---
title: "Here’s What It’s Like to Live Under Coronavirus Quarantine"
description: "Americans who recently returned from China are putting themselves under a voluntary quarantine for coronavirus. Some are facing dangerous rumors."
date: "2020-02-05"
modified: "2020-02-05"
authors:
  - name: "Dan Robitzski"
    link: "https://futurism.com/authors/danrobitzski"
url: "https://futurism.com/neoscope/what-its-like-live-coronavirus-quarantine"
categories:
  - "Developments"
  - "Health & Medicine"
  - "Medical"
  - "Pathogens"
  - "Viruses"
tags:
  - "2019-ncov"
  - "coronavirus"
  - "quarantine"
---

# Here’s What It’s Like to Live Under Coronavirus Quarantine

![Americans who recently returned from China are putting themselves under a voluntary quarantine for coronavirus. Some are facing dangerous rumors.](<https://futurism.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/what-its-like-live-coronavirus-quarantine.jpg>)
*\<em\>Image: Victor Tangermann\</em\>*

The U.S. government [issued an order](<https://futurism.com/neoscope/cdc-quarantines-citizens-fled-china-outbreak>) that kept hundreds of citizens who traveled to Wuhan, China in quarantine on an Air Force base. But it hasn't rounded up roughly 5,000 Americans who recently returned to the States from China — and as a result, *[The New York Times ](<https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/04/us/coronavirus-quarantine.html>)*[reports](<https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/04/us/coronavirus-quarantine.html>), many are now in self-imposed quarantine, isolated in their homes.

Several students, health workers, and others who recently returned from China told the *NYT* that they're staying isolated in order to protect their families, classmates, and anyone else that they might come into contact with out of fear that they might contribute to what remains [in many ways](<https://futurism.com/neoscope/scientists-warn-coronavirus-more-than-once>) a [poorly-understood viral outbreak](<https://futurism.com/neoscope/scientists-coronavirus-more-contagious>).

Quarantine, of course, means two weeks of boredom and isolation. One source told the NYT about eating take-out that a friend slid through the door.

But others are more concerned about racist fearmongering and backlash surrounding the virus, which *[The Verge](<https://www.theverge.com/2020/2/4/21121358/coronavirus-racism-social-media-east-asian-chinese-xenophobia>)*[ reports](<https://www.theverge.com/2020/2/4/21121358/coronavirus-racism-social-media-east-asian-chinese-xenophobia>) have grown disturbingly common online.

"The social media creates a certain amount of frenzy, and all of a sudden misinformation becomes fact," Mark Bielang, superintendent of a Michigan school district where rumors rapidly circulated after a family returned from China, told the *NYT*. "It really creates a problem," he added.

## Author
Dan Robitzki is a senior reporter for Futurism, where he likes to cover AI, tech ethics, and medicine. He spends his extra time fencing and streaming games from Los Angeles, California.

### Author social links  
[Twitter](<https://x.com/danrobitzski>)