Novel coronavirus: Why such big deal over such a little Covid-19 virus?

As a stay at home mom who also happens to be a public health nurse with a Ph.D. I have been following the course of the coronavirus closely.

So it was sad to see when the U.S. finally realized the seriousness of the outbreak there were people who were still going out to parties and ignoring the importance of social distancing such as the now infamous college student on spring break:
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/spring-break-party-coronavirus-pandemic-miami-beaches/

There are people asking, what is the big deal if the virus affects mostly the elderly (over 65) or those with chronic conditions (diabetes, heart disease, etc)?

In the greater scheme of things, there's a lot of fear over the virus. Compared to other pandemics in history, it's not ranked at the top for the number of deaths, see helpful infographics here that are constantly updated. 

https://www.visualcapitalist.com/history-of-pandemics-deadliest/  

Unfortunately, we live in an age of social media where people are seeing the numbers and hearing/watching the news in real-time. It's kind of like hearing about a case of a puppy being tortured and killed after the fact versus watching it die before your eyes thinking you could have done something to prevent it.   

What we tend to worry about in the health care system is overburdening the capacity of the system. (From studying this in my Ph.D. process, there's usually a major health care worker shortage most everywhere in the world.) 

So a person who would normally be able to recover from an illness with the care and equipment provided in a hospital might not be able to have access to that and would instead go meet their creator. 

This is what happened in Wuhan, China and why they deployed so many health care professionals and built hospitals to increase capacity:

https://www.cnbc.com/2020/02/26/coronavirus-china-health-care-system-under-pressure-in-wuhan.html  

Also, the virus seems to be very successful in transmitting between humans and wrecking damage in the lungs that don't seem to be controllable with antibiotics:

https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2020/03/biography-new-coronavirus/608338/  

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/mar/24/coronavirus-what-happens-to-peoples-lungs-if-they-get-covid-19   

I like how this Johns Hopkins virologist describes them:

They break into your home, eat your food and use your furniture and have 10,000 babies. “And then they leave the place trashed,”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2020/03/23/coronavirus-isnt-alive-thats-why-its-so-hard-kill/  

Having an overcapacity for health care systems is not a good place to be even with the low percentage of risk of death for those who are young and healthy, in the case, you get something other than the virus and need the hospital, you might not get access.

Which is why you have no doubt seen the "flatten the curve" graph, first proposed by the American CDC for the 2007 flu- page 3 here https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/4522

https://www.fastcompany.com/90476143/the-story-behind-flatten-the-curve-the-defining-chart-of-the-coronavirus

I like the explanation of the spread of the disease from the visual capitalists that shows that the Covid-19 has a large R0, or spread factor than the flu (for covid-19, 1 person can spread it to 2.5 people and for the flu, 1 person spreads to 1.5 people) and a current higher mortality percentage (2-3% for covid-19 versus 0.5% for the flu). While thousands of people die every flu season, this could be a lot worse since we do not have vaccines or medications yet.

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Novel coronavirus: what to do when you suspect you have covid 19

So an ounce of prevention outweighs a pound of cure. It is best to wash one's hands and not to touch one's face and have all kinds of prevention strategies. But in the case where there's just too much of the virus around and you suspect you've caught it, here's what I'd do.

Being a nurse, I'm usually way too paranoid so I'd actually check the differential symptoms with the common cold, flu, and allergies first.

But the American CDC has actually come out with an AI named Clara who'll help you to see if you need to be tested: https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/symptoms-testing/testing.html

In Taiwan, there's a government hotline number you can call (1922) and they can help to decide if you need testing and where to get it done.

Most people without pre-existing conditions or younger than 65 who have mild symptoms can recover at home in isolation (American CDC). This is also not to overwhelm the hospital systems.

You would do the same things you'd do if you were sick at home with the cold/flu, except everyone who you live with will also have to do the same things and not go out. As parents, we're pretty used to our kids coming down with some sort of sickness and all of us having to stay at home. Although the past two times our son ended up in the hospital with pneumonia so we're extra nervous and even though Taiwan has not imposed lock-down, we've imposed self-quarantine for awhile now.

We don't check the mail, no one really mails anymore anyways. And our groceries are delivered to our apartment complex.

It's drinking a lot of fluids and sleeping it off like my husband and son are demonstrating here (when they didn't have any sickness).

However, if you suspect you or someone in your home has Covid-19 which is highly contagious, be sure to give the person with the suspected case their own separate sets of linens/towels, room, silverware, personal hygiene items, toys. But if you're the parents of a child who is not totally independent yet, try to have one designated parent who is healthy (or more healthy) to take the child and get them to rest, drink a lot and play in a designated area (their own personal fort/room that others aren't allowed to come in for two weeks).

https://x362.blob.core.windows.net/downloads/4dd80372933d49e3b83a04934dd0d487/medical-information-covid-19-how-to-care-for-someo.pdf

For our son who was 3 when the coronavirus hit, we had to sit down and explain why everyone is out wearing masks and why he had to wash his hands and sing the alphabet song so many times. This cartoon PDF from United 4 Children may be helpful:
https://united4children.org/2020/03/childrens-story-explaining-coronavirus/

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Novel coronavirus: when you have to self-quarantine with toddlers part 1

With most things with kids, it's hard to make a plan that goes exactly right but when you don't have a plan it's a disaster.

I know there's a ton of online educational sites offering free subscriptions right now but with little kids, I'd like to limit screen time unless I'm desperate (happens more often than I'd like to admit).

So, if you're looking at quarantine with toddlers here's what I've found to be helpful:

Arts & crafts:

I stocked up on about two rims of paper, colored pencils, crayons, markers, pencils, paint and paintbrushes at my local store. It's helpful to have a storage box to put everything in.

The result was this:

But the kids had a blast! Except I probably should have saved more newspapers and made them wear their aprons.

For the older kids, hundreds of museums all over the world have transformed their art into coloring pages so you could totally do an art lesson with this:

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/113-museums-transformed-illustrations-their-collections-free-coloring-pages-180971501/

Then there's planting:

I got this kit from a monthly subscription magazine and apparently, everyone at one time in Taiwan schools has planted window plants of cabbage.

But did remember to put something down on the floor to catch the dirty since I let the kids put the dirt in. I'm the worst person to do plants so I hope it grows in two weeks according to the instructions.

But there's a ton of lesson plans for this out there:
http://www.blessedbeyondadoubt.com/homeschool-in-the-garden-a-big-list-of-ideas-and-resources/

I was going to try to do composting but realize this may need a year or worms that I have no idea how to get. So well see if I can figure out just doing fertilizer from organic materials at home. If anyone has good ideas. Post below.

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Novel coronavirus: what we do to protect ourselves from the Covid 19

Hello,
So there's a lot of information out there for things you can do to protect against the Covid-19. As a mom of a child whose immune system seems to be compromised (our son has been hospitalized twice for pneumonia before the coronavirus) we take some extra steps but here's a breakdown of what we do personally.

1. Wash hands - this is the most important one as your hands can transfer the virus from a contaminated surface when you touch your mouth, eyes, nose or any other open surfaces to get into the body. We wash our hands whenever we go out, before we eat, after playing with toys, sneezing, coughing etc. But you have to make sure to scrub all areas of the hands for at least 20 seconds, which is the ABC song. Also, be sure to dry the hands really well. I make my kids sing the ABC song and now my kids know their ABCs really well. I finally realize the tune of ABC is twinkle twinkle little star after singing it so many times.

2. Limit going out to once a day - we try to schedule our going out time to just once every day at non-peak hours such as around noontime on mass transit if we need to go anywhere further than our local park. Going anywhere crowded like the mass transit, we all wear masks.
My packing list for going out includes: alcohol-based hand sanitizers, sprays, and wipes as kids touch everything and there's not usually a bathroom nearby, tissues for drying hands or when I forget to pack gloves and need to open non-automatic doors, disposable gloves or a used pen for pressing elevator buttons, soap for when there are bathrooms but no soap, small plastic bags for trash as there are not very many trash bins here in Taiwan. Extra masks for if I'm not vigilante and the kids throw away their masks.

3. Hang out at non-crowded venues - it's easier to do social distancing at non-crowded places such as a hiking trail or a big park. It's next to impossible to try to keep little kids indoors all the time as the apartments here are small, so we're fortunate that there's a major park nearby within walking distance where we are able to go exercise and let out some energy. But those of you with bigger houses or yards shouldn't have a problem.

4. Take a bath when coming indoors - we've now made it a routine to take a bath whenever we get back inside from wherever we've been. We'll also wash our clothes with the hottest water we can find possible and use antimicrobial soap. We keep a stack of garbage bags near the door where we can deposit and bag things that have been outdoors to try to keep it from getting indoors. My husband and I will also make sure to wipe down our phones with alcohol wipes.

5. Order goods online - we've made sure that ordering online at the grocery store that deliveries work for us. Taiwanese apartments are rather small so there's not a lot of room for extra appliances like an extra freezer like we used to have in the U.S. But living in a city is convenient that you can order from major grocery stores to deliver and there are equivalent to Amazon here in Taiwan.

6. Have a stock of indoor materials on hand - for days that we might have to stay indoors to keep the kids entertained. I'll have to write another blog post on what I've found to be helpful.

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