4 ms·

I was hoping for this, lets do social distancing a tradition for every winter

recursive 7y ago
Just you and me? That's not going to do much. Organizing action in the scale of the billions is a lot harder than having the idea. I'm not sure if there's any precedent for what's happening now.
scrollaway 7y ago
Do you really think we're going to come out of this period causing people to lose their jobs, lose their savings, lose their loved ones, not see their friends, stop going to sports and social events… and everyone's going to be like "Hey, that was fun, let's do it again next year"?
- kaitai 7y ago
  Maybe a brief version, like a Passover commemorating COVID-19 instead. Passover isn't exactly a fun party kind of holiday.
- fiblye 7y ago
  Some countries have week-long holidays where most people go home/travel/don't work. Their economies aren't dead. Make it a tradition where everyone with non-essential work stays home at least one week a year, all at the same time. More time is better, but even a little bit would likely cut back on disease. Governments already define Christmas/New Years/etc as a holidays and huge numbers of people aren't working on those days and economies don't die. It wouldn't be hard for companies to promote "Pre-Stay Home Week Extravaganza" sales and make people actually look forward to staying home, eating and watching movies/playing games/whatever.
  - Terretta 7y ago
    In Europe this is called "August".
    - orangecat 7y ago
      In Europe this is called "August". But without the social distancing aspect.
  - Izkata 7y ago
    > Governments already define Christmas/New Years/etc as a holidays Just doing the days between those two holidays would probably be a welcome reprieve for a lot of people.
- Ericson2314 7y ago
  Maybe if they get enough cash transfers.
- DoreenMichele 7y ago
  Social distancing isn't the same as lockdown. You can habitually keep your distance without being laid off, etc.
- sudoaza 7y ago
  Do you personally know many people who has lost a loved one or their job to COVID? 2nd, could be painted as a lets do this preemptively every year or in memory... Don't need to close everything, could be as simple as work from home if you can don't do gatherings/go out unnecessarily for a week or two.
dathinab 7y ago
Please do not. Social distancing has a high health cost, mainly wrt. mental health. It bad for depressed people, people with "home" problems like violent partners or parent, people which have problems socializing, children (in general, or at lest for most children it's bad if kept up). It's fine if done once due to a bigger health emergency but it only should be a last effort if we have no better way to handle it. Instead I would prefer: 1. Better wide spread education about all kind of disease and related thinks, especially de-stickmatization. But this would need major changes like proper sexed (required for proper education about STD's). 2. Wide spread vaccination where applicable. (maybe even required, e.g. for children when entering school). 3. Good health system so that people can always get help to fight illnesses, at least infectious ones.
eunos 7y ago
Even easier and also reliable, normalize wearing surgical masks. Outside of Asia, wearing a surgical mask before the outbreak might invite some funny looks.
- sroussey 7y ago
  Why? I mean, sounds good if you are sick, but rather you stay home.
  - maxerickson 7y ago
    Lots of people, for lots of illnesses, are infectious without really having any symptoms.
    - fyfy18 7y ago
      Plus most people still go to work when sick. They will just dose up on whatever drugs they have to hide the symptoms and make them feel better, then go to work anyway. Even here in Europe where the government pays sick leave that happens.
      - himlion 7y ago
        And before this pandemic that was generally considered a virtuous habit. I wonder if that will change when this is all over
  - eunos 7y ago
    As we have observed in the Covid-19 pandemic, It could be the case that you were just only lightly sick but also contagious. Not to mention also a few things are difficult to pass, for example, University lectures (skipping one can make it difficult to follow the next) and again lecture halls are cramped so you can easily infect somebody.
zaroth 7y ago
I’m just trying to get my head around this... I wonder if people are just ignorant of the widespread devastation caused by the lockdown, if they feel like people devastated by the lockdown did not “do enough to prepare” and so somehow deserve it, if they somehow believe people will be made whole by trillion dollar handouts, or what? I personally know two family businesses which have laid off all their employees and may never start up again, and another which if it doesn’t see bailout funds before next month who won’t be able to make payroll. To say nothing of the kids missing their friends, their educations, their graduations, the weddings canceled, even funerals, etc. Yeah let’s totally do this every year. This is so out of touch with reality it’s bizarre.
- jsight 7y ago
  Yeah, I'm seeing layoffs in sectors that I never would have expected to see layoffs. Its amazingly bad for everyone. But don't worry, the government is here to save everyone! /s We're definitely not volunteering for this every year.
- maxerickson 7y ago
  A coordinated reduction of time spent in groups doesn't have to be extreme to have a pretty big impact on infection transmission. Like state health departments could declare that influenza is trending in the state and businesses could have less face to face meetings, and maybe churches cancel some of their non-worship gatherings, and so on. For example, the orange scenario on https://covidactnow.org/state/MI https://covidactnow.org/state/MI includes possibly closing schools. States are doing the ones down at the bottom of the graph, social distancing is less severe and less effective, but still compares favorably to not adjusting behavior. School closures in response to infections could probably be done more aggressively than we usually do now, but doing it on a statewide basis also probably doesn't make sense.
  - zaroth 7y ago
    Dr Katz wrote in the NYT; “I am deeply concerned that the social, economic and public health consequences of this near total meltdown of normal life — schools and businesses closed, gatherings banned — will be long lasting and calamitous, possibly graver than the direct toll of the virus itself. The stock market will bounce back in time, but many businesses never will. The unemployment, impoverishment and despair likely to result will be public health scourges of the first order.” Let’s not do social distancing, or even “social distancing lite” at all please. It’s disastrously damaging to public health.
tiborsaas 7y ago
Others told about the health risks, but also consider we have 2 hemispheres :)

Just you and me? That's not going to do much. Organizing action in the scale of the billions is a lot harder than having the idea. I'm not sure if there's any precedent for what's happening now.

scrollaway 7y ago

Do you really think we're going to come out of this period causing people to lose their jobs, lose their savings, lose their loved ones, not see their friends, stop going to sports and social events… and everyone's going to be like "Hey, that was fun, let's do it again next year"?

kaitai 7y ago
Maybe a brief version, like a Passover commemorating COVID-19 instead. Passover isn't exactly a fun party kind of holiday.
fiblye 7y ago
Some countries have week-long holidays where most people go home/travel/don't work. Their economies aren't dead. Make it a tradition where everyone with non-essential work stays home at least one week a year, all at the same time. More time is better, but even a little bit would likely cut back on disease. Governments already define Christmas/New Years/etc as a holidays and huge numbers of people aren't working on those days and economies don't die. It wouldn't be hard for companies to promote "Pre-Stay Home Week Extravaganza" sales and make people actually look forward to staying home, eating and watching movies/playing games/whatever.
- Terretta 7y ago
  In Europe this is called "August".
  - orangecat 7y ago
    In Europe this is called "August". But without the social distancing aspect.
- Izkata 7y ago
  > Governments already define Christmas/New Years/etc as a holidays Just doing the days between those two holidays would probably be a welcome reprieve for a lot of people.
Ericson2314 7y ago
Maybe if they get enough cash transfers.
DoreenMichele 7y ago
Social distancing isn't the same as lockdown. You can habitually keep your distance without being laid off, etc.
sudoaza 7y ago
Do you personally know many people who has lost a loved one or their job to COVID? 2nd, could be painted as a lets do this preemptively every year or in memory... Don't need to close everything, could be as simple as work from home if you can don't do gatherings/go out unnecessarily for a week or two.

dathinab 7y ago

Please do not. Social distancing has a high health cost, mainly wrt. mental health. It bad for depressed people, people with "home" problems like violent partners or parent, people which have problems socializing, children (in general, or at lest for most children it's bad if kept up). It's fine if done once due to a bigger health emergency but it only should be a last effort if we have no better way to handle it. Instead I would prefer: 1. Better wide spread education about all kind of disease and related thinks, especially de-stickmatization. But this would need major changes like proper sexed (required for proper education about STD's). 2. Wide spread vaccination where applicable. (maybe even required, e.g. for children when entering school). 3. Good health system so that people can always get help to fight illnesses, at least infectious ones.

eunos 7y ago

Even easier and also reliable, normalize wearing surgical masks. Outside of Asia, wearing a surgical mask before the outbreak might invite some funny looks.

sroussey 7y ago
Why? I mean, sounds good if you are sick, but rather you stay home.
- maxerickson 7y ago
  Lots of people, for lots of illnesses, are infectious without really having any symptoms.
  - fyfy18 7y ago
    Plus most people still go to work when sick. They will just dose up on whatever drugs they have to hide the symptoms and make them feel better, then go to work anyway. Even here in Europe where the government pays sick leave that happens.
    - himlion 7y ago
      And before this pandemic that was generally considered a virtuous habit. I wonder if that will change when this is all over
- eunos 7y ago
  As we have observed in the Covid-19 pandemic, It could be the case that you were just only lightly sick but also contagious. Not to mention also a few things are difficult to pass, for example, University lectures (skipping one can make it difficult to follow the next) and again lecture halls are cramped so you can easily infect somebody.

zaroth 7y ago

I’m just trying to get my head around this... I wonder if people are just ignorant of the widespread devastation caused by the lockdown, if they feel like people devastated by the lockdown did not “do enough to prepare” and so somehow deserve it, if they somehow believe people will be made whole by trillion dollar handouts, or what? I personally know two family businesses which have laid off all their employees and may never start up again, and another which if it doesn’t see bailout funds before next month who won’t be able to make payroll. To say nothing of the kids missing their friends, their educations, their graduations, the weddings canceled, even funerals, etc. Yeah let’s totally do this every year. This is so out of touch with reality it’s bizarre.

jsight 7y ago
Yeah, I'm seeing layoffs in sectors that I never would have expected to see layoffs. Its amazingly bad for everyone. But don't worry, the government is here to save everyone! /s We're definitely not volunteering for this every year.
maxerickson 7y ago
A coordinated reduction of time spent in groups doesn't have to be extreme to have a pretty big impact on infection transmission. Like state health departments could declare that influenza is trending in the state and businesses could have less face to face meetings, and maybe churches cancel some of their non-worship gatherings, and so on. For example, the orange scenario on https://covidactnow.org/state/MI https://covidactnow.org/state/MI includes possibly closing schools. States are doing the ones down at the bottom of the graph, social distancing is less severe and less effective, but still compares favorably to not adjusting behavior. School closures in response to infections could probably be done more aggressively than we usually do now, but doing it on a statewide basis also probably doesn't make sense.
- zaroth 7y ago
  Dr Katz wrote in the NYT; “I am deeply concerned that the social, economic and public health consequences of this near total meltdown of normal life — schools and businesses closed, gatherings banned — will be long lasting and calamitous, possibly graver than the direct toll of the virus itself. The stock market will bounce back in time, but many businesses never will. The unemployment, impoverishment and despair likely to result will be public health scourges of the first order.” Let’s not do social distancing, or even “social distancing lite” at all please. It’s disastrously damaging to public health.

tiborsaas 7y ago

Others told about the health risks, but also consider we have 2 hemispheres :)