Wash your hands. Establish a routine of washing your hands whenever you enter a building or go home. Encourage other people to wash their hands.
And be aware. If you have flu-like symptoms, minimize your interactions with others.
Get flu shots.
Do what you can to protect people with already compromised immune systems.
Don’t panic. Don’t be stupidly brave either.
Did I mention washing your hands?
I used to come home from signing tours sick. I’d interact with thousands of people, and then I’d be ill. Eventually my doctor told me to take alcohol wipes with me on the road, and use them after shaking hands or just when I had a down moment. And to wash my hands for 20 seconds well, whenever I could. He explained that most illness is something on your hands being transferred to your face or mouth or nose by your fingers. I did what he suggested. I still came home from tour exhausted, but I stopped coming home sick.
For those who are worried about COVID 19:
1) For most people under 60, the fatality is less than the flu. Even if you get it, the chances are very, VERY good that you’ll be fine.
2) This is NOT true for immunocompromised people and our elders. The fatality rate is much higher for these groups.
3) The problem is not “OMG if I get this I’ll die!” the problem is, “If I get this, I might transmit it to other people, and THEY might die, and I care about people, so I’m going to try really hard not to do that.”
4) The precautions being taken and recommended are to break the chain of transmission. If I don’t get the disease, then I can’t transmit it to my parents, or my friends undergoing chemo, or my friend who’s had a liver transplant. So I’m washing my hands, using wipes and sanitizer, NOT TOUCHING MY FACE, and avoiding large crowds. Because I don’t want to bring it to other people.
5) Neil is 100% right that these precautions work. Every year, my family attends a convention with 80k attendees from around the world. We’ve used these precautions ever year for 15 years - wash your hands, use alcohol wipes, don’t touch your face. We’ve never come home with con crud. This stuff really does actually work.
If I get COVID 19, I will be fine. But others might not be. So I’m going to be careful for them.
Addenum, as part of protecting at risk groups:
If you or those close to you are not in a high risk group then PLEASE do not bulk buy a ton of alcohol wipes/ & sanitiser if you can get by with a regular amount. If you’re not a touring author shaking hundreds of hands per day, or sharing your home with an immunocompromised chemo patient, you probably don’t need a whole box of multipacks of alcohol wipes, or two gallons of hand sanitiser.
People who have to make daily injections, maintain drug & feeding ports, etc, do not get these essential sanitising supplies covered by health insurance in the US or the NHS in the UK (for cleaning their ports/ injection sites/ etc). Low risk people bulk buying in panic are right now, as of 09 March 2020, reducing the available stock for people who actually do need these things as a genuine life or death matter on a daily basis.
I’m already seeing multiple people with long term health conditions having to buy their essential health management supplies on ebay for obscene markups because profiteers always capitalise on low risk people panic buying.
Take precautions, but if you’re not high risk to yourself or others then please, please be sensible. If you have already bulk bought and then realised that you probably don’t need 100 multipacks of alcohol wipes, you can donate those to someone who does need them.
Don't give up. Unless you have to for a little while. Then don't panic. CONTAINS: Star Trek, Dungeons and Dragons, Critical Role, History, Current Affairs, Space, Cats, and Etc. Adult.
