Perhaps a few good snorts of your favorite whiskey in the nose, as they call for hand sanitizer containing at least 40% alcohol I believe.....

Anonymous wrote:

Thanks to Arne for raising this really interesting subject, and to DB, GK, HW and others for enlightening me in so many ways since!!

HW's point about salt brings me to share my own experience.. Years ago, while my daughter and I were suffering a really nasty cold in France, the excellent pharmacy supplied a crate of goodies to get us more comfortable and aid recovery. The salt bit of this story is a box of 50 5ml soft plastic phials of 5% saline, to be trickled down the nose while slightly tilting the head back, to keep airways clear and preventing discomfort from drying out. It worked so well for me and my 8 year old daughter that I still do it years later when I think there are bugs around. She isn't so keen... I dissolve sea salt in a jar of very hot water, and do the trickling of the cooled solution with a small syringe, twice a day if I feel the slight tickle in my throat which is normally the harbinger of a bug getting hold, to 3 or 4 times if the throat is sore and I'm feeling optimistic. MOST times, the onset of the bug is delayed as long as I remember to take this preventative action. Sometimes not. In all cases where the cold has "won", I find the 3 or 4 times per day while I have symptoms keeps airways clearer and  me more comfortable. There are expensive preparations available from pharmacies which I think are meant to do the same thing, but the packaging and cost puts me off, and they do "taste"  completely foul. A friend of mine swears that if he is getting a cold he nips down to the beach in front of his west Scotland home and  takes a few big snorts of the Clyde! His wife says he very rarely gets a cold. My saline is FAR weaker than the salt sea.

The home-made stuff does seem to be effective prevention until I forget to take it, or feel I'm past the danger phase and relax the procedure too early. Otherwise it is - anecdotally - an effective prevention. I'm on three "snorts" a day at the moment, and do an extra one after handwashing etc following a trip to the shop. I think it was Darren who mentioned the sensitivity of eyes and nose to collecting virus compared to the mouth. I'd be really interested to know what's going on here with the salt trickling, and whether simply washing the nasal passages is doing the almost the same as handwashing?! And how is it that the little blighters do seem to hang in there, and occasionally get me in the end?!

Where C-19 is concerned, I am willing to try anything. Wearing a clean "tube" or buff  scarf pulled up over my nose and mouth while in the shop for 20 mins or so today  made me very aware of NOT touching any part of my face. I removed it carefully once outside, and it went straight into the wash. But after reading Darren's posts, and elsewhere, I can see that rigorous hygiene is the best prevention for most of us on a short-as-possible shopping trip. And yes I'm piling through the lanolin/simple shea butter and minerals. too :)

Thanks again to everyone on this, and Happy Birthday Arne!

Pol.

It occurred to me which it should  have before I wrote the  last post, that other people would have reached the same conclusion.   If you do a search on "salt masks for coronavirus", you will find many  hits............. I need to search first, and write later ;-)

                                                       H.W.

Happy Birthday Arne, I look forward to seeing the creativity your 66th year is sure to bring.

Today is my 48th birthday.  I've spent the morning here enjoying the JRA and this afternoon I'll be heading up the mountain (glorified hill) at the end of the street for some exercise on a quiet trail with my family.

Thanks for your civility and patience despite our disagreement,

Darren

This is a fairly novel event and from a scientific perspective it will be interesting to see how it evolves. My personal view is that given that we can't stop touching our faces and physical distancing will eventually have to end, is that a majority (50% ?, 70% ?) of us will eventually get COVID-19. The trick is to get it after the main outbreak has passed so that you don't have to go to an overcrowded hospital and you don't add to the current problem for others. Although it's easy to get scared, we all roll the dice when we get it, it is also true that for most of us the disease will not be much more than a modest discomfort. If we can do our best to keep the most vulnerable people in isolation for long enough, then we can get to the point where there is enough ventilators available so that even many of the people that get more serious cases will survive.

It's easy to become paranoid about germs and surfaces. It's important to remember that there was a time before COVID-19 that we happily shook hands, hugged and didn't treat everyone like a biohazard. Although this outbreak is more serious than SARS, MERS, Bird-Flu, etc., both the trauma and many of the lessons learned from those events were soon forgotten. Please understand I'm not dismissing the experience of anyone who experienced trauma from these events, just talking about the overall human response.

The human immune system is an amazing thing, soon most of us will have some immune resistance to COVID-19, whether naturally or potentially through a vaccine. The longevity of that immunity remains to be seen. However, the impact of a novel disease is worst during its first go through a population. I suspect by next year we will be treating novel coronavirus like the flu. For better or worse, people are remarkably good at forgetting difficult times and although there will be a challenging year ahead I suspect it will be surprising how fast things start returning to normal.

Thanks to everyone who has foregone wages to help slow the spread of the disease. Thanks to the grocery clerks, truck drivers, doctors and nurses, who are accepting additional risk to minimise the impacts. I can't think of anyone I've interacted with on this forum that I wouldn't enjoy sitting down with for a drink and a conversation. I hope you all come through this well.

Anonymous wrote:

Darren, 

thanks for raising a wider view....yikes it is not easy.

my thoughts are that you are less likely to touch  your face with a mask on, which could be the sole benefit.  Interestingly if I am out on my once a day run or cycle I don’t touch my face that much.  If I am sitting doing stuff (touched my face just now!) I do it a lot. I guess once ‘safely’ at home the risk is greatly reduced. 
Whilst we are told not to touch our faces, I have yet to hear any advice on how to avoid doing so, any ideas? 

We all touch our faces a lot and it is really difficult to stop doing it.  A properly worn mask will temporarily stop contact with your nose an mouth but not your eyes.  Worn improperly (which is what a majority of mask wearers are doing), it provides a great way to give you and those around you the disease.  If every mask came with some glow-powder you put on your hands, most folks would be surprised how much glow there was around their eyes, and inside their mask.   Masks are providing a false sense of security.  On your next outing watch those around you with masks, watch how often they touch their contaminated mask and then touch other surfaces. 

  I'd be willing to wager that almost all of us can't go an hour without touching our faces and most of us are likely touching our faces more than a dozen times an hour.  Given this, the solution is to wash your hands a lot.  If your hands aren't dry and uncomfortable right now you are either not washing your hands enough or you have a good supply of lanolin :-)