COVID-19 Sanitary Practices

drummerboy said:

Now, I ain't no doctor, but that can't possibly be correct.

Can it?

 My allergist (who is also an immunologist, I think they all are) told me years ago that the flu shot in his experience gives you an overall immunity boost. I'm not a doctor, but since this is his thing I believe him. I don't know if this is one of those "clinical experience as a doctor" type things, or "there is medical data showing this." But it could explain why a doctor would say this.

Other benefits are as others said, you don't want to get flu & covid-19 at the same time. Plus if you don't get the flu, you are keeping a space free in the health care system for somebody who might need it. 

Futurelearn.com has just opened enrolments in a free online course about covid-19:

COVID-19: Tackling the Novel Coronavirus. London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine; the educators are epidemiologists and researchers, there’s up-to-date pharmacology info etc. 

From memory, it’s three weeks, 2 hours a week at your own pace, starting on 23 March.  In the short time enrolments have been open, well over 500 of us have signed up, from all over the world. 

HatsOff said:

 My allergist (who is also an immunologist, I think they all are) told me years ago that the flu shot in his experience gives you an overall immunity boost. I'm not a doctor, but since this is his thing I believe him. I don't know if this is one of those "clinical experience as a doctor" type things, or "there is medical data showing this." But it could explain why a doctor would say this.

Other benefits are as others said, you don't want to get flu & covid-19 at the same time. Plus if you don't get the flu, you are keeping a space free in the health care system for somebody who might need it. 

 This is a more nuanced answer for sure. But I think it's irresponsible to state that the flu vaccine offers some protection against coronavirus. I haven't seen a shred of clinical evidence that it does.

Maybe the goal is to get more people to get flu vaccine by using a scare tactic. Clearly the worst thing would be getting a COVID-19 infection while actively infected with the flu. So tell people that.

In these days of social media, "flu vaccine offers some protection" can quickly mutate into "you're protected from coronavirus with a flu vaccine!" And that can lead to complacency.

Here's an article from University of Chicago Medicine that specifically states flu vaccine won't prevent coronavirus.

https://www.uchicagomedicine.org/forefront/prevention-and-screening-articles/wuhan-coronavirus

Another from Yale.

https://www.yalemedicine.org/stories/2019-novel-coronavirus/

Wash your hands, wash your hands, wash your hands.

The key is to wash your hands correctly.  No one does it correctly.  If you're washing your hands for 5 seconds, that's wrong.

mrincredible said:

 This is a more nuanced answer for sure. But I think it's irresponsible to state that the flu vaccine offers some protection against coronavirus. I haven't seen a shred of clinical evidence that it does.

Maybe the goal is to get more people to get flu vaccine by using a scare tactic. Clearly the worst thing would be getting a COVID-19 infection while actively infected with the flu. So tell people that.

In these days of social media, "flu vaccine offers some protection" can quickly mutate into "you're protected from coronavirus with a flu vaccine!" And that can lead to complacency.

 Totally fair. I wanted to walk this back when I read that Trump asked a room full of big pharma execs (evidently repeatedly) why the flu vaccine won't protect against coronavirus. That guy is so. dumb. i . can't. even.

yahooyahoo said:

Wash your hands, wash your hands, wash your hands.

The key is to wash your hands correctly.  No one does it correctly.  If you're washing your hands for 5 seconds, that's wrong.

 I saw a news article somewhere that referred to a Twitter thread with ideas for other things to sing to yourself if you can't stand singing "Happy Birthday" twice in order to make sure you're washing long enough.

But there was another advice in that thread, targeted to Marylanders: Wash your hands as if you need to change your contacts, but were just picking crabs. I've picked a crab or two in my day, but I think I'll consider how my eye felt after I accidentally rubbed it after chopping hot peppers. aaaagh.

Some good news I heard on NPR today was that guests reiterated that this is a relatively “easy” virus to kill, as opposed to something like a norovirus.  Experts are saying Coronavirus germs can be killed with alcohol or Chlorox wipes. And of course they repeated the necessity for proper hand washing.  

Scheduled to train into NYC tonight. Would you go?

rhw said:

Scheduled to train into NYC tonight. Would you go?

Absolutely.

I think if you're mindful of bare hands on surfaces on the train you should be fine. Bring a small bottle of hand sanitizer and use it if you have to touch common surfaces like the handrail on the train.

I work in a school. I wash my hands often and with soap and water. I try not to touch my face and I keep a distance if I know someone is not well.I tend to be somewhat anxious but I am not doing anything differently from what I normally do during cold/flu season. Not a thing. (Including not avoiding NYC.) Aren't the experts saying that 80% of people who get this virus have mild or no symptoms?

The video in this story show that not touching your face can be very difficult, even for medical professionals. The video shows medical professional touching their own faces right after they tell people not to do it.

Which why wearing a face mask and glasses is helpful.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2020/03/05/coronavirus-officials-touch-faces/

I figure that all of this hand-washing we're doing, trying not to touch our faces etc won't out-and-out stop this thing.  But it might slow it down. Every time we remember to sing "Africa" while handwashing and mindfully avoid rubbing our eyes without a tissue is one less chance for the bug to get through. And every delay in every case buys a little more time. 

Though I don't know about anybody else, but my hands aren't happy about this - I'm going through a fair amount of hand cream. 

Taking care..

I've noticed that I've noticed announcements of preventive measures that would not have particularly occurred to me such as:

• No "high fives" at NBA games

• No more "personal reusable cups" allowed at Starbucks

• The release of the new James Bond film delayed until next fall (empty theaters in China).

• Holy water use curtailed in Catholic Churches (of course the church said I shouldn't touch myself either!)

practice what you preach — especially on camera!

https://www.facebook.com/1113365891/posts/10220597312178770/

steel said:

I've noticed that I've noticed announcements of preventive measures that would not have particularly occurred to me such as:

• No "high fives" at NBA games

...

That was one of the silliest pieces of "advice" I've heard.  What do they plan to do about that round thing that is passed from hand to hand during the course of play?

I was watching the Township Committee meeting the other night. There was some good discussion about the virus. Then various groups and employees were applauded for their good deeds(not relevant to virus). I have never seen so much hugging,kissing and coughing. Another time this would be okay.

Put the kettle on level!

Shop Rite of Essex Green has no hand sanitizer (I overheard someone ask- I already have 7 cases in my locked bunker behind the bookshelf in the basement). Lots of products prominently displayed for surface cleaning which is good. 

On a gross note I kept catching myself touching my face. I had cleaned the handle of the shopping cart with a wipe, so I was congratulating myself but then I kept rubbing my eyes whenever they itched. I guess it's going to take a while to change a bad behaviour. 

I did buy a little extra soup and peanut butter and rice but nothing outlandish. There seemed to be plenty of toilet paper and paper towels available. 

mrincredible said:

On a gross note I kept catching myself touching my face. I had cleaned the handle of the shopping cart with a wipe, so I was congratulating myself but then I kept rubbing my eyes whenever they itched. I guess it's going to take a while to change a bad behaviour.

I congratulated myself on doing such a good job wiping my hands and the shopping car handle. After I checked out I remembered the scanner gun I held to scan the products at checkout, which is handled by everyone, was not wiped.

Its difficult. I'll try disposable food gloves.

oy. just came back from Livingston ShopRite. A complete zoo. There was even a line for the self-checkout.

They do have hand sanitizer if anyone's interested, but it was going fast. It's also only 70% alcohol. I thought 80% was the minimum for COVID?

Bought some anyway.

At first I wonder if I'm overreacting but then I think about it this way.

COVID-19 doesn't appear to be in our local community just yet. But the time to change my behavior is not when it does get here, but beforehand. If I practice good hand sanitization and not touching my face now then maybe I've ingrained those behaviors before an active local outbreak is happening.

I'm not sure gloves will help, unless you are super careful about not touching your face while wearing them. But make sure to take them off properly. Here's a great 40 second video for nurses that demonstrates good technique. The way she does it your hands don't make contact with the outside of the glove.

drummerboy said:

oy. just came back from Livingston ShopRite. A complete zoo. There was even a line for the self-checkout.

They do have hand sanitizer if anyone's interested, but it was going fast. It's also only 70% alcohol. I thought 80% was the minimum for COVID?

Bought some anyway.

 CDC says 60%.

https://www.cdc.gov/handwashing/show-me-the-science-hand-sanitizer.html

https://www.propublica.org/article/coronavirus-hand-sanitizers-cdc-recommended-alcohol

Oh. OK.

I think it’s smart to carry-on as if it’s here already- it probably is. I’ve read about many instances where people are infected but don’t have symptoms. There was recently a Nile cruise ship where there was one person infected. They thought no one else had it but tested and found that 12 ship employees were infected but asymptomatic. I was going to say, good thing they caught it early, but I just googled it again and it’s too late— there are people in the US from that ship that are now testing positive.

Yeah, because of the testing fiasco, we really have no clue of the number of cases, or the degree of penetration.

drummerboy said:

Yeah, because of the testing fiasco, we really have no clue of the number of cases, or the degree of penetration.

 Its disgraceful !!!

On Saturday Jan. 11 — a month and a half before the first Covid-19 case not linked to travel was diagnosed in the United States — Chinese scientists posted the genome of the mysterious new virus, and within a week virologists in Berlin had produced the first diagnostic test for the disease.

Soon after, researchers in other nations rolled out their own tests, too, sometimes with different genetic targets. By the end of February, the World Health Organization had shipped tests to nearly 60 countries.

The United States was not among them.

Why the United States declined to use the WHO test, even temporarily as a bridge until the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention could produce its own test, remains a perplexing question and the key to the Trump administration’s failure to provide enough tests to identify the coronavirus infections before they could be passed on, according to POLITICO interviews with dozens of viral-disease experts, former officials and some officials within the administration’s health agencies.

The slowness of the testing regimen — which, administration officials acknowledged this week, is still not producing enough tests to meet the national demand — was the first, and most sweeping, of many failures. So far there have been confirmed cases in at least 23 states, and at least 15 deaths, while the stock market plunged and an otherwise healthy economy braced for a major disruption.

But neither the CDC nor the coronavirus task force chaired by Vice President Mike Pence would say who made the decision to forgo the WHO test and instead begin a protracted process of producing an American test, one that got delayed by manufacturing problems, possible lab contamination and logistical delays.

https://www.politico.com/news/2020/03/06/coronavirus-testing-failure-123166?cid=apn

https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/community/home/get-your-household-ready-for-COVID-19.html

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