• Lockdown rules mean people must stay at least 2m (6’6″) apart from each other
• But the science behind the exact measurement is ‘fragile’, expert says
• The World Health Organization recommends a minimum of one metre
• Government adviser said he was told UK ‘doubled it to be on the safe side’ 

Sam Blanchard – Daily Mail May 20, 2020

One of the top scientific advisers to the British Government said the two metre (6’6″) social distancing rule is based on ‘very fragile’ evidence.

People in the UK have been urged to stay at least 2m, or six-and-a-half feet, away from anyone who they don’t live with, to avoid catching or spreading COVID-19.

But the distance may be a non-scientific estimate that just caught on in countries around the world, as top researchers say there is not solid evidence to back it up.

Other nations have cut their rules down to a 1m gap, which advocates say could help businesses get back to work faster and help to kick-start the economy.

Shops could fit more customers in if the rule was 1m, not 2m, and there would also be more scope for hospitality businesses to return to a semblance of normality without huge gaps between tables and chairs.

Professor Robert Dingwall, a sociologist at Nottingham Trent University and a member of government advisory group NERVTAG (New and Emerging Respiratory Virus Threats Advisory Group) made the ‘fragile evidence’ comments this morning.

He said that the World Health Organization and other countries in Europe had reduced this distance to one metre but the UK is persisting with the full 2m.

Professor Dingwall said on BBC Radio 4: ‘The World Health Organization recommends a one metre distance, Denmark has adopted it since the beginning of last week.

‘If you probe around the recommendations of distance in Europe you will find that a lot of countries have also gone for this really on the basis of a better understanding of the scientific evidence around the possible transmission of infection.’

Iain Duncan-Smith, a former Conservative Party Cabinet minister has also called for the rule to be relaxed, saying it will be impossible to maintain in pubs and restaurants.

Professor Dingwall has spoken out about the weakness of the two-metre rule in the past, suggesting it could safely be cut at least to 1.5m.

He has even suggested that it is being clung to by British officials because they don’t feel they can trust the public to manage a shorter distance.

Speaking to The Telegraph earlier this month Professor Dingwall said: ‘There is a fair degree of consensus now among people who are more expert on these things than I am that outdoor transmission is negligible…

‘Personally I think we could quite safely go to 1.5metres, which seems to be an internationally acceptable standard, inside and outside.’

He added that officials had told him they ‘did not think the British population would understand what one metre was and we could not trust them to observe it so we doubled it to be on the safe side’.

And in further comments made to Radio 4 in April, Professor Dingwall said it would be harder to enforce rules without scientific evidence.

‘I think it will be much harder to get compliance with some of the measures that really do not have an evidence base,’ he said. ‘I mean the two-metre rule was conjured up out of nowhere.’

He referred to it as a ‘rule of thumb’ rather than a scientifically proven measure.

Although the British Government has loosened some of its lockdown restrictions, such as allowing people to spend as much time outside as they want to, everyone is still required to stick to the social distancing rule.

Lines on supermarket floors to keep shoppers apart, spaced out queues outside shops and takeaways and walking in the road to get round people on then pavement are now commonplace.

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