Dr. David Price, a critical care pulmonologist at Weill Cornell Medical Center in New York City, recently held a Zoom call with family and friends (BTW – Zoom is having quite the moment, right?). During the call he laid out some simple steps they could immediately enact that would protect them and their families from Covid-19.

The best part of the video is how calm and reassuring this doctor is. There is no doubt he is in the thick of this pandemic and it’s got to be incredibly difficult – at one point he gets choked up near the beginning of the call –  but his practical advice is empowering and helpful during a time when everyone is understandably scared.

The video is almost 60 minutes long so if you don’t want to watch the whole thing, here’s a quick recap of the most salient points.

1. Become a Hand Nazi

Know where your hands are and keep them clean at all times. When you go out, walk around with hand sanitizer. You can touch a door, or an elevator button, or a grocery cart but then use the sanitizer.

“We know that if you keep your hands clean, you won’t get this. Out of an abundance of caution, we make sure that everything we touch, we clean our hands.” 

2. Stop Touching Your Face

This is a hard one. It’s normal and completely human to touch your face without realizing it. If your nose itches, you scratch it. At this point, you’d have to live under a rock not to know that touching your face is how the coronavirus spreads, and yet we CAN’T STOP. So what can we do? Wear a mask. A simple, cloth mask. Not to protect you from getting Covid-19, because it’s not a disease that you are most likely getting from the air, but to help you stop touching your face.

According to Price these two steps will prevent 99% of us from ever getting this disease. 

3. You Don’t Need a Medical Mask

Medical health professionals need these masks but the general public has zero need for such masks. Price explains that even in the hospital he only wears an N95 when he is going to be in direct contact with a Covid-19 patient and there is a chance of him coming into contact with an aerosol spray.

Plain cloth masks are perfectly fine for non-medical people and mostly for the reason described above, so you don’t touch your face.

4. Stay Away From People (at least 6′)

Distance yourself. Price notes that living in NYC right now is fascinating because no one will go within 3-6′ feet of each other. He continues, “When you go to the pharmacy, you don’t have to wait directly in line with someone, you can stand a few feet back.”

He goes on to encourage everyone to keep their social circle small and stay home as much as possible but to also remember,

“You don’t have to be scared of the outside world. You don’t have to be scared of your neighbor.” 

Follow these four steps and take them very seriously and we’ll all get through this together.

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