COVID 19 - Take Precautions - Avoid Panic

As most readers or former readers of the blog know, I haven't been writing in any regular sense since 2016 or 2017. But I felt it important to post something about the current global health crisis.

I am a college professor with degrees in public health and that means I have training in disease transmission and prevention. My faculty appointment is with the College of Public Health at Temple University. This post refers to the strain of coronavirus (one word!) that began affecting people in December 2019, or COVID-19. There is a lot of information available about the virus and not all of it is accurate. I encourage you to follow the guidance of trusted sources - people who speak from science and medical backgrounds. Authorities, such as the WHO and the CDC -even my colleagues at Temple.

So do be prepared, do take precaution, and don't panic.

COVID19 is not the flu or a cold, it is more serious because it is likely to spread more broadly (no wall of protection from a vaccine), but the symptoms may FEEL like a bad cold or the flu. Most healthy people, those without chronic disease or compromised immune systems, can fight off the virus within 5 or so days just like they do with colds or flu. People who have been exposed to the virus, with or without symptoms, could transmit it to others and those others may not be able to fight it off in a few days. The severe cases - when the virus goes from upper respiratory to lower respiratory (lungs) - require hospitalization and it appears, have a higher mortality rate or case fatality rate, than the flu.

Social distancing - not hanging out with people - is what you do when you are well - quarantine is what you do when you are exposed - and isolation is needed when you are sick. Please please don't go around anyone if you have symptoms. Many work places are closing and the US Congress is working on a emergency resolution that will provide sick pay to people who do not have it with their jobs.

And you have probably heard that we are trying to flatten the curve - that is what these social distance measures are for... stopping a spike in cases and mortality. It is spreading the disease out - so COVID-19 might be around longer, but less people get sick and die - and less people get sick at the same time. It also prevents us from over burdening the health care system. If we have a lot of cases in the hospital, then doctors cannot treat everyone and all the other reasons people go to the hospital are still happening - it would overwhelm the system. Read more here. 

I don't need to repeat or try to say things differently than the CDC so you can read the latest info at this website. I will say, there are 5 steps for washing hands and the last one is important too.
1) wet hands 2) use soap 3) rub and scrub hands, 4) rinse hands 5) DRY YOUR HANDS thoroughly with a paper towel/clean towel.  Wet hands are NOT clean hands.  If you cannot wash your hands this way, use hand sanitizer.

Take care of yourselves and try to avoid the hysteria and false information.