Protecting Yourself During A Pandemic : Step By Step Self-Care Guide: Step By Step Self-Care Guide

By Susan Zeppieri

This guide targets people who want to know everything about the pandemic, what they need to do to protect themselves against it, as well as what additional vitamins and supplements they need to take after they have their vaccinations to remain healthy. We will explain in detail what a pandemic is, the signs and symptoms of COVID, what to do if you or a loved one has tested positive for the virus, and what you can do on a daily basis to keep safe.
We will explore various supplements and vitamins you can take to boost your immune system, answer questions on the positive and negative effects of the different vaccine options, and exactly what it means once you have gone for your jab. We explore vaccine side effects and which vitamins you can add to your daily diet to decrease symptoms related to severe side effects after inoculation. Our goal is to debunk any myths around vaccines, to offer you the true facts of the Coronavirus, and to steer you in the right direction when it comes to protecting yourself and your family against this illness.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu.com
• Release date: Dec 29, 2021
• ISBN: 9781471739149

Book preview

Introduction

COVID-19 has spread around the globe like a wildfire. In a few months the whole world has realized just how unprepared we are to deal with a sickness of this magnitude.

Lacking the tools to stop and treat COVID has interrupted our health systems, halted all economies, and threatened to wipe out susceptible populations overnight. It is not just the variety of strains that are killing people, the rising resistance of the COVID-19 microbes to antibiotics is a battle on its own that we need to fight and requires our urgent attention.

Proper nutrition and additional supplements will increase our immunity against COVID and decrease the risk and severity of infections. Sick, malnourished people are at a high risk of getting numerous infectious and viral related illnesses. On the other hand, continuing or severe infections cause the deterioration of the nutritional status of affected individuals.

This is why it is of the utmost importance for everyone to pay attention to your diet as well as your nutritional status during the continuing COVID-19 pandemic.

Chapter 1: What is a Pandemic?

If you haven’t heard about COVID or the Coronavirus, you must have been living under a rock! Fears of COVID-19, the disease caused by the Coronavirus SARS-CoV-2, is on everyone’s lips. We know it is a pandemic. But what’s the difference between calling an illness a pandemic, an epidemic, or an outbreak? When does a disease develop into a public health threat and when must we start to worry?

Outbreaks, Epidemics, and Pandemics

Here are the need-to-know fundamentals to classify a serious illness as a pandemic and what you can do to prepare and protect yourself, your family, and your community against it.

An Outbreak

An outbreak is an abrupt increase in the amount of people who have a certain illness in a specific area or an extended geographical area. It may affect a number of countries at once and can last for a few days, weeks, or even years. Most healthcare professionals expect certain outbreaks annually like the common cold or influenza.

An Epidemic

An epidemic arises as soon as a contagious disease spreads quickly between individuals unexpectedly and affects a much larger area as an outbreak.

A Pandemic

A pandemic is a sudden global outbreak of an infectious disease that spreads rapidly across countries and affects a large number of individuals. A pandemic is caused by an unknown disease or a new strain of virus that has not spread among people for an extended period of time. Individuals generally have little to no resistance against it. The illness spreads fast from person to person on a global level. A pandemic can quickly lead to social disturbance, financial damage, and 0verall destitution. Influenza has been one of the most overwhelming pandemics recorded in world history and has caused many severe outbreaks.

A pandemic is rated by the number of infected people, how severe the symptoms of the illness are, how it affects susceptible groups, and how effective prevention efforts have been.

The History of COVID-19

The first case of the official human Coronavirus, better known as COVID-19,  was initially reported in Wuhan, China, in 2019, and quickly spread worldwide in a couple of months. According to the CDC, by September 2021, approximately two years after COVID-19 was first acknowledged, there were over 200 million confirmed cases and more than 4.6 million people deceased due to the illness.

The initial cases of COVID-19 were documented at the end of December 2019, when the World Health Organization (WHO) learned that pneumonia was recognized in Wuhan, China, with no known origin. In the beginning of January 2020, the Chinese authorities acknowledged a different Coronavirus, briefly labeled 2019-nCoV, as the root of this new virus.

The WHO stated that the fast-spreading COVID-19 outbreak was elevated to a Public Health Emergency of International Concern just a few weeks into January 2020, but it wasn’t until the subsequent month, in February, that the new Coronavirus was officially labeled as COVID-19. Less than two weeks later the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported that the first individual passed away of COVID-19 in the country.

In the initial months of COVID-19, global health establishments, governments, and the general public were uncertain of how the virus would spread and how it would influence our ordinary lives. By mid-March, COVID-19 was officially labeled a pandemic by the WHO. COVID-19 swiftly transformed from being a massive problem only limited to China, to a worldwide health emergency almost instantly.

By now, the general health threat in Wuhan was diffused after the implementation of preliminary procedures to contain the disease. Initially the epidemic seemed to taper down and China was recording only a few new cases per day, compared to the thousands of documented cases previously, yet in Europe, cases were growing quickly day by day.

In mid-March, the WHO stated that Europe has developed into the epicenter of the contagion, while the US declared a state of emergency at the same time.

Severe procedures were put in place to fight the disease on a global level and the world started to hear about social distancing and flight restrictions for the first time.

The correct handwashing procedures were demonstrated and masks were becoming a common defense against the spread of COVID, nevertheless, these measures only decelerated the impact of the disease, researchers realized that the only way to win the war against the pandemic was going to be the development of a vaccine.

It was becoming evident that the initial restrictions were not sufficient to halt the spread of COVID-19. Rapidly, limitations in most counties became stricter, with the UK implementing a stay-at-home regulation in March. Numerous European countries applied their own national lockdown rules at the same time, but by the beginning of April, the global COVID-19 infection rate reached the million mark.

The mass spread of the pandemic really came to light when international administrations realized that regardless of their measurements to stop the disease, they only delayed the spread of the virus. The world needed a vaccine and it needed one fast.

How Long Can the Virus Live on Outside Surfaces?

The WHO stressed the use of masks as additional indications started to