High schools are natural hives of infectious disease. Unsanitary surfaces and stuffy classrooms, when combined with all the lovely new diseases everyone’s bringing back from winter break, create a perfect storm for infection. Nationwide, while influenza levels are currently low in Wisconsin, they’re quite high in other parts of the country, which is a sure indicator that an uptick in cases is coming. COVID-19 is also on the rise in the Midwest, with cases expected to peak in the first or second week of January. So if you want to stay healthy this month, here’s some basic tips to keep in mind!
Wear a mask. If you have any kind of illness—yes, even if it’s just a light cold or think it’s just allergies—you should be wearing one of these! And if you or a loved one is immunocompromised, you should probably be wearing one in any crowded public space regardless of your current health. Just because these things went out of style doesn’t mean we should stop utilizing them! Masks are important tools of public health, and in many other countries, it’s considered basic manners to wear one while sick.
Wash your hands. This one should be obvious, but still bears mentioning! While we’re past the peak of norovirus, that pesky illness can linger on surfaces for as long as two weeks. Washing your hands before you eat is the best way to avoid contracting it. For norovirus in particular, hand sanitizer isn’t nearly as effective. However, it’s definitely better than nothing! With that being said:
Carry hand sanitizer. As previously mentioned, sanitizer can’t kill everything. If you have the option, washing your hands with soap and water is always optimal. But in school, that often involves obtaining a pass and walking to the closest bathroom—something you might not want to do every time you have a little snack in class. Carrying some hand sanitizer in your bag or making use of the bottles in classrooms can help cut back risk of contamination with less work. If you’re purchasing your own, CDC guidelines state that sanitizers must be 60% to 95% alcohol to be effective at killing germs.
Get your booster shots. If you haven’t already, getting a booster vaccination for flu and COVID-19 is a great idea. While the best time to get a booster was in September, so immunity could build before respiratory season kicked in, the second best time is right now! It’s also perfectly safe and effective to get booster shots for multiple diseases at once, so loading up on as many as possible is actually optimal. You can schedule flu and COVID boosters at local pharmacies like Walgreens and CVS. Some stores, such as Walmart and Kroger, also offer vaccinations. While you might experience some side effects, they are guaranteed to be better than what would happen if you actually caught the disease. Getting vaccinated ASAP is in your best interest to prevent illness.
If you keep these four things in mind, you can help preserve both the health of the VPM community and yourself! Doing a little can go a lot farther than you think, so let’s work together to make this a healthy January!
