x Maria Bartiromo agrees with Devin Nunes that now is a great time for people to go out https://t.co/aCC5GjsxqW — Media Matters (@mmfa) March 15, 2020

We now know that the virus responsible for COVID-19 can be transmitted by people not showing symptoms of infection. We also have been seeing, in the United States, "community spread": Infections of those with no known contact with known-infected individuals, meaning they received the virus third-hand or from touching a public surface touched by an infected individual.

This is the catastrophic case being faced now in Italy: large numbers of patients, infected by public interactions with individuals who may not have even been aware of their illness, overwhelming hospitals in such numbers that doctors cannot provide care.

Even if you are not infected, do not know anyone who is infected, believe you are in an area without infection and are young, healthy, and have no vulnerable friends or family, you are in danger of being infected and passing that infection on to countless other people you meet. That is how this virus, like the flu and other potential pandemic-causing illnesses, spread. This behavior, from the healthy, is what will cause hospitals ten days from now to be overwhelmed with patients, not insufficient precautions by the vulnerable.

Government experts like Dr. Anthony Fauci are all but pleading with Americans to stay home, regardless of health, to reduce the rate of transmission of the virus in these critical weeks. "Flattening the curve," to spread out infections over a longer period of time, is the difference between all patients getting care and some patients being left to die due to lack of doctors, space, and supplies.

The time to start is now. Not tomorrow: Right now. After testing can be ramped up in this nation, we will have a better measure of where the virus is and is not—but right now we don't.

Some of the people who listen to Rep. Devin Nunes and other conservatives dismissing the severity of this virus, and urging Americans to go out and spend money for the sake of the economy, will die. That is their choice. But they will also kill other Americans, Americans who take the threat seriously, have been listening to advice, and have been trying to "social distance" themselves for the sake of the most venerable members of their towns and communities. That is unforgivable.

Rep. Devin Nunes continues to behave no differently from how a foreign saboteur would act, if they were intent on dismantling America from with in. Fox News continues to believe that devotion to Trump, a narcissist whose only concern is ego preservation no matter how much harm his false claims do to the rest of the nation, is more important than whether their own viewers are killed in large numbers.

We are spiraling towards an outcome at least as severe than that faced even in Italy, spurred on at every point by incompetence, complacency and bluster. It continues.