What We Know About Coronavirus

The coronavirus has people worldwide living in fear. This strain is sweeping through China like wildfire and already has 11 major cities quarantined. Currently the death toll stands at 26, with 900 cases open and one death outside the epicenter. Many stories are being bandied about, most seemingly from the tin foil hat brigade on either side of the isle. It is difficult to process everything coming out about it, but process we must. So here goes nothing.

There are five strains of coronavirus, and they have all been around prior to these last two years. This particular strain found its first victim in 2004, in the Netherlands. Usually, viruses of this kind affect the very young and the very old. But this virus affects age groups considered to be abnormal for a virus of this kind. Meaning a 40 year old is just as susceptible. This is why everyone is seeing drastic measures being undertaken by Chinese officials.

A coronavirus is a zoonotic disease, which means it passes from animals to humans. Officials in China believe the latest strain was brought in by bat, which was also the case with the SARS virus in 2003. From Business Insider: “‘Poorly regulated live-animal markets mixed with illegal wildlife trade offer a unique opportunity for viruses to spill over from wildlife hosts into the human population,’ the Wildlife Conservation Society said in a statement on Thursday.” It is thought this particular strain was transferred from bats to snakes, and from there to humans.

Environmental Conditions Matter

Conditions in China are drastically different than they are in America. Overcrowded cities combined with subpar sanitation and a diet which would not seem healthy to an American are contributors to susceptibility in Chinese people. Which makes the ease with which this strain of coronavirus is killed (easier than killing anthrax) all the more tragic for the people of China. Chinese officials quarantined Wuhan just two days ago, and 11 other cities are reported to have followed very quickly after, as China attempts to contain the virus.

From Business Insider: “Just before midnight on Thursday, the city of Huanggang (which is home to around 7.5 million people) went into lockdown as well, as authorities closed subway and train stations. By the following day, 10 additional cities — Chibi, Enshi, Ezhou, Huangshi, Suizhou, Qianjjiang, Xianning, Xiantao, Yichang, and Zhijiang — had followed suit with their own travel restrictions. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the director-general of the World Health Organization, said these efforts to quarantine cities will help Chinese authorities control the virus’ spread and ‘minimize the chances of this outbreak spreading internationally.’”

It is still not known whether the attempt to quarantine huge cities will do the trick or not. However, authorities in China are said to be throwing everything they have at it. Again from Business Insider: “’To my knowledge, trying to contain a city of 11 million people is new to science,’ Gauden Galea, the WHO’s China representative, told the Associated Press on Thursday. ‘It has not been tried before as a public-health measure, so we cannot at this stage say it will or will not work.’”

Actively and Proactively Preparing

The situation in the United States isn’t expected to be so dire, however. One Biorecovery expert who spoke to me said our containment and clean up methods are more advanced than China, as is our sanitation. Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar said today that Americans should “feel confident in” the country’s approach to the virus. From Fox News: “’We’ve been engaged early on in this issue,’ Azar said. ‘We’ve been actively and proactively preparing, this is what we do.’ Azar said the U.S. was using a ‘multi-level’ approach to protect Americans including airport screenings.”

This is consistent with what the biorecovery expert I spoke to said to me. There has been extensive training of people who are in this field for years in order to be as prepared as one can for an event of this nature, and people should not be alarmed at it. This means they are prepared to take on these viruses. He mentions American Biorecovery Association, whom he says has “their finger on the pulse,” watching these kinds of things very closely.

Currently there are three confirmed cases of coronavirus in the USA. Another 68 are under investigation, with 11 already confirmed negative according to Fox News. The expert I spoke to was confident so far in America’s ability to thwart the virus, mainly due to medical and biorecovery advances combined with the overall sanitation and dietary differences between the US and China.

What You Can Do About Coronavirus

There are things you can do to protect yourself which should seem familiar to you. They’re the same things we did when ebola decided to visit. One good thing to do is brush up on “log reduction.” Log reduction is the systematic decimation of the virus. If you clean with a sanitizer, you will reduce the virus 90%. If you clean with a disinfectant, you will reduce the virus by 99%. A sterilizer kills 99.9999% of the virus. In other words, use lysol et al profusely.

Brush up also on “dwell time.” Dwell time is the time a product must sit on a surface to achieve maximum log reduction. A disinfectant may need 30 seconds for AIDS, whereas it may need 20 minutes or more (wet) to eradicate tuberculosis. Be sure to allow the product you choose to sit on the surface for sufficient time before cleaning it off. Lysol wipes are a good thing to have around for doorknobs, sink handles, and other such things which multiple hands will touch.

And speaking of hands, wash them often. The best method of handwashing by far is to soap your hands and rub while singing “Happy Birthday” twice. Include your wrists, and use paper towels you can throw away, or a hand dryer when you are out, and keep clean towels around your home. In simpler terms, just keep your home and yourself clean.

Do not share food among one another. This includes soda cans, glasses, and water bottles. Eating after someone who is infected is a common way for people to get sick, and with the coronavirus presenting cold and flu like, the sniffles can be far from benign. So protect yourself by not eating anyone else’s half eaten ham sandwich, even if it is your 4 year olds and they just can’t eat it all.

For the Sake of Others, Go See a Doctor

Should you be suffering, or think you are suffering, the symptoms of the coronavirus, do not go to school or work, thinking to watch and see whether it warrants a trip to the doctor. With coronavirus, it warrants a trip to the doctor. The idea behind that is to prevent the spread of the virus to others in your home or workplace. Doing this also shortens the time you take getting help, which could help your situation greatly, especially since the only thing we can do at this time is treat the patient, not the virus.

Logon to the website of American Biorecovery Association and make sure you know all you need to in order to protect yourself and your family. The World Health Organization said yesterday it is not ready to declare this new virus a worldwide problem yet, as we watch and wait to see if the quarantine of China’s major cities is adequate to contain the virus and clean it up. For now, all we can (or even need to) do is keep ourselves and our environments clean.