COVID-19 is a new disease that wasn’t previously seen in humans. We know some things about coronaviruses, but since this is a new & unique coronavirus, scientists are continuously collecting patient data and researching the virus in labs to learn about how it works and the effects it has on the human body.

We have access to a world of information, but not everything out there is good or accurate. There are several organizations–the CDC, NIH, WHO, and your local state health departments–who provide accurate and reliable information and updates.

At Hood Medicine, we provide truth and understanding to help you make the right choices to keep your families safe. It is important above all else to use your common sense. We are nowhere near containing the spread, and we have only just begun to vaccinate a small percentage of the population. During these critical phases, you should approach everything you do with an overabundance of caution.

Just remember, this is an airborne virus. Covering your nose and mouth properly when you are around people who do not live with you and maintaining enough distance to keep their breath from getting in your eyes, nose, and mouth is the only way to keep yourself and your loved ones safe.

The CDC is the primary public health agency for the United States. They work to understand the prevalence of disease in populations and the associated health impacts.

The World Health Organization is a global agency for health monitoring, advocacy, and policy. They work to provide emergency assistance during outbreaks, and support vulnerable populations in fragile conditions.

The NIH is the US government’s medical research agency that works to investigate human diseases, general biology and toxicology.

Airborne

Spreads through infected breath droplets released when you breathe, speak, sing, sneeze, or cough. Droplets can be large or too small to be seen. Viruses hang out in these droplets to hitch a ride into new hosts (people who don’t wear masks or keep a safe distance are the virus’s favorite kind of people).

COVID-19 can easily spread from one person to another. This means that a COVID-19 positive person can spread the virus to others – even if they don’t have any symptoms of illness. As many as 20-40% of people with COVID-19 don’t feel sick but can still spread the virus to others.

Virus particles are small enough to linger in the air for prolonged periods of time, leading to airborne transmission when the particles are inhaled by others.

Infected Surfaces

Spreads through touching surfaces contaminated with infected breath droplets, and then touching your eyes, nose, or mouth with your contaminated hand. #washyohands

This is a tricky one because so many people are not aware of how many times they touch their faces throughout the day. Try your best to resist touching your face when you’re out if you haven’t had a chance to sanitize your hands.

Animals

Don’t forget about your pets! A small number of cats & dogs have tested positive, but there is not good data on risk of transmission from animals to humans. However, this does mean that humans can potentially spread the virus to their pets.

Just like humans, your household pets should not be in contact with others outside of your household. You should avoid contact with animals that do not live with you.

COVID-19 can affect different people in different ways. Some people are asymptomatic and display no signs of illness, despite having the virus and being able to spread it to others. Some people experience mild discomfort, and others have varying degrees of more serious illness up to and including permanent debilitation or death. So far, roughly 1% of COVID-19 positive people across the world will die; others still may experience lasting damage to major organ systems including the brain, heart, kidneys, and lungs.

The following activities should be avoided as much as possible:

• Removing your mask to talk to anyone who lives outside your household
• Sharing food or drinks with anyone outside of intimate partners
• Hugging, kissing, or shaking hands with anyone outside of your immediate household
• Sharing cosmetics or personal grooming devices (razors, makeup brushes, etc.) with others
• Interacting with pets outside of your personal pets, or allowing your pets to interact with anyone outside of your immediate household

The following places should be avoided as much as possible. In situations where you must visit these places, you should wear a properly fitting masks for your entire stay:

• Arcades
• Bowling alleys
• Indoor gyms – choose outdoor venues or home workouts instead
• Indoor sports & recreational facilities
• Movie theaters
• Nightclubs
• Restaurants – choose pickup or delivery instead
• Ride shares or public transportation – wear a mask, avoid unnecessarily touching surfaces, and thoroughly wash your hands after each ride
• Saunas

Masks are your last line of defense. Since we breathe through our nose and mouth, masks are the best way to significantly reduce the risk of getting tiny invisible breath droplets from other people’s noses & mouths inside your mouth. If nothing else, this pandemic has demonstrated how much spittle we exchange when we talk to each other up close. If you want to prevent other people’s potentially infected spit from getting in your mouth during a global airborne pandemic, cover all the holes in your face.

Eyes are also vulnerable to infection. Having an eye covering when you are out in a public place is best, though not always practical. Hand-to-eye infection is also possible if you touch your eyes after touching a contaminated surface.

Wash your hands or use hand sanitizer before putting on your mask. Put the mask over your nose and mouth and secure it under your chin. Fit the mask snugly against the sides of your face, slipping the loops over your ears or tying the strings behind your head. Make sure you can breathe easily.

If you have to continually adjust your mask, it doesn’t fit properly, and you might need to find a different mask type or brand. For more information on masks see this CDC resource. 

We still recommend getting the vaccine even if you’ve previously had COVID. Although you have some level of protection from a previous infection, it’s inconsistent from person to person, and we have seen individuals get sick from reinfection. Vaccination will help your body to develop more robust immune protection against COVID.

These vaccines have undergone rigorous testing through clinical trials and intense scrutiny to ensure that they are both safe and effective. Typically, clinical trails were considered “large” if they enrolled a few thousand people. Both of the currently available vaccines underwent even larger trials, with Pfizer enrolling over 40,000 people and Moderna enrolling 30,000 people. All this was to ensure these vaccines were safe for people to take and effective in fighting COVID.

Vaccine distribution varies state-by-state, please refer to your state’s information site (where available) to find information and register for the vaccine:

• Alabama
• Alaska
• American Samoa
• Arizona
• Arkansas
• California
• Colorado
• Connecticut
• Delaware
• District of Columbia
• Florida
• Georgia
• Guam
• Hawaii
• Idaho
• Illinois
• Indiana
• Iowa
• Kansas
• Kentucky
• Louisiana
• Maine
• Maryland
• Marshall Islands
• Massachusetts
• Michigan
• Micronesia
• Minnesota
• Mississippi
• Missouri
• Montana
• Nebraska
• Nevada
• New Hampshire
• New Jersey
• New Mexico
• New York
• North Carolina
• North Dakota
• Northern Mariana Islands
• Ohio
• Oklahoma
• Oregon
• Palau
• Pennsylvania
• Puerto Rico
• Rhode Island
• South Carolina
• South Dakota
• Tennessee
• Texas
• Utah
• U.S. Virgin Islands
• Vermont
• Virginia
• Washington
• West Virginia
• Wisconsin
• Wyoming

When you receive your injection in your arm, the muscle cells at the injection site receive the cheat codes from the vaccine and read the file on COVID. The cells start producing non-infectious pieces of the virus to store away in your immune system’s databank. Your body makes matching antibodies that are ready to attack COVID the next time you get infected with the goal of preventing serious illness.

Vaccines are for protection, and they exist so that the next time you get infected, your body has what it needs to fight off infection. The process your body goes through when it finds an intruder present is similar to what happens as your body reacts to the knowledge it learns from the vaccine. Just like when you may take a flu shot and feel a bit under the weather for a few days, you may feel some temporary minor discomfort and fatigue from the COVID vaccine.

In rare cases, some serious side effects have been reported. For more information please visit: https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/vaccines/expect/after.html.

The vaccine is free of charge to everyone, whether you have insurance or not. Some vaccine registration sites ask for insurance information because if you have insurance, your provider will be billed for your vaccination. If you do not have insurance, the vaccine is still free to you. Just bypass the insurance question on the form or indicate that you are uninsured. You should not be denied a vaccination.

Getting vaccinated is vital for your health, the health of your family and community, and essential to get humans closer to herd immunity. Working towards herd immunity is a battle of the species. If you do not want a vaccination, you have essentially betrayed humanity. What we’re risking here is the virus learning and evolving more quickly than it ever could or should or would under normal circumstances, and generating more dangerous mutations. By not getting vaccinated, you are offering yourself up to the virus as another host, another lab rat for the virus’s research about how to best kill humans. STOP GIVING IT HOSTS!