COVID-19, Coronavirus, Pandemic
March 9, 2020
by Jody Moss
Bet you have heard those terms recently way more than you want to. Have you also heard the statement with the crown, “Stay Calm and Wash your hands?” So this is happening, this COVID-19 pandemic. And it can be scary. Especially for those of us with older lungs. But really stay calm and we will all get through this.
Just a caution – information is changing daily, even hourly, on this virus, so new information is sure to emerge before this is published. This is a common sense approach with what we know.
First, let’s assume you have been living in a cave somewhere and haven’t heard about this virus.
What is the Coronavirus: The Coronavirus Disease 2019 is a new strain identified in December 2019. COVID 19 comes from Corona-CO, Virus-VI, Disease-D, 2019-19 (in case you like trivia). The bad news, this virus can cause severe illness and pneumonia in some people, and has been highly contagious throughout the world. The good news, most people will experience a mild version similar to a cold. The Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC) is calling this a pandemic, which is the spread of a disease over the world.
How it is spread:
- Via respiratory droplets produced when an infected person coughs or sneezes.
- Between people who are in close contact with one another (within about 6 feet).
- By touching a surface with the live virus and then touching the mouth, nose, or eyes
Who is at Risk? Some groups are at higher risk for complications, including adults who are 60 and better (us), people with weakened immune systems and/or underlying conditions, and pregnant women.
Symptoms:
- Fever
- Cough
- Difficulty breathing
Here are several sites for more information – A few county web sites have good, regularly updated information:
https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/index.html
http://www.clallam.net/Coronavirus/
https://jeffersoncountypublichealth.org/1429/COVID-19
https://www.dshs.wa.gov/altsa/covid-19
What should you do: For all people it is always a good practice to:
- Stay home if you have symptoms of being sick (cough, difficulty breathing, fever, sore throat, general feeling of being unwell, etc.)
- Frequently wash hands with soap and warm water for 20 seconds.
- Carry hand sanitizer (minimum 60% alcohol) for when you cannot wash your hands.
- Use wipes daily on frequently touched surfaces (at work, at home, at stores, etc.). The good news is that the virus last only a few hours on most surfaces and is easily removed with soap and water or cleaning wipes.
- Avoid touching your eyes, nose, mouth – so so hard!
- Maintain distance between speakers (6 feet), avoid shaking hands, hugging, kissing others – practice the elbow or fist bump instead.
- Avoid close contact with people who are sick.
- Create your personal plan: are you in a high risk group? Any family members at high risk? https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/community/home/get-your-household-ready-for-COVID-19.html
Adopt Social Distancing Behaviors: We should all begin adopting simple behaviors as a general public health practice, like when we learned to cough and sneeze into our elbows. These behaviors include not shaking hands, not hugging, maintaining distance from speakers, staying at home when sick, and avoiding crowds when possible, etc.
What about masks? If you are healthy, a mask is not necessary. Masks are intended to protect others from you. Definitely ask about a mask if you have the symptoms described above, although technically you should be staying at home, remember? If you need to go to a doctor for this condition, let them know ahead of time. Do not be a mask hoarder: There is a mask shortage in this country and they are needed most for health care providers and first responders. Remember, most people will experience a mild cold-like virus.
Should I see my doctor?
- If you have symptoms – cough, fever, shortness of breath, call your regular doctor first.
- Do not go to the emergency room. Emergency rooms need to be able to serve those with the most critical needs. If you have difficulty breathing, you may not have COVID-19, but do call 911.
- If you’re over 60 with underlying conditions like diabetes, heart disease, and lung disease, and have symptoms contact your doctor right away.
- If you are over 60 with underlying conditions but no symptoms, contact your doctor to make a plan for preventing and managing this condition.
- If you have symptoms and were exposed to someone confirmed to have the virus, call your doctor.
- If you have mild symptoms, treat this like the common cold, stay home, drink lots of fluid, rest, avoid sharing germs with people in your home, and get caught up with a good book.
What about testing? Testing has been limited because of manpower and few test kits (which is more complicated that this sentence sounds). Not everyone with symptoms is being tested. Our public health departments are working on this and expect to expand testing in the coming weeks.
Most importantly, when we have a new emerging infectious disease it is important to understand that our knowledge and information is evolving. Staying up to date on information from the CDC and Department of Health websites can be helpful and reassuring.
Because we are now such a publicized pandemic, people are reacting in some predictably outlandish ways like stealing masks from the doctor’s office; coming to the emergency room with sniffles; buying enough toilet paper to be holed up at home for a year. Included below is an interesting article from Harvard University which describes our reactions and how they can help and hurt us:
How do People React in a Pandemic?
- What do we know about people’s reactions during a flu pandemic? As H1N1 swine flu has made clear, answers to this question depend on the severity of the outbreak:
If it is a pandemic wave causing mild disease and low death rates, research on people’s reactions to the risk of infection, possible death and a more severe outbreak provides important guidelines for journalists covering this story. - If the outbreak is already causing severe disease and high death rates, research on people’s reactions to similar disasters can guide journalists’ understanding of what to expect as the tragedy unfolds.
Peter Sandman, Risk Communication Consultant, Princeton, New Jersey, on Human Reactions to Risk and Why Denial is a Bigger Problem than Panic – Reactions and Overreactions
When people initially become aware of a risk, they overreact. They have a temporary short-term overreaction. People pause what they’re doing, become hyper-vigilant, check out the environment more carefully than they normally would and—this is perhaps the most important characteristic of the adjustment reaction—they take precautions that may be excessive, may be inappropriate, and are certainly premature.
For example, a person might go get Tamiflu, even though the government thinks that they shouldn’t.
The knee-jerk reaction of overreacting early to a potential crisis is extremely useful. Like other knee-jerk reflexes, it protects us. People who have gone through it come out on the other side calmer and better able to cope. People become able to cope with a crisis by going through an adjustment reaction, either in mid-crisis, in which case they’re late in coping, or they do that in advance of the crisis, in which case they are ready to cope.
We want people to have this reaction early rather than late, and the way to accomplish that is to guide the adjustment reaction, rather than trashing it, as it seems officials often do and journalists sometimes do.
Denial versus panic
The problem isn’t panic. The problem is denial. Denial is why panic is rare. We are equipped with a circuit breaker and when we’re about to panic, we go into denial instead. Denial is not useful in that people in denial don’t take precautions, but it’s preferable to panic. People who are panicking do themselves harm. Those who are in denial don’t accomplish much, but at least they don’t make things any worse. Denial is nature’s way of protecting us from the horrible effects of panic and, whereas panic is rare, denial is extremely common.
We need conscious effort on the part of both the sources and on the part of journalists to protect people from denial by seducing them out of denial.
Five principle bulwarks against denial
Legitimize fear. People go into denial because they don’t feel entitled to be afraid. The more entitled people feel to be afraid, the less likely they are to go into denial. This is why the message, “Don’t be afraid,” is a very destructive message in serious circumstances. Much superior is the message, “Well, of course, you’re afraid, I’m afraid too. We’re all afraid. We’ll get through this together.”
Things to do. It’s not that if you have things to do you are less afraid; it’s that if you have things to do you are better able to bear your fear. The military understands this very well. It tries to keep soldiers busy so that they can tolerate their fear.
Things to decide. Whenever possible, offer people menus of things to do so they have opportunities to decide what they want to do and what they don’t want to do. This makes them less likely to go with the denial, because it makes them more able to bear their fear.
Love. Anyone who has had the experience of loving knows that we are much better able to bear fear on behalf of those we love than on our own behalf. The military knows well that soldiers don’t fight for their country, they fight for their buddies. Again, it’s not that loving makes you less afraid, it’s that loving makes you more able to bear your fear.
Hate. This is the more controversial bulwark. Having somebody you hate, or maybe a virus you hate, can enable you to bear your fear and hang in there without tripping the circuit breaker into denial.
Fear is a solution, not the problem. It simply makes no sense to say, “I want you to take precautions, but I don’t want you to be afraid.”
Five stages of reaction to a disaster
Using evidence from a systematic study of major disasters in the past 50 years, epidemiologist Sandro Galea, University of Michigan Epidemiologist, has developed a framework that identifies five stages of reaction to a disaster:
Self-Preservation: The first reaction to a disaster is fear and initial anxiety. People are afraid. They seek information. They do what is necessary to figure out how to save themselves.
Group Preservation: With the right information provided, there is a tremendous effort—usually guided by what we call pro-social behavior—to help others.
Blame Setting: This involves internalizing and many psychological consequences fall in place during this stage. With disasters, we talk a lot about emotional responses, about change in normal activities. This leads into efforts to try to figure out who is to blame and to do something about it by addressing the vulnerabilities and strengths that we have that resulted in that hazard becoming a disaster.
Justice Seeking: This involves externalizing. It’s part of seeking redress and leads to taking action against the perceived perpetrators of the disaster.
Renormalizing: Individuals and groups adapt to the threat.
Jody Moss is the Director of Contracts Management & Planning for the Olympic Area Agency on Aging and can be reached at 360-379-5064. For help with senior or adults with disability questions call Information and Assistance at 360-452-3221 in Clallam and 360-385-2552 in Jefferson.