4 Myths About The Coronavirus That Can Interfere With Your Safety
Myth 2: It’s created by people
Believing in consipracy theories is nothing new. More than 50% of Americans believe that there’s some sort of conspiracy behind the virus. The truth is that we’re biological beings living in a world with other biological beings we can’t always control.
To think of this as a biological weapon that escaped control or as something that is manmade… I understand that as a psychological defense mechanism to be able to understand, contain, and ‘otherize’ this phenomenon. It makes the world easier to understand and gives false comfort and gives a worldview of us versus them. There are bats that live near humans and viruses that live inside bats. A person who gets infected 7,500 miles away from New York where I live — that person’s health and my health are directly affected with each other. This is the world we have to confront, and we have to accept the fact that we have a certain vulnerability living on such a small, crowded planet,” explains Dr. Hirsch.
Myth 3: There’s nothing we can do until a vaccine is invented
The vaccine for the coronavirus is probably 12-18 months away. It’s something to strive for, but no one knows if it’s going to definitely end the epidemic. Diagnosed patients are taking symptomatic therapy, which means taking medication for the coronavirus symptoms.
“I’m afraid this virus might not go away as quickly as I hope it would, and it’s important to have strategy,” says Dr. Hirsch.
Myth 4: It only affects the old
Although most people diagnosed with Coronavirus develop mild illness, The World Health Organization explains that 14% of the infected people develop more severe symptoms and need to be hospitalized. Unfortunately, 5% of the infected end up in an intensive care unit.
We already know that older people and people with a certain previous health condition are at greatest risk, but this doesn’t mean that young people can’t get the virus.
“A person who is young is less likely to have severe disease. But we are very disturbed to see a fair number of younger individuals below the age of 60 — in their 30s and 40s — and some of whom are deeply affected, critically ill, on respirators, and requiring extraordinary amounts of medical care and resources, who are getting this infection,” said Hirsch.
