The World Health Organization has declared that COVID-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus, has a . As of March 4, 2020, nine deaths have been reported in the U.S.
, a professor of epidemiology and biostatistics in the 性视界传媒 School of Public Health, provides essential safety information for you, from disinfectants to storing food and supplies.
1. What can I do to prevent becoming infected?
When people are sick with a respiratory disease like COVID-19, they cough or sneeze particles into the air. If someone is coughing near you, the virus could easily land on your eyes, nose or mouth. These particles travel only about six feet and fall out of the air rather quickly. However, they do land on surfaces that you touch all the time, such as railings, doorknobs, elevator buttons or subway poles. The average person also touches their face , and about half of these touches are to the mouth, eyes, and nose, which are the mucosal surfaces that the COVID-19 virus infects.
We public health professionals can鈥檛 stress this enough: is the best thing you can do to protect yourself from a number of diseases including COVID-19. While hand-washing is preferred, hand sanitizers with at least a 60% alcohol concentration can be an effective alternative to always using soap and water, but only if your hands are not visibly soiled.
2. Wouldn鈥檛 it be easier just to clean surfaces?
Not really. Public health experts don鈥檛 fully understand the role these surfaces play in the transmission of disease, and you could still be infected by a virus that landed directly on you. We also don鈥檛 know how long the coronavirus that causes COVID-19 can survive on hard surfaces, although other coronaviruses can survive for up to on hard surfaces like stair railings.
Frequent cleaning could remove the virus if a surface has been contaminated by a sick person, such as when someone in your household is sick. In these situations, it is important to use a disinfectant that is thought to be effective against the COVID-19 virus. Although specific products have , there are many products that are . Cleaning recommendations using 鈥渘atural鈥 products like vinegar are popular on social media, but there is no evidence that they are effective against coronavirus.
You also have to use these products properly in accordance with the directions, and that typically means keeping the surface wet with the product for a period of time, often several minutes. Simply wiping the surface down with a product is usually not enough to kill the virus.
In short, it isn鈥檛 possible to properly clean every surface you touch throughout your day, so hand-washing is still your best defense against COVID-19.
3. What about wearing masks?
While people have turned to masks as protection against COVID-19, masks often provide nothing more than a false sense of security to the wearer. The masks that were widely available at pharmacies, big-box stores and home improvement stores 鈥 until a worried public bought them all 鈥 work well at filtering out large particles like dust. The problem is that the particles that carry the COVID-19 virus are small and easily move right through dust masks and surgical masks. These masks may provide some protection to other people if you wear one while you are sick 鈥 like coughing into a tissue 鈥 but they will do little to protect you from other sick people.
, which filter out 95% of the small, virus-containing particles, are worn in health care settings to protect doctors and nurses from exposure to respiratory diseases. These masks provide protection only if they are worn properly. They require special testing to ensure that they provide a seal around your face and that air doesn鈥檛 leak in the sides, defeating the purpose of the mask. People wearing the mask also must take special steps when removing the mask to ensure that they are not contaminating themselves with the viral particles that the mask filtered out. If you don鈥檛 wear the mask properly, don鈥檛 remove it properly or put it in your pocket and reuse it later, even the best mask won鈥檛 do you any good.
4. Should I stockpile food and supplies?
As a general preparedness step, you should have a three-day supply of and in case of emergencies. This helps protect from disruptions to the water supply or during power outages.
While this is great general preparation advice, it doesn鈥檛 help you during a disease outbreak. There is no reason to expect COVID-19 to cause the same damage to our infrastructure that we Americans would see after an earthquake, hurricane or tornado, so you shouldn鈥檛 plan for it in the same way. While you don鈥檛 want to run out of toilet paper, there is no reason to buy .
A Wuhan-type quarantine is extremely unlikely, as a quarantine won鈥檛 stop the spread of a disease that has been found all over the world. The types of disruptions that you should plan for are small disruptions in your day-to-day life. You should have a plan in case you or a family member gets sick and you can鈥檛 leave the house for a few days. This includes stocking up on basic things you need to take care of yourself, like food and medicines.
If you do get sick, the last thing you are going to want to do is run to the grocery store, where you would expose other people to your illness. You shouldn鈥檛 wait until you are out of an important medication before requesting a refill just in case your pharmacy closes for a couple days because all their employees are sick. You also should plan for how to handle issues like temporary school or day care closures. You don鈥檛 need to prepare anything extreme; a little common-sense preparation will go a long way to make your life easier if you or your loved ones become sick.
