Covid-19: practical tips for navigating the ‘new normal’
Navigating the new normal.
Find the latest advice from the Queensland Government at www.qldhealth.gov.au/covid-19
At Brisbane Naturopathy and Iridology Clinic we believe that keeping your immune system strong with healthy food is as preventative medicine as you can get right now. So increase your home cooking to get nutritious meals in your body and include loads of garlic, lemons, ginger and add a Vitamin C supplement with Quercetin.
James Robb, MD was a professor of pathology at the University of California San Diego, and was one of the first molecular virologists in the world to work on coronaviruses (the 1970s). He sent an email to friends and family in February which was then widely distributed and went viral.
The email has a little information about James Robb, who states his background and qualifications, include being the first to demonstrate the number of genes the virus contained. According to his email, he then kept up with the coronavirus field and its multiple clinical transfers into the human population (e.g., SARS, MERS), from different animal sources.
He released some of his own personal opinions regarding what he is doing during the pandemic, which incidentally, are the same precautions he uses during influenza seasons (except for the mask and gloves).
We share them with you below:
Tips for contact with others and potentially infected surfaces
NO HANDSHAKING! Use a fist bump, slight bow, elbow bump, etc.
Use ONLY your knuckle to touch light switches. elevator buttons, etc.. Lift the gasoline dispenser with a paper towel or use a disposable glove.
Open doors with your closed fist or hip - do not grasp the handle with your hand, unless there is no other way to open the door. Especially important on bathroom and post office/commercial doors.
Use disinfectant wipes at the stores when they are available, including wiping the handle and child seat in grocery carts.
Wash your hands with soap for 10-20 seconds and/or use a greater than 60% alcohol-based hand sanitiser whenever you return home from ANY activity that involves locations where other people have been.
Keep a bottle of sanitiser available at each of your home's entrances. AND in your car for use after getting gas or touching other contaminated objects when you can't immediately wash your hands.
If possible, cough or sneeze into a disposable tissue and discard. Use your elbow only if you have no alternative. The clothing on your elbow will contain infectious virus that can be passed on for up to a week or more!
What to stock at home:
Latex or nitrile latex disposable gloves for use when going shopping, using the gasoline pump, and all other outside activity when you come in contact with contaminated areas.
Note: This virus is spread in large droplets by coughing and sneezing. This means that the air will not infect you! BUT all the surfaces where these droplets land are infectious for about a week on average - everything that is associated with infected people will be contaminated and potentially infectious. The virus is on surfaces and you will not be infected unless your unprotected face is directly coughed or sneezed upon. This virus only has cell receptors for lung cells (it only infects your lungs). The only way for the virus to infect you is through your nose or mouth via your hands or an infected cough or sneeze onto or into your nose or mouth.
Disposable surgical masks and use them to prevent you from touching your nose and/or mouth (we touch our nose/mouth 90X/day without knowing it!). This is the only way this virus can infect you - it is lung-specific. The mask will not prevent the virus in a direct sneeze from getting into your nose or mouth - it is only to keep you from touching your nose or mouth.
Hand sanitisers and latex/nitrile gloves (get the appropriate sizes for your family). The hand sanitisers must be alcohol-based and greater than 60% alcohol to be effective.
Stock up with zinc based lozenges. Zinc based lozenges have been proven to be effective in blocking coronavirus (and most other viruses) from multiplying in your throat and nasopharynx. Use as directed several times each day when you begin to feel ANY "cold-like" symptoms beginning. It is best to lie down and let the lozenge dissolve in the back of your throat and nasopharynx.
Even though James Robb never intended for his email to be so widely circulated. We thought it was a sensible list of suggestions that could potentially be helpful to you and your family during the pandemic.
This post is not intended to replace the advice that is available from your doctor or local governments during this time.
If you don’t have access already here is where you can find the latest advice and information from the Queensland Government. Their Twitter account is also extremely informative and contains loads of tips and updates.
Be well, be safe.
~ Margaret