COVID-19 - very good advice.

[Ms. Toad]

A friend of mine posted this on FB. I don't know if he knows the author - it was apparently initially intended for friends and family of the author, but has gone viral. The author is social epidemiologist and demographer by training with a master of public health and a doctorate in public health from UCLA Fielding School of Public Health

What I think about COVID-19 this morning

First and foremost: we are going to see a tremendous increase in the number of US cases of COVID-19 in the next week. This is not because of some new pattern in the spread of the disease, but rather due to a major change in the requirements to be tested. Until yesterday, if you had flulike illness but had not recently traveled to China, Italy, South Korea, or Iran, you could not be tested. This is just the way healthcare works, you get tested if you meet the case definition and the case definition included travel. As of yesterday, you can be tested if you are sick and have a doctor's order to be tested. So expect things to feel a lot more panicky all of a sudden. We will see hundreds or thousands of new cases as a result of testing increases.

. . .

What can we do? Our focus should be on *slowing down the spread* of this disease so that we have time to get caught up. Here is my advice:

. . .

I have started washing my hands each time I enter a new building and after being in shared spaces (classrooms especially), in addition to the standard practice of washing after using the bathroom and before eating. Soap and water. Hand sanitizer also kills this virus, as does rubbing alcohol (the main ingredient in hand sanitizer).

. . .

Ask your child's school about their hygiene plan, if they haven't already told you what it is. Keep your child home if they are sick. I am planning to email our school nurse right after this to ask if they need my volunteer help cleaning surfaces.

. . .

6. If you are sick, stay home. Please! For the love of all that is holy. Stay at home. Your contributions to the world are really just not that important.

. . .

Thanks for checking your facts! Go science!

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1cI_D3ULz6-qoBRMND8dIVz-naW92MqATphBg5bQEIjg/mobilebasic?fbclid=IwAR0tP4Idzn-9l0iG2-g_gJIdnTvH5vZksdf9_5Gj9ARf6w1v2ksz1mc7_60

Lots more at the link - I had a hard time lmiting myself to a reasonable number of paragraphs. Nice and easy to read.

[uppityperson]

1. Slowing down the speed of spread will avoid overwhelming the healthcare system

Eventually many people will have had it, but if we can have only a handful severely I'll at any one time, that'll help.

[Ms. Toad]

2. Yup.

That's likely our ownly hope for a decent outcome, at this point.

[applegrove]

3. That is so true. I had not thought of that. Slowing it down will also allow time, 12 to 18 months,

to come up with a vaccine.