vaulting through the air either on a crowded street,

or on a beach, Florida.

Hi everyone, I'm Mark Keim, founder of DisasterDoc.

We help people all over the world

to better understand disasters

so they can protect themselves and others.

So today I'd like to help you

better understand the COVID-19 pandemic

and to share with you a few tips

for staying well during social distancing

and why this is so critical and important for all of us.

The first step to protecting ourselves

is understanding how COVID infection occurs.

This virus needs to float in a warm bath.

This warm bath is actually body fluid

and it needs this in order to survive.

So it's more likely to travel to you

as in the form of a droplet.

So people are said to be exposed

when they come in contact with the droplet.

So where do these droplets come from?

They come from inside infected people's lungs.

People come in contact with these droplets

either by direct exposure or indirect exposure.

But how do we stop the pandemic?

We need to stop people from touching

and breathing these droplets.

Tip number one, stay the F home.

Like the science shows avoiding exposure

is the single most effective way

to avoid infections and end this pandemic.

Even if you have no consideration

for your own health or that of others

the longer that you decide to socialize in public

the longer every one of us will have to shelter in place

and wait for this pandemic to end.

And if you do need to go out, avoid exposing yourself.

Some of us can't stay home, right?

Some of us have to work in public

and some of us even work directly with the public.

So what can we do to protect ourselves

and to protect our loved ones at home who are depending

upon us to not to bring home this infection.

We avoid those direct and indirect exposures

that I mentioned earlier.

For a moment I want you to close your eyes

and picture this six foot bubble around your body.

Your skin is clean, your breath,

even your cough is virus free.

Our bubbles change shape as we walk through the air

extending behind us a little bit as we move in the air.

And when our bubbles cross each other

we share the same air and the same droplets.

So when we share our six foot bubble with someone else

droplets from their cough are more likely

to reach our lungs unless we try to block it in some way.

Think of the world as being made up of three zones.

The hot zone, the warm zone, and the cold zone.

The cold zone is your home where everyone is healthy

and virus free.

It's less work to keep your bubble clean

and virus free when you're in your cold zone.

You don't have to worry so much about touching your family

or your face as long as everyone stays healthy.

The warm zone is the world outside your door.

The warm zone consists of those places

outside your home where it becomes more likely

that others may step inside or perhaps even cough into

your six-foot bubble.

This could be your workplace, it could be standing

in line at the grocery store, could be inside an elevator.

These are the places where we should protect our bubble.

These are the places we should also be respecting

and staying out of other people's bubbles.

So finally there's a hot zone.

The hot zone are environments

that by their very nature cause people to come in contact

with each other to share bubbles or to even touch.

These can occur at the cash register,

they can occur during a cough in the subway

or the elevator or bus or a taxi.

They can also occur when we inadvertently

walk through cough droplets that are still

vaulting through the air either on a crowded street

or on a beach, Florida.

In these high risk zones you should protect your skin,

you should protect your mouth, your eyes, and your nose

with the best barrier that you can find.

When I return home I immediately disinfect these things

that I used in the hot zone.

Also including my credit card and my cell phone.

And now I'm back in my clean little bubble

in my cold zone.

So mistake number one, people are still shaking hands?

Two weeks ago I attended a business meeting,

a public-health meeting where people were still

shaking hands and hugging.

Touching elbows in some sort of odd elbow wing dance

simply increases your likelihood,

not only of looking like an idiot,

but also being a spreader.

Correct me if I'm wrong but aren't we supposed to be

sneezing into these same elbows

that we're now sharing and touching each other?

That doesn't make sense with me.

How about this?

Smile, wink, nod, touch your heart.

Don't touch each other.

Mistake number two, people aren't careful

when handling contaminated things like sunglasses

and facemasks and cards and phones and cigarettes and vapes.

I also encourage you to avoid eating

when you're in the hot zone.

Those things can come directly into your mouth that way.

So mistake number three, people aren't using masks.

I know that the Surgeon General said that facemasks

are not necessary for the general public.

I'm not saying go out and purchase a mask

in the current market and please don't.

I recommend that any type of facial covering

to protect your eyes and mouth and nose.

Even a handkerchief over your mouth

is better than receiving that full viral load

of a cough directly in your face.

Dr. Julie Gerberding, the former director of CDC,

has said that even a T-shirt over your mouth and nose

would be better than nothing.

Now mistake number four, people of privilege

are being insensitive to a minority.

In today's world of pandemic, the people of privilege

are those that have their youth to protect them.

How can we justify behavior that hurts the most vulnerable?

We can't.

We are in a crisis and if you can reach out

you can literally save the lives

of vulnerable populations by protecting them

and preventing them from ever contracting this illness.

And finally I just wanna say

it's been a long scary road to get here.

And we're not home yet.

But I can tell you that our homes

will return to normal.

This pandemic will end and when it does

we will all have a deeper understanding

of ourselves and others.

We will have joined together across parties

and across borders to fight a common threat.

We will have learned the stories of the heroes

from the streets of Wuhan.

As well as heard the songs of resilience

sing from the rooftops of Assisi.

Join together in a common bond of human spirit.

Be well.

(inspirational music)