CDC’s Six-Foot Rule:
Science or Con Game?

Jun 17, 2024

The Centers for Disease Control’s (CDC) six-foot social distancing rule, the government’s main strategy for dealing with the pandemic, was not based on science. Dr. Fauci and others repeatedly told us that it was based on science. But no, not true. And four years later, we still have all those signs on floors in stores, in our workplaces, telling us to keep six feet apart.

Fauci and other officials recently admitted that there was little science behind the 6-foot rule. “It sort of just appeared, that six feet is going to be the distance,” Fauci testified to Congress in a January closed-door hearing, according to a recently released transcript. This means they didn’t study the question. In fact, there was one study—way back in 1955, long before COVID.

“The six-foot rule was really an error that had been propagated for several decades, based on a misunderstanding of how particles traveled through indoor spaces,” said Joseph Allen, a Harvard University expert in environmental health. He added that health experts often wrongly focused on avoiding droplets from infected people, instead of improving ventilation and filtration inside buildings.

The World Health Organization (WHO) adopted a distance slightly more than half of the CDC’s six-foot rule—one meter, which is a little more than three feet. Experts think the shorter distance was roughly as effective at stopping infections. More importantly, it would have allowed schools to reopen more rapidly.

The six-foot rule may not have cost the government very much money to put forward, but our children paid a huge price. A lot of evidence showed children were at relatively low risk of COVID-related complications. Most schools could not accommodate six feet of space between students’ desks, and instead were forced to rely on virtual “learning.” Test scores dropped. Poor and working class students still have not recovered academically what they lost. Every parent knows their children’s mental health suffered as well. The cost to children academically, emotionally, and socially far outweighed any benefit.

The government dared to put the stamp of science on their actions. But it wasn’t science. Science tests, collects data, studies. Government “experts” like Fauci acted like politicians. They ignored science and lied to the American people.