Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff production of I Heart Radio. Hey
Speaker 1: brain Stuff. Lauren Vogebam here. This episode is part of
Speaker 1: the miniseries we're doing on some health and safety topics
Speaker 1: surrounding the novel type of coronavirus that was identified in
Speaker 1: which causes what's there for being called COVID nineteen. Because
Speaker 1: everything is a little less scary when you understand it better.
Speaker 1: So for today, we're talking about a phrase that's new
Speaker 1: to most of us, but not to the world of
Speaker 1: public health, social distancing. But what exactly does social distancing
Speaker 1: mean and how do we put it into practice? Simply put,
Speaker 1: social distancing is a community strategy used by public health
Speaker 1: officials to put space between individuals in an attempt to
Speaker 1: limit the spread of any highly contagious infectious disease like
Speaker 1: COVID nineteen or ebola or stars. The US Centers for
Speaker 1: Disease Control or CDC, defines social distancing as remaining out
Speaker 1: of congregate settings, avoiding mass gatherings, and maintaining distance approximately
Speaker 1: six ft or two meters from others when possible. Many viruses,
Speaker 1: including coronavirus, spread primarily through droplets that can remain in
Speaker 1: the air for a couple hours after someone's sneezes or coughs,
Speaker 1: though over time the viruses in those droplets become less
Speaker 1: and less likely to infect you, as we discussed in
Speaker 1: yesterday's episode. However, the potential for air and surfaces harboring
Speaker 1: infectious viruses is why creating space between individuals is critical.
Speaker 1: Community mitigation strategies are especially important before a vaccine or
Speaker 1: drug is widely available to prevent diseases from spreading, and
Speaker 1: we don't have any such fix for COVID nineteen yet.
Speaker 1: Social distancing is typically used in communities where an outbreak
Speaker 1: of a virus like COVID nineteen has not yet occurred,
Speaker 1: because it's difficult to stop once it's started. Think of
Speaker 1: it like when firefighters clear are large swaths of brush
Speaker 1: to create a firebreak that will stop wildfires from spreading
Speaker 1: out of control. If there's no fuel for the fire
Speaker 1: to burn, it'll go out. If there's no one for
Speaker 1: the virus to infect, the infection won't spread. You may
Speaker 1: have heard that the goal of social distancing is to
Speaker 1: flatten the curve. The curve in question here is a
Speaker 1: graph of how many people are likely to get sick
Speaker 1: and the period of time over which they're likely to
Speaker 1: fall ill because, look, a COVID nineteen is a new illness.
Speaker 1: None of us has an immunity to it, meaning that
Speaker 1: our immune systems are all unfamiliar with it, so they
Speaker 1: don't perceive it as a threat right away. So our
Speaker 1: immune system doesn't know to start destroying it as soon
Speaker 1: as it enters our bodies, so the virus has a
Speaker 1: chance to replicate, and by the time our immune systems
Speaker 1: know something's wrong, they have to launch a full scale attack,
Speaker 1: which is what creates fever and weariness and other symptoms
Speaker 1: of being sick. The period of time between when you
Speaker 1: pick up the virus us and thus might spread it
Speaker 1: to other people and when you start to show symptoms
Speaker 1: of being ill is called the incubation period, and no
Speaker 1: one knows how long it can last yet with this
Speaker 1: novel coronavirus, but medical researchers are saying to give it
Speaker 1: two weeks to be safe now until we develop a
Speaker 1: fix for COVID nineteen to prevent it from spreading. It's
Speaker 1: safe to say that most to all of us will
Speaker 1: become infected. A chunk of the population will never have
Speaker 1: any symptoms, many will have mild symptoms, and a small
Speaker 1: portion will get seriously sick, either due to the virus itself,
Speaker 1: which attacks cells in and reproduces in the lungs, or
Speaker 1: due to other illnesses that we're more susceptible to when
Speaker 1: our lungs have been thus damaged, like pneumonia. So when
Speaker 1: people talk about flattening the curve, that means slowing down
Speaker 1: the spread of the disease so that those relatively few
Speaker 1: people who are going to get seriously ill don't get
Speaker 1: seriously ill all at once. That would be a tall
Speaker 1: peak in the curve of illness is over time, and
Speaker 1: it would be bad because it would overwhelm our health
Speaker 1: care system. By avoiding contact with people until your potential
Speaker 1: incubation period of a couple of weeks is over, you're
Speaker 1: helping to flatten that peak. The same number of people
Speaker 1: will be infected or sick or seriously sick over time,
Speaker 1: but you're helping spread those cases out so that the
Speaker 1: health care system will be able to respond to some
Speaker 1: before the next ones come in. And that's why officials
Speaker 1: are telling us to stay home when we can. But
Speaker 1: don't think of it like you're trying to avoid getting infected.
Speaker 1: I mean that would be great but think of it
Speaker 1: like you're already infected and don't know it, and you're
Speaker 1: trying to avoid spreading it. Examples of social distancing include
Speaker 1: closing or suspending schools and moving to online or distance learning,
Speaker 1: canceling public events such as conferences, weekly meetings, or places
Speaker 1: of worship, implementing commute practices for businesses where it's practical,
Speaker 1: closing child care centers, suspect ending or canceling sporting events,
Speaker 1: concerts or festivals, and closing down seating at bars and restaurants.
Speaker 1: Mass transit may also be affected. The important thing to
Speaker 1: note is that if your children are out of school,
Speaker 1: it's not time to set up playdates with the neighborhood kids,
Speaker 1: or to visit the local public library or park if
Speaker 1: they're even open. Contact with people outside your home should
Speaker 1: be limited, and the same goes for adults. It's not
Speaker 1: time to set up office at the local coffee shop
Speaker 1: again if it's open, or to have people over for
Speaker 1: a party. When implemented correctly, social distancing can have the
Speaker 1: desired effect of preventing the spread of a virus. It's
Speaker 1: been proven in the past, but only when people take
Speaker 1: it seriously. A study published in the two thousand seven
Speaker 1: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences found that during
Speaker 1: the nineteen eighteen Spanish influenza pandemic, cities that put social
Speaker 1: distancing measures in place earlier had significantly lower death rates
Speaker 1: than those that did not. Today's episode was written by
Speaker 1: Patty Resmussen and produced by Tyler Clang. For more on
Speaker 1: this and lots of other topics, visit how stuffworks dot com.
Speaker 1: Brain Stuff is production of iHeart Radio. For more podcasts
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