Wash them, don’t wring them
It would be a fine thing if people were hitting supermarkets and shops to stock up on survival items and getaway kits of the sort recommended by Emergency Management (Civil Defence) with the same sense of purpose that coronavirus concerns have engendered from some of us in recent days. That would be a better idea.
It’s hardly surprising that many supermarkets have been busy following the confirmed arrival of the long-expected, long-planned-for arrival of a virus such as this.
Yes, we should all react as individuals. But rampant stockpiling is neither needed nor helpful. Our collective response should not be more feverish than the medical and scientific realities require.
The single most effective thing we can do to be vigilant on our own behalf is to improve our act in what should be our normal hygiene anyway. If this seems too familiar to be adequate, it shouldn’t.
So even as targeted border-detection protocols are important, and acknowledging that for some people self-isolation is warranted, the most potent tool in our individual arsenals remains no less effective for being so utterly, tediously familiar.
Washing our hands regularly, for at least 20 seconds, with soap and water. That’s the trick.
Only when that thoroughly old-fashioned protection is unavailable should we turn to hand sanitiser. You might think that this would be the better option anyway, but you’d be wrong. Otherwise, remember that this virus needs to get into your body to do its damage, and that it doesn’t generate runny noses and sneezes to do so, and that it’s a dry cough. All of which means means we would typically need to help it into our own bodies, so keeping uncleaned hands off our face is really important. (This, we’re now hearing, is the main benefit of most face masks.)
One problem with receiving such advice is that it can come across as dumbed-down to the point of childish instruction. The fact remains that, if our grown-up sensibilities have us turning our main focus beyond these personal measures, then we’re abandoning our chief protection, not just as individuals but collectively.
Of course we wouldn’t say no to a vaccine. Well, most of us wouldn’t. But for all the research work being done, there’s scant prospect of one emerging within the next few weeks, or months. It may be more than a year away.
Most figures suggest maybe 1 to 2 per cent of those infected have died, and that may be a bit pessimistic because it doesn’t count the unknown numbers who have quietly contracted it, recovered after no more than the standard unpleasantness, and gone on with their lives.
It’s a new virus, and that’s always thoroughly unwelcome. It’s not the most infectious one out there, nor the least. For most victims, it’s a mild infection. Its spread has been well within the expectable dimensions, and that is reassuring to this point. It’s by no means guaranteed that it can be dispatched to statistical oblivion, but neither has there been any alarming indication that containment isn’t going to work the way it generally does.
So there you go. Not a problem we should wash our hands of, but in many ways one we can wash our hands to help keep at bay.
If our grown-up sensibilities have us turning our main focus beyond these personal measures then we’re abandoning our chief protection, not just as individuals but collectively