The summer is here. Temperatures are rising. Outdoor barbeques are happening, and you’re making more time for family.
Despite the good feelings and vibes of the season, do your best to avoid getting sick. Covid cases are increasing with a vengeance throughout the world. The US, India, and Brazil are leading the latest estimates of new infections.
Vaccines are helpful but do not make you immune to the coronavirus. They reduce the severity of symptoms, but please don't sleep with the belief that a shot makes you coronaproof. If you can breathe, you are at risk.
Within the last month, six members of my family in the US have battled covid. Most cases have been mild and well contained. They are all vaccinated and boosted.
The summer is a great season to take care of yourself. Enjoy the milder weather and get outside for some exercise. Avoid some of the barbeques and eat a healthy meal at home. Get your rest.
With the current surges, it is challenging to escape Ms. Corona. She has developed more sophisticated subvariant strands to catch you slipping on your self-care, mask, and hygiene game. Delta, Omicron, BA. 4, and BA. 5 are her alter egos hidden in the lure for a return to “normalcy.”
The hyper contagious BA. 5 has California on the verge of reinstating its indoor mask mandate.
I understand the need to prevent fears from controlling your life. You don't want to stay locked inside the house during the warmest months of the year. Work and play are necessities for happiness and fulfillment.
What can you do? Here are three familiar needs to remind you of how to minimize exposure and limit infection.
1. You still need to wear masks.
The virus transfers from one carrier to the next by air. You can enjoy some flexibility on the masks when outdoors, but you need to continue wearing them in indoor public spaces. Transportation ports like airports, bus terminals, and train stations are notorious hubs for transmission. "Mask up" when you shop, travel, and work in environments with restricted airflow.
2. You need to wash your hands.
Although some of the latest studies indicate that covid and the subvariants spread more through direct contact with an infected person and less through surfaces, ensuring your hands are clean is a good practice. Washing your hands after the bathroom and touching door knobs helps to keep you and your community healthy. In addition to cleaning your hands, disinfecting countertops before you eat helps the body digest more food than harmful bacteria at meal times.
3. You need to stay away.
When possible, avoid large crowds and continue to keep six feet of distance between you and others. The virus is like an invisible leech that moves from one host to another. Do your best to minimize the spread by selecting activities with fewer risks of exposure.
The pandemic sucks. I get it. It’s hard to follow these suggestions, and you want to press play on a life that feels paused after two years of restrictions. I have my moments like you. But, I also believe the above precautions are the minimal approaches we can take to maintain our health and prevent others from illness.
If we don't adjust our lifestyles, the consequences are dire. More people will get sick, and some will die.
You might follow every suggestion in this piece and still catch the coronavirus. It happens. Wear your mask when interacting with others, drink plenty of herbal teas, and get your rest.
Contact your doctor if symptoms get worse over a few days. The covid pill, Paxlovid, might be an option for you.
Explore more preventative measures at this link.
Dear Dr. Lindsay, my dear wife now has Omicron BA, extremely bad sore throat, coughing, fever only 100, but she feels horrible. My dear younger brother died shortly after getting covid in March. Wearing a mask, staying away from any close contacts, getting second and more boosters all help, but one person can spread it in the whole Caribbean, and the best hope is to get Paxlovid available everywhere. The US bought hundreds of million doses for all its people now. But all other countries need to order Paxlovid now since it rids the body of the virus so no long covid, which now affects more than 30 percent who get any covid strain. Please try to get Paxlovid.