Before 2020 the term ‘social distancing’ while not new, was barely known. The concept was promoted by the World Health Organisation in 2008 as a public health measure to prevent transmission of influenza, and in various forms it can be identified in reference to epidemics going back hundreds of years. However, in common parlance social distancing is more likely to have been associated with stigma or social class, something with negative connotations, something to be avoided.
Covid 19. The paradox of social distancing.