Social Distancing under Conditions of Overcrowding?

Weaponising mass distraction from overpopulation denial?

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Systemic avoidance?

Overcrowding: The future may well marvel at the primary strategy advocated globally in response to the coronavirus pandemic, namely social distancing (Coronavirus: What is social distancing and how do you do it? New Scientist, 17 March 2020; Wondering About Social Distancing? The New York Times, 16 March 2020; An Expert Guide to Social Distancing -- and what to do if friends and family aren't onboard, The Guardian, 17 March 2020; Coronavirus (COVID-19): Information on social distancing, Australian Government, Department of Health, 15 March 2020).

Social distancing is in process of reinforcement by closure of borders between countries, possibly to be extended within countries and within urban environments -- "lockdown" (Coronavirus: European Union seals borders to most outsiders, BBC News, 18 March 2020; Coronavirus Travel Restrictions, Across the Globe, The New York Times, 18 March 2020; Government in talks on scaling up social distancing, tightening ban on mass gatherings to fight coronavirus, ABC News, 18 March 2020).

The question here is the viability of social distancing on a planet on which overcrowding is already widely recognized -- but as a purely local challenge. This is most evident in the restriction of access of tourists to popular destinations. The reality of local overcrowding is the theme of a separate argument which notes the total unreality of global implications (Local Reality of Overcrowding -- Global Unreality of Overpopulation: comprehensible reframing of engagement with global issues via metaphors of proximity, 2019).

Population density: Just as it is extremely rare for any politician or scientist to refer in any way to "overpopulation" -- except as a myth to be dismissed -- it is remarkable to note the ease with which the viability of social distancing is widely advocated and uncritically accepted, despite the most obvious physical constraints on a planet of limited dimensions. It is even more curious to note that even the most respectable sources of information on the spread of coronavirus around the world avoid any correlation whatsoever with population density. Are we witness to a form of "Big Lie" -- whether cultivated deliberately or unconsciously? (Existential Challenge of Detecting Today's Big Lie: mysterious black hole conditioning global civilization? 2016).

Bluntly stated, in the light of the process of infection, the closer the average proximity, the higher the probability of coronavirus infection -- hence the social distancing strategy. But how is this realistically possible in crowded urban environments, where many are obliged to sleep in one room, or where the streets are characterized by crowding -- as is typical of cities in many developing countries, especially in slums? The conditions of infection may well be aggravated in climates where some must necessarily crowd together for warmth or shelter.

Overpopulation: What is the perspective that is so systematically avoided and why? (Institutionalized Shunning of Overpopulation Challenge: incommunicability of fundamentally inconvenient truth, 2008; Prohibition of Reference to Overpopulation of the Planet, 2018).

Given the recommended requirements for social distancing -- 1 to 1.5 meters separation -- what reconfiguration of the urban environment does this imply, given the need to anticipate future pandemics? Does the prospect of future pandemics imply a need to radically restructure urban architecture?

Is there space for such reconfiguration on a planet which it is assertively declared to be unconstrained by overpopulation -- if the matter is even mentioned?.

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