The Intelligent Response to the COVID-19
By Brent Regan
The intelligent response to the COVID-19 is to remain calm and take basic, common sense steps to reduce infection.
Avoid people who are sick.
Wash your hands often.
Avoid touching surfaces in public places.
Don’t touch your face in public, carry disposable tissues
Avoid crowds
Make a habit of using hand sanitizer whenever you cross from a public to a private space, e.g. before you get in your car, before you enter your house, after you handle money or credit cards, after you push a shopping cart.
Sanitize often any surface you frequently touch. e.g. keyboards, TV remote, door handles (including refrigerator), sink valve handles, car keys, etc.
Young healthy people should offer to run errands for older, high risk friends or relatives.
In China, most people who have COVID-19 — about 80% — have had mild to moderate symptoms. Most people will be able to manage their symptoms at home.
As testing for COVID-19 expands, cases are being picked up across the U.S., confirming what disease experts have predicted: that the virus has been here for some time and is making people sick.
As more cases are discovered due to comprehensive testing, expect the mortality rate to drop because more people with mild cases will be discovered.
Here is the World Health Organization analysis of more than 55,000 confirmed cases in China listing the most common symptoms and the percentage of people who had them:
Fever: 88%
Dry cough: 68%
Fatigue: 38%
Coughing up sputum, or thick phlegm, from the lungs: 33%
Shortness of breath: 19%
Bone or joint pain: 15%
Sore throat: 14%
Headache: 14%
Chills: 11%
Nausea or vomiting: 5%
Stuffy nose: 5%
Diarrhea: 4%
Coughing up blood: 1%
Swollen eyes: 1%
COVID-19 is a lower respiratory tract infection, which means that most of the symptoms are felt in the chest and lungs. That’s different from colds that bring on an upper respiratory tract infection, where you get a runny nose and sinus congestion. Those symptoms seem to be mostly absent for people with COVID-19, though they’re not unheard of.
The good news is that in China, most people who have gotten sick — about 80% — have had mild to moderate symptoms. Most people will be able to manage their symptoms at home.
If you start to show symptoms, call your doctor’s office. Don’t go there before calling — that might spread the infection around the doctor’s office. They may want to talk to you on the phone in a telemedicine visit.
The average time it takes people to get sick after being exposed to the virus is about 5 days. Some people get sick faster, just a day after being exposed, while others don’t fall ill for about 2 weeks, which is why the U.S. has quarantined people for 14 days.
In a recent press briefing, Nancy Messonnier, MD, director of the CDCs National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, said the virus spreads easily from person to person and that no one has immunity against it because it is new.
“Based on this, it’s fair to say that as the trajectory of the outbreak continues, many people in the United States will at some point in time, either this year or next, be exposed to this virus and many will get sick. We do not expect most people to develop serious illness,” she said.
About 14% of people in China — about 1 in 5 — have had severe symptoms, which includes trouble catching their breath, rapid breathing (taking more than 30 breaths in a minute), and low oxygen in their blood. These patients need extra oxygen and sometimes specialized equipment to help them breathe. In China, these patients were hospitalized.
About 1 in 20 patients were in critical condition. These patients developed respiratory failure and organ failure.
People who seem to be at highest risk for serious illness from COVID-19 are adults over the age of 60, or people who have underlying medical conditions like high blood pressure, diabetes, heart disease, lung disease, or cancer. The highest number of deaths in China — 22% — has been in adults over age 80.
“This will require you and your family to take action,”
The CDC and the State Department are also urging Americans to avoid cruise ships for the duration of the epidemic, especially if you are at high risk for serious illness. People at high risk should not fly unless it is necessary.