Practical respiratory prevention for the millions: you may want to share this with your community after you’ve explained pandemics. Information and best-practices are an important part of the equation.
Foreword
This page’s intent is to link to knowledge, tools and teaching material for preventing airborne diseases like panflu. This is intended for as many people as possible: not just health care professionals, not just people who can afford N95 masks, not just people who can read pages on the internet. Much of it is intended for people who will help their communities “get it” and “make it happen”.
Each page lives on it’s own right, but together they form a package that could be quite powerful:
- Masks work better if people also know how to keep the distance and wash their hands.
- Practical knowledge works better if people also have a deep or simple explanation of the science behind it. (That way, if something practical doesn’t work or is not available, science helps you find a replacement.)
- All of that works better if we have the “motivational model”: why it makes sense to slow each local epidemic down, and why each person’s actions count.
These pages might help compile presentations, videos and other ways of “information transfer” (work was started here and now here). Even hip-hop songs if that works!
Science
How flu is transmitted. Link to “science” pages. A short summary here.
Why slowing things down makes sense
A pandemic wave doesn’t happen all at the same time. First a number of people fall ill, then more and more, then less and less until it finishes. A number of ill people are easier to deal with over 8 weeks, as compared to the same number over only 4 weeks. Put another way: more people are healthy at the same time, taking care of less simultaneously ill people.
Common sense advice
A practical summary, with links to those who say the same from a position of authority: CDC etc.
Simple masks
Link to the apropriate forum threads (1 and 2), wiki page, original article.
Why masks are not enough and can be dangerous if they give you a wrong sense of security, etc.
If two people wear masks it will likely be better than if only one of them wears a mask.
Creative advice
- Asynchronous transfer of goods
- Plastic window panes in emergency rooms (to at least protect non-health care personel)?
- Color flags or whistle language for communication
- Keep the air in your personal environment fresh and clean
- Essential oils shaken with distilled water in a spray bottle misted into the air
- Triple combination in rotation of
- Eucalyptus
- Thyme
- Tea Tree
- Rosemary
- Orange
- Grapefruit
- Peppermint
- Salt Lamps
- Beeswax Candles
- Essential oils shaken with distilled water in a spray bottle misted into the air
How to gently train others
Stuff for teachers and parents, even for teenagers who want to “herd cats” with their own kind.
How to foster community learning about these things
What are the acceptability issues in learning this type of stuff?
Stories
Like those Marburg-zone kids who invented shoe-shaking instead of hand-shaking.
Jokes
To make the whole learning thing more palatable. Careful not to hurt people’s feelings, and not to teach people to fear each other inapropriately (“protect kindness, keep panflu out of the picture if we can”). Better make jokes about animals etc. Do animals sneeze and cough like us? Do any of them cover their cough?