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I just received the following information from my son Ben who is working on the front lines in a Massachusetts ER. It contains guidelines to stay uninfected by the virus and it goes way beyond anything I have heard or read. Feel free to forward to friends and family. peace, love and light gretchen
Hi
I was meaning to send this out to you all sooner, but I have been busy lately. I wanted to offer my help and advice if desired for info about the pandemic. Unfortunately, this is real and is likely to be a problem everywhere in the US. Hopefully, the curve will flatten with people self isolating and we can delay how many people get this right in the beginning which will allow the medical community more time to prepare for this and also for the cases to be spread out more over time.
A couple of principles to live by for the near future to keep you and your families safe. Some of this may seem like overkill, but these are the steps you can take to try to avoid getting this.
- Treat your home as a clean zone. If corona virus is already in your home you can try to eradicate it with cleaning solutions, but it is difficult. So the real goal is to prevent it from getting into the house in the first place. How to do this?
- Don’t let anyone in other than family members who are already living in your house as part of the household if at all possible.
- When one of the household members returns to the home, they need to wash their hands for 20 seconds before doing anything else. Even if they just went outside for a walk, I consider the front door knob and everything else outside of the house as infected.
- If you entered a really infectious situation, like going to an ER, or someone coughed on you at the store, get out of your clothes, throw them in the washer, and take a shower.
- Mail and packages are potentially infectious also. We are putting ours aside for 3 days. If there is something inside you need to get to, go ahead and do it and then wash your hands. If you pick up the box or letters, that is ok, just wash your hands afterwards.
- I assume everything that I touch is infected, I am constantly thinking about my hands, once they have touched anything outside of my house or car (assuming that I have been able to keep this clean also), I won’t touch my face or eat anything until I wash or sanitize my hands. The virus can live on surfaces for up to 3 days. I know the news says 24 hours for cardboard, that may be true, but it has also been shown to last 3 days on other surfaces.
- Shopping: there Is not a completely good way to protect yourself in the store, you will need to touch things, your cart is likely infected. I shop, get everything in bags. I am trying to sort the bags in the store as to bags for things that need the fridge, and things that can wait. For the bags with dry goods, I am putting them aside for 3 days before opening them and getting into so that the virus can die before I get into them. For refrigerated items or things you need access to, wipe them down with a cleaning solution to the best of your ability, wash the fruits and veggies before putting them in the fridge. If you can, I am trying to put the new things in a drawer or bag in the fridge an leaving it for 3 days before eating it (obviously not always an option). If you are going to cook something that will also kill the virus. However, if the item is less than 3 days old, wash your hands before touching other surfaces in the house or touching your face after you have handled the new item to the house.
- Cars: extension of my house. Only clean things are allowed into the car seats. No outside people in the car. You will need to transport potentially infected things in the car, they go in the trunk, back seat or hatchback depending on your car. That area of the car is now “infected” for 3 days. If you access this area of the car, you need to wash your hands/sanitize (getting the theme here?)
- Handwashing needs to be for 20 seconds. Happy birthday sung twice (at a normal pace) will give you close enough to 20 seconds.
I could go on and on about lots of things, but I think I will lose some of you. If you have questions about the virus, how to protect yourself, when to go to the hospital please, how the virus spreads, what the symptoms of the virus are… ask me, I will try to help. If you think you already have it, I will try to help you with that also. The only time I cannot talk is when I am seeing patients, but I will try to call you at the end of my shift. You can also email me. I do not keep a good email address books, so please feel free to forward this to family and I will happily help them also.
Take home points: wash your hands, consider your hands dirty if you touch anything outside of your house or anything that came from the outside house. Social distancing will work, and even if you are young it likely will not be awful if you get the virus, but by not getting it you can prevent the spread of the virus to friends and family. I am currently washing my hands 25-30 times a day minimum when I am not working clinically (far higher those days).
I hope all stay safe and healthy.
Love,
Ben
Ben Osborne, MD, FACEP
Residency Program Director
Vice Chair, Education
Department of Emergency Medicine
Baystate Medical Center
Springfield, MA 01199
