Not “social distancing” grave sin?

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Canon law 2269
Unintentional killing is not morally imputable. But one is not exonerated from grave offense if, without proportionate reasons, he has acted in a way that brings about someone’s death, even without the intention to do so.

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So doesn’t this mean ignoring orders to practice social distancing or being reckless about it these days could be acting in such a way? And therefore gravely sinful as you in theory could be infecting someone extremely vulnerable to the virus or starting a chain of infection where someone down the line is?

We see it in the news these days including the spring breakers scoffing at the idea of getting sick from this…
 
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Sbee0 said:
So doesn’t this mean ignoring orders to practice social distancing or being reckless about it these days could be acting in such a way?
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I don’t think so because we’re operating on limited information. Six-foot distancing is a sensible but arbitrary guideline for an illness we’re all still learning about. Risk-taking isn’t always a grave sin, and while commonsense precautions are important, (i.e. I’m happy to stick with the 6-feet rule), this issue isn’t black and white.
 
I don’t think it can be in some instances. Like, if you live with other people, kind of hard to social distance. Although, I completely support it. And how do Physicians and nurses social distance? They have to be close to you to find out what’s going on.
 
Agreed–we really do NOT know that much and one thing more and more people are learning is that our government and media are not entirely honest with us. I’m amazed at how quickly everybody on facebook has become a Ph.D. level expert on corona virus.
 
As with most sins, the person’s intentions probably make the difference. If you are failing to stay away from others for important reasons, such as watching a child while their parents are being police officers and doctors, or because you are tending to the sick, or providing food for people, that’s one thing. If your reason for not social distancing starts with the words “I want”, then you are probably getting into the realm of selfishness and grave sin. For example, “I want a book.” or “I want to see my grandson.” Then there’s the matter of assessing the risks in certain situations. Visiting your elderly aunt for the afternoon while you’ve been working with the public all week is probably not a good idea. Going out once a week to buy dog food, after which you wash your hands thoroughly, is comparatively low risk. The short answer is, if your attitude is the avoid spreading a deadly illness as much as possible, than you are probably fine. If your attitude is more along the lines of “no one’s going to tell me what to do!” then you are in trouble.
 
Doctor’s and nurses are wearing gloves and masks and following a strenuous handwashing protocol because they can’t really stay 6 feet away from you. Their protocol replaces the social distancing. For those who don’t need to touch others, and who aren’t wearing all that stuff, the social distancing is in effect.
 
for the most part, probably not, but I think it depends, in theory, we can spread bacteria or virus to anyone at any time, so no matter what we do, there is always some risk, also depends on where you are in the world, not all areas have the same risk, however people can be imprudent or irresponsible though whether or not that rised to the level of grave sin is debatable in this situation
 
This is certainly no time to be going about your routine daily life. That’s callous and self-centered at minimum.

OP, in my opinion, not following the directives of authorities in balance with your reasonable needs/responsibilities is a sin against charity and your neighbor.
 
We should not be going about our daily lives. We should all be staying at home unless there are things we absolutely have to go out to do. Please consider those of us who do not have the option of staying home. Please think about the doctors, nurses, dentists, pharmacists, social workers, police officers, grocery store workers, and so on, all of whom have to continue working in order to serve the public during this time. The more you continue with your normal life, the more we are at risk of getting coronavirus, the more we are likely to become transmitters, and the less able we are to help you.
 
If that were the case, all of us who work in hospitals, as emergency responders, etc. to help save lives are in “grave sin”, just because our jobs do not allow us to maintain that distance.

PPE (particularly masks) are in short supply at my hospital and others, so if you really want to help prevent the spread of COVID-19, donate PPE!
 
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If there are types of social distancing required by law, I would certainly consider breaking this particular laws without just cause to be seriously sinful.
 
Prudence. It is a wonderful virtue and worth studying and putting into practice. The enemy is unseen, has an incubation period of up to 14 days, and is transmitted solely by contact, directly or indirectly (surfaces) with other infected humans.

Is it not prudent to endeavor, at personal cost, to limit this transmission of a disease that is disproportionately fatal to the elderly?

We may think of it as a stone tossed into a pond, in which the ripples radiate towards the shore, diminishing as they go. Rather, this is like a Tsunami, where the ripples become larger and gain speed as they accelerate toward shore.

It is not life as usual, folks.
 
The alternative to what you call the ruin of many lives is the total loss of lives. One life lost that could have been saved by our due diligence is too many. Do you want that blood on your hands?
 
Why do it for this? Because we could prevent it. If we can prevent those other “everyday” deaths you’re so casual about, we should. Unemployment statistics are hardly on the same plane. . . .
 
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JamesV.Cameron said:
The world can’t come to a halt. Life has to go on.
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Researchers at Imperial College London have estimated that if we did not try to mitigate the impact of the pandemic, we would lose about 0.7% of population in the US and about 0.8% of population in the UK. For the US, that is over twice the proportion of population lost in the Second World War, and for the UK, it’s a little less than the proportion of population they lost.

Note that these predictions are for deaths caused directly by COVID-19 and do not include additional deaths caused indirectly by the burden on healthcare systems. Of course, those losses could be mitigated by withholding healthcare from infected patients, i.e. just letting them die, which would further increase direct losses.

Most of those who would die would be elderly people and people with underlying health conditions. Some have even seen this as advantageous for society, killing off people who are economically unproductive and a burden on resources.

So, I guess it depends what value you place on human life and how much you think we should be concerned about the most vulnerable.
 
To be blunt, your attitude is incredibly dangerous… and I ask you to soberly reflect on the lives of the very vulnerable, especially the elderly. To act as if this crisis is not happening is definitely a sin at present… with so many bishops around the world cancelling public Masses, the Church understands that the circumstances are grave. If it’s so serious that we can’t attend Mass… then yes it is definitely a sin to not change your behaviour. I’m not judging your personal culpability… but objectively speaking we can’t ignore this. Look at Italy… what a hellish experience it has been for them.
 
“Social Distancing” is one of several strategies in our toolkit for reducing infection.
Others include handwashing and wiping down surfaces with cleansing wipes, and wearing a mask if you have a URI.

However—we still go to the food store, to the pump to get gas, the mail is still being delivered, and all these employees are at work to serve the customers who arrive.

If I knew I had Covid19 and then went and coughed in your face on purpose, you could make the case that it was a gravely sinful act.

Otherwise, we also need to keep our lives as normal as possible. Food and gasoline supplies need to remain intact, public utilities need to be maintained.
There’s simply no way for each of us to vanish into an isolation room for the duration of this.

Not to mention that this is a very new disease we’re still trying to learn about.
 
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