How to Help, and Stay Safe, During the Coronavirus Pandemic

While many of us are working from home, staying home from school, and hunkering down, there will be lots of time to play games, read comics, and stream TV and movies. But between these distractions, we hope you all stay safe and, if you can, help others.

Staying Safe

The CDC guidelines on how to protect yourselves and others can be found here. These include what you’ve probably heard already:

• Stay home if you are sick
• Avoid person-to-person contact
• Wash your hands for at least 20 (real) seconds
• Clean and disinfect regularly handled surfaces, especially your phones! Apple recommends using a 70 percent isopropyl alcohol wipe or Clorox Disinfecting Wipes.

The rest of CDC’s guidelines page is helpful, with good tips even if you don’t live in the US, so please check it out.

How to Help

Even if we’re being told to maintain safe distances from one another, we can still find creative ways to help each other out -- and to help out those in need. https://www.feedingamerica.org/ Feeding America has a great tool that lets you look up local food banks and donate to them. With runs on food in stores despite supply not being curbed in any way, the most vulnerable will need access to food. https://www.mealsonwheelsamerica.org/ According to the CDC, “Older adults and people who have severe underlying chronic medical conditions like heart or lung disease or diabetes seem to be at higher risk for developing more serious complications from COVID-19 illness.” Meals on Wheels delivers food to vulnerable seniors in local communities. Meal deliveries can help sustain the CDC recommended social isolation guidelines.

Local Help and Safety

Finally, do a search locally for how you can help. Local papers have great lists of local places in need. Check out these lists of places to help for New York residents and Boston residents, for example. Many local food producers and restaurants are open (and also in need of your support), so get food delivered, if need be, or practice the safe behavior above when venturing out your local restaurants and grocers. Here are some of the latest local guidelines for staying safe and healthy in populous US regions; your region is likely just a search away.

• New York State Public Safety Guidelines
• Illinois Public Safety Guidelines
• California Public Safety Guidelines
• Los Angeles County Public Safety Guidelines
• San Francisco Bay Area Public Safety Guidelines
• Washington State Public Safety Guidelines
• Florida State Public Safety Guidelines
• Texas State Public Safety Guidelines

For international readers, please also search for local ways to stay safe. For English language readers worldwide, here are some helpful links:

• Canada Public Safety Guidelines
• UK Public Safety Guidelines
• Australia Public Safety Guidelines

We plan to bring you our regular coverage of podcasts, shows, guides, and news about all of the stuff you can play and watch at home. That means we’ll be taking some steps to protect ourselves -- like working from home, instead of from our offices and studios. You can expect our shows and other videos to look a little different as we shift to remote dial-ins and streaming. Stay safe.