How to avoid contracting Covid

[The Snark]

The short answer to the topic is you can't with the exception of complete isolation.

 

The big plan is reducing your risk - risk reduction, both ways. Let's get one fact cleared up. You can be infected with Covid, have no symptoms, and still spread the virus. People who have been vaccinated can still spread the virus. People who have contracted it in the past are also potential vectors. Don't make assumptions. When in doubt, get tested.

 

Risk reduction is both yours and everyone elses safeguard. The big three: mask, distancing, and watching what you touch.

Masks are not proof against contracting the virus. Only positive pressure haz mat suits are 100% effective. But masks marginally protect yourself and protect others to a greater extent.

Distancing. While the virus is an aerosol that can penetrate nearly all masks, the longer it stays in the air the less viable the organisms become. How long the organism remains airborne is your risk reduction. So the father it has to travel and the longer it has to stay in the air determines the possibility of an infection.

Touch. The average person touches a microorganism contaminated object without knowing it at least once every hour.  We touch objects constantly without thinking about it.  Paying strict attention to what you touch and every time the palmar side of your hand touches an object in a public area it's time to use the sanitizer.

 

Now the not so good news. The problem with Covid. The following microbiology map diagram is the dispersal of Covid-19. compared to SARS and MERS, an approximation of how a lab could accidentally release the virus. and C-19 in the wild. Every offshoot line from the source lines is a transmitted infection. Quite obviously, C-19 is very bad news, regardless of it's origin. Take the extra measures to protect yourself and those around you. Diligently practice risk reduction.

[ukrules]

38 minutes ago, The Snark said:

But masks marginally protect yourself and protect others to a greater extent.

Good luck with your cloth masks - they're pure decorative garbage.

 

I'll stick with my N95 and P100 properly fitting masks.

 

[The Snark]

On 7/15/2021 at 9:19 PM, ukrules said:

Good luck with your cloth masks - they're pure decorative garbage.

Enter the great mask debate. Surgeons and the nurses in surgical suites commonly wear the cheap triple layer disposable masks. Why?

 

Environmental considerations and factors. The cheap masks are highly effective at stopping droplets which is the major concern during surgery, in the recovery room and some patient rooms. Surgery rooms have a minimum mandate for air exchange. Roughly speaking, air in those rooms is the equivalent to being outdoors with a breeze blowing. Aerosols are dispersed almost instantly which poses a very low probability of infectious organism transmission. In other words, risk reduction. Outdoors with a breeze or a well ventilated room = droplets are the major hazard.

 

Obviously if a person finds themselves in a poorly ventilated room with other people where the optimal distancing cannot be achieved, the higher effectiveness masks are in order.

 

Six foot - 2 meter social distancing. In other words, 36 square feet of floor space for every person in a poorly ventilated room. If that isn't happening, an N95 mask is certainly in order. Also a time factor enters into things. The longer a person remains in proximity with an organism infected person, the greater the chances of enough organisms being ejected into the air, finding their way into your respiratory tract, and establishing contact with your body tissues where they can grow and thrive. Infection transmission usually involves several thousand organisms finding a suitable surface to remain viable and multiply.

 

There is no perfect infector, organism in nature. Medical science has established a rough guideline of how infectious an organism is. Levels 1 through 4.

Examples

Level 1. Lactobacillus acidophilis. You need to ingest a few billion organisms to start a healthy colony in your gut.

Level 2. HIV. Transference of organisms through a medium such as body fluids is required or through a vector such as mosquitoes in the case of dengue, malaria et al.

Level 3. Organisms that can remain viable in the open air for a short time. Tuberculosis. Yersinia Pestis (plague). Rabies moves between level 2 to 3 here.

Level 4. Some strains of influenza viruses including Covid. (Most flu viruses and the common cold complex are level 3, transferred by fluids or droplets). Organisms can remain viable (healthy and infectious) for extended periods of time in the open air. 

 

So it's back to the basics. Cheap masks prevent a person from spreading or ingesting/inhaling droplets. N95 masks also trap aerosols, organisms that can drift around a room like dust particles. (A note on N95 masks. They MUST fit snugly without any air leaks whatever. The tiniest air leak makes them no more effective than the cheap one.

Social distancing. Personally, I prefer 10 feet from other people which equates to 100 square feet of floor space per person. (Any other hermits emulating living in caves out there?)

Stop direct contact transmission! A bottle of alcohol at our front door, one in each vehicle, one on my bike, and a mini sprayer in my pocket and my wifes purse. Dry skin is preferable to lying in a hospital bed and feeling like you are drowning for a few days or weeks.

 

 

Edited July 19, 2021 by The Snark

[The Snark]

I suppose level 5 infectors should be mentioned here since they are a hazard to millions of people every day.

 

 

(IE, use common sense)

Edited July 19, 2021 by The Snark