#BTColumn – On Election Day protect yourself

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed by the author(s) do not represent the official position of Barbados TODAY.

by Dr. Colin Alert

Election Day is just a few days away, even as the COVID pandemic rages around us, and if you are not going to “Stan home”, then there are a number of precautions everyone should take.

General
The need to maintain ‘social distancing’ means that you may have to be in long lines for long periods on Election Day, plan to protect yourself from the sun (or even rain).
Portable chairs or stools can provide comfort to those who are intolerant of standing for long periods, for whatever reason.

It is not a bad idea to take a water bottle with you. While the electoral stations are likely to have sanitation stations, you may consider travelling with your own hand sanitiser.

Vaccinations
The newest mutation of the COVID-19 virus, the omicron variant, is the most contagious variant yet, coming closely on the heels of the delta variant, the deadliest variant to date.

While no vaccine is 100 per cent effective against

(1) contracting COVID, and being able to spread the virus to someone else;

(2) preventing serious illness, and

(3) preventing hospitalisation (and not just home isolation) and death, our current vaccines are particularly helpful in reducing all these areas, in particular preventing serious illness and death.

And after over 9.5 billion vaccines have been administered (and studied) worldwide, COVID vaccines are proving to be among the safest and most effective vaccines to date.

The best response we currently have against the omicron variant: the usual Ws” wear your mask, wash your hands, watch your distance, and vaccinate. Because some people who completed the initial series of vaccinations (2 doses of the AstraZeneca, Sinopharm or Pfizer vaccine or 1 dose of the Johnson and Johnson vaccine), some scientific evidence strongly suggest that a booster dose (of any vaccine) lowers the possibility of “breakthrough infections”, infections occurring in persons previously fully vaccinated.

Some of these “breakthrough infections” are causing death, and some are associated with long term complications, the so-called long haul syndrome.

In you want to thrive and survive, then a booster vaccine is the way to go, as soon as it is available to you.

Avoid persons who are unvaccinated, if possible, as they are more likely to spread disease, even to vaccinated persons.

Masks The medical advice about masks has changed over the course of the pandemic: initially, when masks and other personal protective equipment (PPE) were in short supply, the ‘man in the street’ was discouraged from using the ‘medical’ masks, reserving them for health care professionals.

Social media also had their say on masks, posting a vast variety of opinions – some called conspiracy theories – that ran counter to mainstream medical opinion.

“Real men don’t wear mask” stated one prominent politician and this opinion was followed by millions of his followers, even in the face of over a thousand daily deaths from COVID at one time.

“Masks reduce the oxygen supply to your brain”, implying that this compromised normal brain functioning, was another comment, heard even on a local call-in program this week: if correct, this suggests that the history of medicine will show that doctors chose to ‘numb their brains’ before all surgical procedures.

Many persons choose not to wear a mask, or to wear it ‘loosely’, even in the face of a deadly respiratory illness that could be slowed by wearing a proper mask. Some claimed that the mask made them uncomfortable.

Some things that are more uncomfortable than wearing a mask include gasping for air, coughing up blood, permanent lung damage, needing a ventilator to breath for you, having a close relative is dying alone with no family/friends around, and dying yourself.

These are all scenarios associated with contracting COVID, that some of the 33 000 persons here [about 1 in 10 persons to date] may have experienced or are experiencing.

So, while the mask may not be the most comfortable piece of clothing you ever wore, it does save lives. Further, to protect against omicron, double masking is recommended, especially in indoor and/or crowded places.

One of these masks should be a 3-ply surgical mask, and this can be covered over by a cloth mask.

Cloth masks – encouraged earlier in the pandemic – can stop large droplets, while more effective masks can also filter smaller aerosols or particles potentially laden with airborne virus. Cloth masks alone have very limited ability in slowing the transmission of omicron.

Al alternative to the surgical mask/cloth mask combination is the N95 or KN95 mask. By having a better fit and certain materials – such as polypropylene fibres – acting as both mechanical and electrostatic barriers, these masks better prevent tiny particles from getting into your nose or mouth and must be fitted to your face to function properly.

Like the surgical mask, these masks come with a ‘nose-clip’ that should be used to anchor the mask snugly over the nose.

For everyone around strangers, and having no interest in contracting COVID, make sure you wear a N95, KN95 or surgical mask/cloth mask combination, and ensure that it fits snugly over your nose.

While Election Day may ‘kill’ the political careers of some of us, we do not wish that COVID actually kills any of us. Life will go on, after the election: vote for staying as happy and as healthy as you can be.

Dr. Colin V. Alert, MB BS, DM. is a family physician and associate UWI family medicine lecturer.