Daly and Newton via Getty Images A group of people got drunk together in the name of Covid research. A group of people got drunk in a lab to monitor how well they maintained social distancing after a tipple or two. Spoiler alert: they didn’t manage very well. More than 200 young, healthy social drinkers were assigned to drink or not drink in various experimental conditions for the study. Participants were asked to bring a friend along; they were then either assigned to drink with their mate, have a non-boozy bevvy with their mate, or do the same with someone else’s friend (a.k.a a total stranger) – all while being filmed.