Social distancing is a public health strategy used to slow the spread of a disease passing from person to person by avoiding crowds and large gatherings such as weddings, concerts, conferences, sporting events and mass transit. Simply put, it means that people stay far enough away from each other so that the novel coronavirus—or any pathogen—cannot spread around. At the moment, it’s the only tool available to fight the spread of the novel coronavirus because there is currently no vaccine. The protective practices help to “flatten the curve”, which means slowing the spread of COVID-19 to avoid overwhelming our healthcare system.