• Prevention: They confirm that maintaining a social distance of two meters prevents infection
  • Pandemic: homemade face masks are effective if added to hygiene and social distance

Behaviors that only a few months ago would have been considered rude and unacceptable, such as turning away when you meet someone, are today our best guarantee to keep the coronavirus pandemic under control. Extreme hygiene, wearing masks and maintaining social distance are preventive measures that protect not only those who carry them out, but, above all, the most vulnerable population.

Any help to adapt to this new situation is welcome. Some of them can also be fun, as is the case of the video game just created by Richard Wiseman , considered " the most interesting experimental psychologist in the world " by Scientific American magazine .

People must remember that it is not about them. We are all connected and together in this. And it doesn't take a lot of people acting selfishly to cause ruin for everyone, ”says this professor at the University of Hertfordshire . The game, called Can you save the world? ( Can you save the world? ) And available for free online, it aims to be "a fun way to get the message of distance to people."

His naive and optimistic appearance is not accidental: "My intention was to create an experience that associated social distance with a positive, fun experience, and that's why in the game you listen to fun music and save lives ."

Despite its naive aesthetics and simplified environment, the video game, created together with computer developer Martin Jacob , is realistic in presenting in all its harshness a measure that is necessary today to regain normality with guarantees.

The goal is literally to get away from the people you meet on the street, who appear enveloped in a viral glow, to represent the area of ​​possible contagion. The danger multiplies when someone sneezes, creating a trail of pathogens. But points can be recovered by taking masks.

The realism of the game is not in the graphics, very simple and direct, but in how it manages to recreate a feeling that many will have had , starting with its own creator: «I came up with the idea because I was walking down the street trying to avoid the people, and I realized it looked like a video game, "Wiseman tells this newspaper.

Sneezing generates a trail of virus Richard Wiseman

“I knew Martin and suggested that we do the game as a fun way to get the message of estrangement to people. I think that some parents find it difficult to explain social distance to their children in a way that does not scare them, and play helps to achieve this, "he details.

The origin of outbreaks

A research recently published in Emerging Infectious Diseases , a journal of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention ( CDC ) in the US, concluded from the study of 61 foci of Covid-19 in Japan, most of them originated in people between 20 and 39 years old who had not yet developed symptoms of disease or who never had them.

In other words, the general profile of the population from which the outbreaks arise differs from that of the population that suffers the most, who are elderly. That is why it is convenient to insist that protecting yourself is not a personal issue, but a social and health issue .

This is clearly reflected in the video game, where the protagonist never dies . The adventure ends when he is infected and is confined, which prevents him from continuing to save lives.

Wiseman is convinced that the common population is already assimilating the new rules of conduct without problems. "People are very good at adapting to change," he says, so soon, if the current situation continues, it will be perfectly normal for us. "Then I think it will seem weird to go back to our usual ways (if we ever do!)."

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