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March 20, 2020 Friday 03:06:29 PM IST

Social distancing: Expert suggests Goldilocks zone model

Social distancing is one of the major options for responding to the coronavirus outbreak. Dr Duncan Robertson, an expert in dynamic modelling from Loughborough University’s School of Business and Economics says that there is a Goldilocks zone for keeping people apart – not to close, and not too far – which will allow for optimal control of the spread of the virus.

He says Close Contact is where the population is infected very rapidly. This is not A Good Thing and the death rate goes up as a result.

Second one - Extreme Distancing, where the viral spread takes too long. This is also not A Good Thing because the social and economic costs are huge.

The best option would be Optimal Distancing, where the spread is controlled and the human, social, and economic costs are optimized. This is A Good Thing and very tricky to get right.