PLEASE STAY HOME

The past few weeks have been incredibly tough. Going through something personal basically threw me into self-quarantine before the whole COVID-19 hit the fan and now, we are going through a situation which nobody in our generation has ever had to live through before; A global pandemic.

The entire world is on pause, we are all confused and scared of the repercussions this will have on our health, businesses, economy and the world in general.

My fiancé is a doctor and he is always in the lookout for legitimate information due to the overflow of Fake News intoxicating the web at the moment, so even though I am trying to keep calm reading certain facts, it’s frustrating to see that there are still SO MANY PEOPLE who aren’t taking this seriously and who are still calling this “just like any other flu”.

The mortality rate is currently estimated to be between 1-4% (compared to 0.1% from the seasonal flu) and the virus is extremely contagious, which means it’s spreading really fast. With that in mind, realise that there is no health care system in the world that could care for thousands and thousands of patients at the same time. There’s simply NO infrastructure to care for all at once and this is where it gets quite complicated and potentially fatal.

You might have heard or read the term “Flatten the Curve” on social media many times these past few days. The “curve” refers to the projected number of people who will contract COVID-19 over a period of time and here’s what one looks like:

“The faster the infection curve rises, the quicker the local health care system gets overloaded beyond its capacity to treat people. As we’re seeing in Italy, more and more new patients may be forced to go without ICU beds, and more and more hospitals may run out of the basic supplies they need to respond to the outbreak.

A flatter curve, on the other hand, assumes the same number of people ultimately get infected, but over a longer period of time. A slower infection rate means a less stressed health care system, fewer hospital visits on any given day and fewer sick people being turned away.”* via livesience.com 

What this means is that we need to SLOW DOWN the rate of infection, because the rate at which a population becomes infected makes all the difference in whether there are enough hospital beds (and doctors, nurses, and resources) to treat the sick.

Since there hasn’t been a vaccine or a cure developed to treat the COVID-19 yet, the BEST and most effective way to Flatten this Curve is with self-isolating and social-distancing, which means staying HOME. If you simply can’t because your work doesn’t allow it, make sure you take all the necessary hygiene measures and try to keep social distancing as much as possible to prevent you from getting and passing on the virus.

It pains me to see that there are still so many people that are not taking this situation seriously. Whenever you think “you’re in the age where the virus won’t affect you”, please think of all of those who you could infect and who could possibly lose their lives. It’s the responsibility of ALL OF US. I have heard people say; I’m only one person, it won’t make a difference. ONE person started this pandemic. ONE.

This post is not to cause panic, it’s to create awareness that staying home give us the best chance to flatten the curve and contain the virus from spreading so fast.

I am not a doctor, I am not a scientist, I am not an epidemiologist but I have a platform that I want to use to create awareness. If I can help in changing the mind of 5 people and those 5 people convince their friends and family and so forth, then WE CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE.

Let’s be socially responsible and try to flatten the curve to keep this virus from spreading so fast. Don’t panic, but also be conscious and protect the most vulnerable.

PLEASE STAY HOME