COVID-19 has arrived. If it isn't yet in your country, there's a fair chance that it will soon be. No amount of crying on television will make it go away. You will not be spared by insulting the virus's roots, being sexist, perpetuating conspiracy theories, and hoarding a bunch of toilet papers.
No one will support tweeting; only you will be distracted from all the tasks involved. Neither should you put your head in the sand and say it's "not that bad." All those are wasting your time that could be spent saving your life and other people's lives.
Considering the amount of media freakouts on past epidemics over the years, I have to admit that they were very less isolated and managed. Such as Ebola, Zika and so on. At first, most of us did not even take the Convid-19 seriously.
But the coronavirus is already present and it is spreading further. And a couple of readers contacted me and asked for my thoughts on it.
So I did some work, gathered some details and here we are. And today I'm going to tell you guys this latest pandemic's bad news and good news that we're all facing and how you can protect yourself.
Here's The Bad News
Coronavirus is indeed one of the most contagious diseases like... ever. Years ago, during the worst flu epidemics, for each any one person who gets the flu, they spread it to 1.5 other people, and that's on average.
The most recent worst one was the H1N1 "Swine flu" back in 2009 which infected 10-20% of the entire planet.
Apparently, coronavirus is almost four times more contagious than even the swine flu. For every person who catches Convid-19, they transmit it to almost five other people. That's scary as hell.
And even more scary, whereas the swine flu only kills roughly 0.10 percent of the people it infects, coronavirus kills somewhere around 2-3%.
Coronavirus should have us losing our minds. It's three times more contagious, 20 times more dangerous than the worst flu.
When the virus first began to spread in December, with as little as 100-1000 cases, the world didn't take it very serious. China were rather underprepard for it, Donald Trump stated that the virus would mysterious go away.
Currently they have recorded a total of over a million cases of coronavirus worldwide. Current cases range from over one million, while the total deaths is over 700,000 with about 500,000 recovered victims.
But we don't know what we don't know. There might just be some sort of miraculous vaccine discovery next month. A change of weather might slightly eradicate much of the virus.
It might even randomly mutate and become less contagious. Or it may just be the end of the world. Nobody knows. Certainly I don't.
But calm down, here's The Good News.
The virus emerged in China and in one of the most populated places on earth. Wuhan. Which has a population of over 20 million people.
When you see 70,000 have been infcted with coronavirus, that sounds like a big number. But if Wuhan was a town of 1,000 people, that's the equivalent of only three individuals being infected.
Also, it must be stated that the Chinese government tried to cover up the outbreak at first, rather than raise an early alarm for it's neighbouring countries.
So there were many unnecessary transmissions and deaths due to that. But now that everyone is aware and on the same level, we have been seeing better containments and treatments.
Similar to influenza, the vast majority of deaths related to the virus are people over the age of 65 and 70. For young and healthy people, it is almost never fatal.
So what can we anticipate is going to happen in the coming months? I have no clue. No one does. There is a small chance this thing could be cataclysmic.
A global pandemic that hasn’t been seen in 100 years is here. But if I had to bet my money on it, I’d say we’re looking at something similar to the H1N1 flu in 2009.
It will make its way around the world, cause panic and fear here and there, but if you just try to stay healthy and hygienic, and stay indoors, things should be fine.
HERE'S HOW YOU CAN PROTECT YOURSELF
What you can control, as always, is how you respond. In this case, what matters is not what others are doing or have done, but what you do.
That means: Keeping up to date with the latest advice from the World Health Organization (and then actually following it!) Wash your hands often, cover your nose when you sneeze, avoid large public gatherings, cancel unnecessary travel and work meetings.
Don’t be stupid. Don’t think you’re the exception. Don’t do things that benefit you at the expense of others. If you feel sick, stay at home. Stay at home even if you don’t feel sick. Do your part.
The goal now for you and I is to try to flatten the curve. To slow the spread of the virus until our hospitals can handle them. We must prevent the unnecessary spreading of the virus.
To prevent unnecessary overloading of medical professionals, emergency services, airlines, and other critical infrastructures, so that the people who actually need it can access it.
No single individual can accomplish this by themselves, but each of us, acting rightly, collectively, can make a big difference.
HERE'S WHAT YOU MUST DO
1- Practice social distancing: Stay away from people outside of your family. Avoid unnecessary social events and public gatherings, work from home if possible. If you have employees, do what you can so they can do the same.
Implement common-sense measures so that your employees and customers are safe. Reduce face-to-face interactions as much as possible, grant generous sick leave to those who request it, and limit the number of customers at a single time.
2- Practice safety measures: Wash your hands as much as possible, especially before you eat. Don’t touch your face, don't pick your nose, and cough into a tissue or your elbow. Don’t shake hands with people, press buttons with knuckles or elbows, and avoid food that is uncooked for now.
3- Help others: If you know your neighbor is elderly or cannot afford enough food to stay indoors, see if you can help them with what they need without them leaving their house. Think of the wonderful generosity of this Chinese company sending face masks to Italy and a quote that says, "on them, no less."
4- Hold off on visiting elderly friends or family members: Yes, you’re worried about them. Yes, you miss them. But you put them and their community at risk by stopping at their old folks home or visiting their house. Even if you feel healthy, even if the person you’re visiting seems to be in good health, the safest option is to wait to see them. Wait until all these fades away.
5- Self-quarantine and self-isolate: If you believe you may have been exposed to COVID-19, stay in your home for two weeks to keep others safe. And if you fall sick, whether it's a fever or headache, isolate yourself at home as long as symptoms remain moderate. If you have trouble breathing, as an older adult (70+), have pre-existing lung conditions or are immunocompromised, be ready to call your doctor or visit an ER.
6- Use your time wisely: Don’t let the possible weeks or months of isolation be for nothing. You can’t control how long you’ll need to engage in social distancing, but you can control if you spend that time productively. The version of you who steps out of quarantine at some future date can be better than the version that entered it, if you try. Learn a skill, read some books, discover new things and learn. That's how you grow.
7- Educate: Don’t spread misinformation about the virus. Instead, make sure others know how to best handle the spread of the virus. If you’re someone with a platform, your number one obligation right now is to not spread bullshit or breaking information. You’re not helping, you’re hurting.
Remember that panic doesn’t help. Rushing to sell your stocks; ignoring the needs of others; freaking out; being cross with or cruel to others. You know what this does? It takes a bad situation and makes it worse. Cherish the people you love and the present moment, as scary as it is. It is all we have for certain.
Most of all, we need to learn from this. Too many of us didn’t take this threat seriously for too long. We wasted much of the time that China, Italy, US and other countries are now paying for dearly.
We might not be able to undo what has happened or how we got here, but we must learn from this painful lesson. We owe it to our children and to the future to make changes that will prevent it from happening again.
As bad as it sounds, this year is going to be incredibly difficult for all of us, all over the world.
Stay safe! Until next week.
Isa.
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