My Thoughts on Quarantine Pods aka “Escape Groups”
By: Daniel Zahler
Tags: Quarantine, Airbnb, Coronavirus, Quarantinelife

It’s like Fight Club. Spoken about in whispers, debated in hushed tones.

People are asking: If I’ve self-quarantined for 14 days, and my friends have too, is it OK to join forces and quarantine together? Can we do a “quarantine pod?”

It sounds transgressive. We’re told to shelter in place.

And yet I understand the impulse. Social isolation is tough. People are getting stir-crazy.

After 3 weeks in my 1-bedroom apartment, I’m ready to paint a face on a broomstick and start playing Scrabble with the broom.

We’re social creatures. We need social interaction.

The thought of escaping my isolation and sharing a house with friends sounds WONDERFUL. Then I reflect on how it would actually work, and the risks involved. Reality sets in.

When it comes to planning a quarantine pod, there are 3 main challenges.

1. How do you know people are safe?

Sure, you trust your friends and family. But can you be 100% sure they’re not asymptomatic carriers? If they haven’t been tested, the answer is no.

Your friends may be doing all the right things. They haven’t left the house except for walks. They’re not going to the grocery store. They’re getting their food delivered only from markets, in prepackaged containers.

But here’s the grim reality. If you live in a city, you can’t eradicate 100% of the risk. There are so many ways the virus can spread — from surfaces, clothes, through the air.

Your friends could be incubating the virus without realizing it.

Bottom line: Until everyone is tested, you need to assume people may be carriers.

2. Where will you go?

Let’s say you and your friends really trust each other. Perhaps you’ve all recently gotten tested, and it’s come back negative.

The next question is: Where do you go?

For most people, the best place to be during a pandemic is away from cities. Somewhere in nature. A place with enough food and water, good electricity and wifi.

Maybe your friends own a country home you can escape to. That’s what my friend Dina Kaplan did. She left LA to shack up at her friend’s rustic farmhouse in Northern California:

“There were a lot of workers and helpers around. I had to speak with the owner about that. I’d rather figure out how to fix and clean everything than risk becoming infected. Now with all the workers gone, I feel extremely relaxed and safe knowing my only risk is going to the supermarket.”

Some people are doing short-term rentals. There are a lot of options on Airbnb. I did a quick search and found a ton of listings in Joshua Tree.

Airbnb hosts are having a hard time right now. The company has instituted a new rule where hosts can’t use words like coronavirus or quarantine in their listings (presumably due to liability concerns).

My friends have gotten amazing deals on Airbnbs. They’ve negotiated down to 30% of original asking price for gorgeous ski lodges.

There are risks with any Airbnb. How do you know the house is clean? Are you really going to trust a host you’ve never met? You’re going to want to do a deep clean of the entire house. Spray down every surface, wipe everything down.

Then you need to establish house rules. For example:

Set up a decontamination section at the front door, where you leave your shoes and outside clothes.

Spray down all packages that arrive

Only bring in food from trusted markets

What about social interactions — are housemates allowed to interact with anyone outside the group? Do they need to consult the others about any socially distanced walks?

Entrepreneurs are rushing to meet the demand for safe communal living. I spoke to one person who’s rented an entire town in Northern California and is marketing it as an “escape community.”

They have cabins for 75–100 people, with a 1-month minimum stay. They’ve asked the town owner to prohibit outsider visitors. They’re ordering a bulk purchase of food and planting their own food garden, to be as self-sustainable as possible and minimize deliveries.

I asked her, how do you ensure safety?

“We require everyone coming in to quarantine themselves in our glamping tents before they can step into the communal areas and their cabins/cabanas.” We can’t 100% guarantee that there will be no infections, but we take as many precautions as we can to minimize the risk. We also disinfect the common areas 3x a day with UV lights and foggers. As for cleaning, we will be hiring a full-time cleaner living onsite to maintain cleaning standards. If anyone gets infected, we have enough extra housing to quarantine them and anyone else they’ve been in close contact with in.”

3. How will your relocation affect the local community?

The first time I brought up this topic on social media, reactions were heated. “Stay the F Home” was a common refrain. There’s real social pressure to shelter in place.

In Los Angeles, Mayor Eric Garcetti announced that residents were forbidden from moving to or from vacation homes outside the city.

We haven’t gotten any clear federal guidelines restricting domestic travel. Residents of some small towns are drafting their own policies for outside visitors. In Skamania County, outside of Portland, there are signs spray-painted with “STAY OUT LOCALS ONLY.” Some community members follow around any cars they don’t recognize that enter the neighborhood.

These responses are entirely rational. I get why small towns fear an influx of potentially virus-carrying city dwellers.

We need to keep following social distancing guidelines to flatten the curve. I also think it’s essential to start having these difficult conversations. How do we find ways to connect with each other safely?

There’s growing evidence of the pandemic’s toll on mental health.

“It sometimes feels as though we’re fighting dual epidemics: the coronavirus and loneliness” said one New York health worker.

Mental health counselors say the wave of anxiety sweeping their patients in clinics is unlike anything they’ve seen before.

Anxiety and isolation exact a physical toll on the brain’s circuitry. They increase the vulnerability to disease — by triggering higher blood pressure and heart rates, stress hormones and inflammation — among people who might otherwise not get sick.

Antibody tests are coming soon. They’ll show us who’s had the virus and is now immune. As these tests become more widely available, we’ll have safer ways to gather people together.

We need to think creatively about bringing people together for economic functions, and for social reasons. We need social interaction. There’s a reason solitary confinement is one of the worst punishments for prisoners.

It’s not realistic for us to self-isolate for 6 months with no human contact. It’s not how we were built.

We should be figuring out when and how people in isolation can connect with other people as safely as possible. It won’t be completely safe — but neither is complete isolation.