What can I do about the Wuhan coronavirus? A guide for Canadians of what’s helpful, and what’s not

The emergence of 2019-nCoV has left Canadians worried about another SARS-like disease, but public-health officials say the risk here is low. Here’s a compendium of The Globe’s coverage of what the experts recommend for the public.

Relax, but don’t lecture others about how they should relax

So far, all but a few cases of 2019-nCoV (also called the novel coronavirus, or the Wuhan virus) are in China’s Hubei province, where it originated last month. Outside China, there are only a handful of cases, mostly people who’ve just returned from affected cities. While the World Health Organization considers it an emergency within China and says a “vigilant” global response is needed to stop it from spreading, it hasn’t been officially designated an international emergency. Canada’s health agencies say the risk to Canadians is small. More people die of the flu each year in Canada than have died so far in China.

Being concerned and empathetic about this outbreak is appropriate – many Chinese people have died of the virus, and there’s a lot we still don’t know about how it works – but the experts say panic is not warranted or helpful. Then again, other experts say telling people not to panic isn’t helpful either, because they generally don’t in crisis situations.

Get your facts from official sources

Rumours and deliberate misinformation can run rampant during a disease outbreak, and they can be just as dangerous to public health. Stick to the facts as communicated by public-health agencies or medical professionals. Here are the coronavirus information portals for some of the key federal, provincial and international disease-control agencies. If you have any questions, try the Public Health Agency of Canada’s information line at 1-833-784-4397.

• World Health Organization
• Public Health Agency of Canada
• U.S. Centers for Disease Control
• Public Health Ontario
• B.C. Centre for Disease Control

When you see information about the coronavirus on social media, take the time to check whether it adds up with what these sources and credible medical experts are saying. Be wary of rumours or deliberate misinformation, and think twice before amplifying either.

Stay clean, but be realistic

Manufacturers of surgical and respirator masks have been doing brisk business in Canada since the Chinese outbreak began, but leading public-health officials question whether that spreads panic without effectively preventing disease. “We never recommend wearing a mask in public,” Ontario chief medical officer David Williams says, because many people don’t use them properly: Reaching underneath them to touch your face, for instance, spreads germs. N95 respirator masks (so named because they’re designed to stop 95 per cent of small particles from reaching the nose and mouth) only work if they fit properly, which they won’t for children or people with facial hair.

The single most effective way to stop the spread of disease is actually much more low-tech: Washing your hands often, and properly. Learn the World Health Organization's recommended method in the video below.

Travel smart

China’s government has restricted travel to the most-affected areas – an unprecedented lockdown affecting tens of millions in the city of Wuhan and its environs. Major airports around the world, including Toronto, Montreal, and Vancouver, are screening new arrivals. So it’s hard to reach a coronavirus hot zone even if you wanted to, and the chances of contracting the disease while travelling abroad are slim. For instance, when Canada discovered its first presumptive coronavirus cases – a couple who flew from Guangzhou to Toronto – health officials were only worried about passengers seated within a two-metre radius of them, and not others on the plane.

Still, good hygiene always helps to make travel safer for everyone. Here's what Ontario and B.C.'s public-health agencies advise travellers to do:

• Places to avoid: If you’re in a place known to have coronavirus cases, stay away from places where live animals are sold or slaughtered, like farms or animal markets.
• Wash your hands often: See the video above for pointers on how to do this effectively.
• Tell someone if you’re unwell while travelling: If you notice symptoms before or during your return to Canada, tell a flight attendant or border-service officer so they can assess whether you need medical attention.
• Tell someone if you’re unwell after travelling: If you notice symptoms once you’re home, check with your doctor or at a hospital and tell them about your travel history. That’s what the first Canadian patients did, and health officials say it was the right thing because they could be isolated quickly.

Know the symptoms

Those infected with the Wuhan virus have reported sore throats and coughing, fever and difficulty breathing. Only in extreme cases does pneumonia set in, and only health-care workers and patients with pre-existing medical conditions are most at risk of serious harm or death.

Most people who have reported symptoms and been screened for the coronavirus in Canada don’t have it. And if you do have it, chances are you’ll know soon enough to act in time: One initial study in the Lancet medical journal found the virus produced symptoms within four days of exposure, which is faster than the 10 days seen in SARS.

Stay healthy

As with other coronaviruses like the common cold, there’s no specific treatment for the Wuhan virus. Researchers have set an aggressive timetable to develop a vaccine, but vaccines are only a way to stop diseases from spreading, not to cure those who already have them. There are, however, steps you can take to recover more quickly from a coronavirus:

• Stay home from work or school
• Get lots of rest
• Drink lots of fluids
• Try a hot shower or humidifier to ease your sore throat

Be kind to one another

For Asian-Canadian communities, the new coronavirus has brought back bad memories of the racism they experienced during the 2003 SARS outbreak. That had serious consequences: In the 2004 report Yellow Peril Revisited, respondents cited SARS panic as factors in the loss of their jobs or rental housing, described bullying at work and school, and pointed to a steep loss in business at Chinese restaurants. And today, there’s an additional threat that didn’t exist in the era of SARS: Social media amplifying misinformation and abuse.

Needless to say, racism is not helpful in combatting public-health threats. That’s the message a Toronto-area school board tried to send in a note to parents this month, after a petition urged them to keep students home if their family had travelled to China recently. In her report on that, Globe reporter Dakshana Bascaramurty also heard from Kevin Huang, executive director of the Vancouver-based Hua Foundation for racial equity, who said Canadians should try to see outbreak through an empathetic and global lens:

Removing our Western exceptionalism and … humanizing [Chinese people] allows us to think about a more global concerted effort to try and contain this virus.