We at the MVWC would like to stress the importance of Social Distancing and doing our part to stop the spread of COVID-19. We know that our membership is filled with ‘doers’ and it is hard to conceptualize that right now doing NOTHING is the right thing to do. Attached please find a non-partisan article from John’s Hopkins that might make the concept of Social Distancing more clear. https://hub.jhu.edu/2020/03/13/what-is-social-distancing/
We are sure that all of our mother’s used to tell us that “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure” and in our opinion this should be the MVWC’s Motto for the next few weeks. Stay home and stay well!
Here are some highlights from the John’s Hopkins article:
What is social distancing?
Social distancing is a public health practice that aims to prevent sick people from coming in close contact with healthy people in order to reduce opportunities for disease transmission. It can include large-scale measures like canceling group events or closing public spaces, as well as individual decisions such as avoiding crowds.
With COVID-19, the goal of social distancing right now is to slow down the outbreak in order to reduce the chance of infection among high-risk populations and to reduce the burden on health care systems and workers. Experts describe this as “flattening the curve,” which generally refers to the potential success of social distancing measures to prevent surges in illness that could overwhelm health care systems.
“The goal of social distancing in the U.S. should be to lower the pace and extent of spread of COVID-19 in any given city or community,” Inglesby wrote recently on Twitter. “If that can happen, then there will be less people with disease, and less people needing hospitalization and ventilators at any one time.”
How do I practice social distancing?
The CDC defines social distancing as it applies to COVID-19 as “remaining out of congregate settings, avoiding mass gatherings, and maintaining distance (approximately 6 feet or 2 meters) from others when possible.”
This means, says Rivers, “no hugs, no handshakes.”
It’s particularly important—and perhaps obvious—to maintain that same 6-foot distance from anyone who is demonstrating signs of illness, including coughing, sneezing, or fever.
Along with physical distance, proper hand-washing is important for protecting not only yourself but others around you—because the virus can be spread even without symptoms.
“Don’t wait for evidence that there’s circulation [of COVID-19] in your community,” says Rivers. “Go ahead and step up that hand-washing right now because it really does help to reduce transmission.”
She recommends washing hands any time you enter from outdoors to indoors, before you eat, and before you spend time with people who are more vulnerable to the effects of COVID-19, including older adults and those with serious chronic medical conditions.
“Community interventions like event closures play an important role,” Rivers says, “but individual behavior changes are even more important. Individual actions are humble but powerful.”
