver, reporter, The Washington Post. Thank
you very much for joining us, Thanks for having me.
I'm Oscar Ramirez and this has been your daily coronavirus update.
Don't forget that. For today's big news stories, you can
(08:11):
check me out on the Daily Dive podcast every Monday
through Friday, So follow us on I Heart Radio or
wherever you get your podcasts
It's Tuesday a I'm Oscar Ramrrors from the Daily Dive
podcast in Los Angeles, and this is your daily coronavirus update.
The quarantine fatigue is real. Researchers analyzing smartphone data are
finding that more Americans are venturing out despite stay at
home orders. Work trips have remained about the same, but
personal trips are starting to increase, and so were trips
(00:22):
between counties and state lines. There's also some confusion in
states announced plans to open back up. Some think they
can start easing up on staying at home. The US
has never ordered so many to stay at home all
at once, and we might be seeing the limits that
citizens are willing to handle. Katherine Shaver, reporter at the
Washington Post, joins us for how people are over quarantine.
(00:43):
Thanks for joining us, Katherine, good to be here, Thank you.
I wanted to talk about quarantine fatigue. It's real, and
researchers right now are finding that Americans are starting to
venture out a little bit more despite a lot of
stay at home orders. A quick story case and point
on all this. I live in California, in Los Angeles,
and we've seen this happen across the country. In some
(01:04):
other states, but local officials have made these efforts to
keep public beaches, parks, and big open spaces accessible for
people for mental and physical well being. This past weekend,
we had a heat wave and people went out to
the beach in droves in Orange County specifically, the whole
state isn't open up like that, and we saw a
bunch of pictures. The governor of California kind of was
(01:25):
shaking his finger at people, saying that's not the way
to do it. But people are getting tired of staying
at home, and as this thing keeps going, we don't
have a lot of end dates in sight. People are
getting restless. So Captain tell us a little bit more
about this. Because researchers have been tracking smartphone data to
see how people are staying at home or not. They've
been looking at the location data from our smartphone apps,
(01:47):
and basically, on any day when a phone travels more
than a mile, they assume that that phone is not
staying home that day that it made a trip. And
they've been looking at this since the middle of March.
When they stay at homeowners began to effect and the
data is aggregated, it's anonymous or not tracking where you
and your cell phone are individually going. But as they
started to look at it, the percentage of people staying
(02:09):
home with the percentage of their phone staying home grew
gradually for several weeks after mid March, and then a
kind of plateaued at about thirty three to percent of
the country on average. But what really worried them was
starting the week of April, they noticed that the percent
started to decline, and in fact, by the end of
the week April seventeen, it had dropped at on average nationwide.
(02:31):
So they're really worried about this shift and momentum. And
the reason they're really worried is it's not like people
started going back to work. The percentage of trips that
were non work trips pretty much stayed the same. But
the number of trips that people were taking for personal reasons,
going out to the store, maybe going you know, driving
out to apart to take a walk, those are the
trips that went up, and so that's what really concerned them.
(02:52):
What there was this shift and momentum of people who
apparently are getting restless, board lonely, and really starting to
venture out more. And it's pretty noteworthy. I mean, really,
this is the first pandemic that many of us have
experienced that you know, everybody always goes back to the
Spanish flu of nineteen eighteen. That's so long ago, and
really this hasn't been done in the modern era, and
(03:13):
nobody knows how much people will tolerate. There's other countries
that have lockdown orders that have happened before, but the
United States doesn't really do that, and we don't know
how much people will take. And you mentioned some of
the numbers. You know, a dip from like thirty four
or thirty three down it doesn't seem like much, but
these sample sizes are so big because they're looking at
so much data that any movement there is kind of significant.
(03:37):
And what I found was really interesting was the public
health experts I spoke with said, we know how long
people are willing to maybe stay quarantined in their house.
Like during H one and one, some people were quarantined.
During Stars one, some people were quarantined, but usually that's
for about fourteen days to twenty one days max. And
those are usually such targeted quarantines that local health officials
(03:58):
can check it with folks every day. And how are
you feeling just a reminder you need to stay isolated,
keep going, and that's how they prevent quarantine fatigue in
those situations. But you're right, nobody has any idea how
on a nationwide scale, when you don't have somebody calling
you every day and saying keep going, Nobody knows how
long people are going to be willing to put up
(04:18):
with cavin fever for the greater good or to protect
my family. So they're very intrigued by all of this
and what do they need to do to kind of
keep people going into these extraordinary circumstances. It's so tough
even for health officials and local government officials. It would
be almost impossible, probably the wrong way to approach it
if they said, you know what, guys were really going
(04:39):
to be locked down until June. That's why we're getting
these kind of well the orders extended until May fifteenth.
The order is extended to because if you just say, hey,
we're gone for two months, people are gonna start rebelling
initially and then beyond that, you know, you see some
other states starting to reopen thing. There could be a
little bit of that kind of jealousy thing almost like
why can they go out and play and we can't.
(05:01):
So I'm sure you're gonna start seeing this a lot
more everywhere, and the confusion that so's also some governors
are starting to say, well, we're formulating those plans, we
will start opening soon, and people are probably taking that
as well. I can start easing my own restrictions. Now
I'm wearing my face mask. Let's just go out now.
I spoke with one public health expertise said, it's kind
(05:22):
of like a kid right before Christmas. You start hearing
about governors talking about reopening economies, and people start thinking, well, really,
how bad could it be. We'll put on my face mask,
I'll stay six feet away from people. But they say
they're really concerned because the more people are venturing out,
the more likely they are to be in places like
grocery stores or drug stores. And you can do all
you can to try to limit your exposure, but you
(05:43):
are still increasing the risk of transmission. Beyond that, it
takes a little bit of time to gather the data
and then crunch the numbers. We won't know for a
couple of weeks. Let's say if these people that have
started moving a little bit early might have come down
with coronavirus, increased number of cases is or hospitalizations or
death We won't know that for some time as well.
(06:03):
The medical experts I talked to said they're very curious
about whether the increase in travel is going to lead
to an increase in hospitalizations and deaths. They say they
can't really look at whether, at least for an increase
in just cases overall, because testing is still so limited
that that's not really a reliable indicator. But it's going
to take at least several weeks to start saying if
more people end up in the hospital or more people
(06:24):
end up dying, and then they might be able to
look back and say, hey, that's when that county started
to have people venture out, or that's when that state
lifted restrictions and people started going out. About one last
note about how people are moving. Personal daily trips had
increased about four and then trips between counties and states
also increased. And basically if you're out or you haven't
(06:46):
moved for more than ten minutes or so, you're kind
of still classified as staying at home. But everything is
basically starting to increase in some form or another. The
way they say that we're going to start saying this.
It's not like people hit the wall and us run
screaming out of their homes and saying, you know, I'm
I'm going back to life as normal. It's really more
of kind of a slippery slope where we start bending
(07:07):
the rules. Or maybe a few weeks ago, we would
go to the grocery store on Monday and we would
get everything we needed for the next eight days and
we wouldn't go back out again. But maybe now by Friday,
my bananas are starting to get a little brown, or
I'm running a little low on ice cream, and I'm
also thinking, you know, I've been stuck at home for
five days. I just want to get a breath of
fresh air, change of scenery. I'm just going to run
out to Target and maybe making another run. So now
(07:30):
I've made two trips in my week instead of one.
And that's what they're really concerned about. We all just
start loosening up just a little bit, and that's what
they're afraid of. An aggregate could become a real problem.
The numbers are starting to show it, and itcnotally. I
can tell you that that quarantine fatigue is real. People
are just telling me all over the place they're itching
to get out and making these shorter trips, and and
(07:51):
doing it more frequently. So we'll have to be vigilant
with all of this to stop the spread. But it's hard.
It really is. Catherine Shaver, reporter, The Washington Post. Thank
you very much for joining us, Thanks for having me.
I'm Oscar Ramirez and this has been your daily coronavirus update.
Don't forget that. For today's big news stories, you can
(08:11):
check me out on the Daily Dive podcast every Monday
through Friday, So follow us on I Heart Radio or
wherever you get your podcasts
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