Time Magazine writers Elijah Wolfson and Chris Wilson said it yesterday:

Short of a miracle cure, the only way to halt this pandemic, experts say, is to starve it. And nations around the world are attempting to do just that, by essentially cutting off life support to SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. That means enforcing social distancing and shelter-in-place policies designed to limit the virus’s access to us — the human bodies that host and enable the microorganism to spread.

That’s a good way to explain it and a way that may be understandable to those who until now have not understood the importance of social distancing.

The virus needs humans to feed on. Keep your distance from others. Starve the virus.