Social distancing
Social distancing, also less confusingly called physical distancing is one way to help stop the spread of infection from viruses and bacteria between people. The goal is to lower the chance for an infection to spread from person to person. This can reduce the number of infected people at one time, which lowers the burden on health care. By lowering the number of people who get sick, lives can also be saved.[1][2]
Social distancing works for infections that are spread by droplets (cough or sneeze), physical contact, contaminated surfaces, or in the air.[3] Social distancing does not work well for infections that are spread through food, water, or insects.[4]
Types of social distancing are:
- closing schools[5][6][7]
- closing places of work[8]
- isolation
- quarantine[9]
- cordon sanitaire
- protective sequestration
- canceling gatherings of people, such as sports or entertainment shows[10]
- travel restrictions[11]
- closing gyms, pools, or other such areas
- encouraging people to stay at home
- asking people to keep a certain distance between each other if they do need to interact
All of these may have negative effects on people.[12][13][14] However, these may be preferred to the effects of a specific disease.
Social Distancing Media
People socially distancing while queuing to enter a supermarket in London during the COVID-19 pandemic
Without social distancing and other pandemic containment measures, pathogens can spread exponentially. This graphic shows how early adoption of containment measures tends to protect wider swaths of the population.
A video explaining social distancing from the California Department of Parks and Recreation.
Social distancing helps prevent a sharp peak of infections ("flattens the epidemic curve") to help healthcare services deal with demand, and extends time for healthcare services to be increased and improved.
Swine flu cases per week in the United Kingdom in 2009; schools typically close for summer in mid-July and re-open in early September.
VE Day celebrations in 2020 took place under lockdown; here a socially distanced street party is taking place on Hallfield Estate, Wetherby.
An article naming wealthy socialites for violating city law banning public gatherings, Chicago Tribune, October 19, 1918. Named violators include Joan Pinkerton Chalmers, daughter of Pinkertons private police founder Allan Pinkerton.
Simulations comparing rate of spread of infection, and number of deaths due to overrun of hospital capacity, when social interactions are "normal" (left, 200 people moving freely) and "distanced" (right, 25 people moving freely).Green = Healthy, uninfected individualsRed = Infected individualsBlue = Recovered individualBlack = Dead individuals
_003.jpg)
References
- ↑ Johnson, Carolyn Y.; Sun, Lena; Freedman, Andrew (2020-03-10). Social distancing could buy U.S. valuable time against coronavirus. https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2020/03/10/social-distancing-coronavirus/. Retrieved 2020-03-11.
- ↑ Pandemic Planning – Social Distancing Fact Sheet
- ↑ "Information about Social Distancing" Archived 2020-03-27 at the Wayback Machine, Santa Clara Public Health Department.
- ↑ "Interim Pre-Pandemic Planning Guidance: Community Strategy for Pandemic Influenza Mitigation in the United States—Early, Targeted, Layered Use of Nonpharmaceutical Interventions", CDC, February 2007
- ↑ Morbidity and mortality characteristics of Asian strain influenza. Public Health Reports 75 (2) (1960). p. 148–58. doi:10.2307/4590751.
- ↑ Effect of school closure on the incidence of influenza among school -age children in Arizona. Public Health Reports 125 (6) (2010). p. 851–859. doi:10.1177/003335491012500612.
- ↑ Walsh, Eric, ed. (20 July 2009) (in en). Closing schools won't stop pandemics: study. Reuters. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-flu-schools-idUSTRE56J4OO20090720. Retrieved 17 March 2020.
- ↑ Attending work while sick: implication of flexible sick leave policies. Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine 52 (10) (2010). p. 1009–1013. doi:10.1097/jom.0b013e3181f43844.
- ↑ Impact of swine influenza and quarantine measures on patients and households during the H1N1/09 pandemic. Scandinavian Journal of Infectious Diseases 44 (4) (2012). p. 289–296. doi:10.3109/00365548.2011.631572.
- ↑ Could influenza transmission be reduced by restricting mass gatherings? Towards an evidence-based policy framework. Journal of Epidemiology and Global Health 1 (1) (2011). p. 33–60. doi:10.1016/j.jegh.2011.06.004.
- ↑ Strategies for mitigating an influenza pandemic. Nature 442 (7101) (2006). p. 448–52. doi:10.1038/nature04795.
- ↑ Zumla, Alimuddin. Emerging Respiratory Infections in the 21st Century, An Issue of Infectious Disease Clinics (in en) 24 (3) (2010)Elsevier Health Sciences. p. 614. ISBN 978-1-4557-0038-7.
- ↑ Brooks, Samantha K.. The psychological impact of quarantine and how to reduce it: rapid review of the evidence (in English). The Lancet 395 (10227) (2020-03-14). p. 912–920. doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(20)30460-8.
- ↑ Emily Arntsen, "Closing borders can delay, but can't stop the spread of COVID-19, new report says", News@Northeastern, March 6, 2020.
Other websites
Media related to Social distancing at Wikimedia Commons- Harry Stevens, "Why outbreaks like coronavirus spread exponentially, and how to 'flatten the curve'" Archived 2020-03-19 at the Wayback Machine, The Washington Post, 14 March 2020, "These simulations show how to flatten the coronavirus growth curve"
