Interim Guidance: Home Care for 2019-nCoV | CDC
Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) is not an air-borne disease. You catch it by being exposed to an infected person who is coughing or sneezing. You can also be exposed by touching a contaminated surface.
Currrent Situation
The Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) has not reached Hawaii yet. At the state level, I think we are as ready as possible to isolate any infected patient. Isolation is the only way we have to prevent a pandemic.
When a pandemic gets established our health care facilities will be overwhelmed. Isolating yourself and your family from possible contamination is the only way to avoid getting sick. Stay home. Have supplies to enable you to live off the grid for six months or until the pandemic runs its course which could be a year or more.
For most of us that is not practical.
Designate one family member to go outside to run errands and get supplies. Of course, anyone who may have come in contact with the virus must wash carefully before re-entering your home.
If you are a business, build a pandemic response into your Emergency Response Plan. How are you going to protect your employees? What training will you provide them?
Click here for a FORBES article about the impact of the pandemic on Chinese business and how businesses are trying to deal with the situation. Retailers comment on how coronavirus will impact business – Business Insider
Prevention
Paper masks are only affective to keep contaminate particles from being ejected from an ill person. when they cough or sneeze. Paper masks do not protect you. Only an N-95 mask that is fitted to your face offers protection. An effective mask prevents air from leaking into the mask and filters viruses from entering the mask.
Preventing the spread of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) requires the isolation of infected patients.
People who are not sick can minimize their risk of infection by staying at least six feet away from sick people, by avoiding touching their face with their hands, and by washing their hands whenever they have touch surfaces that may be infected.
If you are a caregiver, wash your hands before approaching your patient and immediately after leaving the patient area. Use an antiseptic soap that contains at least 60% alcohol.. As a last resort, you can use alcohol or even vodka.
Initial symptoms of COVID-19 are similar to the flu. Get your flu shot so you will know your symptoms are not just the common flu. The flu has a death rate of .002% COVID-19 in China where health care facilities are overwhelmed, the death rate is over 10%.
Considering the present administration has sharply reduced CDC funding and the Federal Government has no comprehensive plan to deal with this emergency, the USA may fare no better than China.
Supplies
Currently, in my local drug store, sanitary wipes, hand sanitizing solutions, surgical gloves, and even disinfectant soaps are sold out.
I recommend you keep at least a two week supply of the sanitation materials you will need. That is not hoarding. It is being prepared to deal with shortages. If you cannot get what you need locally, try ordering online.
We are seeing the beginning of a pandemic. There is still time to control it if world governments work together to isolate people who are ill. There is no indication of any effective cooperation. Each nation is trying to protect itself While pockets of the pandemic are emerging in war-torn and destitute nations around the world.
Conclusion
Without effective programs to contain the virus, all we can do is try to protect our selves and our families. In Hawaii, our economy will be heavily impacted. Already our movie industry has shut down. More than a third of our economy is based on tourism. People are going to stay at home and we will soon see empty hotels.
It is probable that public meetings will be canceled, public schools will be shut down and people will voluntarily isolate them sells as much as possible.
Each family has different circumstances and will need a different plan. Children, old folks and people with an immune deficiency are most at risk.
Our family plan is:
- My wife has advanced Parkinsonianism. She is confined to bed and cannot stand or walk. Nancy is the most vulnerable and we will do all we can to prevent COVID-19 from entering our family room where Nancy lives. No one will enter the family room without first washing with disinfectant soap.
- I am 89 and in relatively good health. Tani, my grand-son is in his 30s. He and I are primary caregivers. We will follow sanitary protocols when caring for Nancy.
- My daughter Lynn is the third member of Nancy’s care team. She works at Palama Settlement tutoring immigrant children. She is the most exposed to the virus and will serve as our contact with the outside world. She will wash carefully when entering the house and keep her self as isolated as possible in her room in the back of the house.,
We take the COVID-19 pandemic seriously. We expect it to be at least as bad as the great flu pandemic of 1917-18. The one bright spot is scientists may be able to create a vaccine by this fall.