Public perceptions and experiences of social distancing and social isolation during the COVID-19 pandemic: A UK-based focus group study

Simon N Williams; Christopher J Armitage; Tova Tampe; Kimberly Dienes

The challenge of future uncertainty "I would rather they [the government] said tonight, 'you're gonna be stuck in your houses until September, than say, we will review in three weeks, and then say, we will review in three week, and keep doing that, I'd rather they set a date way in advance in the future because then you can get your head around it" (Participant 17, male, age 22, South Wales) "I've heard on the grapevine and online sources that we are in this lockdown for a few weeks or so, and then after 12 weeks or so we kind of get released and because we are not all immune necessarily it all comes back in a wave and then we have this constant thing of being locked down and then coming out and going back in again, … and so I think it will go downhill, that's when people will struggle mentally because they've had that taste of freedom, and you don't know how long it's all going to finish." (Participant 19, female, age 21, South Wales) . CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 International license It is made available under a author/funder, who has granted medRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity.