The Summary of “The Risks— Know Them— Avoid Them”

Rev. Marcel Divine Emeka Okwara, CSsR

Thursday, May 14, 2020

If you are one of those who find reading tiring and boring, please make an intentional effort to read this piece. It is educative and helpful as well. Reading and applying the principles outlined in this summary of a well researched work will no doubt protect you, your household and the rest of the society. We all know that the culture or habit of reading does not naturally come to everyone; consequently, I tried to summarize in this writing the original work titled, “The Risks— Know Them— Avoid Them” written and published by Professor Erin Bromage. Who is Professor Erin Bromage? He is an Associate Professor of Biology at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth. He joined the Faculty of the university in 2007 where he teaches courses in Immunology and Infectious diseases, including a course on the Ecology of Infectious Disease which focused on the emerging SARS-CoV2 outbreak in China.  

In his article, which has been read by more than 13 million people, Dr. Bromage lays out places where people get infected with coronavirus. As States and nations reopen their economies, he wants you to know the risks involved as you go about your daily activities. To start with, he says he understands the reasons for wanting to reopen the economy, but insists that, “if you don’t solve the biology, the economy won’t recover.” According to Prof. Bromage, 90% of all coronavirus infections are happening in:

1. Home
2. Workplace
3. Public transport
4. Social/ religious/ sporting events (like choir practice, indoor sports, birthday parties, funerals
5. Restaurants

Like me, you may be shocked that home is the number one place that people get infected. How is this possible? Professor Bromage says it happens when, “A household member contracts the virus in the community and brings it into the house where sustained contact between household members leads to infection.” Since people contract the infection in the community, the question then is: Where in the community are people contracting the infection? People contract the virus from workplaces, from using public transport, by attending social and religious gatherings and by going to restaurants. Prof. Bromage reminds its readers that “In order to get infected you need to get exposed to an infectious dose of the virus; (and) based on infectious dose studies with other coronaviruses, it appears that only small doses may be needed for infection to take hold.” He warns us to be extremely careful when using public bathrooms (restrooms) because they “have a lot of high touch surfaces, door handles, faucets, stall doors” where the risk of being infected is high. Even flushing the toilet can release many droplets of the virus in the room. 

In addition, Prof. Bromage states the following:

A single COUGH releases about 3,000 droplets in the atmosphere and these droplets travel at 50 miles per hour. So, when someone around you coughs, RUN AWAY! 

A single SNEEZE releases about 30,000 droplets with droplets traveling at up to 200 miles per hour. A lot of these droplets are small and can travel great distances. If someone sneezes without covering their mouth, call the cop! (LOL!) 

Check this! In an infected person coughs or sneezes, the droplets in a single cough or sneeze may contain as many as two hundred million virus particles which can be released and spread into the atmosphere. This means that one sneeze or cough of an infected can be quite dangerous, perhaps even lethal. 

Even breathing can be problematic too. A single breath releases 50-5000 droplets. But Prof. Bromage cautions that most of these droplets are low velocity and can easily fall to the ground. However, speaking increases the release of droplets. So, if you must talk to someone, practice social distancing and make the conversation brief. If you spend more than 10 minutes talking face to face with someone who is infected, Professor Bromage says you could potentially be infected. 

• In conclusion, your sneezes and coughs can expel so much virus that you can infect a whole room of people. 
• Therefore, “do your part and WEAR FACIAL MASK to reduce what you release into the environment.” 
• It is also vitally important that symptomatic people stay home and in isolation if they live with others. 
• Avoid attending any indoor activity with poor air circulation and high density of people. 
• Reconsider attending any gathering where large number of people is expected. 
• Stay away from someone who is speaking very loud, who is yelling and screaming because that person is an active insecticide. 
• If you are about to enter a store and you notice that it is crowded, turn away. If it is not possible to do so, do not stay in that store for more than 10 minutes. 
• If you must use a public restroom, consider using hand gloves. If none is with you, make sure you wash your hand with running water and soap immediately you exit the restroom.

May God our wonderful healer and protector strengthen our immune system to be able to resist this virus and other diseases out there. Amen.