What do you need to do to stay safe from the coronavirus? At a time when people are weighing the risk of everyday actions — from dining out, to riding transportation, to holding business meetings or having friends over for drinks — most of them look to experts for guidance.
So its important to know not just what experts say, but what they actually do. POLITICO reached out to five European epidemiologists to ask how they personally have changed their behavior because of the pandemic.
We do not have meetings of more than a handful of people
— Eva Schernhammer, head of the department for epidemiology, University of Vienna
Schernhammer, who in recent weeks has given several interviews on the coronavirus pandemic in Austrian media, is keeping a strict routine. She isnt receiving any guests at her home, and she limits nonessential activities outside to “mostly sports like running, hiking and swimming.” She doesnt meet friends for dinner or drinks at bars or restaurants, be it indoors or outdoors, and shes not planning on air travel this summer.
“Besides grocery stores and my department [at work], I avoid the indoors as much as possible,” Schernhammer said. She also tries to avoid using public transportation as much as she can. The one means of transport she feels safe using is her car.
As for protective measures at work — where her employer, a hospital, requested her to come back after six weeks of working from home, she now routinely wears masks whenever leaving her desk to go to the hallway.
“We separated office spaces within the same office if the desks are closer than 2 meters from each other, using plexiglass as shields,” Schernhammer said. “We do not have meetings or gatherings of more than a handful of people: Larger meetings, even if onsite, are held via Webex.”
I decided not to travel for some time
— Fernando Rodríguez Artalejo, director of the doctoral program in epidemiology and public health, Universidad Autonoma de Madrid
After the big wave of infections that hit Madrid subsided, Rodríguez Artalejos life has returned largely to how it was before, with two big caveats. “I wear a mask, and I wash my hands very frequently. Basically everywhere,” explained the Spanish professor, who advised Madrids municipal government during the coronavirus outbreak.
Hes mainly working from home, with a trip to his university once a week — although he does now avoid public transport. While hes at his office, he has a face mask on constantly.
Hes also started receiving guests again. “My children, who are already adults, visit me with their girlfriends,” he said. “I also host my aunt, who is a lot older and lives in another house.” He has four close friends who he entertains — two who already have had COVID-19, and another two who havent.
This is a personal choice, he explained: “In Spain, theres no limit to having 20 or 30 people in your house. The problem is that we know that some of the many outbreaks that are occurring resulted precisely from big family gatherings.”
As for travel, which he used to do frequently, “Ive suspended many international trips I had planned. Right now, I decided not to travel for some time.”
The reason isnt that he thinks airplanes are unsafe, but that “the situation isnt stable.” He explains: “I cant exclude that the place Im going to will be locked down.”
I wash my hands a lot more now
— Marina Pollán, director of National Center for Epidemiology, Health Institute Carlos III
Pollán, who caught the virus, believes that experts like herself should set an “exemplary” example. But she also admits that sometimes, when shes on the street and no one is around, she takes her mask off.
As head of Spains National Center for Epidemiology, Pollán has been tasked with organizing the monitoring and analysis of epidemiological data related to the pandemic. She has also coordinated a wide-scale study of the prevalence of COVID-19 antibodies in the Spanish population.
“I wash my hands a lot more now,” she said. “I did before of course, but now Im careful whenever I return home from having been walking on the street, or when I go to the city center.”
House visits have resumed in small groups. When she meets her friends now, they sit outside. At family gatherings, everyone tries to maintain social distancing, but elbow greetings are something that “I just dont like!”
The new-found awareness of the importance of hand hygiene is positive, she said. “The habit of touching our faces less, of washing our hands more, of being aware that our hands can be vehicles for germs” is good to remember in general. But she worries about the long-term effects of always wearing masks for the elderly, who already tended to be more socially isolated compared with the rest of the population.
“It makes me sad to think that we have to always live with masks, because it makes social relations more difficult,” she said. “Its hard to know if people are smiling.”
My mask protects them, and their mask protects me
— Charmaine Gauci, Maltas superintendent of public health
Every time she visits her parents or in-laws, Gauci says they try to stay in the garden as much as possible. If they go inside, everyone puts masks on, she said. “At the initial stage, it was hard for them to understand that my mask protects them and their mask protects me,” she said about her parents.
Gauci has become the face of the Maltese authorities response to the pandemic, logging in more than 70 televised public briefings, which were held daily at the height of the outbreak on the island.
Maltas top doctor said she first dined out since the beginning of the pandemic at the beginning of July. “It was a nice experience because we chose an area of the restaurant which is on the outside,” she said. The waiters and other restaurant staff were wearing masks or visors.
“What Im very careful about — and we also advocated — [is] that yRead More – Source
What do you need to do to stay safe from the coronavirus? At a time when people are weighing the risk of everyday actions — from dining out, to riding transportation, to holding business meetings or having friends over for drinks — most of them look to experts for guidance.
So its important to know not just what experts say, but what they actually do. POLITICO reached out to five European epidemiologists to ask how they personally have changed their behavior because of the pandemic.
We do not have meetings of more than a handful of people
— Eva Schernhammer, head of the department for epidemiology, University of Vienna
Schernhammer, who in recent weeks has given several interviews on the coronavirus pandemic in Austrian media, is keeping a strict routine. She isnt receiving any guests at her home, and she limits nonessential activities outside to “mostly sports like running, hiking and swimming.” She doesnt meet friends for dinner or drinks at bars or restaurants, be it indoors or outdoors, and shes not planning on air travel this summer.
“Besides grocery stores and my department [at work], I avoid the indoors as much as possible,” Schernhammer said. She also tries to avoid using public transportation as much as she can. The one means of transport she feels safe using is her car.
As for protective measures at work — where her employer, a hospital, requested her to come back after six weeks of working from home, she now routinely wears masks whenever leaving her desk to go to the hallway.
“We separated office spaces within the same office if the desks are closer than 2 meters from each other, using plexiglass as shields,” Schernhammer said. “We do not have meetings or gatherings of more than a handful of people: Larger meetings, even if onsite, are held via Webex.”
I decided not to travel for some time
— Fernando Rodríguez Artalejo, director of the doctoral program in epidemiology and public health, Universidad Autonoma de Madrid
After the big wave of infections that hit Madrid subsided, Rodríguez Artalejos life has returned largely to how it was before, with two big caveats. “I wear a mask, and I wash my hands very frequently. Basically everywhere,” explained the Spanish professor, who advised Madrids municipal government during the coronavirus outbreak.
Hes mainly working from home, with a trip to his university once a week — although he does now avoid public transport. While hes at his office, he has a face mask on constantly.
Hes also started receiving guests again. “My children, who are already adults, visit me with their girlfriends,” he said. “I also host my aunt, who is a lot older and lives in another house.” He has four close friends who he entertains — two who already have had COVID-19, and another two who havent.
This is a personal choice, he explained: “In Spain, theres no limit to having 20 or 30 people in your house. The problem is that we know that some of the many outbreaks that are occurring resulted precisely from big family gatherings.”
As for travel, which he used to do frequently, “Ive suspended many international trips I had planned. Right now, I decided not to travel for some time.”
The reason isnt that he thinks airplanes are unsafe, but that “the situation isnt stable.” He explains: “I cant exclude that the place Im going to will be locked down.”
I wash my hands a lot more now
— Marina Pollán, director of National Center for Epidemiology, Health Institute Carlos III
Pollán, who caught the virus, believes that experts like herself should set an “exemplary” example. But she also admits that sometimes, when shes on the street and no one is around, she takes her mask off.
As head of Spains National Center for Epidemiology, Pollán has been tasked with organizing the monitoring and analysis of epidemiological data related to the pandemic. She has also coordinated a wide-scale study of the prevalence of COVID-19 antibodies in the Spanish population.
“I wash my hands a lot more now,” she said. “I did before of course, but now Im careful whenever I return home from having been walking on the street, or when I go to the city center.”
House visits have resumed in small groups. When she meets her friends now, they sit outside. At family gatherings, everyone tries to maintain social distancing, but elbow greetings are something that “I just dont like!”
The new-found awareness of the importance of hand hygiene is positive, she said. “The habit of touching our faces less, of washing our hands more, of being aware that our hands can be vehicles for germs” is good to remember in general. But she worries about the long-term effects of always wearing masks for the elderly, who already tended to be more socially isolated compared with the rest of the population.
“It makes me sad to think that we have to always live with masks, because it makes social relations more difficult,” she said. “Its hard to know if people are smiling.”
My mask protects them, and their mask protects me
— Charmaine Gauci, Maltas superintendent of public health
Every time she visits her parents or in-laws, Gauci says they try to stay in the garden as much as possible. If they go inside, everyone puts masks on, she said. “At the initial stage, it was hard for them to understand that my mask protects them and their mask protects me,” she said about her parents.
Gauci has become the face of the Maltese authorities response to the pandemic, logging in more than 70 televised public briefings, which were held daily at the height of the outbreak on the island.
Maltas top doctor said she first dined out since the beginning of the pandemic at the beginning of July. “It was a nice experience because we chose an area of the restaurant which is on the outside,” she said. The waiters and other restaurant staff were wearing masks or visors.
“What Im very careful about — and we also advocated — [is] that yRead More – Source
