For up-to-date information, please see the C.D.C. https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/index.html or the W.H.O https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019 or ask your local health organization.
TL;DR - Please don’t be a jerk just because people are sick and there’s a flu (however serious) going around. Check C.D.C., W.H.O., and your local health organization for more factual information. Take care of yourself!
What I hope people remember and keep in mind as the virus is going around is that this is not malicious. People usually don’t intend to go around and make everyone sick. And with coronavirus’s varying incubation period ranging from 1 to 14 days, people who are contagious might not even realize they are sick until it’s too late. Any transmission is accidental, maybe careless if it could have been avoided with better hygiene, but still accidental.
Even though this virus originated in China and spread through Asian countries first that does not give license to discriminate against Asians or travelers coming from Asia or other stricken countries. You can treat people with caution and avoid physical contact with people, but do not let your suspicion of someone’s health give you license to treat people as anything less than human.
Stockpiling
I could say more about over-stockpiling and hoarding, but I’m not sure what to say about it. Buy what you need, but try not to buy out the whole shelf is my advice. If you are self-isolating, buy two, maybe three, weeks of food, but try not to buy the whole grocery store!
Face Masks
If you’re sick or coughing a lot, wear a face mask. At the time of writing, the CDC and W.H.O. do not recommend a mask for people who are healthy. The idea is, unless you are a health worker interacting with sick people, the masks are more preventative measures to contain the virus. It makes sense because a mask will help hold in the mucus and water droplets from uncontrollable coughing and sneezing. Healthy people don’t sneeze or cough (and if it’s a one time cough/sneeze the hand and arm is an excellent stop gap measure).
The W.H.O. has a nice F.A.Q. page which includes some steps on when and how to wear a mask (https://www.who.int/news-room/q-a-detail/q-a-coronaviruses).
Hygiene
Do wash your hands frequently! Use soap! Sing happy birthday to yourself twice! Pretend everyday is your birthday! ‘Nuf said.
On the other hand, if you’re sick of singing happy birthday, there are tons of alternatives. Here’s a link to BuzzFeed (https://www.buzzfeed.com/mikespohr/19-songs-to-sing-instead-of-happy-birthday-while-washing), but there are even more suggestions on on the world wide web. Or you can come up with the next great hit!
Ongoing and Looking to the Future
I am worried about how coronavirus will impact the world in the long-term, starting with the hits to the economy and the drastic changes in face-to-face interaction. I don’t have enough information to speculate except to be hopeful that we’ll pull through somehow.
And I know this is an ongoing situation, I’m praying for hard-hit communities and grieving families. Coronavirus will get worse before it gets better. The only comfort I can give is that so far at least half of the people who have fallen ill have recovered. John Hopkins has started this neat visualization showing the total number of confirmed cases and displaying numbers (https://www.arcgis.com/apps/opsdashboard/index.html#/bda7594740fd40299423467b48e9ecf6). What’s really cool is the red circles are total confirmed, but if you go to the bottom of the map and toggle to the ‘active’ case, you can see how many cases (orange circles) are ongoing. This is more apparent in China and other countries that had the outbreak longer, but the orange circles are much smaller than the red, which means that even though things are bad, there’s an end.
To end with a positive note, I found a cool article suggesting replacing handshakes with the Vulcan salute https://www.cnet.com/news/spocks-vulcan-salute-should-replace-handshakes-in-coronavirus-era/. Alternatively, if you want to hug someone, I’ve given ‘air-hugs’ whenever I was sick or more often on the other side of video call with relatives. It’s exactly how it sounds, pretend someone is in front of you, hug them, and send positive vibes their way.
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