25.2. we set off in Zagreb to find hand sanitizer. In 6 pharmacies, BIPA and DM they told us that all their bottles are completely sold out.
25.2. the Croatian prime minister Andrej Plenković announced the first confirmed case of coronavirus in Zagreb, Croatia. Coincidence?
In the streets, we can hear mentions of coronavirus – the youth mention it loudly and in a joking manner and the older generations quietly and with concern.
Tension is felt in the air, but we don’t let it get to us. We don’t care about sensationalist articles from famous news outlets. We prefer to do our own research.
In this article, we bring you the latest news from scientific studies and international health organizations. No nonsense… or humdrum.
Coronaviruses are viruses that afflict people and animals. They are also the ones to blame for diseases you have probably already heard of, such as the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) and Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS).
The coronavirus which has recently been discovered to cause the coronavirus disease COVID-19 is the one that caused this new 2020 epidemic.
Coronaviruses are zoonotic viruses which means they are transmitted between animals and humans. For example, the virus SARS-cov was transmitted from wild civets to humans, and the virus MERS-cov was transmitted from camels to humans.
Surely you must be asking yourself does that mean your cat or dog can get infected with coronavirus? Luckily, for now, there is no evidence that house pets can transmit the new coronavirus COVID-19 onto people.
At the beginning of January 2020 in the city of Wuhan, China the first coronavirus COVID-19 case was confirmed. It is considered that the new virus transmitted from animals to humans at a seafood and livestock market in Wuhan. The new coronavirus quickly spread from one city to all of China in just 30 days.
25.2. the biggest number of confirmed cases outside of Asia was in our neighboring country of Italy (283 cases). Out of those 283 cases, 7 have died. Now we can confirm that the shortage of hand sanitizers in Zagreb is not a coincidence.
WHAT ARE THE SYMPTOMS?
At the begging the symptoms are unnoticeable, but they evolve over time. The most common symptoms of coronavirus COVID-19 are: fever, dry cough, and fatigue. Some people also experience: body aches, nasal congestion, runny nose, sore throat or diarrhea.
An important (and calming fact) is that most people (around 80%) recover without major complications and need for special treatment.
Coronavirus spreads in 2 typical ways:
Firstly, coronavirus can spread through respiratory droplets from the mouth or nose through the air when a sick person coughs or breathes out.
Secondly, you can also get infected through touching items or surfaces that those droplets landed on if you proceed to touch your eyes, nose or mouth afterwards.
Many people with COVID-19 don’t have visible symptoms which especially applies to the early stages of the disease. But despite that, they are still contagious which means you can get coronavirus from someone who doesn’t have a fever or a strong cough and seems to be completely healthy.
Younger people and those with strong immune systems rarely have serious complications from coronavirus. On the other hand, elderly and those with chronic health issues such as high blood pressure, heart disease or diabetes are more likely to get seriously ill.
25.2. the number of patients in the world was 80,350 with 2,705 fatalities. In the Chinese Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CCDC) scientists have analyzed over 72,000 reported cases of coronavirus COVID-19 in China. They discovered that the mortality rate is 2.3% from which the majority of cases are the elderly.
If you find yourself bored out of your mind you can follow the number of coronavirus patients daily on the John Hopkins page:
Unfortunately, neither a drug nor a vaccine for coronavirus currently exists, which means we cannot stop it with drugs or treat it when it infects someone. Care for coronavirus patients focuses on alleviating the symptoms of the disease (e.g. lowering the fever, relieving the pain, etc.).
The World Health Organization (WHO) gives us the following directions for protecting ourselves from coronavirus:
- Maintain distance between yourself and anyone who is coughing or sneezing, at least 1 meter (3 feet).
- Regularly and thoroughly clean your hands with an alcohol-based hand rub or wash them with soap and water.
- Avoid touching your eyes, nose or mouth.
- Cover your mouth and nose with the inside of your bent elbow or tissue when you cough or sneeze. Then dispose of the used tissue immediately.
- Just in case, avoid contact with wild or domesticated animals (doesn’t apply to house pets).
- Avoid consuming undercooked or raw animal products.
- And, we would personally like to add, avoid consuming any kind of animal product. ?
DO MASKS HELP?
The typical kind of face masks that you find in hospitals cannot stop coronavirus because viruses are extremely small particles that easily pass through these cotton masks. But these masks do help prevent a sick person from transmitting the virus to others (because it stops the big droplets from flying around while coughing.)
Luckily, some masks successfully stop bacteria and viruses! The so-called respiratory masks such as the N95 masks from the manufacturer 3M. These special masks filter more than 95% of very small (0,3 microns) particles, which includes viruses and bacteria.
However, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends the usage of respiratory and typical doctor’s masks only to people who work in hospitals or directly with infected people. And why not for us regular Joes?
We assume that the proper usage of masks is too “complicated“ for non-professionals and therefore it is inefective in the actual prevention of transmission. For example, every mask should be thrown away after usage, the mask cannot be touched while on the face and after taking the mask off, hands should be immediately washed.
However, we have worn our N95 masks at airports a few times. We ordered them from China (a bit ironic, right?). Breathing through these types of masks is a bit harder because of the thick fabric. It also gets hot underneath it quickly. But it does give us some false sense of actually doing something healthy regarding the epidemic.
We’ll offer you some advice on how to protect yourself while traveling. Some we gathered from the Internet, and some from our own experience:
- We don’t recommend traveling to countries where a high number of cases has been reported, such as China, Japan or South Korea not only because of a higher risk of becoming infected, but also because there’s a risk of potentially getting stuck in the country if flights become suspended due to quarantine measures.
- Sensors that measure body temperature at airports unfortunately don’t successfully stop the spread of coronavirus because some infected people don’t have a heightened body temperature at all.
- Practice good hygiene at airports: wash your hands frequently, don’t touch your face, hell maybe even put that mask on your face.
- Keep up with news regarding flights because many are being canceled. Not only to China, but to many other countries as well.
- Some cultural and tourist places and events are being canceled or closed in cities with coronavirus outbreaks, so follow the local news.
- Check the travel insurance that you have. Unfortunately, many don’t cover treatment in case of an epidemic or pandemic.
I’M TOO LAZY TO READ ALL OF THIS. PLEASE SUMMARIZE!
Even though most infected people will manage to overcome the disease without complications, the elderly and those with chronic illnesses should stay alert since the disease mostly affects people with weakened immune systems.
The World Health Organization (WHO) says:
“If you are located in an area where the COVID-19 epidemic exists, you need to take the risk of the infection seriously. Follow the advice of the state and the local health officials. Even though for most people COVID-19 causes only mild symptoms, some people can get very sick.”
Realistically, even if we aren’t old or don’t have a chronic disease, we still don’t want to get infected with coronavirus. Maybe the health consequences aren’t as bad as the media portrays them to be, but being stuck in quarantine for days, well we wouldn’t like that at all.
We neither want to be scanned at the airport and quarantined because we have a heightened body temperature (bye, bye holiday in Thailand). We also don’t want to have to sell our grandmother’s jewelry just because our travel insurance doesn’t cover coronavirus. Therefore, we diligently follow the advice for protecting ourselves from coronavirus and we munch on vegan burgers in the safety of our home.
Unfortunately, we don’t have a study that shows that a vegan diet cures coronavirus (yet!). But we do have one important piece of information: our immune system has a very important role in the fight against coronavirus, and studies do show that a diet full of vegetables and fruits is favorable for having a strong immune system.
Therefore, even if it’s winter don’t forget to take in your daily dose of fruits and vegetables! If you don’t know where to start with your greens or you just don’t feel like chopping some up, stop by at our restaurant and have one of our legendary burgers. Or our legendary vegan pizza. Or our legendary vegan lunch. Vegan cake? We have it all.
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Author: Martina Beg