The Ten Commandments of Coronavirus

Based on the preponderance of scientific information …

1. Don’t breathe each others breathe.
   The virus transmits by air, by breathing others’ sneezing at up to 10 feet; by breathing their coughs at up to 6 feet; and by breathing their spoken breath at perhaps 3 or 4 feet. And this also means not exposing your eyes to others’ breath/coughing/sneezing.
2. Don’t spend more than a few seconds or minutes exposed.
   The virus requires more than a single particle, called a virion, to overcome the body’s defenses and result in an infection. The quantity necessary is called the ‘minimum infectious dose’ and you can accumulate this dose over a short course of time — a few hours? — probably the amount of time it takes your body’s defensive cells to replenish. For contact tracing, they investigate people with whom you’ve spent 10 minutes or more. In practice, don’t spend more than a few sentences’ time near each others’ breath. In retail stores, get in, get it, get out.
3. Be optimistic.
   80% of those infected have minor or imperceptible symptoms.
   Only 20% of those infected are sick enough to need hospitalization. I personally know a 75-year-old with a compromised immune system who fought it off without extreme symptoms.
4. But be deadly respectful.
   5–6% of those infected die. It’s extremely hard to know the accurate percentage because we simply don’t know the true number of people infected. But even assuming a huge number of unreported infections, the fatality estimate is still at least six times higher than that of the flu.
5. If you’re old or frail, keep away.
   Older people are at greater risk. People with respiratory ailments are at greater risk. The better your immune system, the more likely you are to fight off more particles. The better your overall health, the more likely it seems that you can fight it off. But people of all ages have died from it.
6. Open the doors and windows, turn on a fan.
   A large volume of uncontaminated (meaning ‘fresh’) air dilutes the concentration of virus particles available to infect us. So, the more enclosed a space is, with less fresh or filtered air, the higher risk of infection. Buses and trains should retrofit windows or vents that open at the front and rear. Seriously.
7. Sell outside.
   Businesses should put whatever portion of their business they can outside, even on the sidewalk, if that’s all they have. Maybe put their cash register there? As an example, consider my neighborhood farmers’ market which in our neighborhood uses a permanent enclosed space. They could put tables in the parking lot, shared by three vendors each, who shuttle goods in and out.
8. In crowds, wear masks.
   All masks help, to varying degrees. Even the worst mask material greatly reduces how much you might infect others because the germs don’t get spread around. The best commonplace masks filter out 95% of typical germs, thus the ‘N95.’ But even typical cotton materials can greatly reduce the germs you inhale. Masks must cover your nose.
9. Don’t obsess over sanitizing surfaces?
   It would make perfect sense that in hospitals and nursing homes, touching surfaces and then touching your mucous membranes would be a highly likely avenue of infection. The likelihood in other circumstances such as retail, manufacturing, and transportation, is undetermined and increasingly discounted by the authoritative sources. Please correct me if you have information to the contrary, but I have yet to read about a single instance of infection in the public that is presumed to be attributed to touch.
10. This Too Shall Pass.