There’s a lot of misinformation, fear and hysteria around at the moment. And understandably so, media companies are rewarded for attention and let’s face it, fear sells!
With that in mind, I’ve tried to pull together the most helpful pieces I can to provide as balanced a view as possible for those worried about the Covid-19 Coronavirus outbreak.
I found this explainer video from Dr Ali Abdaal incredibly helpful explaining the big differences between the flu and coronavirus.
There has been a lot of comparison between the influenza virus and the coronavirus, and this is perhaps the best comparison I’ve seen so far about the relative contagiousness of different viruses – thanks to PopSci for the great infographic and article.
Some are holding out for a vaccine, but influenza and coronavirus are actually from different families of virus and while there are vaccines against influenza virus strains, as yet no vaccines have been put into use against the coronavirus family.
This puts our efforts to create a vaccine at a disadvantage, and why thorough clinical trials will need to be conducted.
In light of this, countries have been trying to reduce the impact of the virus by containing and mitigating the spread of the virus.
There is an excellent discussion by Tomas Pueyo on Medium about the impact of the virus and how all countries need to act promptly to encourage social distancing. Its quite a long read and very disturbing, but well worth it if you have the time,
The impact of social distancing can be found in this excellent article in The Washington Post by Harry Stevens.
For those of you in the UK, the UK Government’s approach may appear perplexing. But it is important to note the spread of the virus in the UK is apparently behind that of many of our neighbours.
The excellent video below should help explain a little more about the approach the UK Government is taking to try to “flatten the curve” and ensure there are enough hospital beds available for those in need.
While social distancing and isolation are going to be crucially important, washing your hands properly is also of vital importance.
To help you wash your hands properly washyourlyrics.com have put together a tool that allows you to create your own hand-washing technique posters. The poster below-featuring lyrics from Radiohead’s “You never wash up after yourself” features the best lyrics I could find so far.
Would love to hear your suggestions for other lyrics to wash your hands to!