Hello lovely people,
The novel coronavirus epidemic is a double outbreak: the spread of SARS-CoV-2, the virus
responsible for the disease covid-19, but also a pandemic of misinformation. In moments
of heightened tension, misinformation can sometimes be worse than a virus.
Panic induced rumours can result in a phenomenon known as “the worried well”, where people
who don’t have the virus read something silly online like “all people with an index
finger longer than their ring finger are carriers for coronavirus, everyone else is safe”
Then overwhelm the health system which reduces its ability to care for those who genuinely
need treatment.
Misinformation can also have the opposite effect, meaning people who DO have the virus
think they’re totally safe because their Aunt Susan shared a Facebook post that says
if you were born on a Monday you’re fine and don’t have to practice social distancing
because you’re basically half mermaid anyway.
They then blithely skip around touching stuff with their infected hands and spreading the
virus everywhere before their actual symptoms kick in 2 to 10 days later because, wow, half
merpeople are not a thing.
Unfortunately whilst there is no known cure for Coronavirus a number of myths have been
spreading around and it’s those we’ll be busting today! Some are useless but some
are downright dangerous!
If you’re watching this video in the near-or-distant future when this whole ‘oh my god is this
the apocalypse?!’ thing has blown over then cheers to you! Also, really relieved you still
have the internet.
- because obviously that’s the real worry (!)
If you’re new to this channel, hi, that’s sarcasm. Please subscribe. Not sarcasm. I’m
Jessica, a chronically ill person who makes educational yet sassy videos about life with
illness, disability and… gayness.
Not that my life would be that different if I was straight. I must be in a parallel universe
somewhere...
Wow, I’m so gay I can’t even imagine being straight.
I thought it was important to make a video about the coronavirus, firstly because it’s
all that anyone can talk about at the moment so not talking about it seems strange-
- I had a really fun video that was meant to come out today but instead will be coming
out on Friday. Because we need entertainment in difficult times too.
And secondly, because, as someone who deals with being ill every single day, watching
healthy people panic about the possibility of being so is very trippy. You don’t seem
to be helping yourselves out either as there is a lot of passing misinformation around.
And thus, we’re going to break down the biggest myths currently floating around about
the virus whilst reminding you:
[PSA] The best way to protect yourself against COVID-19 is by frequently cleaning
your hands. By doing this you eliminate viruses that may be on your hands and avoid infection
that could occur by then touching your eyes, mouth, and nose.
Because sometimes you just need a very British person to tell you to CALM DOWN.
Also, I’m in the ‘at risk’ category of people and even if the virus just gives
you some mild, flu-like symptoms, you passing it to me could actually kill me.
So don't do that. Thanks.
I’ve already had pneumonia. It sucked worse than anything. And I never, never, EVER, want
to have it ever again.
I’ll start with a massive disclaimer that I’m not a doctor, just an ill person who
spends a lot of time in her house researching things on the internet. My myth-busting information
has been gathered from medical professionals and briefings from the World Health Organisation
who you should listen to-
- Who actually do know more than your kooky Aunt Susan who shares Facebook posts about
gargling bleach.
Who knew (!)
Oh Susan...
Myth: Holding your breath without coughing means you don’t have the virus.
NO. No.
According to social media, if you take a deep breath, hold it for 10 second and don’t
cough then you have no fibrosis or infection in the lungs and thus don’t have the coronavirus
so you’re free to go about your merry way.
HOWEVER, according to the American Lung Foundation, fibrosis or scarring of the lungs can occur
due to infections, medications, genetics or diseases but whilst being unable to hold your
breath for 10 seconds without coughing MAY occur when you have fibrosis, it is not a
key diagnostic tool.
Additionally, as we should all know by now, you don’t need to have lung fibrosis to
have coronavirus, you don’t even need any symptoms at all!
Sidenote: Don’t glare at people in public when they cough, okay? They may just have
an allergy, or asthma.
- You can glare at them if they don’t cover their mouth when they cough though, that’s
just not nice in any circumstance.
If you are having breathing difficulties you should seek urgent medical care but please
remember that just because you started coughing whilst holding your breath for 10 seconds,
that does not mean you definitely have the virus or that, even if you do, it will cause
irreversible damage like fibrosis.
Myth: coronavirus only affects older people
People of all ages can be infected by the new coronavirus. Older people and those of
all ages with pre-existing medical conditions, particularly those that have an impact on
their respiratory or immune functions do appear to be more vulnerable to becoming severely
ill but young people can also become ill or carry the virus. So:
[PSA] The best way to protect yourself against COVID-19 is by frequently cleaning
your hands. By doing this you eliminate viruses that may be on your hands and avoid infection
that could occur by then touching your eyes, mouth, and nose.
Myth: antibiotics will protect against the virus
No. But at least you’ve moved on from gargling bleach.
Antibiotics do not work against viruses, only bacteria. Antibiotics should not be used as
a means of prevention or treatment in the case of coronavirus.
However if you are hospitalised you may receive antibiotics
due to a bacterial coinfection.
Myth: drinking water every 15 minutes flushes out the virus
There is currently a post going around Facebook which recommends drinking water every 15 minutes
to flush out any virus that might have entered the mouth. So it will go into your stomach.
And be killed by your natural acids.
Which is not a thing.
Also what, the people who are infected do not drink ever?
Professor Trudie Lang at University of Oxford says there is “no biological mechanism”
for washing a respiratory virus down into your stomach to kill it. They enter the body
when you breathe them in and, yes, some of them might go into your mouth but drinking
won’t prevent it from getting in through your nose… or eyes… or mouth even.
Still, staying hydrated is good for your immune system.
Myth: drinking hot tea kills the virus
So why are English people getting it?
There are a lot of different ‘heat kills the virus’ recommendations: from taking
hot baths, to drinking hot water to blowing a hairdryer in your face. All falsely attributed
to Unicef.
Poor Unicef
Trying to heat your body or expose it to the sun-
- how are you going to expose your lungs to the sun?
Is completely ineffective as once the virus is in your body we don’t yet have a way
of killing it. Your body just has to fight it off.
According to current scientific research, the temperature needed to actively kill the
virus is around 60 degrees Celsius or 140 degrees Fahrenheit. That’s far hotter than
any bath you want to sit in. But if someone in your house might be infected you should
wash your bed linen and towels at 60 degrees.
But please don’t burn your skin.
Sadly, tea can’t do much since it doesn’t actually change your body temperature, which
remains stable unless you’re ill.
- as someone who has an illness that means I cannot regulate my body temperature very
well and it thus doesn’t remain stable I would just like to say: you should be very
grateful for that!
Hand Dryers don’t actually kill the virus either, I’m afraid:
[PSA] The best way to protect yourself against COVID-19 is by frequently cleaning
your hands. By doing this you eliminate viruses that may be on your hands and avoid infection
that could occur by then touching your eyes, mouth, and nose.
Myth: the virus will go away when the weather gets warmer
Tell that to Kenya.
Whilst we already know that the flu virus doesn’t survive well outside the body during
the summer, we don’t yet really know how heat impacts the new coronavirus. Other than
it appears to spread happily in hot and humid conditions, just as it does in cold and dry
ones.
No, it won’t go away if it starts to snow.
But at least we’ll be less likely to go to the pub so social isolation might actually
have a chance of working.
Dr Marc LIpsitch at the Centre for Communicable Disease Dynamics at the Harvard School of
Public Health says that while we do expect to see some slowing in the contagiousness
of COVID-19 as the weather warms it is not likely to be significant enough to slow transmission
of the virus.
Again: the human body temperature remains around 36.5 degrees Celsius to 37 degrees
Celsius regardless of the external temperature or weather, which is not hot enough to defeat
the virus so...
[PSA] The best way to protect yourself against COVID-19 is by frequently cleaning
your hands. By doing this you eliminate viruses that may be on your hands and avoid infection
that could occur by then touching your eyes, mouth, and nose.
Yes I’m going to keep playing that.
Myth: spraying alcohol or chlorine over your body will cure you of the virus
- Ouch. That sounds painful. Don’t do that.
Spraying any kind of disinfectant over your skin will not kill viruses that have already
entered your body. However, it can be very harmful to your mucous membranes like your
eyes and mouth.
You CAN use them to disinfect surfaces around you however, which IS recommended to keep
the virus at bay.
Myth: eating garlic will prevent the infection
Tell that to Italy and China. Two countries that use a lot of garlic in their cuisines
and yet…
It’s a virus, not a vampire.
The World Health Organisation says that while garlic is a healthy food with some antimicrobial
properties there is no evidence that it can protect people from the new coronavirus.
It will make you smell though.
And the South China Morning Post reported a story of a woman who needed hospital treatment
for a severely inflamed throat after consuming 1.5kg of raw garlic.
So garlic won’t protect you.
[PSA] The best way to protect yourself against COVID-19 is by frequently cleaning
your hands. By doing this you eliminate viruses that may be on your hands and avoid infection
that could occur by then touching your eyes, mouth, and nose.
Similarly:
Myth: vitamin C and other supplements can combat coronavirus
Whilst there is evidence that certain health supplements can help boost your immune system,
they cannot specifically fight off infections like the coronavirus or spur on a speedy recovery.
In fact, for most people, taking extra vitamin C does not even ward off the common cold,
though it may shorten the duration of a cold if you catch one
- and most people are able to obtain all of their necessary vitamins and minerals through
a healthy diet so please don’t be talked into spending lots of money you don’t need to.
Please eat fruit and vegetables if you can.
The saddest thing is that some people are profiting off this belief. A certain YouTuber
and influencer, who will remain nameless in order to stop trafficking attention to them,
has taken this opportunity to peddle a ‘miracle’ supplement that is said to ‘wipe out’
the new coronavirus. This supplement contains chlorine dioxide - a bleaching agent.
Please do not take any miracle cures suggested by the internet, you’re smarter than that.
I’m going to throw ‘drinkable silver’ in here as well. The use of colloidal silver
was promoted on a US televangelist’s show. A guest claimed that the solution kills some
strains of coronavirus within 12 hours (but also admitted it hadn’t been tested on COVID-19).
Didn’t stop it immediately being put on sale on Facebook! Although, bless them, Facebook
does now put a warning up on their posts.
Unlike iron or zinc, silver is not a metal that has any function in the human body. Although
there are some occasional uses of silver in healthcare, for example in bandages applied
to wounds, but that doesn't mean it's effective to consume and it could cause some serious
side effects including kidney damage, seizures and argyria - a condition that makes your
skin turn blue.
Which is at least interesting.
Myth: if you have a runny nose, you probably just have a common cold.
The common cold and seasonal flu are viral infections that can have very similar, even
identical symptoms to COVID-19 including fever, cough and shortness of breath. Uncommon symptoms
include dizziness, nausea, vomiting and a runny nose. HOWEVER it’s important to bear
in mind that the virus presents differently in different people. This goes along with
the myth that ‘if you have the coronavirus, you’ll know’ because, no, you won’t.
Early on, infected people may show no symptoms at all.
And just because you don’t have the same symptoms as someone else who had coronavirus
doesn’t mean you don’t have it. If you feel unwell for any reason, you should take
precautions to avoid infecting others. The symptoms of coronavirus are not specific and
something that feels mild to you can cause significant sickness in someone who is at
high risk for infections.
- hi. That’s me. And the elderly or ill people in your life.
Please don’t leave the house when you have all the symptoms of coronavirus JUST because
you have a runny nose. There is nothing that says you can’t have the virus AND a cold.
Or the virus AND hayfever.
Think. It. Through.
And wash your hands!
[PSA] The best way to protect yourself against COVID-19 is by frequently cleaning
your hands. By doing this you eliminate viruses that may be on your hands and avoid infection
that could occur by then touching your eyes, mouth, and nose.
Myth: positivity will stop the infection.
Oh. Oh honey, no. Put it down. Step away. Get some help!
Myth: face masks can protect you from the virus
Yes, I made you watch all the way to this point before addressing the most obvious myth.
Standard surgical masks cannot protect you from the virus as they are not designed to
block out viral particles and do not lay flush to the face. BUT they can help prevent you
from spreading it around, should you be infected, by blocking respiratory droplets from your
mouth.
There ARE some respirator facemasks, ‘N95 respirators’ that can greatly reduce the
spread of the virus to the wearer but training is required to fit them so no air can sneak
around the edges.
Also: please stop asking your dentist to borrow face masks. They actually need them for work
and they may only have a set amount. And if you’re in England then that’s NHS money
you’re trying to ‘borrow’.
Also, also: panic buying and hoarding facemasks means that chronically ill people who rely
on them to leave the house cannot then have them. So please think through your actions
before stocking up unnecessarily.
Myth: you’re less likely to get COVID-19 than the flu.
Meh. Not necessarily.
Live Science reports that to estimate how easily a virus spreads, scientists calculate
its "basic reproduction number," or R0 (or R-nought). R0 predicts the number of people
who can catch a given bug from a single infected person. Currently, the R0 for SARS-CoV-2,
the virus that causes the disease COVID-19, is estimated at about 2.2, meaning a single
infected person will infect about 2.2 others, on average. By comparison, the flu has an
R0 of 1.3.
Most importantly, while no vaccine yet exists to prevent COVID-19, the seasonal flu vaccine
prevents influenza relatively well. Think about all those people who get it and don’t die.
Because the flu is not ‘worse’ than COVID-19, it’s just more common. And it doesn’t
kill more people because percentages are a thing!
I know we’ve been a little heavy so far, because I really, really want to stress how
serious the virus is but I also don’t want to panic you so:
Myth: Getting COVID-19 is a death sentence
Around 80% of people who are infected with the coronavirus have mild cases of COVID-19,
according to a study by the Chinese Centre for Disease Control and Prevention. About
13.8% report severe illness, meaning they have shortness of breath, or require supplemental
oxygen, and about 4.7% are critical, meaning they face respiratory failure, multi-organ
failure or septic shock.
HOWEVER, If you’re not in the most at-risk categories, you DO have a duty of care to
those who are. So start social distancing and remember:
[PSA] The best way to protect yourself against COVID-19 is by frequently cleaning
your hands. By doing this you eliminate viruses that may be on your hands and avoid infection
that could occur by then touching your eyes, mouth, and nose.
And finally, because this isn’t an excuse for blatant racism:
Myth: it’s unsafe to be around Chinese people, Chinese food or packages from China.
Throw anyone calling this the ‘Chinese Virus’ into the blender of doom!
Simply having Chinese or Asian heritage does not make you more susceptible to having the
virus and CLEARLY does not mean you automatically have it. The virus is not tied to ethnicity,
despite the internet rumours that darker skin makes you immune:
- dear universe, please help Idris Elba recover well.
Chinese food will also not pass the virus on to you. If you’re following that logic,
you should be avoiding Italian, Korean, Japanese, Spanish AND Persian restaurants.
Actually, to be fair, you SHOULD be avoiding all restaurants. It’s called ‘social distancing’
AND IT’S GOING TO SAVE LIVES.
However, a lot of locally based Chinese restaurants and businesses are struggling right now so
if you’re wondering what to eat tonight please consider a Chinese takeaway… just
ask that the delivery person leaves it at your front door.
When it comes to packages, according to the World Health Organisation, research has found
that coronaviruses don’t survive long on objects such as letters and packages. Although
it can stay on surfaces such as metal, glass or plastic for as long as nine days, the surfaces
present in packaging are not ideal for the virus to survive, rather, the coronavirus
is thought to be most commonly spread through respiratory droplets.
That's when you cough and spit on other people.
I hope you’ve found this video helpful, if so please share it with your friends and
family to bust some myths.
It’s important not to panic, but to prepare and educate yourself based on science
and research.
Thank you for watching, subscribe if you haven’t already, and I’ll see you in my next video.
[kiss]
And yes this is a nurse’s cape from World War II and I finally have an excuse to wear it!