What is a coronavirus?
Coronaviruses are a category of respira-
tory viruses that infect a number of
species, including humans. They come
in various strains or strengths—some as
harmless as the common cold, a couple
that can cause pneumonia and then
some that are real killers. In 2003, SARS
was the first coronavirus outbreak that
caused a serious public health threat.
Then there was MERS (Middle East
Respiratory Syndrome) in 2012.
Some people in Canada have been
wearing face masks to protect them-
selves from COVID-19. Is that a
smart precaution?
I don’t think it’s necessary—unless
there’s an uncontrolled spread of the
virus in your community. Also, for any
kind of virus, face masks don’t provide
any protection that you can’t get from
a scarf and making sure people around
you sneeze into their sleeves.
What about using hand sanitizer
when outbreaks occur?
Hand sanitizer is good if you don’t have
access to a sink, but otherwise, soap and
water is the best option.
A lot of people don’t wash their
hands for long enough. We say you
should scrub for about 20 seconds, or
the length of singing “Happy Birthday”
twice. I’ve seen reports that as few as
five per cent of people properly wash
their hands, even though it’ll get rid of
the germs that make us sick.
As opposed to the germs that don’t?
Pathogens make up only about one-
tenth of one per cent of the millions of
microbes (a.k.a. germs) that humans
are exposed to. The rest are benign or
actually helpful.How are germs good for us?
Our skin has a barrier made up of various
microbes that protect us from irritation
and infection. That’s not something
you want to disrupt with excessive
cleaning. There are also gut bacteria
that help with our digestion.Overall, exposure to an array of
germs is beneficial for developing a
strong immune system and good gen-
eral health. An allergy, for instance, is
the body mistaking a friendly germ for
a dangerous one because it’s not famil-
iar with it. More kids have allergies
today than ever because they’re raised
in urban environments where there
isn’t a lot of germ diversity.So parents should let their kids spend
more time rolling around in the dirt?
Sure! I always say let your kids eat dirt
unless it’s in the dog park.ONLY FIVE PER CENT
OF US PROPERLY WASH
OUR HANDS AFTER
USING THE TOILET.rd.ca 15