How hard can it be to tell people what to do in the middle of a pandemic? The basic advice is so simple:

If you want to do more, go for it. But these three things probably accomplish about 90 percent of what you can do to protect yourself and others.

In addition, there’s stuff the government can do: more testing, better contact tracing, lockdowns of dangerous gatherings, and so forth. But in terms of personal behavior, these three items are your best friends.

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DONALD TRUMP & DEMOCRACY

Mother Jones was founded to do journalism differently. We stand for justice and democracy. We reject false equivalence. We go after stories others don’t. We’re a nonprofit newsroom, because the kind of truth-telling investigations we do doesn’t happen under corporate ownership.

And we need your support like never before, to fight back against the existential threats American democracy faces. Fundraising for nonprofit media is always a challenge, and we need all hands on deck right now. We have no cushion; we leave it all on the field.

It’s reader support that enables Mother Jones to report the facts that are too difficult, expensive, or inconvenient for other news outlets to uncover. Please help with a donation today if you can—even a few bucks will make a real difference. A monthly gift would be incredible.

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