Let’s talk about CORONAVIRUS, and what role libraries can play in dealing with its impacts.
My name’s Peter, and this is Stacks and Facts.
[cutscene]
Health:
First, let’s cover the basics. You’ve probably heard it called “coronavirus,”
but its actual name (as of early February) is COVID-19. This is an important distinction
to make because COVID-19 is a kind of coronavirus, just like how a crow is a kind of bird.
Other examples of coronaviruses include the common cold, SARS -- Sudden Acute Respiratory
Syndrome -- and MERS -- Middle East Respiratory Syndrome. What all four of these have in common,
as some of their names suggest, is that they mostly affect our respiratory systems -- how
we breathe.
But, COVID-19 is closer to the common cold in the majority of people who catch it than
it is to SARS or MERS -- for the overwhelming majority of folks, it’ll be inconvenient
but not life-threatening.
The most common symptoms are a fever, dry cough, and shortness of breath -- and for
most people, that’s it, and it lasts about two weeks. While it can lead to pneumonia
or other more severe symptoms, at the other end its symptoms can be mild or even nonexistent.
So while there have been around 90 thousand confirmed cases worldwide as of now -- early
March 2020, for all you time travelers out there -- the actual number of people who’ve
caught COVID-19 may be a lot higher, which makes accurate statistics around mortality
hard to come up with.
Also, while we’re talking about statistics, a number that hasn’t gotten a lot of coverage
is current ACTIVE cases. As of today, over half of the cases that we know about have
recovered, putting the current active cases at just under 44 thousand worldwide. And each
day, more people are recovering than are getting counted as sick, by a pretty significant rate,
so it’s not all doom and gloom.
Which is a natural segue into the question that most people want answered: “am I in
danger?”
Well, i mean -- not -- not me, Peter, but you, the viewer, or the library patron.
The simple answer is… probably not. Here’s what we know:
So far, there have been about 110 cases in the US and Canada combined. That comes out
to be approximately zero point zero zero zero zero three percent of the population… I
think.
Those most at risk for serious complications have pre-existing conditions already like
heart disease, cancer, diabetes, and other immune sytem-compromising conditions. This
also happens to line up with age: people under 50, who typically have fewer pre-existing
conditions, are at a much lower risk than those 50 or older.
Women are less likely to catch it than men are, and it tends to be less dangerous for
women when they do catch it -- go figure. It isn’t super clear to me though if that’s
because of something biological, or because of differences in behaviour between men and
women, but probably both, to some degree.
At least as of mid-february, there haven’t been any recorded deaths of children under
10. Which, like, I’m gonna count as a win.
So.
With all that in mind, if we look at everyone as a big group, the fatality rate of COVID-19
is estimated at somewhere between 8 and 35 out of every thousand people who catch it.
That’s between zero point eight and three point five percent.
But again, the healthier you are, the lower that likelihood is. If you’re thirty-three
and in good health, the mortality rate drops to around zero point two percent, or even
lower. I put links to more information about the disease and stats in the description.
Some things we don’t know for sure about the disease are where exactly it came from,
how exactly it can spread, and what the odds of catching it are if you’re exposed, but
scientists suspect it started off in another animal and then jumped into humans -- a phenomenon
that’s known as “zoonosis.”
We’re also not 100% on all the ways a person can catch it, but we know for sure that the
virus can be transmitted when respiratory droplets -- basically, tiny little drops of
spit that come out when we sneeze, talk, or cough -- come into contact with our eyes,
nose, or mouth - AKA our mucous membranes.
These droplets are too heavy to stay in the air for very long, so you’d have to be right
next to someone who’s sick to catch it that way. But these droplets will settle on something
like a keyboard, so if you touch the keyboard and then your face, you run the risk of catching
it that way, too. Scientists are still trying to determine exactly how long the virus can
be transmissable on surfaces, but for now the best way to deal with that is to wash
your hands early and often!
As for wearing face masks, they won’t do a good job keeping you from getting sick,
because respiratory droplets are so small that they can pass right through, but if you
are sick, wearing a mask can help keep others safe by catching the bigger droplets.
And that’s what we know so far. Except for whatever new information came out between
me releasing this video and you watching it.
WHAT DO WE DO?
Our two main roles in libraries are 1) to help people understand the reality of the
situation, and 2) do what we can to reduce the spread of the disease.
One thing we’ve been seeing a lot of is fear, which makes sense: humans tend to fear
the unknown because that’s kept us alive, historically. And considering that this is
a brand new disease to humans, that’s about as unknown as it gets!
This fear can manifest in things like panic-buying supplies and avoiding activities that you
usually enjoy, or it can lead to something darker.
Since COVID-19 has entered public awareness, racist attacks and ignorance toward folks
who look like they might be Asian have spiked around the world. See for example: this, and
this, and this. And this.
And none of that is okay. As library workers, we’re in a position to provide the right
information to people: whether that’s in answering a reference question, or collecting
and providing resources to the public, or tailoring programming to suit our community’s
needs.
Here are some examples:
First, Think of the children: Kids hear adults talk, they hear the news, and they talk to
each other at school. So, there are probably some kids out there who are scared, too. If
you do storytimes, consider books about the importance of treating people different from
us with kindness, or a book about how when you get sick, you get better too!
NPR Editor and Strategist MAH-la-ka Gharib put together an excellent webcomic written
specifically to help kids understand COVID-19, link in the description! It covers all of
the important bases, is written in language that kids can understand, and -- my favorite
thing of all -- can even be printed and turned into a zine super easily!
Aside from things you can read, there are also things you can do: incorporate some imagination
play into your storytime -- bring out some plastic buckets and pretend they’re sinks
to practice washing hands in.
You can also teach kids to cough and sneeze into their elbows! You can teach them the
thousand variations of the fist-bump to minimize contact! The possibilities are truly endless.
But the point of this all is to give the kids a sense of agency. If you can help them feel
like there’s something they can do, it’ll help them feel less hopeless (and potentially
lead to some great habits as adults).
While we’re talking about adults, maybe now would be a great time to invite someone
from the local health authority, or hospital, or university, to do a Q and A about communicable
diseases. There’s a lot of misinformation out there, so bringing in a known expert from
the community can go a long way to help deal with that.
Lemme tell ya a story:
At my local library I occasionally facilitate an ESL conversation circle for newcomers to
practice english in a friendly environment. Partly because of writing the script for this
video, I decided for this weekend’s session that we would talk about health to give folks
a chance to air their concerns and learn something useful, so I printed off a bunch of copies
of Malaka’s comic and handed them out, and we read it, and we talked about it…
And let me tell you, it was amazing. One of the attendees happened to be a pediatrician,
and everyone was really engaged, and at the end of it so many of the folks were so appreciative
and relieved that someone actually took the time to help them understand what’s going
on.
And isn’t that what we should be doing? [nod vigorously]
As for programming, it doesn’t just have to be around health, either -- given that
the stock market just shed some major value last week, it’s probably a good time for
financial literacy offerings as well.
Those are all some ideas to help make sure people have the right information; now let’s
talk about how we can reduce the spread of the disease in our libraries.
Now’s the time to be especially vigilant in cleaning surfaces. We’re in a bit of
a pickle at the moment because libraries are very much a hands-on experience, and while
we can’t be perfect, we can do our best. In fact, I dare say we have to because a big
chunk of our patrons are really vulnerable -- seniors.
Make sure terminals and surfaces get cleaned regularly. Obviously, we can’t take the
time to clean every computer after every single use, but we can get things disinfected more
than we already do. Maybe once in the morning, once in the afternoon, and once in the evening.
Give folks agency and peace of mind by making hand sanitizer visibly and readily available.
It might get expensive, but it won’t be as expensive as staff getting sick, or the
library shutting down because people are freaking out about an outbreak.
If you get sick, stay home -- and if your staff get sick, do whatever you can to facilitate
them staying home!
I know, I know: that’s a real bougie thing to say when we look at the reality of employment
and funding in libraries. I don’t get sick time either, and every day I don’t work
means it’s that much harder to stay housed.
BUT.
Again, we work with vulnerable populations and we have a responsibility to them. Now’s
a great time to go talk to your library boards and unions about how precarity in libraries
already puts people at risk since most staff can’t afford to take time off.
It already costs so much more in the long run than saving money by cutting benefits
and being permanently short-staffed. Until we have truly adequate universal healthcare
and worker protections, we’re putting our communities at risk to save a few bucks. Are
they willing to live with the consequence of that if this becomes a pandemic?
[loaded pause]
Well, that got dark real fast, didn’t it?
I don’t want to scare anyone, but I think we have to walk a tricky line of managing
people’s expectations. Right now, things sound a lot scarier than they probably are,
but that doesn’t mean that won’t change. So, what else can we in libraries do to help
out with the current situation?
Leave your comments below, tweet at me, or just shout your ideas into the ether. Comment,
like subscribe, and until next time, don’t forget to ask questions.
Thanks for caring.