This is going to take a bit of planning but...
Pick one week, preferably in 2018 (when there's not much scheduled to happen). During that week, no human being is allowed to be within 100 metres of any other.
Result: any short-term, human-specific infectious diseases will be eradicated in one swell foop.
Problems: 1) I'm not sure how many human-specific infectious diseases there are that will run their course in a week.
2) Moving everyone 100m apart would put many UK residents in the sea.
3) This would be hard on babies, people in critical care and conjoined twins. The isolation period would have to be extended to two weeks for pairs of people, three for triples and so forth.-- MaxwellBuchanan, Sep 28 2011 reddit /askscience: "If everyone stayed in their house for a week, would we wipe out the common cold? " http://www.reddit.c...r_house_for_a_week/Seems unlikely. [tatterdemalion, Sep 29 2011] Dear god, some fool bunned this while I was editing.-- MaxwellBuchanan, Sep 28 2011 Love it. I mean it would destroy the world's economy but...-- DIYMatt, Sep 28 2011 //it would destroy the world's economy but..//
Not necessarily. There would be a short-term boost in the sales of tinned foods, electric back-scratchers and pornography. This would potentially offset the brief dip in sales of condoms, light sabres and tandems.-- MaxwellBuchanan, Sep 28 2011 Haven't we done this before?-- pocmloc, Sep 28 2011 // would put many UK residents in the sea. //
Do we get to choose which ones?-- Alterother, Sep 28 2011 Might I be able to reserve the week of April 31st?-- Grogster, Sep 29 2011 Um...
no.-- 2 fries shy of a happy meal, Sep 29 2011 Personally you get my vote. I think it's a great idea and I live in a very small very remote community so it'd be easy for me to manage - I'd just drive for 30 minutes and roll the swag out under a tree, probably be 5km from the nearest soul.
But I've definitely seen this on here before; it's something I've spoken about to friends from time to time. I've got a niggling feeling it was a [UB] post, or maybe he just anno'd it heavily.-- Custardguts, Sep 29 2011 That's what I always say about pamphlets.-- rcarty, Sep 29 2011 //some fool// sp. "prescient enlightened person"-- FlyingToaster, Sep 29 2011 Excellent idea - as long as I get to stay where I am and everyone else in the world moves.-- hippo, Sep 29 2011 // it has, indeed, been proposed as a 'new' idea here before.// Ah. And the link is...-- MaxwellBuchanan, Sep 29 2011 "Boy, it sure has been quiet here in the delivery room this week..."-- RayfordSteele, Sep 29 2011 Pretty sure this wouldn't work. To many of the diseases it should get have asymptomatic carriers.-- MechE, Sep 30 2011 //To many of the diseases it should get have asymptomatic carriers.// I think you may have been trying to noun a verb there. But you're probably right - anyone know how long a cold virus can loiter? (Note: even the asymptomatic carriers will, of course, be quaranteened in this scheme.)-- MaxwellBuchanan, Sep 30 2011 read "it should get" as "the quarantine should eliminate" and it works better. The phrasing made perfect sense in my head.-- MechE, Sep 30 2011 oh, that makes much more lack of sense now.-- FlyingToaster, Sep 30 2011 We miss you, [Max].-- whatrock, Apr 04 2020 What [what] said.-- 8th of 7, Apr 04 2020 What [what] what? </goons>-- pertinax, Apr 04 2020 <Grytpipe-Thynne>
"You silly twisted boy, you !"
</Grytpipe-Thynne>-- 8th of 7, Apr 04 2020 random, halfbakery