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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
Our neighborhood gave up on social distancing for kids close to 2 months ago. It’s a kid free-for-all here.
Is it 72″ on centers or 72″ edge to edge?
I’ve had people in my neighborhood walk in the street when passing me on the sidewalk, and then return to the side walk after I was well passed them. They were observing the “20 foot” rule. My favorite is a person riding a bike with both a mask and a helmet, for safety, and then riding in the street against heavy traffic, even when there is a convenient bike path or sidewalk less than 20 feet away.
And what if a person extends their arm or leg out significantly. Does that violate the six-foot rule? I have a long nose. Do I need to compensate for that when distancing?
Aggro is always from center!
There is a good article in WSJ on transmission (paywall).
Someone explained to me that his precautions were due to the fear that one of his young kids might require hospitalization and because of virus standards would be alone in the hospital. “No kid should have to face something like that alone.”
I think it was the guess method, or very rudimentary math. Measuring sneezes, and fat bellies and all that.
Think of our personal relationships. Will we socialize with our friends in groups based on the tolerance they have for being close or far? Or will we segregate gatherings so those who are fearful are with like types, and those who are comfortable with more intimacy will be invited to another gathering? Good grief.
What about Ricochet meetups? Will some members not want to meet with other members, if they have to be in close proximity? Will we have to check members’ temperatures beforehand? Will we have to have a questionnaire for people to fill out before agreeing to participate, asking them how comfortable they are with others, whether they will insist on wearing a mask or not, whether they have been in contact with a virus patient in the last 14 days, etc.? Will this mean that we will have to have all our meetups outdoors? If we don’t practice “social-distancing”, will we risk being arrested?
Edward Hall’s The Hidden Dimension, is an kind of old book, but still valuable in understanding social spaces and how different cultures respond to those spaces. An example is that the Germans tend to like closed offices, and the English live in such small spaces, they can ignore people fairly close to them physically to get some space. Mid eastern people like tall ceilings (I would agree with that), and the Polish like to mess up nice neat German ques.
I don’t have the book with me, but thought it was an interesting read. He set up animal studies, etc. He developed the concept of personal space, public space, etc. By nature, we don’t really like people we don’t know well to get too close.
The architects and builders will be busy incorporating these new requirements into new spaces. It may be big wastes of money as other trends seem to have been. More than one ugly commercial building sits idle. I read the casinos with high ceilings in the gambling areas don’t do as well and those with lower ceilings. I guess there is a feeling of vulnerability in open spaces verses the envelope of close spaces. The McMansion criticism is that they are not warm and cozy, with wasted space and faux pretentiousness.
And there will be further crap studies (years after) how those sterile hospitals are not good for overall health.
I didn’t know we weren’t supposed to have much brick brack in the business, no coffee offered, so people aren’t encouraged to stay or visit, etc. We put up all my daughter’s spring/summer dec, and are leaving them. What do those geniuses think people do at beauty salons? Those clients become friends over time. Daughter attends weddings, showers, birthdays, funerals of many of those people. She used to go to their homes when they couldn’t get out, or went and got some and took them back to the salon. We do not want to live to please people who don’t know us, will never know us, and probably don’t care to know us.
We went out to eat last night. The local resturant was barren of anything on tables, walls, etc. The staff all wore masks, and every other table had a closed sign on it. No music, no tv. The food was very good, but the atmostphere was terrible.
Don’t worry, the vaccine will fix everything. That is, until the first few cases of the vaccinated coming down with the Wuhan flu after all.
There are some people to whom I don’t want to get closer than 11′ 7″. I’m willing to get closer than that to others. It’s a discriminatory system of mine.
Why do they make bathroom doors that open in instead of out?
That was always a pet peeve of mine, even before this happened.
Heck, I’m surprised that practice makes it past the fire marshal.
I’d like to bring out what seems to be a great invention mentioned in the post that everyone is missing. These new “density sensors” could let us carve out those who are terribly dense from our midst, making everyone’s lives better.
The occupancy load of a bathroom is pretty small.
What would you do with them?
They say you can never be too safe. Because they are idiots.
Half of a rod is the best measurement the CDC has been able to come up with. Just divide a furlong by 80 and you’ll have the right distance.
Vertical crackerboxes feel more crackerboxy than horizontal crackerboxes. I think casinos like high ceilings for better camera placement.
Atmosphere is sometimes the only reason I go out to eat.
“Alert! Alert! Step Away From The Watercooler! Return To Your Work Stations!”
Mask-wearing is “mandatory” at work now. I do not wear a mask at work. I still have my job, and have not been formally spoken to by my boss, or her boss. Yet.
I don’t get it. What’s a density sensor?
A density sensor tells management how many people are in a given room. Conference room normally holding 20, will now only be allowed to hold 10. Person number 11 walks in, klaxon blares out “WARNING, WARNING, TOO MANY PEOPLE ARE IN THIS ROOM, ONE WILL NEED TO LEAVE”
Stud finders are essentially density sensors, but I don’t think that’s what Maguffin is referring to.
Lol. Wrong kind of density, I guess.
I still don’t get it. Maybe I’m dense or something. I think I’ll leave.
Atmosphere is sometimes the only reason I breathe.
Something that gets lost in this whole distancing mess is the fact that a human being must encounter germs in his environment in order to build and maintain a healthy immune system. If you live in a sterile bubble for too long, you will eventually succumb to a harmless illness like the common cold, and it will kill you. This is what happened to millions of American Indians when they met Europeans with germs they had never encountered before.
When I was a wee lad, young people purposely sought to catch the chicken pox and measles. These were diseases known to be harmful if caught as an adult, but innocuous if caught as a child. After exposure, you were assumed to be immune for life. There was even such a thing as a “chicken pox party” where an infected young person would invite his friends over who had not yet caught the disease.
I think that the recent upticks in asthma and peanut allergies (which were basically unknown when I was growing up) are thought to be from children living in too sterile environments not getting the proper exposure to certain germs. Don’t quote me on that because I am not an actual doctor, I just have bad hand-writing skills.