{"id":207776,"date":"2020-05-24T08:27:54","date_gmt":"2020-05-24T08:27:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=207776"},"modified":"2020-05-26T06:38:59","modified_gmt":"2020-05-26T06:38:59","slug":"government-scientific-adviser-says-two-metre-social-distancing-rule-is-based-on-very-fragile-evidence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=207776","title":{"rendered":"Government scientific adviser says two metre social distancing rule is based on &#8216;very fragile&#8217; evidence"},"content":{"rendered":"<ul>\n<li><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\"><strong>Lockdown rules mean people must stay at least 2m (6&#8217;6&#8243;) apart from each other<\/strong><\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\"><strong>But the science behind the exact measurement is &#8216;fragile&#8217;, expert says<\/strong><\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\"><strong>The World Health Organization recommends a minimum of one metre<\/strong><\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\"><strong>Government adviser said he was told UK &#8216;doubled it to be on the safe side&#8217;\u00a0<\/strong><\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h1 style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>Sam Blanchard \u2013 Daily Mail May 20, 2020<\/strong><\/h1>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/social_distance.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright wp-image-206871\" src=\"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/social_distance-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"360\" height=\"239\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/social_distance-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/social_distance.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 360px) 100vw, 360px\" \/><\/a><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">One of the top scientific advisers to the <a style=\"color: #ccffff;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dailymail.co.uk\/news\/uk-government\/index.html\"><strong><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">British Government<\/span><\/strong><\/a> said the two metre (6&#8217;6&#8243;) social distancing rule is based on &#8216;very fragile&#8217; evidence.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">People in the UK have been urged to stay at least 2m, or six-and-a-half feet, away from anyone who they don&#8217;t live with, to avoid catching or spreading <a style=\"color: #ccffff;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dailymail.co.uk\/news\/coronavirus\/index.html\"><strong><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">COVID-19<\/span><\/strong><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">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.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">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.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">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.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">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 &#8216;fragile evidence&#8217; comments this morning.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">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.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">Professor Dingwall said on BBC Radio 4: &#8216;The World Health Organization recommends a one metre distance, Denmark has adopted it since the beginning of last week.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">&#8216;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.&#8217;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">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.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">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.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">He has even suggested that it is being clung to by British officials because they don&#8217;t feel they can trust the public to manage a shorter distance.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">Speaking to <a style=\"color: #ccffff;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.telegraph.co.uk\/politics\/2020\/05\/07\/government-has-terrorised-britons-believing-coronavirus-will\/\"><strong><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">The Telegraph<\/span><\/strong><\/a> earlier this month Professor Dingwall said: &#8216;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&#8230;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">&#8216;Personally I think we could quite safely go to 1.5metres, which seems to be an internationally acceptable standard, inside and outside.&#8217;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">He added that officials had told him they &#8216;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&#8217;.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">And in further comments made to Radio 4 in April, Professor Dingwall said it would be harder to enforce rules without scientific evidence.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">&#8216;I think it will be much harder to get compliance with some of the measures that really do not have an evidence base,&#8217; he said. &#8216;I mean the two-metre rule was conjured up out of nowhere.&#8217;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">He referred to it as a &#8216;rule of thumb&#8217; rather than a scientifically proven measure.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">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.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">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.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailymail.co.uk\/news\/article-8339837\/Government-scientist-says-2m-social-distancing-rule-based-fragile-evidence.html\">Continues \u2026<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>One of the British government\u2019s top scientific advisors says the social distancing advice is a &#8216;rule of thumb&#8217; rather than a scientifically proven measure<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":39262,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[61,105],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-207776","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-Commentary","category-coronavirus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207776","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/39262"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=207776"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207776\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":207779,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207776\/revisions\/207779"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=207776"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=207776"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=207776"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}