Tag: catching covid-19

Day 267, part 2 – An even easier way

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We have – repeatedly – been through the ways that you can avoid infection and avoid infecting others with Covid-19, but there always seems to be some good reason silly excuse which means that you can’t follow through and actually do them, doesn’t there?

Wash your hands regularly

But my hands get so dry.
I have very sensitive skin, see? I get it from my mother’s side.

Wear a mask

It’s so hard to breath through a mask though, isn’t it?
And the rebreathing of all the carbon monoxide. So dangerous. So very dangerous.

Maintain a decent social distance

I’m just, like, a really tactile person. Like, I always have been.
I literally just need to hug everyone. I get it from my mother’s side.

Avoid poorly ventilated indoor spaces

Look, sure, my favourite bar is very small and has no windows.
But there are Happy Hour specials on vodka cocktails all this week!

I know, I know. It’s really not easy to alter your behaviour in order to protect other people.

But here’s a great plan and you don’t actually have to do anything at all. Quite literally.

If you are feeling unwell, just stay at home. 

This one has been on all the posters and the emails and everything else that you have seen and been sent, but it doesn’t make the headline advice because it’s clearly just so obvious.

Not rocket surgery.

Sadly, with hindsight, it seems that assumption might have been something of a misjudgement on our part. [sigh]

And so from now on, can we add this seemingly most straightforward of advice to the short list above?

Thanks so much.

Day 254 – Surrounded

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One of the last things that happened before the kids left school yesterday (see tomorrow’s post for more on that) was the news that one of them had a close contact in their class for Covid-19.

A lovely final kick in the nether regions from the 2020 school year.

But it does seem that this time around (even though we’re told by certain people that ‘tHeRe Is nO sEcOnD wAvE!’) the near misses are already nearer and more numerous than first time SA encountered Coronavirus earlier in the year.

While clearly sad and potentially rather scary, this is also a Good Thing. Too many people have been living under the pretence that Covid is something that only happens to other people and that they are magically immune to the virus. But although we’re only at the beginning of this next anticipated peak, it somehow feels closer to home. Only now is it starting to hit home that actually, there are people in their office or at their school, a friend or a neighbour that have been infected.

And unfortunately, not all the stories have happy endings.

I have watched the change in attitude in (some of) the skeptics that I know. It might all be a bit late, but there’s really no harm in modifying your behaviour, even if that switch only happens now. It might prevent you being infected or infecting someone else tomorrow.

It’s a piece of cloth over your nose and mouth. It’s washing your hands. It’s avoiding crowds and confined spaces. And sure: maybe even that doesn’t guarantee you total protection, but it gives you – and those around you – a much better chance.

Have we avoided it this time around? Watch this space, I guess.

Day 113, part 2 – Six months’ work

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A quick look at this piece [paywall] from the Wall Street Journal, sold to me with this intriguing morsel of clickbait:

This is important because if you know how you’re likely to get the virus, you can avoid that behaviour and therefore be less likely to get the virus. Good plan, Stan.

We’re six months into the crisis (apparently), and hard work, studying, scientific analysis and extensive expert liaison during those those 180 days have told us…

THIS:

YES! THAT’S… THIS:

Surface contamination and fleeting encounters are less of a worry than close-up, person-to-person interactions for extended periods

Absolutely amazing. Thanks, Sherlock.

This groundbreaking research comes from the same people that brought you:

You’re more likely to be hit by a car when lying the middle of a motorway, than if you were lying in bed at home.

And the crucial lesson that:

The chances of you being attacked by a tiger are lower if you avoid jumping into the tiger enclosure at your local zoo.

Of course, you my still contract Covid-19 from surface contamination and fleeting encounters, be hit by a car while lying in your bed or be attacked by a tiger while not actually jumping the tiger enclosure at your local zoo.

It’s just less of a worry.

 

Don’t have nightmares.