Half the world seems to have lost their minds about the 2019 Novel Coronavirus (2019-n-CoV). We can protect ourself from viruses with some basic calm common sense. A biggie is increasing the frequency of hand washing, especially after being in public places.
Coronaviruses, like Rhinoviruses and Adenoviruses, cause upper respiratory tract infections - also known as colds, and there are hundreds of varieties. There are very few confirmed 2019-nCoV detected in the Northeastern US at this time, so relax. If you have a cold, it’s just a plain ole’ bummer of a cold. SARS is a type of coronavirus, and caused a panic a few years ago. Deaths caused in China by this particular coronavirus seem to be from pneumonia, and the affected patients already had a compromised immune system or respiratory tract to begin with. Most coronaviruses will simply give you a cold and then you’ll be done with it. Influenza on the other hand, causes the flu and can be quite deadly (over 12K in the US annually, and in 1918, a pandemic caused 20 - 100M deaths globally) so really, it’s statistically much more important to get a flu shot than to freak about coronaviruses. Remember that viruses are not bacteria, so antibiotics will not do anything against a virus. Take care of yourself so you can fight it off and decrease the chance of an opportunistic lung or sinus bacterial infection happening afterwards, because then you will have to deal with antibiotics.
That said, it’s good to take public health warnings seriously and there are many things we can do to decrease our risk of coming down with a cold (or flu). The biggest is to WASH YOUR HANDS frequently. Though viruses don’t survive well on hard surfaces, they do transmit in wet coughs and sneezes if breathed in, and will transfer to your membranes via your hands if you come in contact with infected droplets. Masks might contain coughs or sneezes if worn by an infected person, but they are not really airtight enough to protect healthy folks. Washing hands was found to be more effective than hand sanitizers because the alcohol-based sanitizer must be in contact with a mucusy virus preparation for 4 minutes before the virus is killed - most people would not rub their hands with sanitizer for that long.
Best way to wash hands - wet hands, add regular soap, scrub for more than 20 seconds, then wash off hands and dry them. Microbes are less likely to be spread or picked up with dry hands. The soapy water will dissolve the grease and oil on your hands and items (viruses) stuck to it. Everything then goes down the drain when you rinse your hands. Use the paper towel (of a corner of your clothing) to then open a public bathroom door handle. Hopefully by washing your hands frequently, you reduce the viral exposure to a smaller dose your immune system will be able to squash quickly. Sleeping and eating well support a healthy immune system ready to fight for you.
If you do have a cold, contain your coughs and sneezes. Best bet - stay home and take care of yourself with rest and fluids instead of “toughing it out” and infecting everyone. Folks will thank you. And maybe reschedule that trip to China for another time.
