Chart shows relative risk of infection
Ordinary activities color-coded
AUSTIN — A new chart published by the Texas Medical Association aims to show how much risk of coronavirus infection comes with various everyday activities.
TMA based the color-coded infographic on the opinions of fourteen experts in public health, epidemiology and infectious disease, who ranked dozens of activities on a scale of one, the least risk of infection, to 10, the most.
The goal is to “help Texans make informed choices now, when many parts of the state are seeing huge increases in confirmed COVID19 cases and hospitalizations,” according to a spokesperson.
With a score of one, opening the mail is the least risky activity ranked. Activities with a score of nine include going to a bar and attending a religious service with 500 or more people. No activity considered rated a 10.
The experts consulted worked under the assumption that people would participate in the activities practicing the usual COVID-19 safety precautions, such as wearing masks, social distancing and practic- ing good hand hygiene.
TMA randomized presentation of the activities to the experts to cancel out any effect order might have and then computed the average rating for each of the activities. Staff rounded averages to the nearest whole number and sorted them from lowest to highest. In-house graphic artists created the chart.
TMA made clear that the chart is based on conjecture, not on any direct scientific study.
“This is not a study of the actual risk from participating in these activities based on data collected from individuals and their exposure to COVID-19. While such a study would prove extremely useful moving forward, that was not the intent of this project,” the spokesperson said.
For more information, visit TMA’s coronavirus resources website at texmed.org/coronavirus/.