Everyone seems to be talking about the Coronavirus lately. Many stores have run out of basic essentials such as toilet paper. People are really worried about this. It's bad for sure, but I decided to throw together some quick tips for everyone.
Note: The following isn't medical advice. I'm not a doctor. These are just tips. Always use your best judgement when it comes to these kinds of things.
-Stop panicking-
Seriously, the world isn't ending. The symptoms of Coronavirus are like a mild flu. If you're a young to middle-aged healthy adult, even if you get it, you'll live. Seriously, most deaths from the Coronavirus occurred in older people that had preexisting medical conditions. If you're younger and healthy, there's a very strong chance that you'll live without any major issues. 80% or more of cases are considered mild. For those in my age bracket, only 0.09% that have gotten it have died. You'll probably be fine even if you get it. You'll feel like crap for a bit until your body fights it off, but you'll be fine.
-Stop hoarding toilet paper-
This isn't a stomach bug. Only 4% of cases have diarrhea as a symptom. The panic over this false sense of needing to hoard toilet paper is stupid. If you're going to stock up on anything, food and medicine should be your two main things that you should stock up on. That way if you get it, you'll have food to eat and medicine to help fight the symptoms until you get over it.
-Even if you have flu-like symptoms, you probably don't need to go to the hospital-
This is especially true if you're younger and healthy like I'd mentioned earlier. Your local hospital may have tests to determine if you have COVID-19, but besides getting tested, you probably don't NEED to go to the hospital. It'll suck if you get it, but besides being tested for it, the hospitals can't really do a whole lot to help you. There's not a cure or vaccine yet. It'll simply take time for your body to fight off the infection. You can use over-the-counter medicine though to deal with the symptoms that make you feel like crap until your body fights it off.
There's a trending hashtag at the moment of #FlattenTheCurve. What it's referring to is a chart to where some hospitals are being over-crowded by people coming in with only mild symptoms. The problem that this causes is that those with severe illness and symptoms aren't able to be seen as the hospitals get overcrowded as they can only see so many people at one time.
-Stop traveling unless you absolutely need to-
Seriously, stop. That concert or event that you was planning on going to isn't that important. Going to work and buying things from the store is important. Going on a vacation or leisure trip isn't. With the Coronavirus, symptoms don't typically show up until around 5 or 6 days after you're infected, but you can spread it to others if you have it but aren't showing symptoms yet. This is why Coronavirus has spread so fast. People were spreading it before they themselves even started to feel sick. It's better to be safe then sorry.
-Wash your hands-
This one seems obvious, but wash your hands fairly often. Especially if you just went out into public. Washing your hands after touching public surfaces should just be common practice at this point.
-Don't panic sell your investments-
I put this last as its kind of the least important thing, but as we all know crypto prices and stocks haven't been doing well lately. Don't worry though. They'll go back up once this all blows over. Just wait it out and we'll all be ok :)