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Today, our world is plagued by a disease known as the coronavirus. This virus has infected 50 million people and killed 1.25 million people. The numbers are still rising. There have been many misconceptions of what the coronavirus is, where it originated from, and how to prevent being infected by this virus. Not knowing the real truth about this virus can lead a person to be seriously harmed.
A dangerous myth that many people still believe is that only older adults and young children are at risk. The coronavirus is a disease that can harm people of all ages. On March 16, 2020, 508 people were hospitalized for COVID-19 in the U.S. Of these critical patients, 38% were between 20 and 54 years old. Half of those ending up in intensive care were younger than 65. Believing that because you are not in this specific age group you do not need to follow coronavirus precautions, is very dangerous. However, senior citizens and individuals with preexisting health conditions, such as diabetes or asthma, are more likely to become severely ill. It is also imperative to understand which ways a person can contract the coronavirus to avoid misconceptions.
Many people believe that packages from China can spread the coronavirus. This is not true. According to the World Health Organization, the coronavirus does not last long on objects such as letters or packages. “There’s no evidence that there’s been spread from infected mail or packages,” said Michael Merson, a dean’s special adviser at the New York University School of Global Public Health. “If people are ordering internationally, contracting the virus is even less of a concern,” said Xi Chen, assistant professor of public and global health and economics at the Yale School of Public Health. The CDC explains that “because of poor survivability of these coronaviruses on surfaces, there is likely very low risk of spread from products or packaging that are shipped over days or weeks at ambient temperatures.” Packages from China and any other infected areas are completely safe and will not lead to you or your family contracting the coronavirus. It should also be worth noting that using harmful ways to kill the coronavirus, can have serious consequences.
A belief that is not true is that injecting or consuming bleach or disinfectant kills the virus. Disinfectants and bleach are useful to kill bacteria or viruses when they infect surfaces, but they should not be consumed or injected. “These practices pose a risk of severe tissue damage and corrosive injury and should be strictly avoided,” the CDC researchers wrote in a paper, published in the agency’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. Bleach does not kill the virus, it kills you. Dr. Penny Ward, Visiting Professor in pharmaceutical medicine at King’s College London, U.K., explains, “Drinking bleach kills. Injecting bleach kills faster.” Bleach should never be consumed or injected, seeing as it leads to a lot of damage. Please note that it is very important to not believe conspiracy theories as to how the coronavirus was originated.
Because this virus first emerged and began infecting people in Wuhan, China, President Donald Trump has claimed, without evidence, that it started in a laboratory there. Some conspiracy theorists have even said it was engineered as a bioweapon, although U.S. intelligence agencies have denied this possibility, saying that the intelligence community “concurs with the wide scientific consensus that the COVID-19 virus was not man-made or genetically modified.” No credible evidence has emerged to support an accidental lab release either. As Scientific American reported earlier this year, Chinese virologist Shi Zhengli, who studies bat coronaviruses and whose laboratory Trump and others had suggested was COVID-19’s source, compared the virus’s sequence against that of other coronaviruses her team had sampled from bat caves and found that it did not match any of them. Zhengli also explained why her lab could not have been the source of the virus in response in Science. In reaction to calls for an independent, international investigation into how the virus originated, China has invited researchers from the World Health Organization to discuss the scope of such a mission. Yet the evidence suggests COVID-19 was not created in a lab. It is important to stress the fact that the coronavirus is very serious and should be taken seriously.
Some people believe that the coronavirus is no worse than the flu. The coronavirus does have symptoms similar to the flu, but it is not exactly like the flu. Although COVID-19’s exact fatality rate is hard to pin down, epidemiologists suspect it is far higher than the flu’s. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that the flu causes roughly 12,000 to 61,000 deaths per year in the U.S. The coronavirus has caused more than 236,000 deaths in the country. COVID-19 also spreads more easily than the flu and causes more serious illnesses in some people. This disease is air-born and spread much easier than the flu. This virus can also live on surfaces for days. It can also take longer before people show symptoms and people can stay contagious for longer than others assume. Being aware that the disease creates uncertainty around how safe it shows it must be taken seriously.
A tale that has fooled many people is that you do not need to wear a mask. Although early guidance on masks was confusing and inconsistent, there is now a strong opinion among public health authorities and supported by numerous studies, that wearing a face-covering can limit the transmission of the coronavirus through small exhaled droplets. Masks have long been known as an effective means of source control (preventing a sick patient from spreading the disease to others), but the early guidance was based, in part, on the fact that there was a shortage of high-quality and surgical masks. Now, we know that cloth face masks can be an effective alternative. But despite the evidence, many people still refuse to wear one, considering it a violation of civil liberties. Georgia’s governor Brian Kemp went so far as to sign an executive order banning city governments from implementing mask mandates. He also sued Atlanta’s Mayor Keisha Lance when she implemented one, although he has now dropped the lawsuit. Coincidentally, as coronavirus cases have spiked around the U.S. in recent months, even states that were once enthusiastically mask-free have now implemented mask orders. Some people also believe that you can get a face mask exemption card so you do not need to wear a mask. This is false. Fake cards and flyers, claiming that the bearer is excluded from mask-wearing regulations, have shown up in some areas. The cards may have official-looking logos or government insignias on them and claim that the person carrying them has a physical or mental condition covered by the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) that makes them unable to wear a face mask or covering. The United States Department of Justice has issued a statement on these frauds, explaining that these cards are not legal. People have tried to use these fake cards to avoid having to wear a mask in public places that require them, such as some stores and restaurants. These cards are not issued by the U.S. government and are completely illegal. It should be emphasized that achieving immunity from the coronavirus is not simple.
A mistaken belief that many people believed was that we can achieve herd immunity by letting the virus spread through the population. Early on in the pandemic, some speculated that the U.K. and Sweden planned on letting the virus circulate through their population until they reached herd immunity, the point at which enough people are immune to the virus to prevent it from spreading to others. Both nations’ governments have denied that this idea was their official strategy, but the U.K. issued a late full lockdown, and Sweden had decided against widespread restrictions. However, there is a huge flaw in this method. Experts estimate that roughly 60 to 70 percent of people would need to get COVID-19 to achieve herd immunity. Given the high mortality rate of the disease, letting it infect that many people could lead to millions of deaths. That tragedy is what happened during the 1918 influenza pandemic, in which roughly 50 million people are thought to have perished. The U.K.’s COVID-19 death rate is among the world’s highest. Sweden, for its part, has had notably more deaths than neighboring countries, and its economy has suffered, despite not shutting down. Many more lives could probably have been saved if these countries had acted sooner.
As you can see, the coronavirus has claimed many lives and many myths have surrounded it. It is important to understand the truths and reality of the pandemic and how everyone can stay safe and healthy. Time will tell how the coronavirus will improve or worsen, but the best one can do is educate themselves about this virus to help themselves and everyone around them stay safe.
Bibliography
https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/coronavirus-myths-explored
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/nine-covid-19-myths-that-just-wont-go-away