Pandemic 'social bubbles' work just as well if you pair up with people who have similar work schedules instead of similar family sizes.
March 26, 2026
Original Paper
Household Bubbling Strategies for Epidemic Control and Social Connectivity
SSRN · 6462007
The Takeaway
During lockdowns, policies usually focused on the size of the household to limit spread. This research shows that organizing 'bubbles' around employment status allows significantly more people to maintain social connections without increasing the overall epidemic risk.
From the abstract
During the COVID-19 crisis, policymakers have implemented "social bubble" merging strategies, which allowed people from different households to meet and interact. Although these measures can mitigate the negative effects of extreme isolation, they also introduce additional contacts that may facilitate disease spread. As a result, several modeling studies have explored the epidemiological impact of different household-merging strategies, in which the selection of households to be merged is guided