Category: Public Health

More Good News for Back-to-School

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Welcome back! My apologies for my unexplained absence these last two weeks. I’ve been researching information for a post on COVID-19 vaccine development, and I kept telling myself that I would finish it soon and not to start a post on another topic until that one was ready to go, but I’m sorry to say that I let the perfect get in the way of the good. I’ll be back with that post when it’s ready, but in the interim the CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report published a very interesting case series this week describing limited spread of COVID-19 among child care programs in Rhode Island following state requirements for reopening.

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Back to School or Distance Learning?

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It’s hard to believe it’s already August. If you’re a parent like me, that means that pretty soon, if you haven’t already, you’re going to need to decide whether to send your children back to school, do distance learning this fall, or some combination. I’m not going to lie and tell you that it’s a simple decision. It’s complex and depends on many factors: your child’s age, any high-risk conditions they or other people living in your household have, the current level of COVID-19 in your local area, your own ability to do distance learning and/or your child’s needs for on-site services, and how prepared your school is to protect your children from the spread of COVID-19.

In this week’s post, I’m going to review the available evidence, prominent expert statements on whether schools should reopen, and share resources to help you make your decision.

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Are you washing your hands correctly?

Image source: https://www.cdc.gov/handwashing/campaign.html

Continuing on with my series on simple steps that everyone can (and should!) take to prevent COVID-19, I’ve reached the seemingly simplest and hopefully least controversial step: handwashing.

Everyone – children, adults, and everyone in between – should be washing their hands frequently every day but especially during the current pandemic to clean germs and dirt off their hands. Teach your children to wash their hands regularly, and remember to set a good example for them by washing your hands regularly as well! You are the most important influence on your children, and if they notice you not washing your hands then you’ll send them a clear message that you don’t believe handwashing to be important, regardless of what you might say.

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Even more proof that masks work

I’m back at it again with the early updates, but this news was too good not to share: the CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report published a case summary today of two hair stylists with COVID-19 who served 139 clients while both the stylists and clients wore face masks, and not one client got infected. This is tremendous news that once again reinforces that face masks work to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

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Airborne vs Droplet Transmission

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I’ve decided to break my Monday-updates schedule to address a developing COVID-19 story that I’ve gotten a lot of questions about this week.

This week, 239 scientists signed off on a commentary calling for increased attention to the possibility that COVID-19 might be spread by airborne transmission. Yesterday, the World Health Organization released an updated scientific brief acknowledging that COVID-19 might be spread by airborne transmission. If you’re anything like me, then you’ve probably seen a lot of headlines about this, and overheard a lot of discussions about it. So what does it mean?

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Which mask is right for you?

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I hope you all had a safe and healthy 4th of July, and that you keep making safe choices to keep yourself, your loved ones and your community healthy. COVID-19 cases keep rising in the U.S., particularly in states that either don’t have face mask requirements or aren’t enforcing them. A vaccine is months away at best, so until then it’s up to us to control this pandemic as best we can using the few tools we have available. Face masks have been proven to reduce the spread of COVID-19; everyone over 2 years old should be wearing one anytime they are out in public or around people who don’t live in their household.

Now that face masks are finally catching on, there are so many to choose from. It can be hard to choose which kind is right for you. Fortunately, the AIP Physics of Fluids published a fascinating study visually comparing the effectiveness of various kinds of commonly worn face coverings.

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Masks work. So wear them.

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I had a blog post on another topic half written, but the rise in new COVID-19 cases in the United States over the last 2 weeks is too shocking and dangerous to ignore. Texas, Florida and California are all stepping back reopening plans and returning to previous restrictions. In my opinion, that was the right call to make. But I wish it hadn’t taken hundreds of thousands of cases and 20,000 U.S. deaths in the month of June alone for them to act.

COVID-19 isn’t taking a summer vacation. It hasn’t gone south of the equator to colder temperatures, and despite what some might like you to believe summer UV rays are not killing it. Believe me, I wish this were an ordinary summer, and that my family and I could go about our usual summer vacation activity without worrying about a pandemic. But that’s just not the world we live in anymore. It isn’t. We need to get back to the steps that helped control COVID-19 earlier this year and that will do so again if we stick to them.

The first step I’m going to address is face mask wear.

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