Photo: Ryoji Iwata
Which Activities Are Risky Or Safe During A Pandemic?:
So one of the biggest problems we have right now is there isn’t much that’s normal.
And even as things reopen and we try to reestablish some normality, we know there are new rules to follow.
Nowhere is this more apparent than in the continued closings of places like Restaurants, Bars, & Gyms.
But Restaurants do have one exception: Outdoor Dining while it’s warm enough to do so.
Why is that? Well disease experts in Arizona set out to answer everybody’s questions on that type of thing…
The Short Answer:
- The Coronavirus pandemic has forced people to congregate differently.
- They don’t always know what to do.
- They can end-up doing things badly the way they did on Memorial Day Weekend.
- Disease expert Saskia Popescu put together a social safety guide with her doctor friends.
- The main risk factors are as follows:
- Is the event indoors with an enclosed airspace?
- Will people be in proximity?
- Will people be touching each other?
- Are there high-touch surfaces that are hard to keep clean?
- Is there a likelihood some people won’t or can’t wear masks?
- Will people have a high respiration rate?
- Will people be raising their voices?
- Will people be attending for a long duration?
- The risk of spreading disease increases as the number of factors at any event adds up.
- The full size graphic is here.
Read on to find out the details…
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Public Health Services Warn Us Not To Congregate:
So we’ve been cautioned about these types of gatherings.
And as we said before, many of these places have been shut down.
From bars, to even sports stadiums for professional athletes.
Even the European soccer stadiums are full of only cardboard fans and pre-recorded cheers.
Further still, some states have issued orders banning gatherings of more than 25-50 people,
And specifically warned against things like large parties, or even religious gatherings at church.
Any Kind Of “Back To School” Will Be Difficult And Risky:
This is an even more serious problem as we get past Labor Day into the Fall.
Because nobody yet knows how much of the Coronavirus children spread.
It’s hard to tell, because so few of them come down with any illness or visible-symptoms.
And regardless of the fact they could all be little disease-factory asymptomatic-carriers,
Jurisdictions like New York City are insisting that schools open back up.
Look back at the list in The Short Answer and tell me how many of the risks come together in a school-setting.
Hint: It’s All Of Them!
Dr. Saskia’s Team Does What A Government Should Have
So even though a city government or even the national government or The CDC should have done it,
Dr. Saskia and her friends put together a color-coded graphic that can help guide people in their choices.
It does the following:
1) Lists the type of activity a person could take.
2) Intersects all likely the risk-types that occur at that event.
3) Gives each type a colorized Danger-Rating from safest to most-risky.
Image: COVID-19 Recovery Consulting
The Low Risk Activities:
So the lowest-risk activities include things like the following:
1) Staying At Home
2) Walking Outdoors
3) Picking Up Takeout, Coffee, or Groceries
4) Running or Biking Outdoors
5) Outdoor Picnic or Porch Dining w/ Social-Distancing
Image: COVID-19 Recovery Consulting
The Low/Medium Risk Activities:
The low-to-medium risk activities are:
1) Playing Distanced Sports Outside Like Tennis or Golf
2) Grocery Shopping In The Store
3) Retail Shopping In A Store
Image: COVID-19 Recovery Consulting
The Medium Risk Activities:
Still higher-up on the scale are things we might do a little bit more:
1) Emergency Room Visits
2) Doctor’s Office Visits
3) Dentist Checkup Appointments
4) Taxis & Ride-Sharing
5) Going To Art Museums
6) Outdoor Restaurant Dining
Image: COVID-19 Recovery Consulting
The Medium-High Risk Activities:
Moving into further risk of longer time spent, and indoor enclosed air-spaces come a lot of the medium-high risk activities like these:
1) Exercising At Health Clubs & Gyms
2) Going To Hair/Nail Salons & Barbershops
3) Working In An Office
4) Going To Indoor Restaurants & Coffee Shops
Image: COVID-19 Recovery Consulting
The Highest Risk Public Activities:
And last but not least are the list of activities now mostly populated with cardboard fans:
1) Going To Bars & Nightclubs
2) Indoor Parties
3) Public Transportation By Bus, Train, or Subway
4) Air Travel
5) Going To Concerts
6) Going To Plays Or Movies
7) Watching Sports In Stadiums
8) Playing Contact Sports
Image: COVID-19 Recovery Consulting
At Least Now We Have A Coronavirus Activity Risk Guide We Can Understand:
So now that we have a chart with clear threat-levels for activities we might have all engaged in,
It might make us all feel a little bit better about the restrictions we’ve been asked to undergo.
And since the doctors have gone to the lengths of measuring and explaining each of the different types of risk,
We can begin to understand Why so many of the previous parts of life have been curtailed or shut-down.
Although we may not like it, and all have a bit of cabin-fever as a result of work-from-home and travel-restrictions,
An activity risk-chart like this really shows how much of it is necessary to reduce the daunting likelihood of contracting coronavirus before we get a vaccine.
References & Links:
• Source: COVID 19 Reopen Consultants
• More Coverage: Full Size Graphic [PDF]
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