With the fast onslaught of the coronavirus in almost every country in the world, phrases such as “social distancing,” “self-quarantine” and “flattening the curve” are fast emerging in daily conversations.
Social distance
It may be disappointing to learn that many social events such as competitions, boat cruises, festivals, concerts are being cancelled.
However, we need to understand there is a public health reason for these event disruptions. These cancellations help stop or slow down the spread of disease, allowing the health care system to efficiently care for people over time.
The cancellation of events is an example of social distancing. Social distancing is that deliberate increase of physical space between people to avoid spreading the illness.
Other forms of social distancing in the avoidance of large crowds and crowded spaces are working from home instead of in the office, switching to online classes, communicating with our loved ones via electronic devices instead of in person, cancelling/postponing gatherings, conferences, and large meetings
But more than social distancing, I believe that we should also draw another resource to survive disasters and pandemics — social solidarity, or the interdependence between and among individuals and across groups. This can be a vital tool for combating transmittable ailments, and other shared fears and intimidations.
Solidarity encourages us to champion public health, and not just our own personal security. It convicts us from hoarding medicine, bringing a cold in the workplace, or sending a sick child to school. It induces us to let a ship of stranded people dock in our safe harbors, and to knock on our older neighbor’s door.
We should not be fated to wilt and fade in social isolation. There are practical steps we can do.
First, we can be deliberate about using technology prudently for meaningful connection. We should make a habit of calling our loved ones (calls are better than texts) to check on them regularly. We can start with family then we can include neighbors. We just need to take one more step than usual to proactively connect with people — and to do it today and every day, even when CoViD-19 is no longer around.
Second, we can focus on increasing the quality of time we have with others. We shouldn’t allow this extended “break” become a never-ending Netflix marathon or a TikTok showdown or become a rampage for food in the kitchen. Let us search for low-tech ways to connect with those whom we are sequestered from.
Third, we should smile to strangers. I don’t think smiling will make us prone to the virus. We shouldn’t waste the opportunity to smile at the staff when we’re making our purchase of a reasonable quantity of toilet paper or Lysol. Have that brief conversation that implicitly admits the fact that we’re all in this together and that we’ll get through it in time. These tiny moments of connection can have a lasting impact on our outlook.
Virus NOT our Master
The virus has already physically damaged the world’s people. We should not allow it to damage us emotionally and turn us into lonely people. As many research investigations conclude, lonely people have a greater risk of heart disease, stroke, and dementia. So, in this period of self-quarantine, forgetting about the welfare of others or forgetting to check on them may only lead us to trade one public health problem for a more devastating “epidemic” — loneliness.
Conscientiously, we should follow all medical recommendations such as avoiding close contact, washing our hands, keeping our hands away from our faces, and the like. We cannot ignore the medical dangers of spreading this virus. But we would also be imprudent to disregard the sociological dangers of isolation.
We are all in this together. Forgetting that only feeds another wide-ranging and another all-encompassing sickness — real social isolation.
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