Promote yourself from practicing social distancing to social long distancing.
Talk about it anywhere, everywhere.
During a brand key workshop with a hospital, the insight that was zeroed in on from the point of human truth, was ”It’s not over till it’s over”.
Why this insight?
Because in a hospital, 99% recovery is never 100% recovery and they wanted to capture the seriousness with which they articulate the treatment of their patients.
In the time of COVID-19, this insight couldn’t have been truer. “Why”, you ask? Read on.
Let’s start by acknowledging that this is an outbreak. That means the extent of the spread is still unknown. Hence, based upon the known numbers, WHO declared it as a pandemic. Post which every country went on high alert mode and promoted social distancing to limit the spread by contact or proximity. Why? Because the detectable expression of the virus takes 14 days. Unless every human on earth is detected, we will never know how many are infected. It will take years to actually find out the number of people who are infected. In a recent interview with CNBC TV 18, Dr. Devi Shetty said that Karnataka alone will have 80,000 positive cases by the month of May. And these brow-raising reports from experts will keep emerging from different states of India.
Unequivocally, social distancing occupies the central role of limiting the spread via contact or proximity. How? It will flatten the curve of those infected and that will not overload the healthcare system. Hey, we don’t want our healthcare system to collapse, do we? Healthcare Triage created an expert video with Dr. Aaron Carroll. In this, he has explained using a simple graph a way to avoid the overload on the healthcare system.
Image courtesy: Flattening the curve of Coronavirus infections, Healthcare Triage, YouTube
Social long distancing is simple. All you have to do is committedly start saying no to going out of the house. Relaxing on your couch with your feet up when you are not working from home. It’s easy, isn’t it? Now you can always ask, how will this reduce the impact? Spinoff TV from New Zealand made a simple video & published it on their Instagram handle. Watch the full video here. Meanwhile, look at the pictures below:
Images courtesy SpinoffTV, Instagram.
The right side of the image shows how one person can exponentially reduce the spread by staying at home and saying no to going out. This is what commitment to social distancing will yield.
Amidst this crisis, Singapore emerged as a model when it came to handling the outbreak with their quick response. When the first news of Coronavirus became global on December 31st last year, Singapore started preparing itself. By the time WHO declared it a pandemic, Singapore was ready. The result? The spread is much slower compared to other countries as they weren’t prepared. So, why is Singapore a bit more successful? Because they acknowledged the potential this virus can have and consistently communicating the same to their citizens through awareness campaigns. Below is a simple yet most impactful comic from The COVID Chronicles Public Awareness Campaign, Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore.
While other countries didn’t even begin their preparation to handle the outbreak, Singapore’s public awareness campaign was already LIVE. And today there isn’t a lockdown internally and they have almost avoided all the negative impacts of a lockdown.
When the virus was declared a pandemic, it took a while before the majority in our blue dot realized the seriousness of it through social media. As time went by, the seriousness seemed to be diluted in order to avoid panic. But brands doubled up on their efforts to take the message of social distancing to the masses. Governments doubled up their efforts to make sure that people stay at home. However, the seriousness of social distancing was lost until the numbers started pouring in. This isn’t a fight of only the healthcare professionals, but a fight for all of us. A sincere request for everyone reading this, please understand the seriousness of the situation but don’t panic. All you are required to do is to #stayhome.