Welcome back Street Survivors
During the past decade of writing this column for the Simpsonville Sentinel (Thank you Bob and Connie Gecy!), we’ve discussed many issues related to personal and home defense. We often focus on exterior man-made threats or natural disasters like hurricanes, tornadoes and earthquakes. Today’s latest threat to our families though, is the Coronavirus a.k.a. COVID-19, sweeping across China and various parts of the world. Despite the infections here in the U.S.A., there have been no deaths in our country so far. Quarantine efforts for at least 2 weeks has really helped in the limitation of transmission to others in our communities.
What exactly is this new virus and how does it affect human beings ? Coronavirus is one of many viruses that cause diseases in mammals and birds. In humans and chickens, the symptoms are similar, and cause respiratory tract infections. In other species like cows and pigs they cause diarrhea which can itself be deadly. The common cold is a simple version of a respiratory infection, but these rarer forms like MERS, SARS and COVID-19 are often lethal, especially in undeveloped countries with limited medical resources, and unsanitary living conditions.
At the moment, there isn’t a suitable vaccine or antiviral drug available to prevent or treat coronavirus infections in human beings, although doctors are working on a new med called Remdesivir that has great promise for treatment.
So, what can we do as Street Survivors to limit our chance of infection by any of these viruses ? The very same tactics that help in battling the common cold, will work very well in avoiding these more deadly viruses. Simple things like hand washing for at least 30 seconds and limiting the amount of times we touch our face during the day, will help in a major way. Most of the masks that people wear to self-protect are only helpful in reducing the face touching spread of the disease, as the mask itself doesn’t stop the viral particles from reaching the lungs. More expensive masks are available but need to be fitted for your specific face and will not work as well with beards and other facial hair.
As you can see, physical threats come in many different shapes and sizes, some even too small to see with the naked eye, like these deadly viruses. As always, we educate ourselves about the threats and take decisive action in training and preparing for a solution. Thank you for your readership, and please continue to email your private and public questions to StreeTactics@gmail.com.
Rick ‘Pirate Hunter’ Grover strongly believes we’re all in this together, and the more we learn and train, the better we’ll be prepared for any eventuality. This makes all of us part of an amazing neighborhood team of American Patriots. God Bless America !
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StreeTactics@gmail.com ■
