最近各國政府為了控制疫情，都提出寬嚴不一的各種 social distancing 措施，所謂 social distancing，就是透過非藥物的感染控制手段 (nonpharmaceutical infection control actions) 隔離人群，避免、減少人際接觸，以減少感染機會，讓死亡率降到最低 (minimize disease transmission and mortality)。以下摘自 Wikipedia 及其他網路資料：
Social distancing is a set of nonpharmaceutical infection control actions intended to stop or slow down the spread of a contagious disease. The objective of social distancing is to reduce the probability of contact between carriers and normal individuals, so as to minimize disease transmission, and ultimately, mortality.
Social distancing is most effective when the infection can be transmitted via droplet (飛沫) contact (coughing or sneezing); direct physical contact, including sexual contact; indirect physical contact (e.g. by touching a contaminated surface such as a fomite /ˈfoʊmaɪt/ (衣物、床單、器材等) 非生物媒介); or airborne transmission (空氣傳染).
Social distancing may be less effective in cases where the infection is transmitted primarily via contaminated water or food or by vectors (病媒蟲) such as mosquitoes or other insects, and less frequently from person to person.
Types of social distancing are:
Encouraging people to stay at home; Asking people to keep a certain distance between each other if they do need to interact; Quarantine (檢疫) of contacts and suspected cases; Canceling mass gatherings; Closing gyms, pools, or other such areas; Travel restrictions; School closures; Workplace closures; Cordon sanitaire (封鎖)
Social distancing 也可以是個人為了\自我保護的選擇，它與身心問題的 social isolation (社交隔離/社交孤立) 不同，所以不宜譯為 *社交隔離/社會隔離。至於要怎麼譯? 大家集思廣益吧！ (Jerome Su, March 22, 2020)