Coronavirus (COVID-19) Prevention & Health Tips

The COVID-19 is an infectious disease similar to the cold. It travels in droplets when you cough and sneeze, and in other body fluids. Personal hygiene is the best prevention. View Conditions We Treat

Wash your hands often, for at least 20 seconds, with soap and water or an alcohol-based hand rub.
Avoid touching your eyes, nose, or mouth with unwashed hands
Avoid close contact with people who are sick
Watch for these symptoms of coronavirus: runny nose, headache, cough, sore throat, fever and a general ill feeling.

Stay home if you have cold-like symptoms or suspect you may have COVID-19. Cover your mouth and nose with a tissue when you cough or sneeze, then throw the tissue in the trash and wash your hands. Clean and disinfect objects and surfaces that you touch. Avoid close contact with others and stay home while you are sick. Drink plenty of liquids and get extra rest. Contact your health provider with any concerns.

The coronavirus situation is still rapidly evolving and recommendations are subject to change as additional information becomes available.

Meh..

good advice!

In case anyone has been braindead since kindergarten...

Nice reminder. Someone might want to tell the CDC.

Here's another thing; Do not forget to wear your mask...ops? Are you guys doing this all the time?

No. GFY.

Hygiene Theater.

The real threat is airborne aerosols which you inhale while talking to an infected person, or those which linger in the air for hours after an infected person has been talking, coughing, sneezing, or worst of all, singing inside a building.

And masks do little to inhibit aerosol transmission.

Emerging evidence, peer-reviewed and otherwise, suggests they do.

"Both surgical masks and unvented KN95 respirators, even without fit-testing, reduce the outward particle emission rates by 90% and 74% on average during speaking and coughing, respectively, compared to wearing no mask, corroborating their effectiveness at reducing outward emission."

from https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-020-72798-7, impact factor 3.998.

Who cares

Anyone had Covid-19? I know like a handful of people. Most of them didn't even feel ill. Most of them are youngish, well 40 and under.

It's mostly unremarkable for anyone under 40, unless they have a pre-existing condition.

Lejuan said:

Emerging evidence, peer-reviewed and otherwise, suggests they do.

"Both surgical masks and unvented KN95 respirators, even without fit-testing, reduce the outward particle emission rates by 90% and 74% on average during speaking and coughing, respectively, compared to wearing no mask, corroborating their effectiveness at reducing outward emission."

from https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-020-72798-7, impact factor 3.998.

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I knew it did 'something', but didn't expect it would be as high as 90%. I assumed it would be much lower because it doesn't block my inhalation by 90%. Obviously, O2 is much smaller than H2O, but there is definite interference with upper respiratory operation wearing a mask. Not remotely 74% (let alone 90).

What interests me is how significant aerosol projection is when you're not a mouth-breather, not talking, not coughing, etc. How dangerous is a person, quietly breathing through their nose?

I'm mainly a nose breather myself and have wondered the same thing. And if it has any bearing on my likelihood of inhaling virus aerosols. I've found myself holding my breath as I walk past people in any case.

I'm kinda like that already. Social hygiene is an instinct at this point. My first job was as a hospital janitor. Cross-contamination is a principle you don't forget after cleaning a NICU at 17. I've lived on the streets in several metropolitan areas. Since I grew up, I've worked in enough hotels that I'm not a fan of touching what other people have touched whatsoever. Breathing their air isn't like having them cough or sneeze near you, but it's still more than I need from random strangers. As a general rule, if I can smell their breath, they're way too close.

85% of mask-wearers get and spread the virus

Doctors/experts have talked out of both sides of their mouths, for and against masks, etc.

99% survivability rate for everyone under 70. 70 and up, over 95% survivability rate.

You can't stop the spread of cold/flu.

This "pandemic" is not anything near what it has been sold-as.

This virus is now political, in the same way the climate has politicized.

The OP's post is ridiculous because it's just the same thing we've been told a million times before.

Pilky said:

85% of mask-wearers get and spread the virus[...]

Click to expand...

Got a source for that? Thanks!

devilof76 said:

I knew it did 'something', but didn't expect it would be as high as 90%. I assumed it would be much lower because it doesn't block my inhalation by 90%. Obviously, O2 is much smaller than H2O, but there is definite interference with upper respiratory operation wearing a mask. Not remotely 74% (let alone 90).

What interests me is how significant aerosol projection is when you're not a mouth-breather, not talking, not coughing, etc. How dangerous is a person, quietly breathing through their nose?

Click to expand...

I would've thought aerosol projection from the nose would be negligible, but I came across this paper that equates nasal breathing to mouth breathing in terms of max. propagation distance (0.6m vs 0.8m): The exhalation airflow profiles for both nasal and mouth breathing are quite similar, being mainly conical and differing only in their relative direction, with similar propagation distances and airflow velocities. I haven't cross-checked any of the citations though, or the reputation of the journal. If the research is valid, then it supports the 1.5m social distancing guidelines being more than adequate in preventing virus transmission.

This video from University New South Wales shows projection for coughing, sneezing and regular speech, without a mask and with 3 different types/grades of masks:

Then the question would be how long vapor remains suspended. Large droplets fall quickly. If .6m-.8m is the end of the airborne story for vapor, I'd say that qualifies as negligible and I'd think distance is all you really need. If you can't have the 1.5m, then a mask becomes useful.

Things at work are pretty ridiculous. All employees wearing masks, guests asked to wear masks, and no mask requirement in the bar. The guests expelling the most wind from their faces are not required to contain it. We've had no cases and we've been pretty busy. I assume that means vapor falls as quickly as droplets, or the ubiquity of the virus has been slightly overstated.

devilof76 said:

Then the question would be how long vapor remains suspended. Large droplets fall quickly. If .6m-.8m is the end of the airborne story for vapor, I'd say that qualifies as negligible and I'd think distance is all you really need. If you can't have the 1.5m, then a mask becomes useful.

Things at work are pretty ridiculous. All employees wearing masks, guests asked to wear masks, and no mask requirement in the bar. The guests expelling the most wind from their faces are not required to contain it. We've had no cases and we've been pretty busy. I assume that means vapor falls as quickly as droplets, or the ubiquity of the virus has been slightly overstated.

Click to expand...

Yep, from what I've been reading distance alone is a pretty effective measure. The current research suggests that the wearing of masks is useful in places where you can't avoid close contact with people, like busy shopping centres and public transport.

People in Oz are washing their hands more and staying away from work when they have cold symptoms - stuff they should have been doing all along but hardly ever did. That practice alone has pretty much eradicated this season's influenza.

The big spreader in Oz, and seems to me elsewhere, isn't strangers but people you're close to. They're the people it's hard to resist shaking hands with, hugging, kissing etc. It's also why the demographics at the centre of most of the spikes here are certain ethnocultural groups that have big families that like to get together a lot.

Inconsistent guidelines/mandates like what's going on at your work just make people suspicious of the advice they're being given. Once a population loses trust in health policy, compliance with even the effective measures goes out the window.