Enhance Your Health
Health Tip of the Week: Mitigation
Concerning the coronavirus pandemic, it must be said that Southern New Jersey has done pretty well with mitigating the spread of CoVid-19.
Atlantic County has a total population of 263,670 people. Of the 263,670 people that live in Atlantic County, as of this writing, 2265 people contracted the coronavirus. Sadly, 159 people passed away of the disease.
Cape May County had a total of 571 cases and sadly, 48 deaths. Each week our numbers of new cases and hospitalizations decrease.
That being said, we are now starting the phases of opening up business and returning to a resemblance of normal living. As I have mentioned in previous articles, no matter how you personally feel about the virus and what it has done to our lives and economy, it must be recognized that this virus had a very high spread factor.
All of these numbers did not occur in a 9 month period like this year’s flu virus, but in only 10 short weeks. One person gave to three people and three became nine and nine became twenty seven. It was a fast spreader.
And for the most part the virus had a target audience of elderly patients and people with pre-existing health conditions like diabetes, heart disease, autoimmune conditions, asthma and obesity. The severity degree of the virus was worse in people who did not exercise, had low levels of vitamin D, cancer patients and smokers.
That being said the residents of Atlantic County must be commended for their mitigation efforts. To mitigate is defined as to make safer.
The local population, especially the target audiences mentioned above, were made safer from the viral droplet spread in our air by your efforts to stay at home, wear masks to protect others and the frequent washing of your hands to prevent the spread of germs to yourself.
Also, if you paid attention to your immune system health, eating whole foods, taking supplements and exercising as well as chiropractic care, you gave yourself a definite edge in virus protection.
What is in store for us next in the opening up of our local society? This is what you can expect the next few weeks.
Expect the continuation of wearing masks in stores and where large groups of people congregate. Whether you believe this virus is as bad as it once was or it’s no big deal, the mask is for others, not you.
The mask will make a percentage of our population feel safe and it will definitely prevent the spread of viral droplets from asymptomatic people who have the virus. So, don’t get upset wearing the mask, just do it when you have to. It’s a public health issue. It’s not an issue of personal beliefs. We will still be social distancing in markets, stores, churches and gyms when all of those places open.
As far as hanging out with friends and family, if you and your family have not been sick and your friends are in the same boat, it will be ok to start hanging out again. If you are nervous, you can hang back 6 feet. If no one is coughing, sneezing or loud spit talking in your face you will be fine, LOL.
Remember to wash your hands. Virus protection has always been about washing hands, not touching your face with unclean hands, covering your mouth when coughing or sneezing and most importantly having a strong immune system.
If you are doing all of those things, you are mitigating the virus and things will be ok.
As far as my office goes, things have been getting back to normal. I am amazed how many patients have been in my office and how we have been able to direct traffic by having no one in our waiting room and doing our own part mitigating this virus. My office is safe and it's busy. So things are starting to get back to normal.