If everyone in America watches this video, there’s no telling how many lives will be saved.
Dr. Price has treated thousands of patients at the Weill Cornell Medical Center in New York. It’s critically important for American families to heed his four steps and advice.
This is NOT advice from a TV doctor who spends their entire day in front of the camera. This is advice from a physician on the very front lines who has treated thousands of COVID patients and had direct contact with the disease since the very beginning of the pandemic (now months). All 1,200 beds in his hospital are for COVID patients.
We all know that we should wash our hands and not touch our faces. However, he has a unique perspective as to just how effective certain measures can be in avoiding infection.
His advice is crystal clear and hits home more than any other COVID-19 advice to date.
You can read a quick recap below, but I highly encourage you to watch this video with everyone in your family.
How do you get the disease?
According to Dr. Price, COVID-19 is in the family of the common cold, but the human body has never experienced it before. To contract the virus, you must have sustained contact with someone who has it with or with someone who is going to get the disease with one to two days and has yet to show symptoms. “Sustained” contact means 15 to 30 minutes with someone in a very closed environment.
“Transmission of the virus is almost exclusively from your hands to your face,” says Dr. Price. “The overwhelming majority of people are getting this by physically touching someone who has this disease or will develop it in the next one to two days, and then touching their face.” The virus travels from your hands to your face, and then into your eyes, nose or mouth.
Dr. Price shows visible emotion when talking about how relieved he is to really understand how transmission works. He feels highly confident that he won’t get COVID-19 because he knows the steps to take to avoid it. Dr. Price says that you, too, don’t need to be scared if you’re smart about protecting yourself.
Dr. Price says, “You will not get this disease if you do the following:”
1. Keep It Clean. Know where your hands are at all times and keep them clean. Carry hand sanitizer with you at all times to make sure you stay sanitized. If you go to your local grocery store, wipe down the cart before you use it.
And do not touch your face. Like, ever. Statistics say we touch our faces sixteen times per hour. Stop it. Be mindful and break the psychological connection between your hands your face completely.
“These two things combined are incredibly powerful and will prevent the transmission of the disease to your family in 99% of cases,” says Dr. Price. To know your hands are clean and to refrain from touching your face will prevent you from catching this disease is liberating. Knowing just how protective these easy things are can assuage much of the fear we all feel now.
2. The Purpose of a Mask. While it’s okay for the general population to wear masks, Dr. Price wants you to know that it does nothing to prevent you from getting the virus. You don’t get it from the air. The upside is that a mask will help train you not to touch your face. Masks are only truly necessary for front-line medical workers who are in close proximity to patients.
3. Social Distancing Works. Keep a space of between three and six feet from other people when you go out into the world. For instance, if you’re in line at the supermarket or the pharmacy waiting to check out, keep that personal space intact. Hey, if New Yorkers can do it, so can we. Folks have been able to go about their business, thanks in large part to social distancing. This practice is the new normal.
4. Shrink Your Social Circle. What does that mean? This point most likely pertains to your extended family and the friends you spend the most time with. Find your isolation group – the set of three or four people, family or friends, and limit close contact to this group. You have to create boundaries. The people who are most at risk are the individuals who are still maintaining large social circles. Being in large groups puts you at higher risk, so reduce your social circle to minimize the chance of catching the virus.
If you live by these rules, you don’t have to be afraid of the people around you. That’s incredibly liberating. Your neighbors, postal workers, food delivery workers and folks you see in the grocery store are not a threat; they’re living through this pandemic just like you are. Armed with this information we can forge a greater sense of solidarity instead of allowing the virus to divide and scare us.
Q&A Session:
What should you do if someone in your house becomes sick with COVID-19?
Set this person up in a separate room of the house, as far away from everyone else as possible. Continue using the above rules with handwashing and not touching your face. When the sick person comes out of their room for any reason, have them wear a mask. After they return to their room, wipe down every surface that they touched and wash your hands.
How does this virus affect infants and newborns?
While there have been some reported cases of COVID-19 among the youngest of us, Dr. Price says there’s almost no COVID-19 for the age population of 0 to 14 years old. Studies in Wuhan, China showed that, in a pediatric hospital, between 2% to 4% of patients were infected. But all they had was a slight cough. The bottom line is that kids, while they may carry this virus, are not getting sick.
Is COVID-19 transmitted through an airborne or droplet method?
The overwhelming majority of COVID-19 transmissions come from droplets – meaning a person gets a droplet on their hand, doesn’t wash their hands and touches their face. Health care providers need to wear a medical-grade mask only when they are performing an aerosol-generating procedure on a patient (something that causes the patient to spit). At all other times, a simple surgical mask is all that’s needed. These providers are not getting sick in significant numbers.
Is it safe to go on a run or a walk given the social distancing precautions?
Yes! It’s absolutely fine, so long as you follow the guidelines above. Use sanitizer after you touch anything on your way out and in. Dr. Price encourages us to wear a mask or a bandana to train ourselves not to touch our faces, and to show people that you’re taking this virus seriously.
Is it necessary to wipe groceries down when you bring them into the house?
It’s reasonable to have the delivery person to leave the food outside your door. You could pick up the bag with gloves, but the contents inside should be fine. What you don’t want to do is touch the delivery person – no handshakes.
Is it okay to go through the Starbucks drive-thru?
As long as you are following the above rules, this should be completely safe. But, it’s even better to make your coffee at home.
Should you wash your clothes after being outside at the grocery store? Absolutely not. For doctors, the answer is yes, after being close to patients. But, for the general population, it is not at all necessary.
What should you do if you have a fever?
Do not take Ibuprofen – it causes more inflammation. Use Tylenol instead.
When should you go to the doctor or the hospital if you feel sick?
Dr. Price says only go to the doctor or hospital if you have shortness of breath. If you don’t have this symptom and just feel sick or have other symptoms, do not go to the hospital or your doctor. For information about your symptoms, Dr. Price says to use telehealth and talk to a doctor online. This is extremely effective and important for keeping the virus at bay.
Are people becoming immune after they recover?
Yes. The vast majority of those that recover have natural antibodies that will prevent reinfection with the virus. Because of this, in five years or so, COVID-19 will be like a simple cold.
Due to restrictions placed on the video, we are not able to embed the video here, but if you click the image below it will take you to Vimeo to view it.
Covid_19_Protecting_Your_Family_Dr_Dave_Price_3_22_2020 from Mariana Price on Vimeo.
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