Coming Together While Being Apart

Masking: Orange County has made it simpler to answer this question with a public health order that requires masks or cloth face coverings for everyone over 2 years of age when they’re in public, in a store, restaurant or office, or anywhere else that they can’t keep a distance from people outside their family or household. OC Press Conference 5/28

Research is showing that a large proportion of the spread of COVID-19 happens through airborne transmission of aerosols produced by asymptomatic individuals during breathing and speaking. This article explains how and why the CDC, doctors and healthcare professionals believe in masking.

The good news is that recent studies have shown that homemade cloth masks can be as effective in blocking the virus as surgical masks. There's one big caveat, though. They have to fit to your face.

There is misinformation about masking and circulation of a WHO recommendation that has media in a tizzy. The recommendation specifically says “medical mask” should not be used by the general public and was directed towards countries with minimal PPE (ie not enough masks for the general public).

San Francisco is now enforcing masks within 30 feet of anyone that does not live in your household.

Can your mask be dangerous to you? Read about safe use here.

OCHCA Reported Numbers

Coming Together While Being Apart, “Unmasking” the Science

Meeting Up : There is no doubt that our children’s mental health declines each and every day they are apart from their friends and loved ones. For the present time I suspect COVID19 numbers are the lowest they will be through the Summer andFall. As things open, risk of exposures increase and we may once again need to stay away from Grandparents and others. I recommend using the CDC and OCHCA safe practices as well informed decision making. When asked, I tell parents to let their children have arranged play dates with these tips:

Plan for outdoor visits whenever that is an option.
Use visual markers 10 ft apart for visits with people over 65 years of age. (10 ft becomes 6 ft quickly so I say 10)
Mask children over the age of 2 unless you are able to keep more than 10 feet apart.
Pick a select subset of friends and family to visit. You should be able to trace their contacts to no more than 10 people and understand that if they have housekeepers, nannies, cleaners in their home, they are being exposed to these larger circles of potential carriers. Make sure you ask who they have seen in the past week (and be clear you want to know who is helping in the home).
Ask about cough and any other illness. If “Jane had a stomach bug 3 days ago but is fine now,” reschedule 10 days from the first day she had symptoms as well as 3 days from the last day she had symptos.
Keep in mind that those around you may not yet have the same information. Provide this email or other fact based material to help them understand why you want them to wear masks or keep 10 feet apart.

Guidance - Preparedness and Planning:

Become familiar with the OC's plans for Pools, Daycare, Restaurants and more. I was dismayed to see a local restaurant filled with patrons over the age of 65 not masking and sitting less than 6 feet from one another. Stay informed by clicking here.

Lastly- We ask that only one parent come up from the car for any well visit. We do not want people in the waiting room and can only have one person in the exam room to limit our exposures.

Potential Exposures:

Please keep in mind that testing negative for COVID19 tells very very little about whether one really had the infection. You should practice the CDC’s safe return to work practices if you w ere with someone sick and want to visit anyone outside your home. You should be vigilant if you were with anyone who contracts a fever or related symptoms within 3 days of being in contact. Feel free to call me help make a safe plan to visit family and friends. The probability of a false negative result decreases from 100% on Day 1 of being infected to 67% on Day 4. The false negative rate decreased to 20% on Day 8 (three days after a person begins experiencing symptoms). They also found that on the day a person started experiencing actual symptoms of illness, the average false negative rate was 38%. In addition, the false negative rate began to increase again from 21% on Day 9 to 66% on Day 21.

Here are the guidelines to follow:

https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/hcp/return-to-work.html

Mortality Rates are being updated:

"The current best estimates for the infection fatality risk are between 0.5% and 1%," says Caitlin Rivers, an epidemiologist at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security.

That's in contrast with death rates of 5% or more based on calculations that included only people who got sick enough to be diagnosed with tests that detect the presence of virus in a person's body.”

Annie Bosko's

tribute to health care workers

I was honored to be a small part of this incredibly moving video.

CHOC'S FAQ PAGE CLICK HERE

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