Physical distancing

[dianora]

Supposedly scientists are moving away from the term 'social distancing' to 'physical distancing' but I bet the PR departments figured social distancing sounded nicer than physical distancing in the first place. go figure. It's not social distancing if you can still use the phone to talk to friend.

Comments

[dewline]

It's a rephrasing that makes mental health-related sense to me. We may see a revival of the art of the phone conversation from this.

[blogcutter]

I don't think it's anything to do with PR Departments! They really didn't have time to weigh in on their preferred terminology before the powers that be (politicians and public health officers) used whatever convenient shorthands or on-the-spot terms they could come up with! And I also disagree with you about phone calls not constituting social distancing - see my blog post today for further information!