CORONA! Social distancing or social conditioning?

Welcome to the next part of corona series, you can find the first part here. About  90% of people are living under  travel restrictions and more than 80 countries have either shut their land borders, air borders, sea border or even all of them. People are asked to observe social-distancing. Schools are closed, theaters are closed, work from home is observed in many of the countries, economy and business of many countries is effecting very badly. But is it all really necessary? And how will it effect humans in long run as well as short run, let’s find it out.

BUT WHY SOCIAL DISTANCING?

First thing first, as the spread of COVID-19 continues, communities are being asked to reduce close contact between people. This is called social distancing. Let’s find more about it.

 a)  SOCIAL DISTANCING:

Social distancing means staying at home and avoiding crowded, public places and close contact with others should be avoided. This is due to the fact that many affected people can transmit virus from one person to another any symptoms appear or the infected person can be completely asymptomatic (without any symptoms). This is why events should be canceled and gatherings of more than 10 people should not be allowed along with the closing of shops, restaurants and bars. This is why many schools have persuaded online learning.

  b)  QUARANTINE:

So we are all home right? But what if you or someone in your family starts to feel even slightly ill, lethargic or complain of  fever. Well in that case, it's important to stay home and practice “Quarantine” this means limiting contact even with family members and housemates as much as possible . People are put in quarantine when they are not currently sick, but have been or may have been exposed to a communicable disease. This can help stop the spread of the disease. If more severe symptoms develop, like a fever, cough or shortness of breath, Reach out to your nearby doctor and consult for test for COVID-19.

c)  Self Isolation:

What if you were tested and turned out be be positive for COVID-19? Well in that case, you will be asked to observe “Isolation”. Isolation happens when a person is infected with a communicable disease, and is separated from people who are healthy. This is the secondary prevention to control further spread of disease. This means limiting contact with everyone and take your vitamins and nutrients to recover the best.

PROS & CONS OF SELF ISOLATION:

 Self-isolation is about protecting others and slowing down the spread of COVID-19. It is very important that anyone who has the virus, or might have been exposed to it, limits the number of people they come into contact with for 14 days. This is the most effective way of preventing the coronavirus from spreading. Self-isolation has greatly reduced the number of positive patient across the globe.Had the practice not been observed earlier the figure would have been way too higher than it is now. Countries like Greenland have completely recovered from COVID-19 thanks to social distancing.

But there is a flip side to the social distancing. Turns out, over long periods of time, social distancing is utterly at odds with our drive for social connection, the foundation of human evolution.

Suddenly confronted with a lack of social interactions, many of us are now facing more loneliness. We are missing that comforting hug, handshakes or shoulder pat from our mates – things we might normally expect in times of solitude and despair.

 When we feel lonely and rejected, brain regions associated with distress and contemplation are activated. Lonely people also have a more adverse focus and anxiously inspect people’s intentions. Sometimes this can become so strong that it makes us feel even more lonely, hence creating a vicious cycle.

Elderly people and lower income people are effected the most from this loneliness. These people may not have friends or family to call, or may be unable to do so, since lower income groups might not even have minutes on their phone or other facilities.

But fortunately there is a brighter side for most of us, we live in an era where technology will allow us to see and hear our friends and family even from distance thanks to texting, emails and apps like Skype and Facetime.
It is also seen that Netflix Party is playing a pretty nice role in reducing anxiety and boosting the morale of people.

IN A NUTSHELL….

 This is hard and despair time, but we will recover soon from it. Until then, stay home stay safe, keep in touch with your siblings, friends, parents. Help each other, look after the elderly around you, make sure that they don’t need any item because they are the one’s who need to be taken care the most at this time. Ensure that the needy people are being provided with basic utility item and they have bread to eat.

With all this being said, what do you think? Is it actually Social distancing or we are just being socially conditioned for something else coming? That's another debate which we will be covering in a while from now. Until then, since we all are in self-isolation lets learn how to keep our surrounding clean and to prevent the attack of corona, and whether sanitizer is actually better than soap? All this in the next part of the series.