Virus or no virus, I end up spending a lot of time in waiting rooms on account of medical stuff, mainly my husband’s.

In these places, as well as in public venues I’ve seen in the news, close-positioned seating has been removed or marked off against use, keeping people well apart. So far, so good, theoretically.

But what this means in practice is that people in the waiting area or other seating accommodation are forced into using the same few seats that were just used before them. Just now, for instance, waiting to be called at the lab, there were only five seats available, where about ten have been taken out. So I stood until someone got up, and then I took his place.

Wouldn’t it make more sense to rotate or stagger seat use, so that maybe I sit down in a seat some guy left three hours ago and not three seconds ago?

I’m not sure how it would work, but I am sure there’s a way, and it should be fairly simple, even without “NEXT” lights like they use for the cashier at the next open checkout counter.

Topics: virus, logic, public safety, pandemic, COVID-19, social distancing