A Word About Masks and Gloves

A mask protects other people from you. A respirator protects you from other people. Let’s save the respirators for the people who risk their lives to keep us alive. For more information see 3M. Photo source: 3M

This post originally appeared and on the Hearts, Homes, and Hands blog on 2020-03-30.

Breath I’ll take and breath I’ll give

Pray the day ain’t poison

Stand among the ones that live

In lonely indecision.

—Townes vanZandt

You’ve probably heard we face a shortage of masks and gloves, needed supplies to help fight the spread of the Coronavirus or COVID-19 (C-19). The best we can do as individuals is to make sure we are using these supplies correctly.

Masks

Let’s start with masks. Wearing a mask won’t keep you from getting sick, but it can keep you from spreading the disease if you are already sick.

The understanding as I write this post is that C-19 is transmitted through heavy droplets when you cough or sneeze. A mask can keep you from spreading these droplets. But because they tend to fall to the ground—they don’t stay suspended in the air—you don’t have to worry too much about inhaling them unless you are around someone who has the disease for more than 15 minutes.

You can get sick if you touch something that these droplets have fallen on and then touch your face. So that brings us to gloves.

Gloves

It doesn’t do you any good to wear gloves if you don’t take them off correctly. Here’s the right way in pictures. Photo by Room’s Studio

Gloves cut both ways. They can protect you from some forms of direct contact, but they can also encourage a false sense of security that reduces hand washing. Your gloves can also contact the infected droplets. If you touch your face while still wearing the gloves, you might as well not be wearing the gloves at all.

Then there’s the types of gloves. I saw someone walking their pet while wearing winter gloves. Cloth gloves can trap more of the infected droplets near your skin so you take them home with you. If you don’t immediately throw cloth gloves in the washer, you probably shouldn’t wear them at all.

Finally, there is an art to taking your gloves off. Be careful not to touch the outside of the glove to your skin. And wash your hands immediately, just in case.

These are scary times, but we can get through them if we think about what we’re doing, take care of each other, and work together.

Life Is Better with Clean Hands

This graphic provides a more detailed handwashing procedure. Infographic by Shutterstock

The CDC is rolling out a new program: “Life is Better with Clean Hands.” Photo source CDC

This post originally appeared on the Hearts, Homes, and Hands blog on 2020-03-14.

We have all been washing our hands for a long time, but we may not have always washed them effectively. I’ve seen guys barely splash water on their hands, wipe their hands lightly on their shirt, and grab the door handle. That may actually be worse than not washing your hands at all because the damp hands may help germs grow and definitely helps them spread.

So, I wanted to see what the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) recommends. It turns out CDC has specific guidance for both how and when we should wash up.

Proper Hand Washing

The CDC recommends five simple steps to wash your hands:

1. Wet your hands under clean, running water. It can be warm or cold. For me, the hotter it is, the better. 
2. Apply soap and lather. Get all of your hands—between the fingers, under the nails, the backs of your hands, around your thumbs, and all around your wrists. 
3. Scrub thoroughly. The CDC suggests humming “Happy Birthday” twice to make sure you scrub for at least 20 seconds. 
4. Rinse your hands well, again with clean, running water. 
5. Dry your hands completely with a clean towel or air dryer.

What About Sanitizers?

If you don’t have access to clean, running water, soap, and towels, hand sanitizers are better than nothing, but they are not as effective as simply cleaning your hands. Sanitizers don’t kill all kinds of germs. They are much less effective when your hands are really dirty or greasy, and they don’t remove harmful chemicals that can get on your hands as part of daily life.

When to Wash

We all know you should wash up before you start preparing food. But the CDC also recommends washing up several times while you’re cooking, like after touching raw meat or when changing the types of food you’re working with.

You should also wash up:

• After using the bathroom (and before if you’re a mechanic) 
• Before meals 
• After caring for someone who is sick 
• Before and after treating a cut, wound, or burn 
• After blowing your nose, sneezing, or coughing 
• After touching an animal, its food, or its waste 
• After touching garbage

Let’s All Stay Healthy

Washing your hands in warm, soapy water is the single most effective thing you can do to stay healthier. Photo source: Shutterstock

This post originally appeared on the Hearts, Homes, and Hands blog on 2020-03-03.

Don’t let us get sick

Don’t let us get old

Don’t let us get stupid, all right?

—Warren Zevon

On Monday, 24 February, the CDC made a startling if not unexpected announcement. The global efforts to contain the N. Corona Virus - now officially called COVID-19 (C-19) are doomed to failure. So are the CDC’s efforts to keep C-19 out of the U.S. It is not a question of if C-19 will spread, “it’s more a question of when this will happen and a question of how many people will have severe illness.”

In October 2019, Johns Hopkins gamed out a global pandemic. Ironically, they chose a corona virus, not C-19 since this was a simulation and C-19 had not even been identified yet. Unfortunately, it showed 77% of countries were not able to collect real-time data on the spread of the disease, which means the reported number of cases is probably much lower than the number of actual cases. The good news is that the US ranked the most prepared. Not well prepared but better than anyone else.

C-19 is in the same family of viruses as the common cold. So, we already have some pretty effective ways of dealing with it. 

Older people, the very young, and those with immune systems compromised by other factors are the most at risk. But as with cold and flu, you might get C-19 and your symptoms could be so mild you don’t even know you’re sick.

Photo source: Amazon

Don’t Panic

While C-19 spreads around the world and could play havoc with the global economy, it is not a monster virus like the one in Stephen King’s epic The Stand. Its more lethal than a typical flu outbreak, but it does not seem to spread as easily. In fact, given recent cases of “community spread,” many otherwise healthy people may not even know they have contracted C-19. Many others may think they have the flu and either wait it out or ignore it.

• The leaders in our community already have plans. Robert Kirkpatrick, the Milam County Director of Public Health Preparedness is already working with state health officials and the CDC to monitor and coordinate efforts.
• Suna covered what our Health Department is doing in the Hearts, Homes, and Hands blog post of 20 February. School officials in Milam County and around the country are developing plans to deal with students testing positive for C-19.
• I have a long-standing policy of sending sick people home. Both Hearts, Homes, and Hands and Hermits’ Rest Enterprises follow this policy. We don’t want people having to make the choice of going to work sick or putting food on the table. We all know where that decision will fall. 

You don’t have to go to this extreme to protect yourself from getting sick. Besides, the guy’s beard total breaks the respirator seal. Photo by Monkey Business Images
Shutterstock

What Should We Do?

While we shouldn’t panic, we need to approach this disease with open eyes. It might be comforting to hear that C-19 will be controlled by warmer weather in the Spring, as is the case with the flu and other corona viruses, but we don’t know that for sure. People still get colds and the flu in the summer, just not so frequently.

Here are a few things you can do to stay healthier:

• Avoid contact with sick people. Most of us can’t isolate ourselves and avoid any potential contact with potentially infected individuals, much as we might wish to. But we can try to avoid people who are obviously sick
• Wash your hands with soap and warm water for 25 seconds at least twice a day and always before eating. The CDC says this is the most effective thing you can do to avoid getting sick from just about any cause. 
• Avoid touching your mouth, nose, and eyes. These viruses spread thrive in the fluids produced in your mouth, nose, and eyes. They have evolved to irritate these parts of your body, making them water and facilitating virus transmission. 
• If you run a business, have a plan to limit the spread C-19 (or the flu) through your workforce. Can your employees work from home? Will you pay them? Where will you get replacement workers?

Lungs

This post originally appeared on the Hearts, Homes, and Hands website on 2019-10-22.

As I’ve gotten older, I’ve noticed my lungs, which were never that healthy, have become a lot more sensitive to environmental factors: pollen, scented oils, dust, household cleaners, and so on. I started thinking about this topic because of something that happened the other night.

I was in the bathroom getting ready for bed, when I noticed an uninvited guest. It was some kind of insect. Since we have the house treated for pests regularly, I didn’t have a can of insecticide nearby. Or at all. So I grabbed the first thing at hand, a spray bottle of Scrubbing Bubbles that I keep in the shower.

It was like I turned off that bug’s switch. It didn’t kick or spasm. It just stopped, literally dead in its tracks.

I didn’t think a lot about this at the time because I’ve also killed insects with hair spray.

A couple of nights later, I killed a spider with the Scrubbing Bubbles, which really do a great job on the shower. It was really irritated and hid under a rug. I found it a couple of feet away the next morning.

For once I was glad that growing up near a chemical plant damaged my lungs enough that I instinctively hold my breath whenever I use a spray product. That’s also when I really started thinking.

What is it in this common cleaner that kills so effectively?

When I googled “scrubbing bubbles and lungs,” the top hit was a scary page called “10 of the Most Toxic Cleaning Supplies.” Turns out my favorite cleaner contains some really nasty chemicals (not really a big surprise), including one that is banned in the EU at concentrations of more than 3% for its effects on human lungs.

I’m going to continue using my spray-bottle helper. But I’m going to be even more careful about holding my breath.

Happiness

Suna and I after “The Hike”Photo by Greg

But I’m standing here now with my heart held out to you

You would’ve thought a miracle was all that got us through

Well baby all I know, all I know is I’m still standing

And this is love all it ever was and will be

Mary Chapin Carpenter

It’s fairly obvious that this is us: me looking like I just farted and Suna saying, “Yep, he did it.” But give me a break, I had just finished the longest walk I had been on in, well decades. But I lived. Suna was radiant. And we both felt wonderful the next few days.

So why am I still posting about the hike? I’m not really. I’m posting about being happy and being comfortable about it. It’s just that the most recent pictures I have of the two of us together are all from “the hike.”

Notice: I am even quoting song lyrics again. Happy ones, at that.

So, hey world! I’m feeling good again—physically and emotionally. I have a life again. I have a wonderful woman in my life. I have a decent job that is somewhat rewarding. I have everything I need. And I am happy.