Many of you are probably sitting at home right now wondering if one day you will become a
coronavirus statistic.
As many of you are still young, you certainly don’t want to be that person who becomes
part of a news article that contains words such as, “Young, healthy person dies after
COVID-19 infection.”
That is highly unlikely, and statistically speaking, even if you did get infected you’d
very likely be ok if you are young and reasonably healthy.
You’re practicing social-distancing…you wash your hands regularly, but could you still
get it?
Today we’ll see how that could happen.
Ok, so you’re sitting at home, but your food stocks are low and you need to go out
and buy some things.
Let’s imagine you are in the local store, and even though you are trying to keep your
distance from people, that’s not always possible when a few people are trying to buy
tins of tuna in the same aisle.
Some guy reaches out to grab a can and so do you at the same time, but then this guy
coughs right in your face.
This guy is actually carrying the virus.
He just doesn’t know it yet, because he feels just fine.
The chances are, you will now become infected.
In fact, if you look at what the World Health Organization has to say, even if this guy
exhales on you, you might get infected from him.
The reason is because very small droplets of the virus have been emitted from him and
they have reached you and entered your eyes, nose or mouth.
This is why health officials are asking people to stay six feet (two meters) away from other
people when out in public.
You might wonder, does this disease hang around in the air?
Is it airborne, meaning could this guy’s droplets wait around for someone else?
The WHO says the droplets are too heavy to hang around in the air, but other research
tells us that smaller particles might remain airborne for as long as three hours.
We don’t know right now how likely it is that you could become infected by those smaller
airborne particles.
A recent article in the journal Nature said the experts disagree on this point, so let’s
move on, and just say you got a direct hit from this guy in the store.
Let's now say you were wearing a mask when you came into contact with the guy.
Would that mask have protected you?
This has been a matter of controversy, but the majority of health officials around the
world are now saying you should wear a mask.
You see, what if that guy who coughed or even exhaled on you had been wearing a mask.
He didn’t want to wear one, seeing as he was feeling fine.
The thing is, though, if he had been wearing a mask those tiny droplets very likely wouldn’t
have hit you.
One of the reasons why the Center for Disease Control and Prevention said not everyone had
to wear a mask, such as one of those N95 respirators, was because it wanted to ensure healthcare
workers had enough of them.
As we write this, the CDC says it is reviewing its guidelines regarding mask wearing.
Most experts now agree that you should wear a mask just in case you are asymptomatic.
If you don’t have one at hand, a homemade mask is better than nothing.
A study at Cambridge University and another study in China demonstrated that making a
DIY mask from clothing or even paper towels can work.
So far, data shows that countries where mask-wearing is very common seem to be coping with the
spread a bit better.
Masks have made a comeback.
As we write this the news is telling us that Amazon is going to give all its workers masks.
The British medical journal, Then Lancet, also recently said, “Universal use of face
masks could be considered if supplies permit.”
We went to the CDC website and read this: “If you are caring for others: If the person
who is sick is not able to wear a face mask (for example, because it causes trouble breathing),
then as their caregiver, you should wear a face mask when in the same room with them.”
What does that tell you?
It tells you that you can protect yourself by wearing a mask.
We should add, though, that masks are not an iron-clad guarantee that you won’t get
the virus.
The experts say those droplets can be transmitted through the eyes, and those very small droplets
can penetrate some masks.
Still, the word on expert street is by wearing a mask your chance of getting the virus is
reduced.
Ok, so let’s say you actually do have your mask on and you even keep six feet away from
that guy who wants the same brand of tinned tuna.
You wait behind him, and then go in and grab your can.
What you’ve just done is touched a surface that now has coronavirus particles on it.
You then don’t bother washing your hands with soap and water or dousing them with an
alcohol-based hand wash.
Without doing that, you might then touch your mask, and you have just transmitted the virus
to that mask.
You might also touch your face since some part of it is itching.
That’s another way you could get infected.
Now it all gets a bit complicated, because we need to know how long the virus can stay
on surfaces and how much of it is needed to infect a person.
The New England Journal of Medicine recently published a study about how long the virus
can hang around on certain surfaces.
In a laboratory the researchers tested different surfaces, and the results were that it can
stay on plastic and steel for up to 72 hours.
They found it can stay on copper for up to four hours and can stay on cardboard for up
to 24 hours.
Another researcher said that it depends how many particles of the virus are on that surface
you touch.
So, if that guy has only just coughed on a tuna can, then the virus will likely be more
intact.
But as you know, the virus can’t stay around forever, so after a while there will be less
of it on a surface.
The best thing you can do is wash your hands after you’ve touched a surface in public
and especially those known as “high-touch” surfaces... things like door knobs.
Right now, though, scientists are saying there’s a much bigger chance of getting infected person-to-person
than from touching a surface that has coronavirus particles on it.
Let’s now say that you didn’t go out and buy that tuna, but you had it delivered.
Well, your groceries might come in a cardboard box, and as you already know, the virus can
hang around on that box.
You might touch it, and then later touch your face.
The same goes for items in that box, some of them may have the virus on them.
The experts say that this is an unlikely scenario as to how you might become infected, but if
you want to be safe, you should discard packages and then wash your hands.
You might also use household detergents to regularly wash down surfaces in your house.
One of the reasons for this is because you might not live alone, and someone else might
have touched a surface outside that had particles on it and then brought it home and put some
on a doorknob.
They didn’t bother washing their hands and then they opened the door and touched lots
of other surfaces.
This is another way you could become infected, but as we said, the experts say person-to-person
transmission is much more likely.
We keep saying this because we don’t want to scare you.
We just want to describe to you some worst-case viable scenarios.
If someone in your house does get it, well, then you might be in trouble.
The reason is, they might not show any symptoms…in fact, they might not ever show symptoms.
As far as we can see, scientists are still not sure why this is.
But you might not be as fortunate, and so let’s say you're watching TV with your little
infected brother and he coughs or exhales on you.
Then you might get it.
That’s why people are being told to stay at home for the time-being, so folks don’t
bring the virus home with them and spread it to others.
You might just get really unlucky and trip at home and break your arm.
This will mean you’ll have to take a trip to the hospital.
Hospitals are of course going to great lengths to stop the virus spreading in them, but as
you know they can be busy places.
It might be difficult not to touch a contaminated surface or even stay out of the way of an
asymptomatic person who’s also broken his arm.
It’s the same with other places where lots of people tend to go, like airports or government
offices.
That’s the reason so many places are closing, or at least slowing down and implementing
sensible prevention measures.
Someone might also cough on you and leave droplets on your clothes, so if you go out
in public and get very close to people, you might want to not only wash your hands, but
wash your clothes, too.
We don’t exactly know how long the virus can stay on clothes and that matter is still
being researched, but some scientists are saying that droplets may dry out faster on
natural materials.
A former CDC chief medical officer said clothes might catch the virus particles, but then
they will dry out and be broken apart.
The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease said this could be the case, but then
you have clothes such as leather, and that’s not so porous.
You also have buttons and zippers and other non-porous clothing, so it still might be
a good idea to give things a wash and maintain that hand-washing regimen.
Maybe you have all the food you need, but let’s say you need to go to the laundromat.
Well, in that case, you might also come into contact with infected people, or surfaces
that have virus particles on them.
You could even disinfect the washing machine with a cleaning product or an alcohol solution,
although it’s likely someone has been doing that already.
You could be extra careful and wear rubber gloves, and then discard them after you’re
done at the laundromat.
Wash your hands of course, after you’ve taken off the gloves.
Also, be mindful of what you touch with your gloves.
Some people of course have no choice but to go to work where many others work, such as
at those Amazon facilities.
If that’s the case, you might want to wash your clothes after every workday.
Ok, you are doing all this, but then you need to go out and get some cash.
Well, as you know, those virus particles could have been transferred to the buttons of the
cash machine and then you go and touch your face.
Drawing out cash could give you the coronavirus if you touch your face before you’ve washed
your hands.
But what about money itself?
Not the dollars you just took from the machine, but the ones you just received along with
some coins after you bought that tin of tuna.
Well, shiny hard surfaces can be contaminated, so that also means coins.
Dollars can also be infected, and this is why right now you’ll see staff in stores
wearing gloves.
It’s why some stores around the world are no longer accepting cash payments.
So, yep, handling money could be a problem for you.
It’s another reason you are now seeing hand sanitizers in just about every store.
But let’s say you wash your hands, but you’ve put those coins and dollars in your wallet.
Well, if the virus can stay on surfaces like dollars and coins, then it could stay on them
in your wallet.
You could always disinfect those coins and dollars with an alcohol solution.
This might sound over the top to you, but the experts say cash can contain virus particles
on it.
If you want to be safer, you can disinfect all your money.
We actually found a foreign-exchange firm that was doing this with all its banknotes
and banks in China, they actually started disinfecting money using ultraviolet or heat
treatments.
Maybe disinfecting money isn’t actually that over the top.
Contactless payments might be a better idea, but we should say that the World Health Organization
has so far not said we should be disinfecting all our money.
And remember, this virus does not penetrate your skin.
You have to transfer it to places such as your eyes, nose and mouth.
So, that’s the end.
You’ve heard how you might become infected, but you’ve also heard a lot about how to
prevent yourself becoming infected.
We hope all of you will be safe and not become a statistic.
Keep staying inside and watch “What Is It Actually Like To Have COVID-19?” and “Why
Spanish Flu Killed Over 50 Million People - Deadliest Plague in Modern History.”
See you next time!