Stay-at-home order. Definition: stay home, avoid leaving your house unless it’s for an essential reason, like grocery shopping or going to the hospital. 

Social distance. Definition: when you do go out, stay six feet apart from other people to minimize the risk of spreading COVID-19.

Limits on social gatherings. Definition: varies from state to state, but overall highly reduces the number of people allowed to gather in one place. This applies to concerts and conventions. It should also apply to protests, especially when those protests are not grounded on a good sense of awareness. 

People in several states are gathering in large groups, shoulder to shoulder, to protest stay-at-home orders. In doing so, they are violating three of the most important restrictions during this pandemic. What they are doing is not essential. They should not be leaving their homes. They are not staying six feet apart and they certainly aren’t abiding by the social gathering limit. 

If people want to protest about how they can’t eat at restaurants, get their hair cut or go to work, and claim their liberty is being taken away, then fine. Keep it online, please. They don’t realize that right now, it’s a privilege to not be an essential worker. It’s a privilege to not have to be surrounded by COVID-19 patients or people who have the potential to infect you, to not have to go home and stay away from your family so you don’t contaminate them. It’s a privilege to not be elderly and not have to worry about getting the virus while not having a high life expectancy. It’s a privilege to not have an underlying condition that could further compromise your health.

The people out protesting are selfish and could very likely end up dumping more cases onto health care workers, who are already inundated with patients. These stay-at-home-orders won’t last forever and they don’t have to last as long as they will if people don’t smarten up and listen.