A NURSE WRITES: Introducing the ‘Swiss Cheese’ Strategy For Disease Prevention — Lots of Holes, Until You Stack ‘Em Up! | Lost Coast Outpost
The holidays are upon us! This time of
year is when I like to take stock of my personal and professional
life. I’m not ready to make new commitments (save it for January)
but looking back helps me see the big picture.
One
of the things I have been looking back on is this series of columns
on COVID. When I began, it seemed like a lot of the information
coming into our community was very authoritative, and also absolutely
relentless. I wanted to speak to people where they were at, without
judgment, and also infrequently. Too much information isn’t much
better than none at all.
This
is what makes infection messaging so challenging. As we have learned,
there is no silver bullet for diseases like COVID: You don’t get to
do one thing right and then you’re good. There are always ways to
make yourself and those around you safer, or more at risk.
So
when I give you a huge list of steps you can take, don’t look at it
as an impossible test you’ll never pass. Think of it as a buffet. You
can have everything, but you don’t have to. Start with me at the
salad bar, or skip right to the ice cream. Any steps you take for
your health is to be celebrated.
Let’s
recap what we’ve talked about over the last several months:
In
August we covered things like COVID-fatigue, masking (KF 94s and
KN95s), COVID testing, vaccination and – very important!
— ventilation. Remember the Corsi-Rosenthal box? All of
these mitigations are still valid.
In
September, topics were lightened protective guidelines, checking the
county levels on the CDC website, Corsi-Rosenthal boxes for
ventilation (yes, again), staying home if you are sick, getting
tested, mask-wearing if you are sick and long COVID.
October
brought the news that the pandemic was “over,” and reminders
about exercise — how are you doing with that? I walked for a
minute, but now I’m back to simply encouraging others. But I refuse
to get too down on myself for it, as I have been…
..