There is a bogus text message going around that claims President Trump is going to enact a "mandatory quarantine for the nation." It has been spread so far the National Security Council had to debunk it on Twitter.
The text in question looks similar to this:
The National Security Council shut down the rumor on Twitter, saying "Text message rumors of a national quarantine are FAKE. There is no national lockdown."
Text message rumors of a national #quarantine are FAKE. There is no national lockdown. @CDCgov has and will continue to post the latest guidance on #COVID19. #coronavirus
— NSC (@WHNSC) March 16, 2020
The basic facts of the text message are incorrect. It claims that within 48 to 72 hours, Trump will enact the Stafford Act to create a quarantine. However, Trump already enacted the act on Friday, to declare a state of emergency over the coronavirus pandemic.
A declaration of a national emergency under the Stafford Act is a common occurrence. According to the Congressional Research Service, "the average number of major disasters declared per year from 1953 to 2016 was 35.8."
By declaring a national disaster, the federal government is able to unlock valuable federal resources.
"It basically cuts the red tape of Washington and allows the federal government to rapidly direct more resources at local levels needed to respond to the disaster," former Acting Homeland Security Undersecretary John Cohen said according to ABC News.
The funding can be used for anything from building hospitals to paying first-responders.
President Trump: "We have very strong emergency powers under the Stafford Act." pic.twitter.com/DEmFIO5loj
— The Hill (@thehill) March 13, 2020
When Trump declared the emergency, he did so with his usual usual Trumpian exaggeration, which could lead some to fear presidential overreach during the crisis.
"We have very strong emergency powers under the Stafford Act," Trump said. "I have it memorized, practically, as to the powers in that act. And if I need to do something, I'll do it. I have the right to do a lot of things that people don't even know about."
The good news is that it's easy to find out what's in the Stafford Act and it doesn't allow the president to quarantine the entire nation.
According to FEMA, the Stafford Act requires the president to defer to governors, saying, "all requests for a declaration by the President that a major disaster exists shall be made by the Governor of the affected State."
If Trump did attempt to declare a national quarantine it's likely to be unconstitutional. The Constitution places limits on the federal government's ability to protect the safety of individuals living inside the country, unless they cross a state border in doing so.
During these stressful times, it's important to stay vigilant not only about our health but about staying informed. There's a lot of false information being spread about the virus on social media, it's all of our jobs to stop rumors and only share information we know to be true.
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Will your current friends still be with you after seven years?
Professor shares how many years a friendship must last before it'll become lifelong
Think of your best friend. How long have you known them? Growing up, children make friends and say they’ll be best friends forever. That’s where “BFF” came from, for crying out loud. But is the concept of the lifelong friend real? If so, how many years of friendship will have to bloom before a friendship goes the distance? Well, a Dutch study may have the answer to that last question.
Sociologist Gerald Mollenhorst and his team in the Netherlands did extensive research on friendships and made some interesting findings in his surveys and studies. Mollenhorst found that over half of your friendships will “shed” within seven years. However, the relationships that go past the seven-year mark tend to last. This led to the prevailing theory that most friendships lasting more than seven years would endure throughout a person’s lifetime.
In Mollenhorst’s findings, lifelong friendships seem to come down to one thing: reciprocal effort. The primary reason so many friendships form and fade within seven-year cycles has much to do with a person’s ages and life stages. A lot of people lose touch with elementary and high school friends because so many leave home to attend college. Work friends change when someone gets promoted or finds a better job in a different state. Some friends get married and have children, reducing one-on-one time together, and thus a friendship fades. It’s easy to lose friends, but naturally harder to keep them when you’re no longer in proximity.
Some people on Reddit even wonder if lifelong friendships are actually real or just a romanticized thought nowadays. However, older commenters showed that lifelong friendship is still possible:
“I met my friend on the first day of kindergarten. Maybe not the very first day, but within the first week. We were texting each other stupid memes just yesterday. This year we’ll both celebrate our 58th birthdays.”
“My oldest friend and I met when she was just 5 and I was 9. Next-door neighbors. We're now both over 60 and still talk weekly and visit at least twice a year.”
“I’m 55. I’ve just spent a weekend with friends I met 24 and 32 years ago respectively. I’m also still in touch with my penpal in the States. I was 15 when we started writing to each other.”
“My friends (3 of them) go back to my college days in my 20’s that I still talk to a minimum of once a week. I'm in my early 60s now.”
“We ebb and flow. Sometimes many years will pass as we go through different things and phases. Nobody gets buttsore if we aren’t in touch all the time. In our 50s we don’t try and argue or be petty like we did before. But I love them. I don’t need a weekly lunch to know that. I could make a call right now if I needed something. Same with them.”
Maintaining a friendship for life is never guaranteed, but there are ways, psychotherapists say, that can make a friendship last. It’s not easy, but for a friendship to last, both participants need to make room for patience and place greater weight on their similarities than on the differences that may develop over time. Along with that, it’s helpful to be tolerant of large distances and gaps of time between visits, too. It’s not easy, and it requires both people involved to be equally invested to keep the friendship alive and from becoming stagnant.
As tough as it sounds, it is still possible. You may be a fortunate person who can name several friends you’ve kept for over seven years or over seventy years. But if you’re not, every new friendship you make has the same chance and potential of being lifelong.