by Panagiotis Sotiris
Nowadays one of the keywords is "social distancing", or even isolation. This is particularly because it has been determined that the best measure, to limit the spread of new coronavirus, is to avoid all the interactions that facilitate human-to-human transmission, and which pose the risk of increasing incidences, that burden the healthcare system and the disease patients.
But as has already been pointed out, this term could be misleading. There is no word for social distance, nor for social isolation. We are talking about physical distance, to avoid the natural coexistence of people in conditions that could facilitate the transmission of the virus.
However, this cannot and should not lead to the dissolution of our society. We are just adapting our behaviors and practices to ensure the natural distances that help to contain the pandemic.
In the time of forced physical distances between people, is the time for strengthening the real social bonds. This is the time for solidarity, not for isolation: to the workers that struggle(from doctors and nurses to those who -in difficult circumstances- ensure that we have the necessary), to those who are in danger to see the health crisis turning into a social disaster as they have no job, to those who live in particularly vulnerable conditions (such as refugees), to those who depend on simple solidarity movements, such as shopping for them, and to those who just feel they cannot stand the isolation and who want to hear a familiar voice.
We use Media, we organize our daily life so that we do not put others into danger, but we also help those who need it, we raise problems, we claim, we unite voices and we give voice if it is necessary, and particularly, we do not leave no one alone.
*first published in: www.in.gr
By: N. Peter Kramer
