Breaking news from the BBC: Social distancing gadgets for staffers


Breaking news from the BBC: Social distancing gadgets for staffers

Britain, a country we have been neglecting in this column because of social, historical and practical distancing — a polite way of saying ‘increased irrelevance’ — has caught our eye again. Well, technically not Britain, but its leather patch-wearing cousin, the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC). In a clever update of the 17th-century practice of ringing bells to signal the approach of carts carrying plague victims during the Black Death in 1665, the Beeb (unrelated to the ‘bubo’, or dark, painful swellings in the thighs, groin and armpits, which gave the bubonic plague its name) has decided to provide its staff with electronic buzzers.

Obviously, BBC staffers in Britain won’t be buzzing à la zombies. As still one of the finest news organisations in the world, judicious Beebers will be alive, but wearing these devices to ensure social distancing norms are maintained. The gadget resembling a pager will reportedly buzz if the wearer gets too close to someone else — the opposite, really, of a GPS tracking device that people on parole are made to wear around their ankles that sets off when someone tries to make a run for it. Wearing a set of bells or clappers, as lepers once did to warn people of their approaching, may have been cheaper. But then, BBC is well-funded, unlike its less enterprising cousin Britain.




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