The post discusses COVID-19, summarizing key information from the CDC and other health agencies. It outlines symptoms, preventive measures like hand washing, and emphasizes community efforts to combat the virus. It also addresses managing anxiety and the importance of seeking support during these challenging times, highlighting the disease’s significant impact on daily life.
update February 11, 2025
The CDC website has moved all articles about COVID-19, SARS-CoV-2, into its archives. This post may have CDC links that are no longer active, or have moved. You may be directed to the new link at the CDC website.
I’ve been posting about COVID-19 regularly on Facebook and Instagram and I hope you’ve been following. If so, this post will be a re-cap; if not, I hope you learn something. Most of this information comes from the CDC, Centers for Control and Prevention, and some from state, local, and private health agencies.
You may want to proceed to this updated review of COVID-19.
In this post, I’m offering a graphic review of COVID-19 and what we can still do to prevent infections IN ADDITION TO getting vaccinated. Until we achieve wide spread immunity through vaccination the risk of infection and death are still present and still just as real.
how can i keep myself and my family from being infected with covid-19?
Until we have a vaccine, the single most important prevention is frequent hand washing.
how is covid-19 different from colds, flu, and allergies?
What else can we do to stay safe from covid-19?
should we be afraid of covid-19?
managing covid-19 anxiety
exploring the HEART of health by understanding COVID-19
Thanks for reviewing this outline of this new disease that we are all learning about and that has changed our lives so drastically. I appreciate the CDC and other sources for making these easy to understand graphics available.
COVID-19 is a new, serious, contagious health risk that concerns the medical community as well as government, schools, business, religious groups, charities, and private citizens. These communities have banded together quickly to develop plans to manage this threat effectively.
Just like other challenges we face, it can be daunting and sometimes scary; but sometimes that’s when we accomplish the greatest good in the long run.
At times you may feel stressed, anxious, have trouble sleeping, or feel afraid. Seek the support of family, friends, clergy, and health professionals.
And if you find your anxiety becoming overwhelming, don’t hesitate to contact someone you trust for help. No one of us has to go through alone.
This post discusses insights on COVID-19 from experienced physicians, including Dr. Laura Jordhen from China, who reports improvements and gradual normalization in the country’s situation. Dr. Francis Collins outlines social distancing measures as essential to curbing the spread, while Dr. Gerard Clancy suggests activities to alleviate stress during isolation.
update February 11, 2025
The CDC website has moved all articles about COVID-19, SARS-CoV-2, into its archives. This post may have CDC links that are no longer active, or have moved. You may be directed to the new link at the CDC website.
In this post I’m sharing some of what I’ve been reading about the COVID-19 epidemic. These experienced, knowledgeable, compassionate physicians share insights to help colleagues as well as patients. I thank them for taking the time to share in the midst of this crisis.
a perspective from China
Since 2016, Laura Jordhen, M.D. has been practicing in Shanghai’s United Family Xincheng Hospital and was chair of infection control for the hospital before becoming chief of its family medicine department in December. In an interview for the AAFP she said,
“(In China now) Things are slowly getting back to normal. Our ear, nose and throat clinic is reopening. Dental is reopening. The number of new confirmed cases is low.
People in Wuhan are still basically isolated in their homes, but throughout the rest of China schools are starting to open up. With still a few cases reported every several days in Shanghai, schools have still not reopened. It’s still very strict social isolation.
Massage, hair cut — any kind of business that involved physical contact or having people close together — was shut down around Chinese New Year, which started Jan 25.”
Read more of Dr. Jordhen’s insights on China’s handling of COVID-19 at
On the NIH Director’s blog, Dr. Francis Collins explains social distancing.
“What exactly does social distancing mean?
Well, for starters, it is recommended that people stay at home as much as possible, going out only for critical needs like groceries and medicines, or to exercise and enjoy the outdoors in wide open spaces.
Other recommendations include avoiding gatherings of more than 10 people, no handshakes, regular handwashing, and, when encountering someone outside of your immediate household, trying to remain at least 6 feet apart.
These may sound like extreme measures. But the new study by NIH-funded researchers, published in the journal Science, documents why social distancing may be our best hope to slow the spread of COVID-19. ” Read more at
provided as a service from the University of Oklahoma Medical Center
In A nine-step plan to deal with COVID-19 stress, psychiatrist Dr. Gerard Clancy offers this advice.
“7. Can-do list. Under the current guidelines there are many things we can’t do. With activities out in the community curtailed, this can leave down time. This has allowed us to create a list of what we can do.
This has included reading books, reorganizing the house and watching classic and new movies. It has also included my own version of Master Chef, where I need to cook dinner with what we have left in the pantry. It has been a challenge but also fun.”
I’ve heard some families say this is allowing them to eat dinner together more than usual.
“Every single day for the past six months, I have recommended the flu shot for my patients, and every day a good chunk decline. When I ask why, most can’t articulate an answer. They offer only an inchoate distaste for vaccines, fomented by the oddly contagious anti-vaccine movement.
I remind them that their grandparents would have given their eyeteeth for the vaccines they blithely shrug off. I point out the entirely unnecessary resurgence of measles resulting from a falloff in vaccination rates.”
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