Health and hygiene are more important now than ever, but accurate information can be hard to access. There are many health practices related to COVID-19. They all have varying degrees of effectivity and messaging on what to do has been vague and contradictory. The purpose of this public service announcement is to outline the various health practices associated with preventing the transmission and spread of COVID-19, explain what makes them effective, and to discuss their importance on a personal and population-wide level.
The beginning of the pandemic saw the mantra of “stay at home, wash your hands, wear a mask” become popular. The first part of this strategy, isolation, has two purposes. Keeping people at home stops them from gathering outdoors and spreading a highly contagious virus. It also protects older people, who are more likely to be immunocompromised. A study published in the International Journal of Infectious Diseases found that shelter-in-place policies, when combined with mask-wearing, reduced the rate of severe disease, hospitalization, and death in people aged 50-64 by 82%.
Hand-washing protects people from disease, but since the COVID virus is airborne and surface transmission is negligible, hand-washing alone will not protect someone from COVID. The single most important protective measure against getting infected is wearing a face mask. Face masks decrease the risk of a person becoming infected and decrease the risk of an infected person transmitting the virus. Cloth and paper masks are not as good at preventing infection as surgical and N95 masks, but any mask is better than no mask. Masks work best when everybody wears one. A study published in the International Journal of Infectious Diseases found that when 75% of the population wore non-medical masks, infections and deaths decreased by 37.7%. A better face mask means that a person who is exposed to COVID-19 will have a smaller amount of the virus, or a lower viral load, in their nose. Higher viral loads are associated with more severe cases of COVID-19.
Vaccination also helps prevent COVID-19. Vaccines are at their most effective 7 days after the second dose, when they provide 95% protection against a positive PCR test. However, while they might provide less protection over time, they do still minimize the chances of severe disease, hospitalization, and death. Since vaccinated individuals can mount an immune response quicker than unvaccinated individuals, if they are infected with COVID, they are infectious for a shorter period of time and show a faster decrease in their viral loads. This means that not only do they not get as sick, they are also less contagious. Vaccinated individuals should still wear a mask to prevent the transmission of COVID to unvaccinated and immunocompromised individuals.
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