{"id":18172,"date":"2023-09-22T08:35:33","date_gmt":"2023-09-22T13:35:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=18172"},"modified":"2023-09-22T08:35:38","modified_gmt":"2023-09-22T13:35:38","slug":"5-things-covid-experts-personally-wont-do-right-now-in-this-latest-surge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=18172","title":{"rendered":"5 Things COVID Experts Personally Won&#8217;t Do Right Now In This Latest Surge"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">As a result of new coronavirus&nbsp;subvariants, we are experiencing a rise in COVID-19 infections in the U.S. right now.<br>\u201cCOVID is not gone nor will it disappear. We have to develop a truce with it,\u201d said Dr. William Schaffner, an infectious disease specialist at the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine. \u201cCurrently, infections, mostly mild, are increasing, and so are hospitalizations. A further increase is expected this winter. Thus, the best thing all of us can do is to take advantage of the new COVID booster.\u201d<br>But beyond&nbsp;getting the latest COVID-19 shot, what should we all be doing right now to handle the ever-present risk of catching the disease and passing it on to loved ones? After three years of living through different COVID-19 waves, it\u2019s totally normal to feel confused about how to manage your risk in this moment.<br>The rules have changed since March 2020, when there were no vaccines or treatments for COVID-19. \u201cWe\u2019re really in the age of personal responsibility. So individuals need to gauge their own relative risk for developing serious disease, and how risk-averse they are in terms of their activities,\u201d said Dr. Thomas Russo, chief of the infectious disease division at the University at Buffalo.<br>That\u2019s why HuffPost reached out to infectious disease experts about what&nbsp;they&nbsp;are personally doing to mitigate risk. Here\u2019s what they shared about the precautions they\u2019re taking \u2014 and what has and hasn\u2019t changed about their behavior right now:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ol class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li class=\"has-medium-font-size\">They won\u2019t skip wearing masks in crowded spaces.<br>Masks remain one of the most effective first barriers to combat the spread of COVID-19. Experts said they are wearing masks more in crowded spaces.<br>Jodie Guest, senior vice chair of the epidemiology department at Emory University\u2019s Rollins School of Public Health, said she masks while traveling due to the uptick in cases.<br>\u201cThere actually was a bit of time in the spring when I did get on an airplane and didn\u2019t wear a mask,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd then starting in the summer, I did start wearing them again.\u201d<br>Now, she said: \u201cI would not travel and be in an airport right now without having a mask on.\u201d<br>Guest said she keeps a mask in her car and backpack for situations that could suddenly become crowded. \u201cDo you take your umbrella with you if there\u2019s a forecast of bad weather? I use a mask the same sort of way,\u201d Guest said.<br>And if you\u2019re in a group at higher risk for severe disease, you should be more diligent about masking. Take it from Schaffner.<br>\u201cAs I have gray hair, I\u2019m in a higher-risk group just on the basis of age, so I\u2019ve been wearing my mask at indoor events continuously,\u201d Schaffner said. \u201cNow that COVID cases and hospitalizations are increasing, I\u2019ve been even more complete in being sure to mask up.\u201d<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li class=\"has-medium-font-size\">They won\u2019t go on vacations without taking precautions.<br>Russo cited his recent cruise vacation with his wife as an example of how he used masking to be more cautious.<br>He first assessed personal health risks. Russo said neither he nor his wife has significant underlying health disorders, are in their mid-60s, and have hybrid immunity from previous infections and vaccinations, so they do not consider themselves to be in the highest-risk category.<br>But they did mask more during the cruise to mitigate the risk of getting COVID-19.<br>\u201cThere\u2019s indoor entertainment every night in a theater \u2014 we wear masks. We go onto an elevator with a bunch of other people \u2014 we wear a mask,\u201d he said.<br>\u201cWe\u2019ve been cautious where we can be as best as possible, particularly in the fact that we\u2019re in a higher-risk setting being on our cruise ship,\u201d Russo said.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li class=\"has-medium-font-size\">They won\u2019t dine in restaurants without assessing risk first.<br>\u201cRestaurants and gyms are my sort of two highest-risk categories. I think we saw that early in the pandemic, and I don\u2019t think anything\u2019s changed, because both have the potential to be poorly ventilated spaces where people are often not wearing masks,\u201d Russo said.<br>That\u2019s why he called restaurants an \u201cAchilles heel\u201d of COVID-19 infection risk. Russo said that earlier in the summer when cases were much lower, he was eating out at restaurants, but he curtailed that activity before his vacation as he waited to get his COVID-19 booster shot.<br>If you have vulnerable people living with you, you might want to ask more questions at a restaurant.<br>\u201cMy wife and I are major caregivers for a family member who is receiving cancer chemotherapy, so we\u2019re careful about going out to restaurants,\u201d Schaffner said. \u201cWhen we do, we look for tables that are a bit more separate from the others, and my wife always asks the server whether they are vaccinated.\u201d<br>Guest said there are times she\u2019s comfortable going to restaurants and times, like when she is preparing to visit her parents, that she is not.<br>\u201cIt\u2019s this balance between going out and doing fun, social things that are really important for our mental health and connection, and then balancing it with, \u2018Who am I putting at risk? When am I personally at risk? What do I have available to me to make sure I know that I am not increasing other people\u2019s risk?\u2019\u201d Guest said.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li class=\"has-medium-font-size\">They won\u2019t assume they\u2019re COVID-free if the first test comes back negative but they have symptoms.<br>Testing remains an important part of experts\u2019 strategies. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines&nbsp;say&nbsp;to get tested at least five full days after your last exposure, even if you do not have symptoms.<br>\u201cSometimes it can take two or three days of symptoms for that test to come up positive. \u2026 Use that information to protect other people,\u201d said Dr. Lucy Wilson, a professor in the department of emergency health services at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. She advised working remotely or staying home if you\u2019re sick, because \u201cthat is helpful, not only for COVID, but for all communicable diseases, especially respiratory.\u201d<br>Part of being prepared right now means having at-home COVID-19 tests on hand so you don\u2019t need to rush to a pharmacy.<br>\u201cI make sure I have COVID-19 tests at home. I use them when I know I\u2019ve had an exposure or when I know I\u2019m going somewhere where people might be at increased risk,\u201d Guest said.<br>And if there are symptoms, these experts don\u2019t rely on just one test. \u201cIf I\u2019ve had an unknown exposure, and I feel sick, I want to test, and if it\u2019s negative, I want to retest 24 to 36 hours later,\u201d Guest said.<br>It\u2019s also helpful to&nbsp;look up the expiration dates on your at-home tests, Wilson said.<br>\u201cRealize they\u2019ve been extended so that you can go on that FDA site and look at the particular company and the particular test,\u201d she said. \u201cYou can even look up the lot numbers on there.\u201d<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li class=\"has-medium-font-size\">They won\u2019t forget how unpredictable COVID can be.<br>More than 40% of adults in the U.S. say they\u2019ve have had a COVID-19 infection,&nbsp;the CDC reports&nbsp;\u2015 and that can help against future risk. \u201cIt has been shown repeatedly now that prior infection and prior vaccination help prevent severity because of improved protective immunity,\u201d Wilson said.<br>But experts all advised trying not to get COVID-19, even if you are vaccinated and have already had it, because you don\u2019t know how your body will respond to repeated infections.<br>Dr. Cesar A. Arias, co-director of the Center for Infectious Diseases Research at Houston Methodist Research Institute in Texas, said that at this point, if you\u2019re a healthy individual, COVID-19 is unlikely to kill you if you get infected \u2014 but even if you\u2019re in that group, you should still avoid catching it.<br>\u201cThe infections with this virus are unpredictable,\u201d Arias said. \u201cLast time, for example, I had a very bad conjunctivitis eye condition that I did not expect. That\u2019s why I\u2019m cautious about trying to not get infected.\u201d<br>Among the precautions Arias said he takes are tracking&nbsp;wastewater data&nbsp;to see the level of COVID-19 spread in his community and masking while traveling when there is an uptick in cases. \u201cMy last two previous occasions when I had COVID were exactly after a trip,\u201d Arias said.<br>Guest also recommends paying attention to public health officials to know if COVID-19 cases are up. \u201cWe really need to rely on people who are interpreting that wastewater surveillance data to guide us to know what\u2019s going on in our area,\u201d she said.<br>Wilson recommended looking at the&nbsp;CDC chart&nbsp;with the percentages of total emergency department visits due to COVID-19, flu and RSV in your area. \u201cIt gives you a combined statistic on the graph as well as individual for those three, so you could just be aware of respiratory diseases in your community,\u201d she said.<br>And if you\u2019re noticing that more colleagues and friends are catching COVID-19, that\u2019s another sign to take more protective measures, too. \u201cIf you know a bunch of people that have it, then now\u2019s the time to put your mask on when you\u2019re in big, crowded situations,\u201d Guest said.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.huffpost.com\/entry\/covid-infectious-disease-masks_l_65049c03e4b045a142a4b442\">huffpost<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As a result of new coronavirus&nbsp;subvariants, we are experiencing a rise in COVID-19 infections in the U.S. right now.\u201cCOVID is not gone nor will it disappear. We have to develop a truce with it,\u201d said Dr. William Schaffner, an infectious disease specialist at the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine. \u201cCurrently, infections, mostly mild, are increasing, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":18173,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1154],"tags":[22646,22647,22648,22645],"class_list":["post-18172","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-trending","tag-5-things","tag-coronavirus-experts","tag-personal","tag-the-epidemic-surges"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18172","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=18172"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18172\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18174,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18172\/revisions\/18174"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/18173"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=18172"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=18172"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=18172"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}