By now, most of us have heard about the COVID-19 virus (novel coronavirus is another name for it) making the rounds of the world. It’s real. It’s making people sick. Some of them may not make it. Many will recover. But, the fact is: it’s a pandemic and it’s going to affect a lot of people.

How many will fall to this virus? The numbers could be staggering, partly because the onset has seemed so sudden. Such pandemics don’t occur every year, but they do happen. We’ve seen stories about the Spanish Flu early in the 20th Century, and SARS and others. This one has been coming on for months.

I’m not a doctor nor qualified to give medical advice, but I can echo what so many other qualified experts have been trying to tell us: it’s coming and there are steps we can take to avoid getting it, or spreading it if we DO get it.

Virus Review

Viruses are like bad political ideas or trashy tabloid stories from Fox News: they don’t care who or what you are or what you believe in or who you voted for. They just want to hitch a ride with the first handy carrier they can find. Viruses are physical beings that exist to live and reproduce. Unfortunately, our bodies are unwitting hosts, as people around the world are finding out. Our habits of mingling together (and yes, we ARE a social species) give the viruses a stress-free way to freeload around the world. Works for them. Not so great for us.

Fixing the Virus Problem

This virus is spreading through personal contact and through ingestion of virus-laden droplets that we either breathe in or pick up from other people or surfaces that they’ve been in contact with.

Science and scientific understanding of how this thing is spreading, and how a vaccine may be devised, are key to getting through this pandemic. Equally important: individual action. Those are going to help us. Not magical toothpaste. Nor voodoo economics. And thoughts and prayers, while giving warm feelings, don’t actually do any physical healing or scare off the virus.

Nope.

Understanding and dealing with it are all about science and human behavior: epidemiology and medical science, plus retraining ourselves and our social activities. In reality, the spread of a virus is largely due to our own habits. It’s true. We travel. We meet. We greet. All vectors for the virus to spread.

For those who do get sick from COVID-19, a lot depends on the medical facilities available to them. At the very least, hospitals and other medical “shops” are going to get a LOT busier. They’ll be a lot less available to everybody who wants to use them. And, testing for possible cases helps us track the progress of the epidemic and make some predictions about how long it will last, where it goes next, etc. Unfortunately, testing (at least in the U.S.) is still way behind the curve. Many people are probably carrying the virus but don’t yet have symptoms. They may or may not get tested and will be vectors for the further spread of COVID-19.

Cease and Resist the Virus

Despite all this unfortunate news about COVID-19, we can take action to keep the death rate from spiraling completely out of control. There are two primary ways:

• washing your hands (resisting the virus by killing it); and,
• social isolation (sometimes called voluntary quarantine, essentially ceasing all unnecessary contact with other people for a while).

Those sound simple, and they are. Of the two, washing your hands is the direct route to killing the virus that you’ve picked up.

Yes, there are times when essential personnel need to be out and about. That’s understandable. And, yes, there are workers whose employers don’t give the patootie of a rat about their wellbeing and thus require them to come to work (and don’t offer sick pay). Those people are going to be hard hit. But, as much as possible, as many of us as possible should limit public forays. If that means working from home, cancelling trips, conferences, etc., then that’s what we have to do. In two words: that sucks. But, it’s reality.

The Bottom Line on COVID-19

We have to let the medical folks and the epidemiologists do their work, without government interference. These scientists are capable of giving us straight answers, which, in turn, will help us make our way through this epidemic. The med folks are going to be overwhelmed with the numbers of sufferers that are predicted to show up at Urgent Care clinics and emergency rooms. We have only to look at what’s happening in Italy to see a fair reproduction of what we in North America may soon face.

Want to know more about how the epidemic numbers are being calculated? Check out this very useful (if long) article. Yes, it has math, but it’s EASY math. It deals with the facts pretty well, and it has been updated as needed. Also surf over to this coronavirus tracker, updated all day long, for updates on cases in each country.

In the meantime, if you can manage it, stay home as much as possible. Avoid large crowds. Postpone travel if you can. If you HAVE to go out, wash your hands each time you have contact with people and possible contaminated surfaces. (And, assume that everything is carrying the virus.) Hot water, soap, and 30 seconds of washing should kill the virus. Rely on hand sanitizer only as a last resort—it won’t kill the virus, but it does kill other buggies.

About that toilet paper everybody’s rushing out to buy? Tree-based rear-wiping solutions are SO 20th Century. Maybe it’s time to consider a spray bidet for your bathroom. Greatest invention (for the loo) since the flush toilet. It’ll cut your use of ancient trees quite a bit (which means you won’t be paying top dollar for TP) and still keep you feeling minty fresh while you’re sitting at home in endless Zoom conferences with your co-workers.

Stay safe, stay well, and help keep others well, too!