I was thinking for a few weeks and decide to write this down. I believe you guys are all know about the outbreak of COVID-19, for those who doesn’t, it’s Coronavirus Disease 2019. We have a lot of report and sharing from the local Doctors which you guys are not able to know because of the language, and of course the internet restrictions between China and the world,and not to mention the selection by your mass media. As someone come from China, a COVID-19 outbreak country but done so well to minimize the infection and countries the outbreak, I feel I have the responsibility to deliver the right information to people from other country which still at the first or second stage of outbreak.
1. COVID-19 is aerosol transmission, which means the virus could transferred by air, not only by touching, but also by breathing the same air is infectable. I saw in some news that a lot of the governments are asking people NOT to wear the mask unless you've already sick. That is definitely WRONG. And in some country, some people who wear the mask to protect themselves and also protect others was even punished by the government. I can understand the governments want to keep the best resource for the medical staff in the battlefront, and about half of the face mask was produced in China, now China has the COVID-19 outbreak, the Chinese government put all the masks into government control, so no more mask to sale to other country, then with the outbreaks in other countries, they are definitely now short of the masks. I understand the last thing the government want is the robbery and scramble the shorten supplies, especially in those countries where guns are flooding, but asking people not to wear the mask is so WRONG when we are all in a aerosol transmission virus outbreak. In Korea, a mom bring two kids took 1 minute lift with the pastor who has been infected by COVID-19, the mom was soon test and found be infected because she didn't wear mask, and the kid are fine, not because they are young, strong or lucky, it’s because the kids wore the masks at that time. So, you can see the face mask is the only protection between you and the virus.
2. The incubation period of COVID-19 is an average of 7 days, the shortest is 2-3 days, maximum is 14 days. During the incubation period, the infectors does not have obvious fever, cough or other symptoms, butthe infectors can already start transmitting the virus during the incubation period, when they still LOOK HEALTHY. There is even small percentage of asymptomatic patients, for those asymptomatic infection, they can only be identified by the nucleic acid test. In China the doctor would proactively test the infector's family and anyone who had been close connection with the infectors, like if you just sit with this infector on the same train/airplane, or just pick the infector up from airport to somewhere, you would be found and get the nucleic acid test. And according to the news and social media, I don't think the nucleic acid test would be that widespread in most of the countries, not to mention the nucleic acid test also have a very high error rate, there's only about 30-50% chance that the test result would able to identify the infector.
3. COVID-19 is definitely not just infect the elder people or just people with poor health condition, yes, susceptible populations is easier to get infected, but this doesn’t mean other young strong people is immune, the virus is able to infect almost EVERYONE. A lot of voice said it’s just like the flu, no big deal, and it's only 3.4% mortality rate, much lower than the 9% mortality rate of influenzas pneumonia and 10% mortality rate of SARS, but it's already higher than the influenza virus. Without proper diagnosis and treatment, the mortality rate has even reached 16% in some area.
4. Currently the COVID-19 has no effective specific medicine or vaccine, basically the infector won to survive by the self-resistance with the help of antibiotic and hormone therapy. It’s called coronavirus disease, not some coronary pneumonia is because it not just affect the lungs, it also will cause troubles for other vital organs. The virus can quickly attack the lung, and also would cause (may not directly) heart and brain disorders, there's a lot of patients in critically condition are young adults, once the organ start to failure, it's very difficult to reverse the condition. In the later stages of the infection, lung function basically fails, blood oxygen saturation continues to decline, and the patient will remain in a state of asphyxia for hours or even days before death, it is extremely painful and unbearable.
So guys, please please pay serious attention on the COVID-19 outbreak in your country, do not go outside if it’s really really necessary, wear a mask if you will meet other people, no face kisses, no face touching before you wash your hands, wash and sterilize your hands after you touched others or been in public places.
Stay safe. Bless you all!
