What Can I Do In A Pandemic?
The current COVID-19 pandemic has caused suffering for many people around the world. For many of us, this is the first time something like this has happened. Several people may be frustrated at their own helplessness at not being able to do something to help. However, there are several things we can do to help our community. No matter how small the helping hand, we are all in this together.
One big way for us to help is by offering to do tasks such as getting groceries to certain neighbors who need the help. Our elderly or immunocompromised neighbors are one of the members of the community that are most impacted by the pandemic. Many fear going outside because they might get infected. As healthier individuals with less risk of having a severe case of infection, we can offer to get them groceries and drop them off at their door so they don’t have to leave the safety of their own homes. Some apartment complexes have online groups organized to help the more at risk members of the community, so if you don’t personally know people who need help, this could be a good place to start.
If you are good with your hands and believe you can produce quality results, you might want to look into crafting face mask headbands. These are helpful for many healthcare workers whose ears hurt from having to wear masks for 12 hours straight. There are many YouTube videos on how to make them, one of which is linked below. Otherwise, donating personal protective equipment (PPE) is another way to help. You may have accidentally bought an excess amount of PPE or you may simply want to donate to help our healthcare workers. Several hospitals are running out of PPE such as masks and gloves.
We can also support local businesses by buying food from restaurants using delivery services such as Seamless or Postmate. This way, we can avoid going outside and risk spreading infection, while still eating the food from the same people, and supporting their business financially in this way. An added tip is to request that the food be delivered to the door and not to you, without requiring both parties to interact, further preventing the spread of infection.
The most effective way we can help, however, is to stay home. This may sound paradoxical, but self-isolation is the single most effective way we can help in the midst of a pandemic. By not leaving the safety of our homes, we are preventing the spread of infection, first by not getting infected, and second by not getting others infected. For many healthy people, the infection may not appear severe, and some may continue walking around outside on nonessential trips, unknowingly spreading infection to others, possibly those who may be immunocompromised. Because symptoms may not appear for everyone, it would be best for everyone to stay home as much as possible, regardless of whether they feel well or not. This is the only way to prevent the virus from spreading.
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