Coronavirus: Why Social Distancing Saves Lives?

Posted on by Magdalena J.W.

Coronavirus: Why Social Distancing Saves Lives?

 

In this video, I will show you why social distancing saves lives.

I’ll also give you some tips on how you can combat the negative effects of social distancing.

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.

So let’s jump into it.

A big problem with coronavirus is that you can have it and not know about it. It means you can go about your day, feel completely fine, but actually infect other people.

Scientists expect that each infected person will infect about 2.5 other people on average. As each of them infects another 2.5 and so on, a month multiplying at that pace leads to more than 400 new infections.

But staying at home and practising social distancing results in halving that infection rate. That means that after a month, we’d expect to see just 15 new infections – a 95% reduction. That’s because a small difference in the infection rate builds and builds to make a big difference in the number of people becoming infected.

And this will make the difference between people living and people dying.

Check the video I’ve linked in the cards about social distancing calculator which will show you precisely how your actions can save lives.

So that’s why governments around the world are encouraging people to stay at home, to protect health services and save lives. There’s no doubt that social distancing can greatly reduce virus transmission: It was essential to bringing China’s epidemic under control in a matter of weeks.

The introduced measures vary between countries, so you should follow the advice of the local authorities in the country you live in. For instance, here in the UK, people can only leave their homes to buy food, medicine and to exercise.

They’re allowed to travel, but only to and from work if they cannot do their jobs from home.

But when you go outside, do your best to keep at least six feet of distance between yourself and others.

Wash your hands before you go out to protect others and wash them again as soon as you get home to protect yourself.

Staying at home to keep people safe can be a difficult concept to grasp, especially when you are feeling fit and healthy yourself.

This can be a very hard time for many people because we are social creatures who connect with each other, and the physical separateness is—from a human perspective—very unnatural.

So what can you do to combat the negative effects of social distancing?

Well, try to think creatively about ways to engage socially without physically being present. And here are some ideas what you can do.

  • Call more often.

  • Go beyond emailing and texting. There are many tools that allow you to have face-to-face interactions. You can do it in groups or one person at a time.

  • Listen deeply: Using deep listening techniques can enable people to feel truly understood. This involves giving all our attention to the speaker, listening without judgement to their words or emotions.

    Deep listening involves being genuinely curious about someone else’s story, with a strong desire to understand them. It’s about connection and establishing trust.

  • Join groups outside of your typical interactions at work. There are online groups for everything. If you love cars, cooking, crafting or something else, now could be the time to get more involved.

  • Were you thinking about doing an online course? Try one! Many have video interactivity, chat rooms and other features that will get you into discussions with other people who share your interests.

One of my favourite places to get a course is Udemy. It’s an online learning platform where you can learn nearly anything.

 

As their courses are almost always on some kind of sale, Udemy is a very low-cost place to learn.

Which comes very handy now during the coronavirus outbreak when so many of us lost their income.

To search for the course you can use Categories or a Search Box.

The website is pretty easy to navigate.

You can find the link to Udemy in the description box below.

And please remember that every action that we take, and every way in which we can hold back from the public sphere, is an opportunity to save a life.

The World Health Organization is officially advocating against the phrase “social distancing” and is recommending the phrase “physical distancing” instead. As we should think of this time as ‘physical distancing’ to emphasize that we can remain socially connected even while being apart.

And physical distancing is a very powerful disease control tool, but only if we all participate. Yes, social distancing can be very hard. But it saves lives.

If you like this video, hit the like button, share it with your friends or someone who needs to see it. Be sure to subscribe.

And please share in the comments below how do YOU cope with social distancing during COVID-19?

Thank you for watching and I will see you guys next time!