Corona Bug!

Corona Bugs have invaded the earth. Corona is another word for crown. The bugs look like crowns because they have pointy spikes on their heads. They only have heads, and they are so small, you can't see them! You could make a ring of 1000 coronabugs and it wouldn't fit around even a single human hair. But doctors and scientists can see them using microscopes, and they aren't pretty. If you took a corona bug and blew it up like a balloon so you could see it, it would look like this:

Corona bugs are very bad. They sneak into people's mouths and noses. If they get to the lungs, they can attack. Corona bugs especially attack old people. They can make old people very sick, and even die, especially if the hospital is full of sick people already. Some young people get sick too.

No one knows exactly where the corona bugs came from, but they made their first big attack in a city called Wuhan. The people of Wuhan made a game like this one to stop the corona bugs. But some people left too soon, on planes and trains and buses, and took some corona bugs with them. Because the bugs are invisible, those people didn't know.

So the bugs escaped! Now the bugs are spreading all over the earth. People are getting sick and some are dying.

Doctors can help the sick, but they don't have a cure. Next year maybe they will have a shot to keep people from getting sick. But not yet.

Right now, we need to stop the bugs before the hospitals get too full. That's why we're all playing the corona bug game, much like the people of Wuhan did. Each city has its own special rules, but these are pretty good to start with:

Rules of Corona Bug:

You win points by doing things that stop corona bugs, or even kill them. But you lose points by doing things that help corona bugs spread. Don't help the bugs!

Since corona bugs are invisible, we don't know where they all are. We know they get inside people, and they escape when those people cough or breathe a lot. Corona bugs can float in the air for a bit, like little balloons, before they land. When corona bugs land on stuff, and people touch the stuff, the corona bugs get onto people. If the bugs get on our hands and then we touch our faces, the bugs can get into our mouths and noses and attack.

So to play Corona Game, we pretend the bugs float around and get onto everything (even if most things are safe) and that they come out when people cough (even though most people don't have bugs inside). Just to be safe!

We will play this game a lot, but only for a while! It's very important to keep the corona bugs out of your house and your school, and other places where many people go. We think it might take a couple of months to stop the corona bugs.

How to Earn Points Every Day:

1 point for washing your hands with soap while singing happy birthday twice in a row, before you touch any food or touch your face.

1 point for every hour that you drink some water, milk or juice. (Just in case any bugs got in, that washes them into your stomach and keeps them out of your lungs!)

1 point for not touching any doorknobs or shared objects. When bugs get on shared stuff, anyone can pick them up and spread them.

5 points for taking your clothes off and putting them in the laundry basket as soon as you get home, and then taking a bath or shower to get clean. Wash away any corona bug hitch-hikers!

3 points for going to bed early and getting plenty of sleep, so you are strong the next day to play Corona Bug!

1 point for every object that you "disinfect". Disinfect is a big word for "kill the germs". It's a special kind of cleaning up. Grownups can show you how, just ask!

5 points for spotting anyone who is coughing into the air, before they get close to you. (Most people with coughs don't have coronabugs, but everyone with a cough needs to cough into a towel or their elbow just in case. When people with coronabugs cough, they can spread the bugs all through the air and onto everything around them. That's a lot to clean up!)

1 point for always wearing a face mask if a grownup tells you to. The facemask won't stop all the corona bugs, but it helps. What it does best is keep your hands from accidentally putting corona bugs into your mouth or nose.

1 point for washing or disinfecting your mask, every day that you wear it.

10 points for working with a grownup to make your own mask!

10 points for asking grownups how they play Corona Bug. Nurses and people who work in restaurants and supermarkets are experts. They stop Corona Bugs every day so their patients can get better, and so our food is pretty safe.

20 points for teaching other people how to play Corona Bug!

Lose 1 point every time you touch your face (unless you have a mask on!)

Lose 1 point every time you touch a shared object (unless you cleaned it first!)

Lose 1 point for sharing food with anyone. Corona Bugs love to hitch-hike on food!

Lose 10 points for going within 5 giant steps of anyone who is coughing, unless a grownup says it's safe.

Lose 10 points for coughing into the air instead of a kleenex or elbow.

If you can score more than 20 points each day (even if you lose some), give yourself a treat before bed. You are helping to fight the corona bugs and save people!

Robert F. Heeter, Ph.D. (a physicist, not a physician)

March 8, 2020

Please run with this, build on it, share, and look back here for updates and improvements.

Feedback and suggestions to coronabug@heeter.net