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

Looking to the future, participants were divided as to how they felt they, and others, would act when social distancing and isolation measures were either relaxed or removed. Some felt that they and others would "go back to living my life completely as normal" (Participant 24, male, Manchester) as soon as possible. These participants spoke of "being desperate to go out and go to restaurants or travel a lot" (Participant 5, male, age 26, London) and generally not taking a graded approach to social reintegration. They argued that if they were "told its ok" to socially reintegrate, then this was enough for them to "not feel too anxious about going out with friends in the future" (Participant 24, male, age 40, North-West England). Others felt that it would take them a longer to return to pre-pandemic social . 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.