Of the topics covered and a weekly radio show is called spectrum if you would like any information on the ground a virus or any other science topic you should really check out our podcast so you can get it wherever you get your podcast you can also find us at. 45 science. Theyve become the symbol of the pandemic as well as the isolation that its brought facemasks studies show that they can help protect us from the coronavirus as we go about our daily lives but they can also keep us from understanding one another. Because psychologically for 2 pilots to be able to work as a team its critically important to be able to read your colleagues emotions going on the. Phone as we cover our faces and practice social distancing our face masks making us socially distant. Welcome to day 1000 special im Stephen Beers in berlin its good to have you with us life behind the mask comes with plenty of challenges especially when it comes to reading emotions but could also be creating new ways of communicating take a look. For. The moment of video calls are a common way of communicating cloud of finger is glad she can at least see her friends on screen and facial expressions are a key part of communication so what happens when half of our face is covered. As for in that. Communication becomes more tricky something is different its come in it takes me longer to work out whether someone is happy to see me or whether they agree with me basically i get less information from whats your limit. And thats the problem with masks suddenly half of the face is affectively empty the Communications Research demonstrates what this means that this Sculpture Park in hell or. If shes sticking her tongue out if she stands for happy want to know. When this went on. We can try it out to the moon when i have my mask on at what point does it look like im smiling when im sad or being neutral my eyes dont move much nor if i just smile a little bit basically i have to have a broad smile and gesture with my eyes to make it clear that im smiling. While wearing a mask and without one actor Catalina Schmidt demonstrates fear. Anger. Disdain and. Sadness. In comprehension. B. B. C. Babies learn a lot through facial expressions they look at their parents to see how they react and they learn from it right now its hard for them and when i think about people with certain disabilities it can be very stressful for them too. Sabina floor is hearing impaired when she. Communicates with others she relies heavily on gestures and facial expressions and mandatory masks make things more challenging. I went to the doctor noticed that it was really hard going at the reception i had to work hard to show that i had a hearing impairment and that i was having difficulties communicating when the nurse understood she was quick to suggest that we remove our mosques that made it much easier to communicate that and using more gestures. But sabina floor is keen to keep her mask on as much as possible especially when out shopping in this bakery in dresden at 1st its hard to order something but the saleswoman soon responds and shes had too many times during the Coronavirus Crisis instead of talking more loudly and clearly the solution is using more gestures than facial expressions. Or face mask forces us to change our habits when it comes to understanding and being understood. Dozens from that also means theres an opportunity here perhaps we can learn to take more time to communicate and make sure weve correctly understood something. Wrong. With our faces covered by masks our eyes have to take on some of the talking for us until the day when we no longer need to wear them. Joined now by wolf and dick is a professor of social psychology at Good University in frankfurt which is where he joins me from welcome rob the 1st question are we losing connection are we losing connection with one another because of these face masks. Yes scent might be one of the problem of the face marks all in research very clearly shows scent social connection is extremely important and during the day so hot rock out we we were able to get in touch with each other and now with the racing off what its missing as mimics haitian expressions and weeks humans have learned in millions so you move to read into each others faces and this is very Important Information that is missing now so you think people are learning new ways of communicating with one another if they cant see those expressions i sometimes try to observe myself and i try to communicate much more with my ice and my eyebrows when i was when i am very small so it depends a little bit on how long this will continue if we have to wear them awesome public fulla next couple of months maybe then who clearly learned these new techniques yes is it fair to say that face masks represent just one aspect of a larger problem during this pandemic and as social isolation yes thats right face mosques are just a visited sino fit but i think social isolation phenomenon a much more c. V. And im not sure why you know broader than the face mascolo so people who do not live in families who do not live and lots of communities have to learn to to not seeing their colleagues have friends. Their relatives for 2 or 3 months and they said so its a huge problem you mentioned also in the past physical contact basic physical contact something that we try to avoid with many people right now thats also a form of isolation to not have that correct. Thats right and i mean its a kind of surely if you or i will sniff it to china a couple of years ago and right afterwards well see japan so chinese keep context much more than japanese for your mom to do a Little German stop probably somewhere in the middle and so its a difficult thing if you are not used to that situation not being able to touch each other. It feels awkward and and reach humans also returned in our use of many 1000000 yes all that evolution. To to to console each other by physical touch and contact what kind of a psychological burden is that put on people to have to forego a lot of these social interactions. I think it did a particular. Study starting in 1950 said to have shown that children who were hospitalized for a few months or longer because of c. V. Iness at c. V. S. Impalements of their cognitive but also their social development we are working together on a corona project with because from 10 Different Countries and just now that data from kazakhstan came in in kazakhstan between mid march and late late may more than 800 people have coped themselves compared to only 14 in the year before so lets take a note said something is going on we dont know yet whether theyd all serious because some people have financial worries or other stressors but i think socially so isolation is a big factor contributing to that arrive at an easily overlooked aspect of the pandemic professor authentic from Current University in frankfurt thank you for joining us and time now to answer your questions about coven 19 over to our science correspondent their claims. How will those who sustain long term damage from covert dein 1000 respond to the flu this full. A lot of experts are worried that this winter were going to see this kind of perfect respiratory disease storm that feared 2nd wave of covert 19 will coincide with the yearly flu season now if that happens it could easily easily bring Health Systems really to the brink when it comes to influenza one of the one of the most vulnerable populations in the coming fall and winter will unquestionably be those people who have already been ravaged by couvade 19 for their own catching the flu in the months ahead could quickly turn life threatening thats one reason why doctors are encouraging as many people as possible to get a flu shot this year most especially those who suffered badly from cope and 19 and might have sustained lung damage from it a flu shot wont provide perfect protection but its much much better than nothing. Tests differentiate between sars cove 2 and the corona viruses that cause colds. This is a little complicated cystic with me when it comes to testing you have to distinguish between sensitivity and specificity now sensitivity describes how likely a test is to to properly detect an infection with the virus so so it affects what are called false negative results specificity on the other hand describes how likely or unlikely a test is to confuse the virus its supposed to detect with another one and report that someone is carrying the virus when they actually arent and thats called a false positive result now. Although the polymerase Chain Reaction or p. C. R. Tests that are being widely used in the pandemic are highly specific their sensitivity can vary depending on for example how the sample was collected so what that means in clear terms is that if you take a test and it turns out positive youre very likely to have the disease if it comes out negative however thats not an ironclad guarantee you dont have the disease test sensitivity is improving all the time but its not perfect. And before we let you go a story of how some Community Minded individuals in kyrgyzstan are helping diabetes patients who otherwise might have been overlooked during the pandemic. To lunch i can because it is one of 20 volunteers who began delivering insulin to patients by bicycle once the authorities lock down the capital bishkek in march now those restrictions have since been lifted but some patients including 73 year old meala cushing cova are still getting their medicines delivered by the man they know as their god. Thats all we have time for thanks for watching. Big crowds despite the danger of coronavirus people who shop at weekly markets in zimbabwe may be risking their lives but the car alternative. A new start of commuters fresh food and vegetables right to your door especially. If you say. He can go for. Armstrong really walk on the moon. Isnt the earth really flat hafter all. Of the government to use planes to toys r us. Conspiracy theories shred like wildfire on the internet. Some people are convinced they are true the. Guy needs to be on the cons of small groups who shout loud is another this and profit from a lack of interest among reasonable people. Scientists are studying why some are so susceptible to 1000 years that are obviously wrong and absurd. Until the internet amplifies it. It takes a lot more energy to refute rubbish than to propagate it in the 1st place. The conspiracy theories can provide comfort content like reality create another. Film about knowledge and belief trust and deception. Pursuit of the goal of starts july 1st on t w. The digital revolution is transforming our lives from smartphones and apps to new ways of working but what about then bombings can digitize ation help that we also look at the impact of 19 pandemic i think shuts down much of the world welcome to a new edition of the who africa im now tag me from lagos