Well, that depends on a lot of factors. Similar to traveling between different houses during the pandemic, the answers are not cut and dried. “The goal of social distancing is to get the number of contacts—direct and indirect—to the lowest possible number you can,” integrative medicine physician Aditi Nerurkar, M.D., MPH, tells mindbodygreen. Based on that information, “quaranteaming” with people you don’t normally live with defies social distancing. However, it is still less safe than living alone or with the people you’ve already been living with. This is because it’s difficult to completely monitor other people’s hygiene practices. By moving and changing the people you’ll now be coming into close contact with, you’re increasing potential person-to-person transmission. “The more exposure you have is counterproductive,” Richard Martinello, M.D., associate professor of infectious diseases at Yale, tells TODAY. “You’re in effect exposing yourself to everyone that additional person was exposed to.” Additionally, the rate of domestic violence cases has increased since shelter-in-place orders were enacted. If you’re living somewhere where you’re physically or emotionally unsafe, then it may definitely be safer to move out and live somewhere else if possible. “If a person experiencing violence has the option to safely leave and live with a protective friend or family member, the benefits of this could outweigh the risks,” director of behavioral health at University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center Sarah Woods, Ph.D., tells us. “In this case, I would not call it ‘quaranteaming,’ but ’lifesaving.’” On the other hand, if your current living situation is irritating but safe overall, the best thing to do is stay in place. “We might simply use these times to develop our relationship skills,” psychologist Perpetua Neo, DClinPsy, tells us. “We can learn how to communicate better, have better empathy, be a better listener, and fight fairly.”
