Advice from James Robb, pathologist, shared on his Facebook page. I found Dr. Robb’s advice at Gothamist (New York Public Radio), with a note from NYPR in italics. Surely there must be someone out there who hasn’t yet seen these tips:
NO HANDSHAKING! Use a fist bump, slight bow, elbow bump, etc.Dr. Robb recommends stocking up on several items:
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 sanitizer whenever you return home from ANY activity that involves locations where other people have been.
Keep a bottle of sanitizer 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 to. The clothing on your elbow will contain an infectious virus that can be passed on for up to a week or more!
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 is 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. [Note: There are some contradicting statements here, but common sense would suggest you want to wash your hands because of potentially contaminated surfaces, and distance yourself from anyone who appears sick.]Dr. Robb made clear to Snopes that zinc lozenges guarantee nothing:
Stock up now with 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.
Stock up now with hand sanitizers. The hand sanitizers must be alcohol-based and greater than 60% alcohol to be effective.
Stock up now with zinc lozenges. These 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. Cold-Eeze lozenges is one brand available, but there are other brands available.
In my experience as a virologist and pathologist, zinc will inhibit the replication of many viruses, including coronaviruses. I expect COVID-19 [the disease caused by the novel coronavirus] will be inhibited similarly, but I have no direct experimental support for this claim. I must add, however, that using zinc lozenges as directed by the manufacturer is no guarantee against being infected by the virus, even if it inhibits the viral replication in the nasopharynx.
comments: 2
For a few recent years, I've used Zicam nasal spray and swabs to keep the common cold (also a coronovirus, by the way) from turning into a two-three week problem. My lungs are compromised by chronic asthma which underlay several bouts of pneumonia in the past, but not for the last three years.
Keeping the zinc products on hand, getting the recommended flu and pneumovirus vaccines each year, and following the cautious approaches outlined in your post I hope will keep the risks of Coronovirus 19 to a minimum.
Your post is a great public service, Michael; thank you.
P.S.: My comments are not an ad for Zicam products. I commented about what works for me, solely
Thanks for adding that, Martha. Zinc is pretty remarkable. I want to add, for anyone who might be wondering: the Zicam products that were linked to the loss of smell are long gone from the market. Snopes has the story.
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