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WHO Changes 'Social Distancing' to 'Physical Distancing'

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Re: WHO Changes 'Social Distancing' to 'Physical Distancing'

#21
post #18
post #2

I am hoping we have good science behind the “1.5 metre” distance rule... Does anyone have links to videos that show how breath swirls around, especially in outdoor areas? I guess I could get some pollen and try and model it myself!

I doubt it's an exact science given that in some countries the advice is 2 metres and in the US I suspect it's a round number of feet...

Yes, 6 feet.

Re: WHO Changes 'Social Distancing' to 'Physical Distancing'

#22
post #6

Good... the word "social" was always a bit strange as it has nothing to do with the colloquial usage of the word "social".

There are also many cultures that are renowned for being “socially distant”, even if they’re very small, very compact, and very public transit-reliant. This seems like globalizing a term that was originally very western- (and particularly English-speaking-) centric.

Is the term "social distancing" being used in other languages? I assumed they'd have appropriate translations.

Re: WHO Changes 'Social Distancing' to 'Physical Distancing'

#23
post #5

I prefer the term Quarantine.

Quarantine does not accurately describe what the WHO is asking people to do. Quarantine is when you take potentially infected people and isolate them from the rest of the population, allowing all the unexposed people to go about their days normally. Edit: Updated to clarify that quarantine is about potential and not actual infection.

No, quarantine is when you isolate a group of people for a period of time. It is used to see if they MIGHT be sick, or when people are known to be sick, to allow it to burn out.

The original usage was specifically when ships were required to stay in port for 40 days before being allowed to dock, so that any sickness could burn itself out or be apparent.

You can also see the CDC definition - https://www.cdc.gov/quarantine/index.html

Re: WHO Changes 'Social Distancing' to 'Physical Distancing'

#24
post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Quarantine does not accurately describe what the WHO is asking people to do. Quarantine is when you take potentially infected people and isolate them from the rest of the population, allowing all the unexposed people to go about their days normally. Edit: Updated to clarify that quarantine is about potential and not actual infection.

No, quarantine is when you isolate a group of people for a period of time. It is used to see if they MIGHT be sick, or when people are known to be sick, to allow it to burn out. The original usage was specifically when ships were required to stay in port for 40 days before being allowed to dock, so that any sickness could burn itself out or be apparent. You can also see the CDC definition - https://www.cdc.gov/quaran…

Thanks for the correction. You're right that quarantine does not require knowing whether people are actually infected. However, it's still about isolating specific people or things to protect the rest of the population and not about asking the whole population to change its behavior.

Re: WHO Changes 'Social Distancing' to 'Physical Distancing'

#25
post #5

I prefer the term Quarantine.

Quarantine does not accurately describe what the WHO is asking people to do. Quarantine is when you take potentially infected people and isolate them from the rest of the population, allowing all the unexposed people to go about their days normally. Edit: Updated to clarify that quarantine is about potential and not actual infection.

[deleted]

Re: WHO Changes 'Social Distancing' to 'Physical Distancing'

#26
post #2

I am hoping we have good science behind the “1.5 metre” distance rule... Does anyone have links to videos that show how breath swirls around, especially in outdoor areas? I guess I could get some pollen and try and model it myself!

It doesn't seem like a rule that's based on any sort of science about infection rates. The primary considerations seem to be to make it an easily understandable number, far but not so far you feel like you're shouting at people from a distance.

Re: WHO Changes 'Social Distancing' to 'Physical Distancing'

#27
post #2

I am hoping we have good science behind the “1.5 metre” distance rule... Does anyone have links to videos that show how breath swirls around, especially in outdoor areas? I guess I could get some pollen and try and model it myself!

"vape cloud competition" finds lots of videos that at first blush would indicate that our distance should be much further away. As I understand it - the virus combined with droplets is much denser and doesn't float nearly as much.

Does every breath contain a large number of droplets, or is it mostly limited to sneezing and coughing?

Re: WHO Changes 'Social Distancing' to 'Physical Distancing'

#28
post #18
post #2

I am hoping we have good science behind the “1.5 metre” distance rule... Does anyone have links to videos that show how breath swirls around, especially in outdoor areas? I guess I could get some pollen and try and model it myself!

I doubt it's an exact science given that in some countries the advice is 2 metres and in the US I suspect it's a round number of feet...

The difference between 6 feet and 2m is about 20cm.

Re: WHO Changes 'Social Distancing' to 'Physical Distancing'

#29
I think social distance was better than physical distance because social distance to me suggest static clustering.

It's not a bit deal for you to be physically close to people as long as it's very few people and that cluster doesn't intermingle with other clusters. A household is a good example of a physically close cluster that can be socially distance from other clusters.

The key thing is to try to prevent contamination from cluster to cluster.

Also, "social distance warrior" is a more amusing way to describe those people on social media that can't stop posting about social distancing.

Re: WHO Changes 'Social Distancing' to 'Physical Distancing'

#30
post #17

I wonder: who came up with the term "social distancing"? The wikipedia [1] article doesn't say. Was it widely used prior to this? [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_distancing

My friends and I had the same question. I did a little searching and found an interesting paper[0]. The oldest reference it has is from 2009[1]

[0] https://journals.plos.org/ploscompbiol/article?id=10.1371/jo...

[1] Kelso J,Milne G,Kelly H (2009) Simulation suggests that rapid activation of social distancing can arrest epidemic development due to a novel strain of influenza. BMC Public Health 9: 117.

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