Pari Raghunarayan, Founder | QuriousBytes
By now, everyone in the world knows that we are currently living through a pandemic. And if you don’t, I’d presume that you live under a rock (and if that is the case, you took social distancing to the next level!). The Covid-19 virus has disrupted many lives and the stability many previously had. These are tough times we are living through and we have to be extremely careful about what we do and don’t do.
In this entry I want to address some topics related to this virus:
- Important Covid-19 Questions
- Protocols and prevention techniques recommended by doctors and scientists
- Covid-19 vaccine and medication update
DISCLAIMER: By no means am I insisting that I am a medical professional. However, I do highly suggest that you listen to the recommendations that are backed by professionals on here. I am NOT making any original claims. I’m simply spreading information that medical professionals and other scientists have suggested we follow to lower the risk of spreading the coronavirus.
Covid-19 Questions
How is the virus spreading?
The most common way the coronavirus is spread is through respiratory droplets. If an infected person is within an 8 feet range of you and sneezes or coughs, the infected person produces these droplets, which are generally invisible to the naked eye. These droplets are incredibly lightweight and can be carried through the air for a short distance, making it incredibly easy to spread the virus. However, coming in contact with an infected surface and then proceeding to touch your face has also been known to infect people.
How does the virus affect your body?
Doctors have said that Covid-19 can trigger a respiratory tract infection, which means that it can heavily affect your lungs, sinuses, windpipe, nose, and throat. If you have Covid-19 you may experience symptoms like a fever, feeling of fatigue, headaches, cold, cough, loss of senses, breathlessness, bowel issues, body aches, appetite changes, and others. It may take 2-14 days for symptoms to appear. However, some people have tested positive, but remained asymptomatic.
Negative Test: If your test turns out negative, congratulations. Follow any precautions the doctor or nurse may tell you and continue to follow the coronavirus related rules in your area.
Positive Test: As you may know, there is no FDA approved vaccine or medicine yet. Doctors may ask you to self care and socially distance at home and stay in touch to virtually monitor your recovery. If you are a high risk patient, then you may be asked to stay in the hospital so that the doctors and nurses can treat your symptoms.
These are two basic questions I wanted to address due to its relevance to this entry. However, I most definitely will be doing an entry just on the science of Covid-19.
Prevention
Just a little reminder, if you want to prevent the spread of Covid-19, listen and follow the guidelines that have been listed by doctors, scientists, and researchers and avoid following advice from politicians or people who go against or ignoring what doctors are saying!
So here are 5 tips (recommended by doctors) that should be implemented if you are living in an area with rising cases or an area that is under lockdown.
- Wear a mask: I cannot stress this enough! This helps lower the risk of spreading the virus because it prevents an infected person’s respiratory droplets from spreading and protects uninfected people against those droplets. Children under a certain age (depending on the area) are not allowed to or are condemned from wearing a mask.
- Social distancing: This one is honestly very self explanatory. Maintaining a distance of about 6 feet from people you are not quarantining with helps prevent the spreading the virus (obviously that’s why it’s in this section). This is because close contact means that surfaces may be shared and even if an infected person talks in a close proximity it can lead to the spreading of these respiratory droplets and particles. I know that I’ve been talking about the respiratory droplets a lot, but it’s the biggest way Covid-19 spreads.
- Avoid unnecessary travel: Most methods of travel involve reusing surfaces that have been used by other people multiple times and it often involves coming in contact with other people, whether that be travel staff or other passengers. This applies for buses, trains, planes, and UberPool.
- Stock up: Please store an excess amount of necessities. And I don’t mean running into a store and trying to beat people to get the last roll of Bounty tissue. I mean instead of getting 1 packet of tissues, maybe get 2 for long term usage. Stock up on masks if you think you may be going on walks in an area with more people than usual. If you’re a medical patient, attempt to contact your doctor and get your prescriptions for a longer period (perhaps 3 months versus the usual 1 month?).
- Wash your hands: If you’ve just come back from a walk or something, do NOT touch your eyes, mouth, or nose! Basically limit the touching of your face unless you have thoroughly washed your hands with soap and water for at least 30 seconds. This is because parts of your face are super sensitive and the virus can easily enter the body through hand to face contact!
Vaccine and Medication
Once again, I’m simply summarizing current progress that has been publicized. I will not be personally recommending anything as I am no medical professional.
Before continuing, know that a vaccine is a method of prevention that is given so a body develops immunity towards a disease and a medication is a method of treatment that is used to nurse a body back to health after being exposed.
Medicine: There is no internationally and WHO approved medicine yet. However, doctors in different countries are using different medicines to treat Covid-19 infected patients. In the USA, Harvard Health and others have reported that hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine have been found to kill Covid-19 virus in a laboratory, but medical professionals have debated about using it due to its side effects that have also been recognized by the FDA. BBC has stated that in the United Kingdom a few doctors have begun to recommend inhaling a protein interferon beta, which is already produced by the human body (your body produces less that what’s currently ‘required’ by doctors in the UK to treat the virus) when it’s exposed to a virus. In India, a psoriasis medication has been cleared as a method of treatment due to its successes but as far as my research has shown, it has only been cleared to treat emergency and high risk patients.
Vaccine: To put it short and simple, there is no vaccine yet. It takes anywhere from 12 – 18 months to fully develop a vaccine before it is distributed among the population. Many countries are still in the testing phase of developing a vaccine. Pfizer, Moderna and AstraZeneca have all shown promising work and results with their vaccines. All three companies have high accuracy with their test runs in phase 3. Pfizer and Biontech have released accuracy rates of their vaccines, which look to be above 90%. I would really recommend checking reliable sources (CDC, Mayo Clinic, a doctor) before taking a vaccine though. But do keep an eye out for that! New Zealand has allocated $37 million in funding towards vaccine testing and research. A company in Beijing, China named Sinovac has been testing for months and has progressed into its third phase of testing that is rumored to be experimented in Brazil. It takes a much longer time for a vaccine to be approved by the United Nations or WHO and rightfully so.
Thank you so much for reading this! Always stay Qurious!