What’s the deal with the coronavirus?

You might be wondering what’s all the fuss with the coronavirus, why are people freaking out and what does it have to do with you. I had the same questions myself and decided to share the answers that I found. The short version of the story is that there is a bug out there making people sick and you can stop that.

First of all, what is the coronavirus? It is basically a bug that can give you headaches, fever and even make it very hard to breathe when it gets very serious. This type of bug is too small for us to see. Even doctors have a hard time finding the bug: they need to do special tests and swab your throat to see if you have it. This bug is very sneaky: you can have it without knowing and pass it on to others. A lot of the people with the bug start feeling sick only after several days of getting it. If the bug makes you sick, then it is called COVID-19, it literally means coronavirus disease 2019.

If getting the bug does not seem so bad, there has to be something else that is freaking out people. I found that there are three big reasons to be scared. First: there is no cure for COVID-19. So if you get it, your body will have to figure out what to do with it. In most cases, you will feel sick for a few days and then you will be fine. Second: this bug is very contagious. You can catch it from just talking to someone in person, or touching your face with your hand after opening the door. It is so contagious that to pass it to someone else, you don’t even need to be sick coughing or sneezing because the bug can be inside you just like that. Third: remember that I said in most cases you will be fine? In a lot of the other cases, people can die. Over two thousand people died from this bug in the US the day when I was writing this article. That was just in one day.

It might seem that this is something that affects others and has nothing to do with you, or at least that is what I thought at some point. I found an exercise and some numbers that changed my perspective. Here is the exercise: think about how many people you know. Try to count all of them: family, friends, your neighbors, people from school, church, trips, everyone you know. I typically have those people on Facebook, where I have 850 friends, so let us use that number. If I do not do anything to fight this bug, 425 of them will get the bug, 85 of those friends will get very sick and between 4 and 8 will die in the next few weeks due to the coronavirus. They could be children, they could be young, they could be old. Maybe you could do the same exercise and see how many of your friends will be affected.

If you are like me and these numbers convinced you, here is what you can do: stay at home and wash your hands. Why stay at home? If you are at home, it is almost impossible for you to catch the bug or pass it to anybody else. This also means not hanging out with other people in person. Only go out if you need to, like to buy groceries or walk your pets. Why wash your hands? This bug likes to stick to your hands like dirt. When you wash your hands with soap and water, you remove the bug the same way you remove the dirt. If you go outside your house, be sure to wash your hands when you come back.

Bottom line: stay home, wash your hands with soap and water, and be a hero