Winter brings many things – shorter days, chilly nights, endless Mariah Carey Christmas crooning, and seemingly, every contagious disease imaginable. A combination of factors makes us more vulnerable to communicable diseases during this period. During colder months, our immune systems are weaker, we spend more time indoors in claustrophobic areas, and then there’s Christmas travels – airports and airplanes are hotbeds for disease. Worry not! There are many ways we can protect ourselves from this year’s main perpetrators – the Flu, RSV, and COVID-19.
Luckily, these diseases are transferred in the same way, so precautions are uniform. Plus, after surviving a pandemic, we should all be well-versed in best practices. Just in case, here’s a reminder of practices to follow to keep yourself safe.
Good Hygiene
You can never wash or sanitize your hands enough. Physicians urge us to walk with a bottle of personal sanitizer that can fit in a pocket or purse to clean our hands in a pinch. When possible, hands should be thoroughly washed – between the fingers, the back of the wrist, etc.
Ideally, if you’re outside your home you should never touch your face. COVID-19 might not live on surfaces, but many of the bacteria that spread the flu can live on surfaces for multiple days.
Open Windows
As mentioned above, one of the leading factors in why disease spreads more readily in the winter is the amount of time we spend in cramped, claustrophobic spaces. That could look like being pressed together in the subway or stuck late in an office. Where possible, keep windows open. According to the CDC, stale air gets cycled out along with virus particles.
Wear a Mask
2020’s biggest fashion statement is still in vogue – at least it really should be. Wear a face mask. Masks reduce the rate of viral transmission and prevent pre-symptomatic spread (i.e. spreading the disease before you know you’re infected). Doctors urge us to continue wearing N95 or KN95 masks.
Stay on top of vaccination
Stay on top of your COVID-19 boosters. As the name suggests, boosters give your immune system a kickstart, and are especially useful against variants. Doctors also recommend an annual flu shot to protect against the coming year’s strains of the disease. The CDC reports that the flu shot reduces the risk of catching the flu by up to 60 percent.
We’re firmly out of lockdown at this point, and it’s tempting to go back to business as usual. However, it’s important to remember that thousands of Americans are still testing positive for COVID-19 and every year thousands die from influenza. Keep safe out there.
