Since the beginning of this year, COVID-19, also known as the coronavirus, has spread across the world at a rapid rate. As of November of 23, 2020, there have been approximately 59 million reported cases and 1.4 million deaths worldwide.

There have been over 10 million reported cases and 230,000 deaths in the United States alone, and these numbers are rising every day. These are harrowing statistics, and it’s important at this time that everyone continues to do everything they can to reduce the spread of COVID-19.

While there is still a lot we don't know about this virus, scientists and doctors have learned much in the past 10 months, and there are proven actions that individuals and communities can take to help slow the spread of coronavirus.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has released a list of recommendations to help keep yourself and others from contracting COVID-19. Here is a summary of those safety guidelines:

• Maintain at least 6 feet of distance between yourself and others to reduce risk of COVID-19 transmission. Maintain an even greater distance when indoors.
• Always wear a mask when you are around people who are not a part of your household, and make sure the people you are around are wearing a mask too! Masks have been shown to be very effective at preventing the spread of coronavirus, especially when combined with social distancing.
• Avoid the 3 C's: spaces that are closed (limited ventilation), crowded, and/or involve close contact. These include public spaces such as restaurants, gyms, offices, stores, places of worship, etc.
• If you do have to be in indoor spaces, try to keep your distance from others and always wear a mask, and make sure those around you are wearing masks. The WHO also recommends increasing the amount of ventilation when indoors with others (by opening windows, for example).
• Regularly and thoroughly wash and/or sanitize your hands.
• Meet people outside as much as possible. Limit the number of people you interact with indoors as much as you can (ideally, just your household).
• Make getting tested a regular part of your life, if it is accessible to you. In many cities right now, free COVID-19 testing is being offered. If it is easily accessible to you, getting tested weekly can stop COVID-19 outbreaks before they spread too far. This is especially important since so many people with coronavirus are asymptomatic, but still able to spread the virus.
• If you have any known contact with someone who has tested positive for coronavirus, or if you yourself have tested positive or have symptoms, stay home and self-isolate for two weeks.

The most common coronavirus symptoms are: fever, dry cough, and tiredness, but other symptoms include loss of taste or smell, aches and pains, headache, sore throat, nasal congestion, red eyes, diarrhea, or a skin rash.

There's a lot of misinformation out there about COVID-19, but we know that the virus spreads by respiratory droplets or aerosols, and there is clear data and evidence that shows that these WHO guidelines work. Limiting your time in close contact with others indoors, and always wearing a mask when you are around others, are very simple ways to have a huge impact on reducing coronavirus transmission.

Data gathered from states with and without mask mandates has shown that widespread mask usage led to a significant slowdown in a state's daily COVID-19 growth rate over time. This study estimated that by implementing mask mandates between April 8 and May 15, 2020, fifteen states plus Washington DC averted more than 200,000 COVID-19 cases by May 22, 2020.

Another study from June of 2020 looked at COVID-19 death rates across 198 countries, and found that those with cultural norms and/or government policies that encouraged people to wear masks had lower death rates than those without.

New studies from the CDC have demonstrated that cloth masks protect wearers by filtering out small infectious droplets. Masks with multiple layers of high thread count cloth are most effective at this. Multiple contact tracing studies conducted in the past few months have also found that mask wearing during the studied high-risk exposure situations (such as an outbreak that occurred on the USS Theodore Roosevelt, and flights that contained infected passengers) reduced infection risk by at least 70%.

In addition to the WHO guidelines, ensuring that your immune system is as strong as possible is another important step to take to keep yourself safe. Some vitamins and supplements that I recommend taking to strengthen your immune system include Researched Nutritionals Transfer Factor Multi-Immune, 10,000 IU of vitamin D daily, and 4,000 mg of vitamin C daily.

For more information on how to support your immune health with herbs, supplements, diet, colon cleansing, and essential oils, check out this article.

Even when it's not fatal, coronavirus can be devastating to a person's body, and many previously healthy people have reported long-term health issues after contracting the virus. It's time for us all to be thinking about our friends, family members, and community members, and do everything possible to stop the spread of coronavirus. This is not an individual virus or problem, and it will only be solved by communities taking care of and looking out for each other, by following the WHO guidelines and staying home, social distancing, getting tested frequently, and wearing masks as much as possible. These actions will also help protect you from the virus.

Labels: coronavirus, COVID-19, immunity support, mask usage, social distancing