How Many Lives You Can Save With Social Distancing?
In this video, I will show you How Many Lives You Can Save With Social Distancing.
You will see precisely how your individual actions save lives thanks to the tool I will show you.
Hi, it’s Magdalena here from HealthValley. If you’re new here, make sure you click that subscribe button and hit the bell to get notified every single time I post a new video. The link to the tool I’m talking about in this video you’ll find in the description box below.
Also, stick around until the end of the video for a special bonus I have for you.
So, let’s jump into it.
One-third of the world’s global population is believed to be under lockdown currently as health advisors recommend social distancing and self-isolation as the best measures to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.
You can watch my video Why Social Distancing Saves Lives? which I will link in the cards.
But many people are still ignoring the advice to practice social distancing.
So maybe a dose of math will help them understand why isolation works.
And that’s why Anna Szczepanek, a PhD in mathematics from Jagiellonian University, Poland, and physicist Dominik Czernia from the Institute of Nuclear Physics, Poland got together to create The Coronavirus Social Distancing Calculator.
This easy-to-use calculator shows exactly how many lives we can save by staying at home. Anna and Dominik hope it will convince people how much power is in their hands and will give them the motivation to stay at home – to save themselves and hundreds around them.
Anna says she wanted to “show people the mathematical power of self-isolation. Nothing is more efficient than self-isolation at home. In that way, we avoid spreading a virus for certain. Remember that some cases are asymptomatic and even you can be the unaware carrier now! Don’t contribute to people’s deaths – stay at home,” said Szczepanek.
The calculator is based on scientific research from the Centre for the Mathematical Modelling of Infectious Diseases. Anna and Dominik used the same seven variables they included in their research, but made things more user-friendly and understandable. It helps to see which factors are most dangerous and how we can protect ourselves from infection.
In the Introduction we can read that:
“This calculator is designed to improve public awareness about the importance of staying at home and isolating yourself during a pandemic. It helps you to understand how your actions affect the spread of the virus within your community”.
When you’re on the calculator, you can change the variables based on how quickly the government in your country introduced lockdown measures, and the amount of distancing or isolation you’re doing.
From there, you can see the difference in coronavirus cases compared to if you’d not isolated at all.
I’ve decided to leave most options to the default settings and only changed the Isolation Level to show you an impact it can make on the number of lives saved.
As Isolation Level is the essential point of the calculator. Nothing is more efficient than self-isolation at home. In that way, we avoid spreading a virus for certain.
So these are the results depending on your decisions to what extend you are ready to isolate yourself from the community:
total ignorance (0%)
You’re doing nothing to reduce the spread of the virus. After a month, your individual actions may lead to roughly 405 more infections, resulting in 14 deaths.
resign from big social events (20%)
Although you’re making some effort to reduce the spread of the virus, it still may not be enough. After a month, your individual actions may protect 79 people from an infection, but at the same time you may infect 326 more people. That could result in the death of 12 people in total.
avoid crowded areas (40%)
Although you’re making some effort to reduce the spread of the virus, it still may not be enough. After a month, your individual actions may protect 189 people from an infection, but at the same time you may infect 216 more people. That could result in the death of 8 people in total.
keep two-meter distance (60%)
Self-isolation at home will yield promising results. After a month, your individual actions may protect 340 more people from infection. That results in 12 saved lives!
go outside only for supplies (100%)
You’re doing everything you can to reduce the spread of the virus. After a month, your individual actions may protect 399 people from infection. That results in 14 lives saved!
You can try this calculator with different combinations of parameters as its creators simulated nearly 600 of them! Then you can see how self-isolation may increase the chances of stopping a disease.
I think The Coronavirus Social Distancing Calculator is an amazing tool that helps us to understand how our actions affect the spread of the virus within our communities.
As Anna told Metro: ‘Given the seriousness of the crisis, it’s always a huge responsibility to NOT do something that spreads more panic around people. I’m petrified to read scary news each day about the worsening situation.
It was important for me and Dominik to send a ray of hope to people while explaining to them the benefits of following a basic protocol. We used our backgrounds to our advantage to help people find a motivation to stay at home – to save themselves and hundreds around them.’
Please share this video and this great tool with your friends or someone who needs to see it.
Now, a little bonus I’ve mentioned at the beginning of this video.
Anna and Dominik are both contributors to a community of researchers, and scientists called the Omni Calculator Project. Omni Calculator has over a 1000 easy to use, fast and amazingly fun calculators, so you always get the number you need. Just a few examples are the Addiction Calculator, the Car vs Bike Calculator, the New Year’s Resolutions Calculator, the Plastic Footprint Calculator, the Sleep Calculator, the Smog Calculator, and the Social Media Time Alternatives.
But my today’s recommendation would be the one which is somewhat related to the Social Distancing Calculator, and it is… the Toilet Paper Calculator. It has been created in response to one particular behaviour seen in so many countries during the coronavirus outbreak: Everyone is hoarding toilet paper. Check it out, it’s fun. I like this graph from Omni creators (“Page Not Found” graph)
You can find the link to this simple tool in the description box below or watch the video I’ve linked in the cards.
But Omni Calculators are not just fun calculators. You will find lots of brilliant and very useful tools here.
You can search through the page using the search box……………….. or search through categories.
We’ve got An example – BMI Calculator
Here you can see the most popular calculators.
But let’s go back to categories. We have chemistry, construction, conversion, ecology, everyday life, finance, food, health, maths, physics, sports, statistics, other. The biggest categories are Finance, Maths, Physics (with 192 calculators) and Health. Let’s open Health. Calculators in categories are then grouped into subcategories, making it easier to search through them.
When we go back to categories the last one, Discover Omni, is where you’ll find some suggestions from Omni creators and it’s where I found the calculators I’ve mentioned before, like Addiction or Sleep Calculator.
All calculators are free and I’d like to encourage you to check them out as they are really great and useful tools.
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And please share in the comments below what results did you get with the social distancing calculator?
Thank you for watching and I will see you guys next time!