SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. (KRON) – Many people are worried about the coronavirus. Since there is currently no vaccine, the best way to prevent infection is to take everyday preventive action, health expert, Karen Owoc, has some specific precautions to take.

Coronaviruses are a group of common viruses that cause respiratory illnesses that include MERS (Middle East Respiratory Syndrome), SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome), and now COVID-19 (Coronavirus Disease 2019).

How It Spreads

COVID-19 spreads through large airborne “respiratory droplets” – produced from a cough or sneeze – and enters mucus membranes (mouth, nose, eyes).

  • This means that the air will not infect you – BUT all the surfaces where these droplets land will. These droplets can be infectious for about a week (on average).
  • An infected person can contaminate everything it contacts – so consider all those surfaces as potentially infectious if you touch them.
  • The virus is ON SURFACES. According to Dr. James Robb, professor of pathology at UC San Diego and one of the first molecular virologists in the world to work on coronaviruses in the 1970s, the virus only infects the 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. It is LUNG-SPECIFIC.

If you simply keep your fingers away from your mouth, nose and eyes (where tear ducts drain into your nasal cavity), it’s not likely you’ll get the virus. But people unconsciously touch their nose/mouth about 90 times a day.

What to Do

  1. Wash your hands with soap for 20 seconds. Lather up to suspend dirt and germs, scrub (the friction of scrubbing removes germs…. and rinse thoroughly! Soap works by loosening and binding to dirt and germs, then lifting them up and off. Soap and germs become ONE unit. If the soap isn’t completely rinsed out, then neither are the germs. Don’t let water drip down the arms.
  • Dry hands thoroughly with a clean paper towel (the friction can also remove any remaining germs on the skin). Use the paper towel to turn off the water faucet and open the door.
  • Clean the phone with alcohol wipes every time you wash your hands.

Wash hands

  • After coughing or sneezing.
  • Before and after caring for a sick person.
  • Before fixing or eating food (at home and in a restaurant).
  • After contacting animals (e.g., pets, petting zoos, farms, markets, barns, agricultural fairs).

When you can’t immediately wash your hands, use a greater than 60% alcohol-based hand sanitizer. Keep hand sanitizer:

  • At each of your home’s entrances.
  • In your car for use after getting gas.
  • Purse, briefcase, backpack.

2. Stay hydrated. Dry nasal passages are more susceptible to viruses. Also, consider using a humidifier to keep the air moist in the winter when air is dry from heating.

3. Don’t spray the air with aerosol disinfectants. Disinfectant sprays are manufactured to kill viruses, bacteria, and fungi ON SURFACES – not in the air. Once inhaled, these chemicals are absorbed into the bloodstream.

4. Cough or sneeze into a disposable tissue and discard and only use your elbow if you have to. The clothing on your elbow will contain infectious virus that can be passed on for up to a week or more.

5. Don’t Touch. 

  • Use ONLY your knuckle, elbow, hip, or closed fist to touch light switches. elevator buttons, ATM machines, open doors, etc.
  • Lift the gasoline dispenser with a paper towel or use a disposable glove.
  • No Handshaking! Use a fist bump, slight bow, elbow bump, etc.
  • Do not hold handrails or grab handles with bare hands. Wear gloves, use a disposable paper towel, tissue – especially important in a bathroom, bank, post office/commercial doors.
  • Use disinfectant wipes at the stores when they are available, including wiping the handle and child seat in grocery carts.

6. Moisturize your skin. In general, your skin is a barrier to germs, bacteria.

What to Stock

What to stock in preparation for the pandemic spread to the U.S.:

1. Latex or nitrile latex disposable gloves for use:

  • When shopping
  • Using the gasoline pump, ATM machines, credit card
  • During all other outside activity when you come in contact with contaminated areas.
  • Latex/nitrile gloves (get the appropriate sizes for your family).

2. Disposable surgical masks and use them to prevent you from touching your nose and/or mouth. 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 (or eyes) – it is only to keep you from touching your nose or mouth.

3. Hand sanitizers. Alcohol-based and greater than 60% alcohol to be effective.

4. Zinc lozenges. According to Dr. Robb, these lozenges have been proven to be effective in blocking coronavirus (and most other viruses) from multiplying in your throat and nasopharynx.

  • Use lozenges 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.
  • Brands: “Cold-Eeze” lozenges is one brand available, but there are other brands available.

The Takeaway: Strengthen your own immune system. Get enough sleep (7 hours), reduce stress, and exercise regularly.

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