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You are here: Home / Blog / Why you should practise social distancing

Why you should practise social distancing

Dan Cullum · Mar 13, 2020 ·

Our world’s coronavirus situation has changed dramatically in the last 48 hours.

You’ll have read the news—or at least you’ll have access to it—so there’s no need for me to rehash that information here.

However, there is one thing I’d like to focus on today: why you should practise social distancing, and why you should see it as a duty, not an option.

What is social distancing?

I like the way a doctor of a major hospital in Italy described it in Newsweek Magazine, “My personal as well as professional view: we all have a duty to stay put, except for very special reasons, like, you go to work because you work in healthcare, or you have to save a life and bring someone to hospital, or go out to shop for food so you can survive. But when we get to this stage of a pandemic, it’s really important not to spread the bug. The only thing that helps is social restriction.”

Why is it important?

When someone catches coronavirus, they will likely only feel mild symptoms, but 15-20% of the population will need hospitalisation, and 5% of the population will need ICU treatment.

Our global healthcare infrastructure is not equipped to deal with such a large volume of patients. Thus, we need to minimise the number of people with the disease at any one point in time so our hospitals and brave healthcare workers don’t break.

This article, written by the doctor mentioned above, sets out the logic of why staying at home—and thereby reducing the spread of coronavirus—is so important for all of us to do.

Why do some people think social distancing = overreacting?

As Nassim Nicholas Taleb puts it, social distancing is rational at a systemic level (i.e., at a country or global level), but irrational at an individual level (e.g., a young healthy 40 year old with no pre-existing conditions).

Most people in the population will be mildly impacted by coronavirus. That’s why it feels weird for some to be taking these precautions.

Why do I care about it?

I have family members who fall into the at risk categories.

Almost all of us do, or at least know someone who does.

Don’t do it for you, do it for them.

P.S. If you’re look for an excellent data driven perspective on coronavirus, the logic behind social distancing, and what’s likely to come, this article is excellent.

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