Rudy, Crae, Will

Layla C. 

There’s practically no one who hasn't heard of the coronavirus yet. This pandemic period can be a scary one, and even celebrities such as Tom Hanks and prestigious figures like Prince Albert ll of Monaco have been diagnosed with it. With fear comes a wave of false information, some spread deliberately. In order to understand what’s safe and what you should avoid, here are five scientifically disproven COVID-19 myths that you might’ve heard!

1. You’re more likely to catch the flu than coronavirus.

Have you heard some people say, “You should be more worried about the flu” lately? Well, scientists disagree! The term basic reproduction number, or R0, roughly explains how quickly a virus spreads during pandemics. R0 predicts how many other people each infected person can infect. Currently scientists believe the R0 for COV-12, a virus that leads to COVID-19, is around 2.2 people. When comparing this R0 to the R0 of the flu, which is found to be 1.3, it becomes apparent that people are actually more likely to catch COVID-19 than the flu!

2. Face masks can protect you from the virus.

While face masks can help an infected person limit the amount of people they infect by blocking their saliva from the atmosphere, those uninfected will not become immune by wearing a standard surgical mask. Standard surgical masks are not designed to prevent infectious particles from entering your system, and many people actually end up touching their face more to adjust the mask, which can spread the virus much quicker. One of the best things you can do to stay safe is wash your hands before you eat, after you have arrived home from a public place, and after handling dirty objects. 

3. Pets can spread the new coronavirus.

Don’t worry - your pet is not going to spread the virus to you! In fact, one dog in China caught the disease from its infected owner, meaning dogs might actually be vulnerable to catching COVID 19 from people, rather than vice versa. To stay safe, the Centers of Disease Control (CDC) recommends that people diagnosed with the disease have someone else take care of their pet, and that owners should always wash their hands after playing with their animal. 

4. The coronavirus is less deadly than the flu. 

Right now, the numbers are unfortunately suggesting that the coronavirus is actually more fatal than the flu! The yearly flu mortality rate is usually around 0.1% in the US alone, while the current mortality rate of COVID 19 is around 2.3%, according to a China CDC weekly report. It is not definitive that these statistics accurately show the mortality rate, as there could be other reasons to explain these numbers, but the general findings hint to the coronavirus having a higher death toll than the flu.

5. You can get coronavirus from Chinese establishments. 

Unfortunately, many xenophobic comments such as “the Chinese virus,” a racist and accusatory name for COVID 19 first said by US President Donald Trump, have struck fear in the Asian community. Many Chinese restaurants and shops report a drop in sales, a disturbing glimpse into an illogical fear of anything associated with China. Let’s try to support the establishments during this hard time and choose facts over fear!

Map of COVID-19’s spread across the globe

Niyanthri 

COVID-19,  or the 2019 novel coronavirus, is a  virus that has spread across the world to every continent except for Antarctica. It started in December 2019, and threw the world into turmoil due to the fact that no cure has yet been found for this particular strain. The common flu and cold are both variations of the coronavirus, from the same family as MERS (Middle Eastern Respiratory Syndrome) and COVID-19. In  China, the virus was classified as an outbreak. A few weeks later, when it started spreading to other areas in the region, it was considered an epidemic. So, why is it that  COVID-19 is now considered a pandemic?

Outbreaks, epidemics, and pandemics are all classifications that epidemiologists use to track the various stages of a disease. Outbreaks describe a spike of an illness in a specific area. For example, in a week, there might be two or three cases of the stomach flu in a school. However, this becomes an outbreak when suddenly, there are fifteen cases in the school. Outbreaks are usually on a relatively smaller scale, and they are typically confined to one area.

Epidemics are often described as outbreaks on a larger scale. An epidemic is when an outbreak in one area begins spreading to other places in the region. One example of this was the sudden outbreak of pneumonia cases in Wuhan that started spreading across the region to different countries in Southeast Asia. This was when scientists finally identified the mysterious illness we now know as COVID-19.

Technically speaking, pandemics occur when an epidemic starts spreading to new regions around the globe. Most epidemiologists agree that a pandemic is when local transmission starts in a region other than the area where the disease originated. Local transmission is when a case of the virus is clustered within a single household or multiple households in an area. When that starts happening, scientists are immediately aware that the disease is a pandemic, and previous efforts to prevent the spread have been unsuccessful. 

Over the course of its 71-year long existence, the World Health Organisation has declared only two pandemics - influenza in 1918 and influenza H1N1 in 2009. The classifications do not mean that any disease has become more dangerous or fatal. They are simply in place to track the spread of the disease. So while there is no need to panic over COVID-19’s status as a pandemic, it is important for individuals to take precautions to prevent the spread locally. COVID 19 might be classified as a pandemic, but there is still hope that the spread can be contained.