Quote Originally Posted by delmbox View Post
The point of the lockdown and social distancing is that no one comes into direct contact with anyone though (as in, everyone stays 2m away from everyone else).

So without any action being taken, the R rate of Covid is around 3 or 4. However, the lockdown has brought it down to under 1. Social distancing should in theory mean that it doesn't now rise to 3 or 4 because we don't put ourselves in direct contact with 10 other people. Say you're irresponsible and do so but 100 others stick to social distancing then I guess it averages out overall?

This is just my interpretation of it though, I may be wrong, but that's how it makes sense to me.
I do understand the concept (at least to a degree), but I think it's something the scientists, medical experts and politicians should have kept to themselves rather than make a key factor in their public discussions about the pandemic. I don't think it's helped at all. Indeed, I think it's not only confused the issue but it may have even given some people a false sense of security.

If they had said at the outset that if you have this virus you are likely to infect at least three more people and simply left it at that, I think the public would have understood it and the message would have been far more effective. However, by talking about getting the 'R' number down, saying stuff like 'the R is now between 0.5 and 0.8,' and displaying graphics claiming that one infected person is now infecting just 0.6 others, they've served only to complicate the issue.