Want to Defeat COVID-19? Here’s 10 Ways to Prepare

COVID-19 is everywhere. There’s no getting away from it. You know you’re going to catch it sooner or later. It’s inevitable.

Or is it?

The answer is no, it’s not inevitable, and you don’t have to catch it.

Yes, COVID-19 is becoming more ubiquitous in the environment as containment efforts have failed.

And a new strain has even emerged that’s much more contagious than its predecessor.

But you can try to outsmart the virus and forbid it from hijacking your most sacred space — your body — via the following 10 ways.

1. Get vaccinated and emancipated

The most important and effective way to protect yourself from COVID-19 is to get vaccinated. A vaccine may help you avoid COVID-19 altogether or prevent serious symptoms if you do get it.

More than 150 vaccines are at different stages of development around the world. Currently, three are approved for use in various parts of the world: the Moderna, Pfizer-BioNTech, and AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccines.

• The Moderna vaccine is reported to be about 94% effective in protecting against COVID-19, starting 2 weeks after the second dose. The vaccine is less effective in people over 65 years of age.
• The Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine is reported to be 95% effective, starting 1 week after the second dose, and it’s more or less equally effective across age groups.
• The data on AstraZeneca vaccine’s is still coming in, but interim results put its effectiveness at 70–90%, depending on the dose. While the vaccine was well tolerated in older people, the rate of effectiveness in this population is yet to be determined.

Aside from the rate of effectiveness, the AstraZeneca vaccine also differs from the other two in terms of cost — the cost is less than 1/10th of the other two, because of easier storage and transportation requirements — and the way it works, which may allow for potentially longer-lasting immunity.

Vaccines work by enabling the body to develop a powerful defense against the virus. The way they do that is by first causing the body to react in an inflammatory way to the vaccine. And this can produce some side effects, which are usually mild and is a sign that the vaccine is doing its job.

What About the Side Effects?

The usual side effects are: a mild fever, soreness or redness at the injection site, fatigue, and headache. These reactions are similar to those that other vaccines produce.

More serious side effects, which are rare, usually develop if you’re allergic to some component of the vaccine. An allergic reaction will usually occur immediately after the vaccine is given, so it is easily treatable with health professionals standing by. Other rare side effects include: a high fever and swelling or itchiness at the injection site.

Keep in mind that the risk of developing these more serious side effects is far lower than that of getting the disease itself.

The side effects may be more pronounced after the 2nd dose, especially if your reaction to the 1st dose was more than mildly tolerable. Some experts recommend doing some planning in advance for the day that you receive the 2nd dose, such as, avoiding strenuous activities or taking a sick day from work, especially if you had a rather unpleasant reaction to the 1st dose.

And if you have ever had a severe reaction to a vaccine in the past or have a known allergy to any of the vaccine components, you should talk with your health professional before receiving the vaccine.

Is Getting Vaccinated Enough?

Although 90–95% is an extremely high effectiveness rate, it’s still not 100%.

That means, there will always be people who still get COVID-19 even after they’ve been vaccinated with two doses. So it’s important not to become complacent with common sense COVID-19 protection measures, such as those that are outlined in the rest of this post.

By maintaining thoughtful vigilance, you’ll have the FREEDOM and the peace of mind knowing you’re both protected by the vaccine AND you’re covering your bases for the critter that somehow manages to get past your best 1st line defenses.

2. Apply wisdom to the defense system

Even with the help of a vaccine, your protection against a virus invasion is only as good as your immune system. Simply put, a weak immune system will mount a weaker defense than a strong immune system.

So if your immune system isn’t something you’ve thought too much about before — maybe it’s time to get thinking.

As boring as it might sound, a good immune system is supported by healthy dietary and lifestyle habits, things like: eating well, sleeping well, staying active, maintaining good hydration, and correcting any vitamin and mineral deficiencies, all of which are important for a healthy immune system.

Paying attention to your mental health and well-being is important, as well, as your emotional and physical health are intricately connected. If you’re chronically unwell emotionally, you’re less likely to be taking good care of yourself physically.

So aim for health inside and out. Take care of the holistic you.

Apply your wisdom to live healthy and be healthy. And your immune system will be there to support you when you need it the most.

3. Mask up or break up

Just about every resource you consult nowadays on the best ways to protect against COVID-19 includes masking up whenever you leave your home, especially in indoor environments outside the home. Masking up even inside the home is a good idea if there’s someone there who’s COVID-19 positive.

Why all the fuss about wearing a mask?

Well, it has to do with the fact that the number 1 way that COVID-19 spreads is through contaminated air droplets released by people who are positive for COVID-19, when they speak, cough, or sneeze.

So if you want to avoid getting infected, and halt the pandemic so you can get your life back, it’s recommended you either mask up when you’re around other people. Or you try to avoid them altogether.

And don’t think that just because someone shows no symptoms, that they’re not contagious! Anyone can be a carrier or even a super-spreader of the virus without knowing it. Unless you test everyone around you for COVID-19, you just don’t know.

So be safe, rather than sorry.

4. Analyze and sanitize

The COVID-19-infected air droplets can be breathed in, and they can picked up by your hands from the surfaces that they land on, which includes your skin, hair, clothing, tabletops, countertops, walls, etc.

Then, if you happen to run your contaminated hand or fingers by your nose, eyes, or mouth, you’ve introduce the virus to a moist part of your body where it can thrive and replicate rapidly.

So this is where sanitizing your hands regularly can have a big impact on your risk of getting COVID-19.

The key is to be mindful of where your hands have been. Analyze your environment for COVID-19 risk, which basically means taking stock of the number of people in your immediate environment. If the number is high, you’ll want to sanitize your hands more frequently, especially after coming across popular points of contact, such as handrails on a crowded subway.

Washing your hands with soap and water will do the trick. Otherwise, always try to have some hand sanitizer handy on you.

When it comes to sanitizing surfaces, most authorities still recommend that you do this, as well.

But sanitizing your hands frequently and routinely is clearly more important and effective.

5. Get in the sun and the fun

As we learn more about the virus, we’re also finding that sun radiation may rapidly kill it.

So if you’re concerned about getting the virus on your hair and clothing after coming off of a crowded subway, for example, an easy fix may simply be to spend about 15–20 minutes in the sun right afterwards, if possible, to get the sun’s rays to kill off some of the virus that may have got on you, taking care to sanitize your hands, as well, of course.

Spending time in the sun has other benefits, as well. It helps your body produce vitamin D, which is very important for your immune system. Time spent outdoors in the sun can also help to lift your mood, another important aspect of maintaining a healthy immune system.

And who doesn’t like a little fun in the sun?

6. Change the air of your lair

Because COVID-19 thrives in tiny droplets suspended in the air, experts also recommend attention be put on sanitizing the air.

One way of doing this and drastically reducing the concentration of the virus in the air is to ventilate indoor spaces.

Where good mechanical ventilation is not available, windows should be opened to let potentially contaminated air out and the clean air in.

And common sense would dictate that it’s a good idea to avoid closed indoor spaces that are poorly ventilated and filled with people.

7. Avoid smoking — no joking

Certain people are more susceptible to getting infected by COVID-19 or suffer more severe symptoms once they are infected. And smokers are among those at higher risk.

So if you haven’t kicked the habit, yet, maybe it’s finally time.

If this is an area that’s been challenging for you in the past, consider seeing your health professional about getting help.

8. Exercise or jeopardize…

An important part of maintaining a healthy immune system is staying active.

At a very minimum, we would do well to avoid a sedentary lifestyle during this COVID-19 era.

But take that up a notch and incorporate regular exercise in your lifestyle, even just 20–30 minutes a day, and you vastly reduce the risk of losing the fight against COVID-19, as well as gain a whole host of other benefits that health experts have always touted, such as better heart health, and more recently, better brain health.

So exercise or jeopardize your best chances of defeating COVID-19.

9. Socialize safely, think spatially

Mental health care is an important component of immune system care, because when we’re not taking care of our emotional needs, or we’re constantly living with poorly-managed stress and mental health issues, we’re less likely to take care of our physical needs, which gets translated into poor immune system care.

One of our deepest and most profound emotional needs as human beings is connection with other human beings.

And the isolation that COVID-19 has made commonplace is depriving many of us of this fundamental human need.

Therefore, it’s important to make the distinction between physical distancing and social distancing. The two terms should not be considered interchangeable. Physical distancing has to do with maintaining a physical distance or barrier between you and another person, so that you don’t share (unknowingly) COVID-19-infected air droplets with one another. Social distancing is distancing yourself on a social level with another person.

Social distancing is not the aim, while physical distancing is.

“Necessity is the mother of invention.”

Get creative and develop alternative ways of connecting with people without getting too physically close. For example, use video chatting platforms creatively to connect with people in meaningful ways.

Are you someone who regularly wishes people happy birthday on social media? Instead, why not arrange a video chat to wish them a happy birthday in face time, and use the opportunity to catch up a little, as well?

Or don’t eat alone. Schedule video chats over mealtimes so that you can have your meals in the company of a friend or two.

Play online games together. Watch a movie together while talking about it on video chat. Use identical boardgame sets to play a board game over video chat. ‘Party’ in multiples of two: Get together physically with one other friend, and then meet 3 or 4 more similar groups over video chat. With a bit of creative thinking, the possibilities are endless.

So don’t neglect socializing. We all need to spend quality time with our friends and family.

10. Develop a yearning for learning

Finally, it’s important to develop a yearning for learning about COVID-19.

Knowledge is power.

Know your enemy and you know yourself.

Learn how COVID-19 spreads and thrives, what the symptoms are that you need to be aware of in case you or someone close to you becomes infected, and about the role that super spreaders have in spreading the disease. Here’s a list of trustworthy resources:

· Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) advice for the public (WHO)

· COVID-19 (CDC)

· Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) (Canada.ca)

· Coronavirus (COVID‑19) (Gov.uk)

· Social Distancing Isn’t Enough to Prevent Infection — How to Detect COVID-19 Super-Spreaders

No one wants to catch COVID-19

No one with any common sense, anyway.

If you’re concerned enough to know that you need to protect yourself, you’re one of the smart ones.

And you’re probably already doing some or even most of the suggestions on this list. Big kudos to you!

But do all 10, or even start with one that you hadn’t thought of before, and really up the ante on keeping COVID-19 at bay.

Keep learning and find other ways to protect yourself, as well.

Eventually, hopefully sooner rather than later, the world will get the COVID-19 numbers under control, and the threat will become greatly reduced, even with new strains emerging.

Then, we’ll all be able to breathe and move about with greater ease and freedom.

And you will have the super satisfaction of knowing you did your due diligence and kept yourself safe through the pandemic at its worst.

You defeated COVID-19.