The COVID-19 pandemic has created challenges in our everyday lives. As we each do our part to help slow the spread of coronavirus disease, we look to the helpers all around us and wonder if we, too, could do more.
Here are some ways you and your family can help.
Protect Yourself and Others From Coronavirus
Because COVID-19 has never been seen in humans before, there are currently no vaccines to prevent or drugs to treat COVID-19 approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. The best way to prevent illness is to avoid being exposed (or exposing others) to this virus.
How? Stay home as much as possible. Avoid close contact (about 6 feet) with people, even if they don’t appear sick. Some people without symptoms may be able to spread the coronavirus.
Learn how to protect yourself and others from coronavirus.
Donate Blood
Another way to make a difference is to donate blood if you are able. The U.S. blood supply is facing unprecedented challenges and shortages. Donor centers have experienced a dramatic reduction in donations because of social distancing and canceled blood drives.
Maintaining an adequate blood supply is vital to public health. Blood donors help patients of all ages and kinds – accident and burn victims, heart surgery and organ transplant patients, and those battling cancer and other life-threatening conditions. The American Red Cross estimates that every two seconds, someone in the U.S. needs blood.
If you are healthy and feel well, contact a local donation center to make an appointment. Donation centers are taking steps to make sure donation is safe.
- AABB: www.aabb.orgExternal Link Disclaimer; 1-301-907-6977
- America’s Blood Centers: www.americasblood.org External Link Disclaimer
- American Red Cross: www.redcrossblood.orgExternal Link Disclaimer; 1-800-RED CROSS (1-800-733-2767)
- Armed Services Blood Program: www.militaryblood.dod.milExternal Link Disclaimer; 1-703-681-8024
If You Have Fully Recovered From COVID-19, Donate Plasma
People who have fully recovered from COVID-19 are encouraged to consider donating plasma, which could potentially help save the lives of other COVID-19 patients. COVID-19 patients develop antibodies (proteins that might help fight the infection) in the blood.
COVID-19 convalescent plasma must only be collected from recovered individuals if they are eligible to donate blood. COVID-19 convalescent plasma can be collected from individuals who have had a prior diagnosis of COVID-19, which is documented by a laboratory test, and who meet other qualifications. For example, they must have fully recovered from COVID-19, with complete resolution of symptoms for at least 28 days before donating convalescent plasma, or complete resolutions of symptoms at least 14 days prior to donation plus negative results for COVID-19 either from one or more nasal swab specimens or by a specific diagnostic blood test.
Further investigation is still necessary to determine if convalescent plasma is safe and effective as a treatment for COVID-19, and whether it might shorten the duration of illness, reduce morbidity, or prevent death associated with COVID-19.
The FDA has launched a webpage to guide recovered COVID-19 patients to local blood or plasma collection centers to discuss their eligibility and potentially schedule an appointment to donate.
Report Fraudulent Coronavirus Tests, Vaccines, and Treatments
Some people and companies are marketing products with fraudulent COVID-19 diagnostic, prevention, and treatment claims. Fraudulent COVID-19 products can come in many varieties, including dietary supplements and other foods, as well as products claiming to be tests, drugs, other medical devices, or vaccines. Remember, currently there are no vaccines to prevent or medicines to treat COVID-19 approved by the FDA.
The sale of fraudulent COVID-19 products is a threat to the public health. Consumers and health care professionals can help by reporting suspected fraud to the FDA’s Health Fraud Program or the Office of Criminal Investigations. You can also email FDA-COVID-19-Fraudulent-Products@fda.hhs.gov.
If you have a question about a treatment or test being sold online, talk to your health care provider or doctor first. If you have a question about a medication, call your pharmacist or the FDA. The FDA’s Division of Drug Information (DDI) will answer almost any drug question. DDI pharmacists are available by email, druginfo@fda.hhs.gov, and by phone, 1-855-543-DRUG (3784) and 301-796-3400.
Save Personal Protective Equipment for Those on the Front Lines
Don’t buy or stock up on personal protective equipment such as surgical masks and N95 respirators. Surgical masks and N95s should be reserved for use by health care workers, first responders, and other frontline workers whose jobs put them at much greater risk of being infected with COVID-19.
CDC recommends wearing cloth face coverings – not surgical masks or N95 respirators – in public when other social distancing measures are difficult to maintain (for example, at grocery stores and pharmacies) especially in areas of significant community-based transmission of the coronavirus. Wearing cloth face coverings in public may help slow the spread of the virus and help keep people who may have the virus and do not know it from transmitting it to others.
Help Reduce Panic-Buying of Food
As one of the few businesses open nationwide, grocery stores are inundated, and food demand has skyrocketed. Despite this unprecedented spike in demand, there is no need to buy more food than your family can use in the next week or two.
There are no nationwide shortages of food, although inventory of certain foods at your local grocery might be temporarily low before stores can restock, in part because people’s buying choices have changed in some ways during the pandemic. The FDA and federal partners have increased efforts to ensure that Americans can continue to buy food safely and without panic. Watch our 90-second videoExternal Link Disclaimer to learn more about what the FDA is doing about food availability during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The U.S. food supply is safe, both for people and for animals. There is no evidence the coronavirus is transmitted through food, food containers, or food packaging. As always, it’s important to follow the 4 key steps of food safety: wash, separate, cook, and chill.
So, buy one or two weeks’ worth of groceries, and leave some food for others. Shelves will be replenished.
Clean Your Hands Often
Last, but not least, you can protect yourself and your family from coronavirus with simple hygiene: washing your hands.
Wash your hands regularly with soap and water for 20 seconds – especially after going to the bathroom, before eating, and after coughing, sneezing, or blowing your nose. Learn how to wash your hands to prevent the spread of coronavirus and other illnesses.
If soap and water are not available, CDC recommends that consumers use alcohol-based hand sanitizers containing at least 60% alcohol. Learn more about using hand sanitizer safely here.
For more information on the coronavirus visit:
Wearing shoes that are easy to wash helps. I have outdoor and indoor one piece rubber footwear.
Washed every day. NYC sidewalks are awash in all kinds of germs.
Meanwhile in other news that is being ignored because of this dem-panic
Apparently Democrat operative Jussie Smollett had his pooper packed by his fake attacker.
Jussie Smollett and ‘attacker’ allegedly visited upscale Chicago bathhouse
https://pagesix.com/2020/04/14/jussie-smollett-allegedly-knew-attacker-from-upscale-chicago-bathhouse/
Hey, just because (((Smollett))) lied about being attacked by Trump supporters, doesn’t mean his anus wasn’t thrashed by his Congoid friends in a gay bathhouse.
That rosebud was real.
Eight inch long pinksock!
“The COVID-19 pandemic has created challenges in our everyday lives.”
Nope. That’s just the global elite fucks who want to control you and everything else and want to see how far they can push the sheep into giving up their freedoms for “security” as their insatiable greed moves the world forward to ecological destruction.
You should check out the instagram page of Bill Gates and see how so many people are throwing hate on him.
Well done Frank. Please all those who have RECOVERED from covid-19 – Donate Plasma!!!
https://www.discovermagazine.com/health/virtual-event-tomorrow-want-to-join-the-fight-against-covid-19-help
Virtual Event Tomorrow! Want to Join the Fight Against COVID-19? Help Scientists With Their Coronavirus Research From Your Home
Discover and SciStarter are hosting a live, online Citizen Science Month event looking at three COVID-19 research projects that need your help.
On Wednesday, April 15, at 3 p.m. EDT, Discover and SciStarter will host a live streamed event on Zoom and Facebook to introduce you to three scientists leading COVID-19 citizen science projects that need your help. The event is part of Citizen Science Month.
In the discussion, you’ll learn how to identify behaviors that influence risk; crowdsource the COVID-19 pandemic in real time; and play an online game to fold and design proteins for scientific research.
Anna Funk, associate editor of Discover magazine, will moderate the discussion. We’ll provide step-by-step guides so we can get involved in real time, online, together. You can create your SciStarter account (free) and get familiar with the three COVID-19 projects before the event by visiting SciStarter.org/COVID-19.
You’ll also find the event live at Discover’s Facebook page, facebook.com/DiscoverMag.
When are stimulus checks being sent out? Here’s how to make sure you get yours
Published: April 14, 2020 at 9:45 p.m. ET
By Andrew Keshner
https://www.marketwatch.com/story/when-are-stimulus-checks-being-sent-out-how-to-keep-tabs-on-yours-2020-04-10
The money will appear automatically in your bank account if the IRS has your account information on file from previous years’ tax returns. If the IRS doesn’t already have your account information, or if you didn’t file taxes in 2018 or 2019, you can submit your information on this website:
https://www.irs.gov/coronavirus/non-filers-enter-payment-info-here?mod=article_inline
https://www.fox23.com/news/local/coronavirus-tulsa-woman-shows-dramatic-improvement-after-convalescent-plasma-injection/P42OCC7IJJCYLG3RQBBOAH3CHY/
By: FOX23.com News Staff
Updated: April 14, 2020 – 8:51 PM
TULSA, Okla. — Doctors at Ascension St. John administered the first convalescent plasma injection to a COVID-19 patient in Tulsa.
FOX23 learned the patient is a woman and received the injection over the weekend.
After doctors did the procedure, they said the woman’s condition dramatically improved and she was moved off the ventilator on Monday.
Convalescent Plasma. Works almost every time. Ask a nurse.