Please pass on these two simple things to everyone you know. I received an email from MIT (Massachusetts institute of technology). They are sharing the ‘official advice’.
“THE OFFICIAL ADVICE Number one: wash your hands thoroughly with soap and water for at least 20 seconds each time. Avoid touching your face. Cover your nose and mouth if you cough or sneeze, and try to distance yourself from others.
“THE OFFICIAL ADVICE: If you feel unwell, stay at home. If you have fever, cough and difficulty breathing, do NOT go to the hospital: call your local medical authorities first. Remember that older people and those with pre-existing health problems are at higher risk. ”
This is what we’re going to talk about today:
The official guidelines are 1) Prevent … good 2) Isolate … do nothing Let’s think about this for a moment.
Prevention: We may or may not be able to ‘prevent’ this virus from spreading any more than other illnesses. It’s new and it’s scary.
However, instead of using a phrase like ‘physical distancing’ which acknowledges that this virus spreads in close contact particularly in confined spaces, the term being used is ‘social distancing’ means makes us feel that the ‘other’ should be avoided at all costs or else we will catch it and die. Words matter.
Please start using the phrase ‘physical distancing’ and permit yourselves to socialize while maintaining a respectful physical distance during this time frame. If we continue to use ‘social distancing’ then we create fearful societies and that can last well beyond the threat of this virus.
If you understand the profound difference between how being told to ‘physically distance’ yourself from ‘social distancing’ then help spread this revised language.
I approached 25 strangers yesterday and discussed this. All of them felt more relaxed and comfortable when they thought about ‘physically distancing’ compared to ‘social distancing’. 2) Isolate.
There is a huge step missing … what to do if you feel you are even slightly unwell. There is absolutely zero official advice.
In fact, this came to me today. “If you feel unwell, stay at home. If you have fever, cough and difficulty breathing, do NOT go to the hospital: call your local medical authorities first.
Remember that older people and those with pre-existing health problems are at higher risk.” That just leaves people feeling helpless, coupled with ‘social distancing’.
All of you who don’t believe gargling 3-4 times a day is BS, then don’t. But for the rest of us. Gargling with warm salty water or anything else commonly used is known to ‘soothe’ the throat and back of nose AND to REDUCE the viral/bacterial load in our own body which means if we cough or sneeze there is a less viral load going into the air around use that can infect others.
Gargling DOES NOT CURE OR ELIMINATE THE VIRUS IT CUTS DOWN THE LOAD and that has to be good and a worthwhile goal.
We cannot live in a world where we are afraid of one another and have no ability to self manage.
The virus wins if we do not change our language and bring into the ‘official message’ the time tested, commonly used skill of just plan gargling with warm salty water for 3-4/day at least while you are feeling unwell.
This should just be common practice. Let’s put this together in a scenario using this new language and new actions. I’m outside keeping ‘physical distance’ and I see a stranger and stop to talk during this strange time. We keep a respectful physical distance and totally enjoy socializing with one another.
We even discuss that one of us wasn’t feeling too well a few days ago so we stayed at home for 5 days and gargled with X 3-5times/day and now feel much better. Just compare to what is happening now … terror, fear, helplessness. It does not have to be this way! This is not the end of the world and we can make this time pass by making these simple changes. #corona #coronavirus #CoronavirusLockdown ”