How To Stop Community Spread?
Social Distancing
The best way to stop community spread is social distancing. Shelter in at home if possible. Only leave home for essentials like work, supplies, and medical reasons.
Employers: If you can allow workers to work from home, do so.
Employees: If you are sick, stay home.
What if I have symptoms?
If you are symptomatic without known exposure, and must venture out, wear a mask. This mask protects you from others. Many times you will be infected long before you are diagnosed. The symptoms may present as flu-like symptoms or even a cold initially. Be socially responsible and STAY HOME when you are sick.
If you have symptoms and you know you have been traveling or you have known exposure, self-quarantine, monitor your symptoms and call your healthcare provider.
I’m healthy and I will likely survive this virus if I contract it…why should I care?
This virus is not the seasonal flu. It’s true most young and healthy people will survive this at home without requiring medical attention.
The few facts about the virus: As of today 3/16/2020, there are currently 182,298 confirmed cases with 7,142 deaths. That equates to a death rate of 3.9% By comparison, the seasonal flu kills far less. Let’s compare.
Lets look at the seasonal flu:
“CDC estimates that the burden of illness during the 2018–2019 season included an estimated 35.5 million people getting sick with influenza, 16.5 million people going to a health care provider for their illness, 490,600 hospitalizations, and 34,200 deaths from influenza.” -
(Information source https://www.cdc.gov/flu/about/burden/2018-2019.html)
Based on this information from the CDC, the estimated fatality rate for the seasonal flu for the 2018-2019 seasons, the fatality rate was 0.96%, less than 0.1%.
Fact: According to the Case-Fatality Risk Estimates for COVID-19 released by the CDC March 2020 it is difficult to estimate a fatality rate because milder cases are not being diagnosed. However the abstract is as follows:
We estimated the case-fatality risk for 2019 novel coronavirus disease cases in China (3.5%); China, excluding Hubei Province (0.8%); 82 countries, territories, and areas (4.2%); and on a cruise ship (0.6%). Lower estimates might be closest to the true value, but a broad range of 0.25%–3.0% probably should be considered.
So, Why Care? (Lives Lost)
Hopefully the risk of so many lives being lost is worth you inconveniencing yourself temporarily to help stop the spread of this virus.
Why Care? (Economy)
Of course lives are the most important issues here, but we can’t ignore the the economic effects this will have world-wide. This virus is going to run it’s course. How quickly it does will determine the impact it will have on the economy.
Bill Conerly a Senior Contributor for Forbes Magazine predicts rolling recessions as the economic impact of the new coronavirus and COVID-19.