There is not yet an ironclad scientific consensus on exactly how the new coronavirus that causes COVID-19 is spreading, but experts are getting a pretty good sense of it. That understanding needs to be central to our strategy of combatting the virus with minimal collateral damage.

This isn’t about over-reaction or under-reaction, but mis-reaction. For example, sending janitors rushing into closed schools and other buildings to sanitize them poses much more risk to those janitors — and anyone they later come in contact with — than leaving the buildings empty.

And if you leave your apartment building to go running, there’s more danger in your shared elevator than in the great outdoors.