Social Distancing...will it continue?

[Slothead56]

This past week I only ventured out to three retailers:

• Local family owned smallish supermarket
• Lowe’s
• CVS Drug.

All three had some form of SD barrier to separate shoppers from each other and from the employees (tape on the floor at the market every 6 feet in the check out line, Lowe’s had constructed plexiglass panels between the shopper and cashier, CVS has a table up at the check stand to create distance).

Assuming this thing is ultimately contained and goes away (and I know that may take a year or two) are we forever altering the way we will interact with each other in public? Will “SD” become the norm going forward?

Opinions please....

[CoffeeFan]

I don't think so.

Even just thinking about bars. As soon as they open back up people will flock to them, and the last thing bar owners will be interested in doing is limiting the number of people who can be in the bar at any one time because of "social distancing"...

[6 Strings MI]

Originally Posted by Slothead56

Lowe’s had constructed plexiglass panels between the shopper and cashier.

Lots of fast food restaurants in Detroit have bulletproof glass between employees and customers, and it was that way before COVID-19 and social distancing.

I don't see social distancing continuing, at least on its present scale, after the virus is kicked. Human beings, by and large, are social creatures (as CoffeeFan alluded to with the example of bars). Instead, I see a return to previous standards of normality with an increased sense of caution.

[AX17609]

I have yet to read a credible end game scenario for this pandemic.

[TJE]

I think are way of living is forever changed! I think we will have some degree of social distancing from now on. I think just like 911 changed the world forever this has too! IMHO

[fazool]

Originally Posted by AX17609

I have yet to read a credible end game scenario for this pandemic.

Originally Posted by Ralph Waldo Emerson

This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
Not with a bang but with a whimper.

I believe, like many things, it will just sort of slowly get better then fade from current attention.

[Acousticado]

Frequency and duration of proper hand washing will hopefully continue, at least for a time. People may clean shopping cart handles with wipes, especially if stores provide, which a very small number had been. People may handshake less, opting for elbow bumping or gestures that don’t involve touching. Close embraces and kissing may become reserved for only the closest of family.

Just some thoughts, but who knows.

[rokdog49]

All the extremes you see being practiced now by most will fade over time. They always do.

[CoffeeFan]

Originally Posted by Acousticado

Frequency and duration of proper hand washing will hopefully continue, at least for a time. People may clean shopping cart handles with wipes, especially if stores provide, which a very small number had been. People may handshake less, opting for elbow bumping or gestures that don’t involve touching. Close embraces and kissing may become reserved for only the closest of family.

Just some thoughts, but who knows.

Nothing in my conduct, or the conduct of friends and family, has brought this pandemic about. Accordingly, I intend to return to that same conduct in the future...

[Joe Beamish]

Originally Posted by AX17609

I have yet to read a credible end game scenario for this pandemic.

Totally agree. I hope it's coming. I mean, it sounds like the scientists are still trying to decide how the virus is transmitted. Not only on surfaces and in droplets, but also directly through the air?? That's a different ballgame.

[TBman]

What I'm afraid of is that when things start to get a little better people will start to slack off and the whole thing will start all over again.

[Joe Beamish]

I think everything will go back to normal...eventually. The question is when. I don't think any responsible nation will continue to be so totally complacent and unprepared next time. At least, not for generations.

It seems humans always become complacent again, eventually. C'est la vie.

[tbeltrans]

I think spitting on the sidewalk will become a felony offense.

Tony

[6 Strings MI]

Originally Posted by tbeltrans

I think spitting on the sidewalk will become a felony offense.

Not just a fine, as in Singapore?

[tbeltrans]

Originally Posted by 6 Strings MI

Not just a fine, as in Singapore?

I seem to recall when I was growing up, that catching somebody spitting on the sidewalk was often a way to bring in a person suspected of more serious crimes so the cops could detain him or her while they checked for what else the person was wanted for.

Tony