Doctor details just how responsible "living room spread" is for COVID-19 uptick

The COVID-19 pandemic has completely turned the lives of nearly everyone around the globe upside down and caused massive shifts in the socio-economic balances of entire governments, massive corporations, and general power dynamics. The implications of such large-scale social changes have started several conversations regarding the best ways to help  "things get back to normal."

This has led to some demographics of people swear off wearing masks entirely and/or flout social distancing measures. While there are more extreme groups of people who will go so far as to call the coronavirus "a hoax", there are other groups of people who point to the increase of cases in places like California, Germany, and New Zealand, which have stringent lockdown orders, as "evidence" that the spread of the virus is inevitable.

But there are loads of healthcare professionals who demonstrate just how to spread of the virus can be curbed by implementing social distancing measures, like this story told in a Twitter thread by Dr. Dara Kass about a young man who took a rapid COVID-19 test before visiting his family.

The test had come back negative, so the young man decided to spend some time indoors with his siblings and family. However, soon after leaving the house, he develops a cough.

The following day, the young man's mother had her own parents over the house for a dinner. They had their masks uncovered as they were part of the same pandemic "bubble" and had been visiting one another regularly. So they figured how harm no foul.

Then, the day after that, the nanny gets thrown into the mix.

However, the older brother who came to visit actually tests positive after developing symptoms. The mom and entire family begins developing symptoms themselves. It isn't long before Mom tests positive herself and everyone begins self-quarantining, but by that time, it's a bit too late.

The symptoms start worsening for everyone involved and it only took a week to happen. But that's not the end of the story, the health implications ended up being extremely serious for a ton of different people, and it at all stemmed from the "out of house" older brother's visit.

The story begins to paint a picture of how the most some of the most vulnerable members of society are the ones who get the short end of the stick when it comes to COVID. In this case, it's the Nanny who works in the family home, who also doesn't have a primary care doctor.

Out of everyone involved, this woman is now the one fighting for her life. She now requires an antibody infusion, her oxygen account is low, so she needs help breathing and has been put on steroids.

Dr. Kass highlighted this case as a clearly delineated instance of "living room spread" and how this is one of the most seemingly harmless, but actually pernicious ways that COVID-19 keeps surging up again after leveling off for a few weeks or days.