Are You Ready for the ‘Socially-Distant Future?’

 

This afternoon, I was reading my Wall Street Journal from a few days ago (I still take the old-fashioned print edition, and I am always behind), and I noticed more than one article that, taken together, got me to thinking some very uncomfortable thoughts.

I have read more than one article describing the “new office,” brought about by the Wuhan Coronavirus. Most big offices in large cities were shut down by government decree in March and April, resulting in thousands of workers being laid off, furloughed, or directed to work from home to avoid contagion. With some offices now allowed to reopen, companies are having to totally rethink their office layouts, so their employees can be “kept safe.” The bolded chapter heading is “Distancing and Cleanliness.” In the office of the very near future (like tomorrow), “Among the first priorities is figuring out how to maintain social distancing in an office.” Software applications will now govern where and how employees interact. Meetings will be smaller and less frequent, and employee desks will be further apart [thus cutting down on employee interaction]; “density sensors” may prevent too many employees in any one room at a time; all surfaces will be obsessively cleaned all day every day.

In the new office building, elevators will not be allowed to hold more than two people, and all the buttons will either be gone or changed to some kind of “no-touch” technology. Many will still work from home, and their colleagues in the office will hold Zoom meetings when they need to be in a group discussion. A researcher at the Interdisciplinary Center for Healthy Workplaces at UC Berkeley advises “bringing employees together virtually now to share ideas on how to re-establish social bonds while maintaining social distancing.” [italics mine]

Then, there’s the article on the New Hospital. The ideas in that article are extremely depressing to me. The title is “Rethinking the Hospital for the Next Pandemic.” Here are some phrases from that article. What does this make you think?

A future where such crises [the Wuhan Coronavirus Pandemic] may become a grim fact of life.

These changes promise to markedly reduce risk and disease spread-and change the way people experience care even in times when there is no crisis.

…it will also become less hands-on than people have come to expect.

…come up with ways to keep patients out of those [waiting]rooms.

…remotely triaging patients before they even arrive.

…an iPad rigged on a four legged robot called Spot allows staffers to see patients from a safe distance in the ER or a triage tent outside, via a video assessment and a thermal-imaging camera to measure breathing rate.

Keeping Doctors and Patients at a Distance.

To make it safer for patients and staff alike, some hospitals are trying to limit contact.

In intensive-care units, instead of placing IV poles and monitors next to the patient, they are now positioned outside the room so nurses can check patients’ status without unnecessary exposure for both…

For example, he says, newly-diagnosed heart-disease patients, who need frequent checkups and possibly adjustments to their medications, could use the [electronic] system to relay important data to their doctors remotely.

The above observations are scary enough in themselves, but then I was thinking about the “vulnerable elderly” who are confined to nursing homes or live in various other congregate long-term-care environments like assisted-living communities. In the Wuhan Coronavirus pandemic, thousands of such vulnerable elderly people died alone, in their rooms, forbidden to see family and friends in their final days. For some reason, the idea of a video visit on an iPad sounds cold and unfriendly to me.

It is well-known that human beings are social animals. Isolation is used as punishment in prisons and even by mothers with unruly children who send them to their rooms as a “time-out.” It is also well-known that human babies need close contact with their mothers to thrive and grow. Children neglected by their parents and not held or cuddled can waste away, or become depressed or anxious.

The idea of isolation being the theme of the “new office” or the “new hospital” is very unpleasant. It is not a nice thought, that starting now, we need to be afraid of our coworkers, and even our doctors. It is uncomfortable to have to go through life in fear of every other human being you encounter, but it appears that those designing physical spaces, and medical care facilities, will now be doing their best to minimize contact among all employees and clients. It is not fun to think that your hairdresser, your manicurist, and your doctor, are now afraid of you.

I am in the age-group that is now defined as “vulnerable,” and it scares me to think of what it will be like if I ever have to go to a hospital for any reason. Will I be held at arms-length by everyone I encounter? Will I be prevented from having any visitors, including my husband? Will I be forced to suffer, and maybe even die, alone? This is abhorrent to me, and I plan to do everything I can to avoid that kind of future.

I wonder how many others think this kind of future is a nightmare? How many of you out there are horrified with the physical environment that will, by design, keep others away from you? We humans require others around us, for celebrations, concerts, sports, and restaurant meals. Will we all agree to give up things like handshakes when meeting a new colleague, or hugs when comforting a friend who has suffered a loss? I hope and pray that my fellow people will not go happily into the “socially-distant” future without putting up a fight.

Originally posted at RushBabe49.com; visitors always welcome.

Published in Healthcare
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  1. Jerry Giordano (Arizona Patrio… Member
    Jerry Giordano (Arizona Patrio…
    @ArizonaPatriot

    I’m with you.  I find the social distancing to be inhuman.  They seem to want to turn all of us into Monk, or Professor T.

    I have heard that President Trump had germophobic tendencies, which he seems to have overcome.

    • #1
  2. Percival Thatcher
    Percival
    @Percival

    • #2
  3. RushBabe49 Thatcher
    RushBabe49
    @RushBabe49

    It makes me especially angry that kids are being prevented from seeing their friends.  Kids are the least vulnerable, and schools should be open and kids allowed to play with their friends.  They will be the worst affected, and the distancing requirements will hurt them the most.

    • #3
  4. Misthiocracy got drunk and Member
    Misthiocracy got drunk and
    @Misthiocracy

    I’ve been ready to be socially distant my whole life.

    • #4
  5. tigerlily Member
    tigerlily
    @tigerlily

    The level of fear-mongering from our elites and the seeming cowardice among large swaths of the American people has been really depressing to observe.

    • #5
  6. 9thDistrictNeighbor Member
    9thDistrictNeighbor
    @9thDistrictNeighbor

    The whole idea of being in a hospital where no one is allowed to care for you in close proximity is utterly demoralizing.   The very time you need compassionate human contact.  How did we get here so quickly?

     

    • #6
  7. Tex929rr Coolidge
    Tex929rr
    @Tex929rr

    When we make medical calls to elderly people’s homes, people living alone in rural areas clearly crave human contact.  As long as we are not backed up, good medics and firefighters will try to spend some extra time, as it’s an important step to maintain the patient’s mental health.  We are hoping to get community paramedicine up and running in the next couple of years – pretty much just the opposite of what those hospitals are proposing. 

    • #7
  8. Mark Camp Member
    Mark Camp
    @MarkCamp

    These people have gone mad. No sane American wants to be ruled by them.

    But their rule at the moment is unchallenged.  They dominate every institution with absolute authority, from the churches and synagogues to K-12 and college education to the corporations to medicine to knitting to the press to the peoples’ own courts to the entertainment media to the Federal, State, and municipal government and now even the top levels of the armed forces.  We are stumbling over ourselves to rush into the nightmare of black chattel slavery, Naziism, Stalinism, and Maoism.

     

    • #8
  9. MarciN Member
    MarciN
    @MarciN

    I don’t like these restrictions either. They go against everything that makes human life livable and pleasant.

    Making hospital experiences as miserable as they possibly can be will have only one result: people rejecting care. They will let themselves die or commit suicide. They don’t want to go through this hospital-designed experience.

    I really feel sorry for businesses too. They sell togetherness. The underlying motivation for the risks we take, for the money we work to earn, for the purchases we make is all about the people we love and care about. Those bonds will fray under these social conditions, and businesses that sell to those bonds will find it hard to survive financially.

    It is our together moments that we work for year round.

    I also think we’re looking at much more mental illness and poverty. Isolation causes mental illness. We know that.

    The only hope I have is that these restrictions will go away on their own because they are untenable. People will find ways around them, just as they found ways around prohibition. And eventually, people will get fed up, and the laws and regulations will change to what they should be.

    The doctors and hospitals will take a big hit, and perhaps that will shake some sense into them. They used to do stuff like this in the maternity wards until the mothers rebelled and said they wanted their husbands with them.

    Everyone in a hospital setting has spent an enormous amount of money and time on their education. It’s hard for me to envision them giving up their income willingly. And that’s what will happen as demand for medical care decreases because the care has been made so miserable for patients and their families.

    • #9
  10. Steven Seward Member
    Steven Seward
    @StevenSeward

    I think that eventually the whole fixation with social  distancing will wear off.  Just look at how fast the rioters changed so many political leader’s mind’s about this, and the Pandemic is only 4 months old (though it seems like an eternity).  Just as soon as the news people find a more interesting story to cover 24 hours a day, the story of the lockdowns will drop like a rock and become old news and people will go back to their old ways.  The public has a very short attention span.

    In today’s panic-led news coverage, stories that drive people’s behavior come and go on the slightest whim, often never to return again.  A key event that may well throw all this pandemic mania in the dustbin of history, could be on Tuesday, November 3rd.

    • #10
  11. RushBabe49 Thatcher
    RushBabe49
    @RushBabe49

    Redesigned offices and hospitals will endure. I wonder how people will get around that. 

    • #11
  12. Fake John/Jane Galt Coolidge
    Fake John/Jane Galt
    @FakeJohnJaneGalt

    I am basically an introvert that dislikes most people.  I have been practicing all my life for this little bit of heaven.

    • #12
  13. Steven Seward Member
    Steven Seward
    @StevenSeward

    Fake John/Jane Galt (View Comment):

    I am basically an introvert that dislikes most people. I have been practicing all my life for this little bit of heaven.

    You must be a lot of fun at parties!

    • #13
  14. JamesSalerno Inactive
    JamesSalerno
    @JamesSalerno

    It’s been almost 20 years since 9/11 and we still take our shoes off at the airport and can’t bring anything on the plane that’s not on the TSA-approved list. I think some aspects of “social distancing” are unfortunately going to stick around.

    • #14
  15. Weeping Inactive
    Weeping
    @Weeping

    I totally agree and hope that, given time, all these safety precautions will fade away and become nothing but memories.

    • #15
  16. The Reticulator Member
    The Reticulator
    @TheReticulator

    MarciN (View Comment):
    Making hospital experiences as miserable as they possibly can

    Their agenda (whether or not they realize it) isn’t to make people miserable but to enact an extreme individualism in which there are no relationships except those between otherwise autonomous individuals and the state.

    • #16
  17. Hang On Member
    Hang On
    @HangOn

    What is the scientific basis for social distancing? It has been coming under attack in the UK as there is no evidence of its efficacy. 

    • #17
  18. Fake John/Jane Galt Coolidge
    Fake John/Jane Galt
    @FakeJohnJaneGalt

    Steven Seward (View Comment):

    Fake John/Jane Galt (View Comment):

    I am basically an introvert that dislikes most people. I have been practicing all my life for this little bit of heaven.

    You must be a lot of fun at parties!

    Most people think I am.  I am told I am sort of a character.

    • #18
  19. The Reticulator Member
    The Reticulator
    @TheReticulator

    Hang On (View Comment):

    What is the scientific basis for social distancing? It has been coming under attack in the UK as there is no evidence of its efficacy.

    There is a long history of people social distancing during epidemics, but the kind of social distancing done in the past doesn’t work at current population levels. So now, instead of people fleeing their villages and living off the land in smaller, dispersed groups until the disease dies down, we’re trying it at a finer scale.

    IOW, people have known for centuries that some diseases are contagious. 

    I don’t think anybody disputes that you are more likely to get a virus from me if you are in the same room with me than if you are a mile away. Whether 6 feet is a significantly better than 3 feet is a harder question.

    • #19
  20. Randy Webster Inactive
    Randy Webster
    @RandyWebster

    MarciN (View Comment):
    and the laws and regulations will change to what they should be.

    I don’t think there are any “laws.”  I think it’s mostly executive orders.

    • #20
  21. Randy Webster Inactive
    Randy Webster
    @RandyWebster

    Steven Seward (View Comment):

    Fake John/Jane Galt (View Comment):

    I am basically an introvert that dislikes most people. I have been practicing all my life for this little bit of heaven.

    You must be a lot of fun at parties!

    FJ exaggerates.  I’ve met him at two meetups.

    • #21
  22. TBA Coolidge
    TBA
    @RobtGilsdorf

    War is great for increasing medical knowledge and streamlining processes in the sense that things that can be dispensed with are. 

    I imagine plagues are similar. We are learning that a lot of things can be done through telecommuting, and finding ways to keep non-emergency patients out of the emergency room, segregating the sick from the wounded so the former don’t make things worse for the latter, and finding a way for me to sit in my car until a doctor is ready to actually see me rather than in a dreary waiting room with mandated ‘health tv’ that is largely mandatory advertising to trapped ill people with occasional cooking segments that show how to make strikingly unappealing food [ok, that got kinda ranty, but it felt really good] …if we can move the incessant beeping and wheezing machines further from the patients and maybe not wake them up quite so often they might be better served. 

    So these might be improvements in certain cases – but they shouldn’t become mandatory if they are not necessary/useful; because you’re absolutely right, people need people, we need contact and connection, we need fellowship and dignity and that gets so very attenuated when it comes by way of machine (telemedicine might be a very good thing though). 

    • #22
  23. Steven Seward Member
    Steven Seward
    @StevenSeward

    Hang On (View Comment):

    What is the scientific basis for social distancing? It has been coming under attack in the UK as there is no evidence of its efficacy.

    I have noticed all along that no authority ever cites a study or scientific experiment that justifies physical distancing.  You can find all sorts of studies that measure the efficacy of masks, the time needed and soaps or alcohol concentrations that will render your hands clean, the effects of UV light on viruses and so on.  I think physical distancing was just invented by somebody because it “kind of sounds logical and made sense.”

    But wait!  Different countries have different physical distances for the same pathogen.  The U.S. says six feet, the U.K., Spain, Italy, and Switzerland have roughly the same at two meters (nearly 7 feet), Germany, Poland and the Netherlands say 1.5 meters (almost 5 ft.), and Austria, Norway, Finland, and Sweden all say one meter (40 inches).  I guess the virus doesn’t jump as far in Scandinavia.

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8339837/Government-scientist-says-2m-social-distancing-rule-based-fragile-evidence.html

    • #23
  24. Rodin Member
    Rodin
    @Rodin

    MarciN (View Comment):
    The only hope I have is that these restrictions will go away on their own because they are untenable. People will find ways around them, just as they found ways around prohibition. And eventually, people will get fed up, and the laws and regulations will change to what they should be.

    The saying goes:”The French follow no rules; the British follow all rules; and the Americans follow all the rules that make sense.”

    • #24
  25. Stad Coolidge
    Stad
    @Stad

    Enforced social distancing and cleanliness is not about the spread of disease any more.  It’s all about controlling people, so watch for these policies to become permanent unless enough people object.  The left wants to micromanage every little aspect of our lives . . .

    • #25
  26. Tex929rr Coolidge
    Tex929rr
    @Tex929rr

     Some interesting perspective:  during the first month of lockdown no one wanted to go to the ER; EMS calls dropped quite a bit.  The second month we had lots of serious medical calls, with cardiac arrests and other serious problems.  During the current (third) month we have all kinds of behavioral issues with violent and non cooperative patients.  I figure month two was people who didn’t get proper medical care in month one, and the crazy behavior now is lockdown effects and people with mental health issues who went untreated during lockdown. 

    • #26
  27. Stina Inactive
    Stina
    @CM

    Hang On (View Comment):

    What is the scientific basis for social distancing? It has been coming under attack in the UK as there is no evidence of its efficacy.

    It’s completely arbitrary. There’s a relatively recent movie about a couple “Bubble” kids that practically live in the hospital due to auto-immune disorders. The rule is that they can’t be any closer than 5 feet apart (the name of the movie).

    It’s probably a cute drama, but the title is lodged in my head. This 5 feet apart for severely immuno compromised people vs 6 feet apart for healthy people…

    They are making it up as they go along.

    • #27
  28. Raxxalan Member
    Raxxalan
    @Raxxalan

    The left hates people, so I imagine the inhumanity of it appeals to them in a strange way.

    • #28
  29. The Reticulator Member
    The Reticulator
    @TheReticulator

    Stina (View Comment):

    Hang On (View Comment):

    What is the scientific basis for social distancing? It has been coming under attack in the UK as there is no evidence of its efficacy.

    It’s completely arbitrary. There’s a relatively recent movie about a couple “Bubble” kids that practically live in the hospital due to auto-immune disorders. The rule is that they can’t be any closer than 5 feet apart (the name of the movie).

    It’s probably a cute drama, but the title is lodged in my head. This 5 feet apart for severely immuno compromised people vs 6 feet apart for healthy people…

    They are making it up as they go along.

    I have explained to family members who’ve asked that there is nothing magical about the 6 foot number. Having such a guidelines does perhaps make people aware of what they are doing, and maybe helps them think about how/whether they are spreading microbes around, but I wouldn’t get too worked up about that exact number. 

    My son, who mostly works from home now but goes to work as needed, says that in his building (a university building) most people stay more like 16 feet away from each other if they can. They wear masks, too, when they aren’t working alone.

    • #29
  30. Buckpasser Member
    Buckpasser
    @Buckpasser

    Wait a minute.  I was told 6 feet because SCIENCE!

    • #30
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