At risk in America

How can help the most vulnerable people stay safe?

Have you ever been scared to simply leave your house? Have you ever had to completely rely on others to determine if you were going to be safe? This is how life is in America for many people. Most Americans know that the majority of people who are dying from the coronavirus are considered “at risk”. This means they have an underlying condition that makes the chances of Covid-19 being deadly increase largely. This may be scary but there are many ways you can help the people who need it the most.

Do you know who is considered at risk?

There are the people that everyone knows are at risk such as the elderly. However, did you know having even something like asthma puts you at risk for the coronavirus. While age may play a factor in healthy people it does not when people have pre existing conditions. For example, no matter their age if someone has a kidney disease, diabetes, heart disease, an autoimmune disease, or even if they suffer from obesity they are at risk for severe sickness from Covid-19.

This graph shows the rate of death of people with pre existing conditions compared to the death of people who did not.

As you can see by this the death rate of people with no preexisting conditions is substantially lower than people who did have those conditions.

What can you do to help?

While the coronavirus can be easily spread it can also be easily prevented from spreading at the same time. Simple things such as frequently washing and sanitizing your hands, wearing your mask, social distancing, and following the mandated protocol for the area you live in.

Wearing your mask will be no help to anyone if you do not know how to wear it properly. You need to be sure it is covering your mouth and your nose. When out in public you need to be careful to not pull it down at any point.

If you are wearing a paper surgical mask you must know what way to have it facing. The mask is more effective depending on what what side you keep against your face. You should always have the darker side of the mask facing outward leaving the lighter side to be against your face.

Sanitizing your hands is very important in the process of keeping the virus from spreading. Keeping hand sanitizer in your car, your back pack, or purse will make it easily accessible to use any time you go somewhere. You should use it after you have touched any surface that’s outside of your home. This includes doors, shopping carts, or even getting items off of shelfs.

Social distancing is an effortless thing to do to keep yourself and others safe. The general guideline is that you need to stay six feet away from the people around you. Evidently though, the further you stay away from people the better off you will be.

Many stores and public places will have markers to tell you where to stand in order to be safe. It is unchallenging to abide by these rules in order to help yourself and the people who are around you.

Share the word!

When you leaver your house you know nothing about the strangers you come in contact with everyday. These people may be fighting a fight you know nothing about. Whether you know it or not you probably have someone in your life who is more susceptible to Covid-19. Out of respect for these at risk individuals who must work or do their shopping just to live you should be as safe as you can be. One person doing their part to be as safe as possible could save someone else's life.

I hope that this helps you better understand how important it is to stay safe during this hard time.

This is another story that gives great information about the spread of the virus and what you can do to help.

https://medium.com/@tomaspueyo/coronavirus-act-today-or-people-will-die-f4d3d9cd99ca