All year now we have been hearing from our political leaders and health authorities about what we can and can’t do to ‘stay safe’ during a pandemic. It seems that every week or so there are new rules about gatherings in homes, in pubs etc., for weddings and funerals and so on. In a country like Australia where we have a number of states the rules can become very confusing. Of course while the health authorities are trying to keep us all apart by imposing ‘strict social distancing’ rules, the business community, the media and economists are all encouraging people to get out and about to go shopping, eat out and take holidays. Some days  my head just about explodes as I try to work this through and think about how we can all survive until the vaccine arrives ( if it ever does!!).

One of the most frustrating aspects of all of this for me is that many people on the street seem to be just doing their own thing regardless of the health warnings. We sometimes joke that there is a pandemic of selfish and stupid too! But to be fair, many people do not have the scientific understanding that will enable them to make the safe choices that are needed at the moment, nor do they want to. And the messages on how to stay safe are confusing and in my opinion, incomplete.

Let’s face it – we really are wanting to get back to normal aren’t we?

The other frustrating aspect of this pandemic for me is the political games that are played about what is safe. For example, a few months ago, masks were apparently not required or even effective! But now, they are mandatory in some places and highly recommended in others. Why has it taken so long for this to happen? Who knows, but I suspect it was game playing by the politicians because they were worried that the public would try to gain access to the PPE required in hospitals. Does this sound cynical? Well why not, when I see health officials doing a complete 360 on mask wearing overnight. The other big moment of cynicism I had was when overnight it suddenly became safe to have twice as many people travelling on trains and buses? Why – apparently the health advice had changed! I would suggest that the government caved in to pressure from businesses to enable more people to travel to the city to work and shop etc.

Many people would not have an issue with these things. Sure, we need to get the economy going again and people back in to work and my heart does truly go out to those people who have lost their jobs. But we also need to stay safe and go about our daily business in a way that keeps everyone around us safe too!

What does ‘stay safe’ mean?

So I ask again, what does ‘stay safe’ mean during a pandemic and how can the average person on the street do this in the current political climate?

Here are some ideas and tips for you. We have already written about this but feel so strongly about the need to help people see what is needed to stay safe that we are doing it again! (I am not an epidemiologist but I had a career as a microbiologist and am aware of the things that we need to do to control infection.)

Tips on  How to Stay Safe

Handwashing

This is the obvious one and the advice that has not wavered all year. This is something we should all be doing all the time anyway isn’t it? Why is this important? Because we cannot see the virus and do not know where it might be on surfaces that we touch. Think about the number of surfaces you touch when you are out and about: door handles, shop counters, windows in shops, surfaces in bathrooms, objects that you might be interested in buying, the cutlery in a restaurant, the table and chairs in the coffee shop – the list goes on. You do not know who has been there before you, whether or not they are sick, whether or not they sneezed on the surface or whether or not they washed their hands!! Touching surfaces will not make you sick but transferring the virus to your mouth or nose or eyes may result in you becoming ill.

So wash your hands often and thoroughly!

Mask Wearing

Wear a mask whenever you leave the house to go anywhere with people who are not part of your household. We don’t wear a mask when going for our evening walk, but if we were going to the shops we would wear a mask. If I wear a mask I am protecting others. Masks are effective if everyone wears them. Why, because they act as a barrier to the virus as you breathe. Check out the Masks for Aussies web page for more information about the efficacy of masks. It is thought that the virus can remain in the air, particularly indoors, for some time after someone has sneezed or breathed it out so you could be walking right through a ‘cloud’ of infected air. Once again, you can’t see the virus so why not reduce the risk and wear a mask?

I have been making masks for months now to donate to charities and individuals. If you need a mask check out the Masks for Aussies website to find out how you can access masks for you and your family!

Protecting Your Home

This is important, particularly if you are going out each day to work or shopping etc. Of course we always want our homes to be safe but how do we keep the virus out? It is possible that it can come into your home via people, packages and shopping. So do what you can to prevent this happening.

Limiting the ‘things’ that enter the home

• Take your shoes off when you enter your house
• Wash your hands
• If you touched the door handle as you came in, clean it with soapy water or 70% alcohol
• Place all parcels and letters in the sun and open outside.
• Wash down all objects coming on to your home e.g. we wipe down all of the shopping items that come into our home each week.
• Quarantine objects coming into the home that you can’t wash down. I keep things for about a week before using them e.g. fabric and elastic, cards and letters etc. are left on a bench before using.
• Change your shoes and clothes when you come home and before sitting on your soft furnishings.

Does this sound extreme? Maybe, but it is how we maintain peace of mind in our home and we have been doing this for months now so it is second nature!

Note: 70% alcohol is more effective than 100% alcohol. We use iso-propyl alcohol to make our diluted spray and to make our own hand sanitiser.

Limiting the people who enter your home

The other important way to protect your home  is to limit who comes into it. I believe this is very badly explained by health officials. So lets explore this now.

A few months ago we were in lock down and no one was allowed to visit anyone else (with a few exceptions). Then all of a sudden we were allowed to have 5 then 10 then 20 people visit. Does this mean that all of the people who enter are safe and well? No, not necessarily. I think that this opening up of our homes is one of the worst explained aspects of the road out of lockdown and recovery and it all comes down to  the questions:

What is a household?

and,

What is a family?

I may live in a house or unit with someone else – that is my household. The person or people I live with may or may not be my family but by maintaining a control on who is in my home I am limiting the risk of infection to the extent of the activities by that group of people. Our family does not have special immunity but we are limiting the number of contacts with the world and so reducing our risks of contracting the disease.

If family members come to visit me – are they part of my household? No they are not and so I should not freely interact with them in my home i.e. hug them, sit next to them etc. Am I putting myself at extra risk by allowing these family members into my home? Certainly. The more people that come together the higher the risk of virus transmission. So if a mother visits her adult children and grandchildren, they should observe social distancing at all times and clean surfaces etc. as though they had invited strangers into their home.

And yet, every day we see people from different households sharing cars, visiting each other and even hugging and kissing each other. Is this safe? No, not at all.

So if you must invite people into your home, you can minimise the risk of infection by keeping your distance, wearing a mask and offering one to your visitor, wiping down surfaces and washing your hands well before, during and after the visit!

Be wary of socialising in restaurants and pubs etc.

Why are we allowed to go out and about now?  Of course many people need to return to work and they wish to socialise and resume some form of normal life. But if the health advice is that socialising is now OK, does it mean that is any safer now than it was a few months ago?

No, of course not. The virus is still out there and just as contagious. Even if the number of infections each day is low, we are still at risk because we do not know who is carrying the virus and where those people are!

The rules about gatherings etc. come with strict limits on numbers and it is my view that these limits are imposed, not because small numbers of people gathering together is safe but to limit the amount of contact tracing that is necessary when outbreaks occur and people are getting sick. Whilst testing is important, the tracing takes longer and becomes more complex the more people go out and socialise.

We have seen in some states of Australia how quickly the virus spreads and how complex the tracing process becomes where you have people who are mixing a great deal with others and partying at pubs and restaurants. This track and trace step, is the ‘limiting’ step in the whole process of control of the virus spread. The longer it takes to track and trace contacts of an infected person, the more time an infected person can be ‘out there’ mixing with others and potentially spreading the virus. If social activity is limited by imposing limits on gathering sizes etc. there will be less people to track and trace.

But the need for limiting social gatherings is not explained to people in the terms of track and trace limitations. The word ‘safe’ is used loosely and so people hear what they want to hear and so they continue to assume that they are safe if they only gather in small numbers or follow the COVID-safe rules. Why is this? Well, we all want it to be safe but we also want the pandemic to be gone so we tend to interpret the information we are receiving in a way that justifies our desires and our actions- particularly if we only have half the information and we make assumptions about safety i.e. only 5 people so we must be safe!!!

But is it safe to go into a busy pub where the tables are 1.5 metres apart? Maybe it is if everyone is wearing masks and we don’t touch anything. But is that realistic? If you take the mask off and eat a meal together can you be sure about who may have sneezed on the table you are sitting at, who may have just wiped their hand over the menu you are holding or who may be sitting across from you at a small table that is much less than 1.5 metres wide?

Let’s think about the people you are socialising with. Imagine the family lunch where you gather with parents and siblings or children. Do you know who your mother or sister or brother has come into contact with at work over the past few days? Are your sister’s children at a school that is about to record an infection? What about the waitress serving your lunch – is she sick? Of course the answer to all these questions is that you do not know- you cannot be sure and so you must assume that everyone is infectious!

Summing up:

We are in the middle of a pandemic and nowhere is totally safe. Some of the health advice may be designed to drastically reduce your risk of infection i.e. hand washing and mask wearing. But, I believe that the advice about where it is safe to go and who you can invite into your home is misleading. In reality, it is more about limiting overall social contact than what is actually safe for you to do!

In my view, if you really want to stay safe and minimise your risk of infection, don’t welcome anyone from outside your household into your home and if you must invite them in, make sure you clean surfaces, wear masks and wash hands around those people, all the time assuming that they may be infected! Additionally, if you want to stay safe, limit your outings and only go out if you really have to!

Have a COVID Kit ready to go!

If you are going out and about have a kit ready to take with you so you can be ready for hand washing etc. My handbag has not left the house for months . This has actually caused me to wonder why I need a handbag at all! We have two COVID kits – one large for big outings and one small for small outings. They both contain masks, 70% alcohol spray, hand sanitiser and alcohol wipes. I can slot my phone and keys in, I put on my debit card ring, and I am ready to go.

I also take my mini handwashing soap with me. This way I minimise what is going out and subsequently coming back into my home.

Finally…….

I thought I would just share what we have been doing in our household to stay safe. We avoid going out as much as possible, we have our groceries delivered and wash each item down on arrival. We do not visit anyone, do not visit shops, restaurants or coffee shops, do not bring takeaway food into our home and pretty much just hibernate at home.

We have been doing this since March!

Yes, we exercise daily and call our family members regularly. We celebrate special occasions with virtual drinks and meals, we go for drives and sit in quiet empty parks to have peaceful picnics. We took a break from the city to stay in a small country town for a while and as the weather improves we will probably hold some outdoor family events.

Will we be inviting people over in the coming months and at Christmas? Sadly no. We will keep our household separate to other households and ride out this pandemic on our own!

We wish more people would do this i.e. stay home and stay safe to keep others safe. If this is your wish too, then let us know how you are managing. We would love to hear your thoughts on staying safe and sane!

What Next?

We hope you will join us at Helpful by Nature by subscribing to our email list. We would love to hear from you, take your questions and provide answers if we are able.

Until next time,

 

 

Gillian (and Andrew)