FaceBook Source
A friend forwarded to me a five minute audio from FaceBook that gave practical advice on minimizing your risk of catching covid19. I can't seem to lift it from there to here, and so far I am not able to track the original source, but the narrator had a faintly British accent. She said it was translated from the original Spanish.
The tape begins by saying that Chinese pathologists did autopsies on covid19 victims and determined that the immediate cause of death was often when sputum in the airways solidified. This meant a major treatment/prevention goal should be to liquify pulmonary secretions. Later she also implied that though the oropharynx would be colonized first, symptoms did not appear until the virus slipped into the trachea past the larynx. It made physiological sense to me.
The narrator listed ten steps of oral hygiene we coul all do. Here they are:
1. Drink lots of hot liquids such as tea or coffee or lemon or soup broth. Take a sip of warm water every 20 minutes.
2. Gargle with antiseptic and warm water every day. She suggested vinegar. (I've been using over-the-counter stuff from the local grocery store).
3. The virus persists in hair and clothes. Don't wear your "outdoor clothes" into the house; take them off at the door, don't sit anywhere, and go straight to a bath or shower. Wash your clothes every day or at least hang them out in sunlight. Change into "indoor clothes". (Like many nurses, this has been my own routine for decades).
4. Wash metallic surfaces carefully since virus can live on these surfaces for up to nine days. Avoid touching handrails and doorknobs. Clean you own doorknobs at home.
5. Don't smoke
6. Wash hands frequently (?every twenty minutes?) for twentyseconds with the kind of soap that forms a lather.
7 eat fruits and vegetables.
8 animals don't spread this, only person-to-person will spread it.
9. Avoid the flu (get the flu shot)
10. The virus can live in the throat for a period of time before it gets into the bronchial passages. The goal is to wash it into the stomach where stomach acid will neutralize it. So, If you feel a sore throat, attack it immediately using steps above.
Florence Nightingale would categorize all these things as good old-fashioned hygiene (Miss Flo was a great believer in cleanliness). All these things are filed away under "what nurses know."
None of the ideas above contradicts any advice from the CDC and I don't think we need a clinical trial to prove that they will not harm anybody who takes it to this level. We already know you should not touch you eyes or mouth. What this adds is a few ways to decrease whatever viral load you have if it still gets in your mouth.
For my colleagues actively caring for covid19 victims, be advised that none of these measures is a substitute for PPE.
If anybody else heard the original audio and has a link, please add it below.