1.5 metres

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title: "1.5 metres" claim: "To stop the spread, stay 1.5m from others." caption: "The tape measure was for droplets. The slogan was for the virus." status: featured example: false published: 2026-08-15T09:31:00+10:00 person: Greg Hunt claimType: no-evidence-required year: 2020 tags: [covid, distance, hunt, murphy, "2020"] source: url: https://www.health.gov.au/ministers/the-hon-greg-hunt-mp/media/australian-government-text-message-regarding-coronavirus-prevention-steps date: "2020-03-25" publisher: Department of Health title: "Australian Government text message regarding Coronavirus prevention steps" quote: "To stop the spread, stay 1.5m from others, follow rules on social gatherings, wash hands, stay home if sick." evidence: path: 2020/one-point-five/source.md kind: note captured: "2026-08-14"

25 March 2020. A government SMS, 150 characters, endorsed by Chief Medical Officer Brendan Murphy. Greg Hunt’s release: “To stop the spread, stay 1.5m from others.” Also: “Be at least 1.5 metres away from everyone.”

This card files that verb. It does not file “stand where you like.”

What did have a receipt:

• 1.5 m is a droplet heuristic. Large drops fall. Fine aerosols hang around indoors and do not stop at a line of tape.
• “Stop the spread” is a hard stop. Distance can cut close-range spray. It is not a switch for an airborne virus in a badly ventilated room.
• The same release stacked wash hands, stay home if sick, don’t touch your face. Those are other meters. The number that stuck was one-point-five.

Grammar: 1.5 m, droplets. Logic: that is not “stop.” Rhetoric: a text message to every phone.