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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BEFORE YOU CLICK AWAY!

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 the essential ingredient that makes all this possible? Readers like you.

It’s reader support that enables Mother Jones to devote the time and resources 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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