While out and about during this COVID-19 thing, one of the key methods for avoiding exposure is called “social distancing.” Social distancing is basically standing six feet apart from everyone else.

Social distancing isn’t mandated by law or anything, but it’s now become a temporary social norm, the kind of thing you do in polite society. It likely won’t survive after the threat of this novel coronavirus is over, but it’s here now.

It’s definitely not something to assault someone over, yet that’s apparently what happened in a Brooklyn hospital.

As we see climbing numbers of coronavirus deaths, there are, of course, Americans passing away from many other maladies.

And in Brooklyn, one lady has allegedly died due to fear of the virus — combined with idiocy and evil.

As reported by the New York Post, Janie Marshall was seeking medical treatment for blocked bowels Saturday.

According to sources, while Mrs. Marshall sat in the Woodhull Medical Center’s emergency room around 2 p.m., a 32-year-old awaiting psychiatric treatment got out of her nearby bed, walked over to the elderly woman, and “smacked” her in the face.

The reason? As per the Post, the violent nut didn’t believe she was practicing sufficient social distancing:

Her attacker allegedly told a Health and Hospitals Corp. police officer that she did it because Marshall “didn’t stay more than 6 feet away.”

The blow knocked Mrs. Marshall to the ground.

That’s when Mrs. Marshall’s head smacked against the hard floor, cracking her skull. She was then scheduled for a CT exam, but hours later she hadn’t gotten the test and was found slumped over. She’d apparently died from her injury.

Now, after having to make a store run yesterday, I joked on Facebook about when is it acceptable to throw canned goods a people who wouldn’t back up. Yet it was just that, a joke.

That said, this was a psychiatric patient there for treatment and not necessarily a normally rational human being. Police issued her a disorderly conduct summons and allowed to go on her way.

That meant she wasn’t in the hospital when Mrs. Marshall died.

The patient has reportedly been arrested 17 times for a variety of charges including drugs, trespassing, assault, and even strangulation. In other words, this doesn’t sound like a sane individual.

Regardless, this is still a horrible case and a reminder of just how easy it is to take a human life over something petty. While social distancing is beneficial, there’s no evidence Mrs. Marshall wasn’t observing social distancing. It sounds like her attacker was just looking for a reason to lash out. If it hadn’t been Marshall and social distancing, it may well have been someone else over something just as stupid, if not more so.

It’s a good reminder that carrying a firearm as well as having the skills to deal with things without that firearm is a good way to go through life. Who knows when someone like this might decide that you’re secretly broadcasting radio waves in an effort to control their thoughts or something.