COVID-19 and the “Stay at home” recommendation: An ethnographic study

BACKGROUND: Facing a devastating infectious outbreak like COVID-19, the command of “stay at home” was recommended by some officials as a self-voluntary quarantine strategy for controlling the outbreak, but the people perceived and act differently. In this study, we aimed at ethnographic evaluation of public response to this command. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This research used ethnography for observing the public response to the recommendation of “stay at home” in the COVID-19 outbreak. Data were collected via observing public behavior and documentation; then, the data were qualitatively analyzed. RESULTS: Our findings showed 10 different ignored dimensions in this moral statement including lack of legal and administrative support, diverse perception and contradictory reactions of the people to the epidemiological forecasting and recommendations, different response to moral statements, various perceptions of the people about health and wellbeing, feeling exhausted of staying at home, not including justice and fairness in the moral statement, not clarifying the meaning of necessary matters, not considering the COVID-19 infected patients and their requirements, assigning the responsibility of government to the public, and halting other scientific activities and investigations in charge of COVID-19. CONCLUSIONS: Taken together, the officials should take an active role in implementing this moral statement by strict regulations, public education about the disease, its control, and the importance of quarantine, considering justice and fairness in implementation.