Thread by @thebencheah

To understand the actual danger #covid19 poses, you need to understand that different people will have different risk profiles.

Those risk profiles are, in turn, based on how the virus is transmitted. /1

The virus is spread through respiration of droplets, hand-face contact, and bodily fluids. It can enter the body through the nose, eyes and mouth.

Virus-laden droplets can linger on surfaces for up to 9 days.

Low temperature and high humidity increases its survivability. /2

The people most at risk are healthcare workers, especially those designated to respond to potential or actual patients.

That's why they wear full PPE: gloves, boots, suit, mask and goggles.

If you're in a highly contaminated area, you need this to avoid infection. /3

If you are NOT a first responder or healthcare worker, if your job does not put you in close prolonged contact with an infected person, you don't need full-body PPE.

And unless you can burn $2500 or so a month on PPE alone, you probably can't afford it either.

/4

Next up are those who stay in a confined space for a long period of time.

This includes, but is not limited to: food service workers, clergy, public transportation, event management, hotels, factory technicians and engineers, white collar jobs, sailors, aircrew.

/5

If you live in a farm in rural Idaho, or some other remote area, you're probably not going to be infected.

If you're a NEET or remote worker who stays at home most of the time, your chances of infection are low.

If you don't hang around crowded areas, your risk is low. /6

If an infected person next to you sneezes in your direction, you're probably going to be infected.

A surgical mask isn't going to save you.

The virus spreads through the eyes. Healthcare workers have contracted it through the eyes despite wearing protective masks. /7

If this happens to you, all you can do is monitor your health, and if you develop symptoms, you need to hustle to the nearest hospital.

And this is when a mask would be most useful -- to prevent yourself from spreading the virus.

/8

I've had a couple of scares since the virus landed in Singapore.

People sneezing in my direction, followed by flu-like symptoms a couple of days later.

But: no fever, no pneumonia, mild symptoms that cleared up within 24 hours, no spread of diseases to people around me.

/9

If someone sneezes or coughs on you, if you're not in full PPE, the situation is out of your control.

But there are still things you can do.

Self-monitoring, self-isolation, self-care to the best of your ability.

And if you're the religious kind, pray.

/10

You can't control the environment, or the people around you.

You CAN control how you react to them.

It's hard to defend against aerosol transmission without PPE. But you CAN protect yourself from transferring virus particles from a contaminated surface to your face. /11

If you don't fall into the high-risk profiles mentioned above, you don't need PPE.

A mask won't protect you. Only people around you.

Handwashing and regular surface disinfection is far more effective at preventing infection for regular people. /12

Finally, if you ARE in the high-risk categories mentioned above, by now your industry should have issued specific guidelines to minimise infection.

Stick to them.

And avoid crowds.

And continue to wash your hands and decontaminate surfaces often.

/13

The higher your risk, the more you must do to safeguard against infection.

If you are not in an epidemic zone like Wuhan, if you're not in the high-risk groups, your risk is low.

You don't need a mask. Save it for those who do.

But you do need to stay clean.

/end

PS

And don't panic.

Panic doesn't solve a situation.

It only makes things worse.

The epidemic is bad enough as it is already. Let's not add to it.