Try to survive, and don't catch a cold

It never starts with a bang. A few cases on the news, somewhere far away. Then a few more. Then one in your city. By the time everyone takes it seriously, it's already everywhere. The trick is to take it seriously a little earlier than everyone else.

Stock up, calmly

The shelves empty fast once panic kicks in, and toilet paper is apparently the first thing to go. Don't be the person fighting over the last pack. Build a small supply early: food that keeps, water, basic medicine, soap and masks.

💡Tip: aim for at least two weeks of supplies. That covers a full quarantine without having to step outside while you're sick.

Keep your distance

The virus doesn't move on its own, people move it. Every handshake, every crowded room, every unwashed hand is a free ride. Stay home when you can, keep your distance when you can't, and wash your hands like you mean it.

💡Tip: if someone in your house gets sick, give them their own room and their own towel. One sick person is a problem. The whole household sick is a crisis.

Protect your head

Weeks of isolation and a constant stream of bad news wear you down more than you'd think. Keep a routine, stay in touch with people, even if it's through a screen, and don't believe every rumor that lands in your group chat.

Keep it clean

Your hands touch everything: door handles, phones, your face. Wash them often, with soap, for at least twenty seconds. Wear a face mask when you're in crowded places or around someone who's sick, and always carry a small bottle of hand sanitizer for when there's no sink nearby.

💡Tip: keep a few spare masks and a bottle of hand gel in your bag or car. The one time you need them is always the one time you left them at home.

Myths that get people killed

Be ready before it happens

Pandemics don't start with a bang, which gives you time. Use it before everyone else does.

• Enough of your regular medicine, plus fever reducers and a thermometer.
• Find out now how to reach your doctor by phone or online, so you don't have to sit in a full waiting room.
• Keep your vaccinations up to date.
• Make a list of what everyone at home needs every day, like medicine, baby food or pet food, so nothing runs out.
• Know who will check on older family members or neighbours who live alone.
• Make sure you can work or study from home: a laptop, a charger and an internet connection.
• Save the website of your national health authority, so you know where to find reliable news.

Real story: the cook who didn't know she was sick

In the early 1900s, Mary Mallon worked as a cook for rich families in New York. Wherever she worked, people got typhoid fever. Investigators eventually traced the outbreaks back to her. The strange part: Mary herself felt completely healthy.

She was one of the first known healthy carriers: she didn't get sick, but she did spread the disease, probably through the food she made. She refused to believe it and kept working as a cook. She was linked to dozens of infections and at least three deaths, and spent the last decades of her life in quarantine on an island in New York. History remembers her as "Typhoid Mary".

💡Tip: were you told you might have been exposed? Stay home, even if you feel perfectly fine. Mary felt fine too.

Did you know?

The Spanish flu of 1918 infected around a third of the world's population. Somewhere between 20 and 50 million people died, more than in the entire First World War. Cities that closed schools and banned gatherings early had far fewer deaths than cities that waited.