The markets are falling but the manufacturers of soaps and various kinds
of sanitizing substances I think are doing quite well. Why is that? Of course
because of the onset of the coronavirus, which could become a pandemic.
What can we do for now? Well, the best advice is to keep washing our hands,
make sure that we don't touch too many surfaces
and hope that everything is going to come out okay.
But as is very often the case when some event like this happens,
the pseudoscience mongers get into the picture and start with their stories and
conspiracy theories. So let's stick to the facts. What do we know?
We know that the virus somehow emerged from Wuhan in China
it probably came from some sort of animal
possibly bat droppings, contaminated wild animals sold in a store
at least that's the theory, and there's some evidence for that
although not everyone thinks that was ground zero but it certainly could have been.
There are stories going around about how Wuhan actually
housed some kind of biological facility where they were testing out viruses for warfare.
There's zero evidence for that.
Then there is the story of eating bats
and there's even a video going around of someone eating a bat suggesting that
this is what started it all. That video is actually old and it wasn't taken in China.
It was taken on some Pacific island where they actually do
sometimes eat bats but this has nothing to do with the current outbreak.
And then of course there are all of the potential treatments
and all of these are are quackery.
Nobody right now has any kind of treatment for this virus.
Of course they're e working feverishly to try to find a vaccine
but that's going to be a long time
at least a year a year until anything crops up.
But there are people out there who are telling us that what you have to do is take sesame
oil, mix it with ground-up garlic and ascorbic acid or vitamin C and that this
is the cure for for the coronavirus.
Incidentally, the reason it's called coronavirus is because
when you look under microscope it kind of looks like it has a crown.
A virus is just basically some protein and some genetic material.
We don't really talk about killing a virus because the virus isn't alive.
It has to infect a cell and it uses the cell's machinery to replicate itself.
However, it can be washed away from from the hands and it is
susceptible to some disinfectants.
Certainly bleach, a dilute solution of bleach, can inactivate the virus.
Hydrogen peroxide can inactivate the virus.
You may have seen trucks going around in China spraying
I suspect they are spraying a dilute solution of bleach or hydrogen peroxide
But then there is the quack item known as miracle mineral solution
this is all over internet now supposing it's the treatment for the coronavirus.
It's a bleach called chlorine dioxide and you actually make it by mixing
together two chemicals. Sodium chloride and citric acid can be
mixed together to make this. Now miracle mineral solution has been around for a
while with claims of curing every disease that you have heard of
and now of course they are jumping on this particular bandwagon
and saying that this is the cure.
There's absolutely no evidence for it.
There's no reason to think that swallowing this will do any good whatsoever.
This is nonsense.
Now what about the masks? People are wearing surgical masks like doctors have.
They don't do much good because air can get in, air can get out
There is some value in masks, though, especially this kind.
This is called the N-95 mask because it keeps out particles which are very very small
and they're generally referred to by microns and 95 refers to that.
It is not the most comfortable thing when you put it on
but it's okay and it provides a very good seal
so that nothing comes out and nothing goes in.
I don't even know if my sound is coming out now
But you can wear this
and if you are infected it will certainly keep you from coughing any kind of sputum
and also protects you from inhaling anything from the air
because it turns out that tiny little particles in the air
particles of moisture can harbour the organism.
So anyway, that's what we know for now.
The N-95 mask is the one that that works.
Surgical masks are less effective.
But at this point all we can hope is that the virus will kind of
peter out as the spring rolls around as we saw with SARS and with MERS
But it's also possible that it will develop into a full-scale pandemic.
Obviously let's hope that doesn't happen
And for now let's just keep washing our hands as often as we can
and stay away from large crowds.