Courtesy PreventEpidemics.org
Take These Three Basic Precautions to Stay Safe
For anyone hoping for a quick end to COVID-19 or SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes the disease, that’s not going to happen. Dr. Anthony Fauci has a best guesstimate of a year or more before he thinks we can get back to some semblance of normal. That seem very reasonable to me, considering it took over 40 years to develope a polio vaccine.
As of this post, the number of tested infections in the United States is about two million, with a death rate of around 120,000. Using those two statistics, the death rate as a percentage would be alarmingly high. But experts at places like the web site PreventEpidemics.org think the number of people who are actually infected is much higher, more like 14,000,000. If that’s correct, the rate of death would be much lower, but it could also mean a much higher potential for infection.
America, We Can Do This
Staying as safe as possible is pretty simple. Wear a mask. Keep your distance. Wash your hands. This isn’t difficult behavior to follow, and given the alternative of potential infection and the potentially horrific consequences we’re seeing, it seems like an easy path to follow.
A new study uses data from Japan’s very successful efforts to contain spread and prevent infection and applies it to the United States. The simulated computer model shows if 80% of Americans wore masks and practiced distancing, COVID could be successfully contained.
The chart below, from the New England Journal of Medicine, depicts the risk of death based on age group and proximity to the virus. This information is already pretty well known.
Courtesy New England Journal of Medicine
What We Should All Do: Mask, Wash, Distance
The SARS-CoV-2 virus is amazingly effective at attacking and destroying our bodies from the inside out, but in order to carry out that mission it needs our help. A vaccine would be great, and so would therapeutics, but until then it’s up to each of us to help defeat this killer. Please do your part to prevent the spread.
Read about Your Pilates LIfestyle Covid procedures and protocols here.