“Socializing” in the “New Normal”

Many people wished they could just stay home to avoid getting COVID 19. Even the variable successes of the community quarantine convinced us of the benefits of personal hygiene, social distancing and staying at home. Prolonged social distancing however is increasingly difficult, given that many essential human actions required “physical” socializing. The benefits of socializing has been recognized in literature, be it in health, or the survival and propagation of the human specie in general.

T1. Do you agree with easing out the community quarantine in your respective geographic locations? Explain.

Loud protestations from the medical community did not stop the government from easing out community quarantine, even if we had a vague idea of what the “new normal” is. The “new normal” has been the subject of many discussions, including previous COVID #HealthXPh chats. None of these “new normal” descriptions were definitive and will evolve.

T2. Is there a benefit to “socializing” in the new normal? Please explain.

An interesting observation about the new normal is the acceptance of the different degrees of socializing. Socializing was never a binary choice for many of us to begin with. It wasn’t a “I socialize or I don’t” choice. We all socialize in different degrees.

Our path to accepting this begun with another less striking, but equally important adaptation- the human specie has this propensity for “risk assessment and harm reduction”. This pandemic highlighted these both and will probably be an integral part of socializing in the new normal.

T3. Give a specific personal example of “risk assessment strategy” you employ before socializing in this new normal.

T4. Give a specific example of socializing – personal or work related in the new normal.

Our emergence and socializing into the new normal will be partly governed by two things- our ability to assess risk and reduce our chances of getting COVID. This will be the topic of June 6, 2020 #HealthXPh twitter chat. Join us at 9PM Manila time with this guide questions:

• T1. Do you agree with easing out the community quarantine in your respective geographic locations? Explain.
• T2. Is there a benefit to “socializing” in the new normal? Please explain.
• T3. Give a specific personal example of “risk assessment strategy” you employ before socializing in this new normal.
• T4. Give a specific example of socializing – personal or work related, you employ in the new normal.

Image by Drazen Zigic on Freepik