Social distancing is one of the best ways to keep yourself and others safe right now. It's probably one of the most heard phrases from the past couple weeks. So, what exactly is social distancing?
The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines social distancing as “the avoidance of close contact with other people during the outbreak of a contagious disease in order to minimize exposure and reduce the transmission of infection.”
Social distancing is important right now in order to reduce the risk of getting sick, and reduce the risk of others getting sick. Something that's important right now is thinking of the health of the public as a whole and not just yours. According to the CDC, Coronavirus is more dangerous for people who are over the age of 65 or have an underlying disease. If you go out in public, even if you are not showing symptoms, you could be putting these other people who might not be able to fight off the disease as well as you can at risk.
So, how can you be contagious without showing symptoms? Coronavirus is known to have an incubation period of up to two weeks. The incubation period of a disease is “the time from exposure to the causative agent until the first symptoms develop and is characteristic for each disease agent,” according to the CDC. During this incubation period, you can be contagious for up to two weeks, without displaying any symptoms.
This two week incubation period is an important reason why you should be staying home since you could be spreading the disease during that time without knowing that you are.
“Flattening the Curve” might have also been a term you’ve heard recently. When an outbreak of a disease happens, they typically follow the trend of a curve. The curve will start out small and grow as the number of cases rise. The curve will then peak at a certain point and start to shrink and go back down. An important way to flatten the curve is to stay home to avoid transmitting the disease.
Another reason we should be staying home and flattening the curve is for hospitals and people who work in healthcare professions. Hospitals where cases are increasing quickly, like New York, are having a hard time keeping up with the influx of patients. Just because a new virus is spreading, doesn't mean that people still aren't getting sick for other reasons and need to stay at the hospital.
Hospitals are running out of materials and resources quickly. Most hospitals are facing shortages of necessary items to try to contain the spread of the disease like masks, gloves, and respirators. Without these items, healthcare professionals are at a greater risk of getting sick while treating these patients and they may spread it to others asymptomatically. Some hospitals don't have enough ventilators to use to treat the patients that need them. This could lead to doctors having to decide who will get a ventilator. This has never had to be done in our country before and it's extremely concerning for those in healthcare who have never had to make these decisions before.
If you have opened or unopened boxes of gloves, masks, or N95 respirators please consider donating them to a hospital, as they are of greater use to them than they are to you.
Other ways you can prevent getting the disease would be by cleaning surfaces that are touched repeatedly throughout the day, like your phone or door knobs. You should also be washing your hands for twenty seconds with warm water and soap and avoid touching your face.
If you do need to go out in public to get groceries or other essentials, you should take a couple extra precautions like trying to stay six feet away from others when you can, avoid touching things you don't need to touch, and wash your hands or use hand sanitizer before and after you leave a building. Not only will this keep you from getting sick, but it will prevent others from getting sick if you are asymptomatic and still spreading the disease.
If you do suspect that you are getting sick, the CDC recommends staying home, as most cases are mild and able to be managed at home, like the flu. Many people are trying to get tested, some people just want to know for peace of mind, however currently, most places are only testing people who are showing severe symptoms as a way to ration tests. If you feel as though you are sick, assume that you have coronavirus, and stay home as a positive test result does not change the course of treatment.
Avoid coming in contact with others and monitor your symptoms. A mild case would be considered as a fever and dry cough. If you start experiencing warning symptoms like shortness of breath, seek medical attention, but contact your doctor or emergency room first for the safety of them and other patients.