Coronavirus Explained: How do I protect myself?

well we started this half-hour with the new coronavirus health professionals pointing to that old Ben Franklin saying this morning an ounce of protection is worth a pound of cure so that is the question how do you protect yourself now that the corona virus is hitting more places around the country ABC's aggregation is here with a look at your best bets for staying healthy good morning to you Zachary you've a good morning to you as well experts are using the word inevitable when asked whether this virus will spread that's why prevention has become such an important aspect of the response despite the unknowns there are some steps you can take to protect yourself with more presumptive cases of corona virus hitting multiple states overnight medical experts are now doubling down on preventative measures we all can take to reduce the chance of attracting the kovat 19 disease it's more important than ever for people to practice good health habits the virus is thought to spread mainly from person to person either through close contact meaning a range of about 6 feet or through respiratory droplets produced when an infected person coughs or sneezes well it's unknown how long the virus can survive on infected surfaces officials aren't ruling out the spread if someone then touches their mouth nose your eyes so things that people regularly touch tend to be doorknobs keyboards phones hand-washing defeats all of that with a vaccine still months away and millions of Americans heading back to work the CDC still says the best way to prevent illness is to avoid being exposed with these tips wash your hands with soap for 20 seconds avoid touching your face if you feel sick stay home and commit to regular cleaning at the start of your day you want to wipe down your keyboard and wipe down your phone so it's clean at the beginning of the day that's a good good measure to take experts say the most important things we can do in preparation are the same things we do for a cold or flu season and we've shown you how to prevent the spread of illnesses before it works you can actually see the entire building start getting sick if one person comes in and touches a few of these buttons these bad boys are nastier than toilet seats and at home all the handles on everything which usually are hard surfaces so the metal handles if you have little kids lower down and even if you take public transportation if you window-seat you actually decrease your chances for getting sick because there are less people walking by you this urgent General issued a stern message on Twitter saying seriously people stop buying Mass they are not effective in preventing general public from catching coronavirus but if health care providers can't get them to care for sick patients it puts them in our communities at risk it's a really good Tim say it is it is there's so much information out there and there's so much new information obviously coming out it's good to you know differentiation taking the window-seat from now on for sure thank you so much aja preciate it joining us again from Massachusetts our chief health correspondent dr. Jen Aston with us once again that we want to get your perspective on all of this of course many of us especially with kids wondering how we can help our children understand what's going on but not scare them in the process what do you recommend well first thing is you have to find out what they know when you have to address this on an age-appropriate level and we have to put things into context and reassure them and remember they follow our lead so if you look like you're freaking out that's probably not going to be good for them either and what should people do if they suspect they may have symptoms perhaps after returning home from an affected country well I think the first thing is remember that we have a saying in medicine common things occur commonly so even if you've been traveling and you develop you know a sore throat or a cough or a fever you know you're more likely to have influenza with the new CDC estimated numbers just released on Friday estimating 32 million cases here in the US but coronavirus especially if you've been traveling to one of the affected countries should be on the list so before just rushing into a hospital you want to try to call your provider if you don't have a regular provider call the emergency room the local health department because what we want to do is balance taking care of someone who may be sick and lowering or minimizing risk to others all right dr. Ashton thank you again really appreciate it hi everyone George Stephanopoulos here thanks for checking out the ABC News YouTube channel if you'd like to get more video show highlights and watch live event coverage click on the right over here to subscribe to our Channel and don't forget to download the ABC News app for breaking Alerts thanks for watching

For over a month I’ve been seeing people shame those who are taking precautions, and calling their actions “panic”. From what I’ve seen, almost all of those being accused of “feeding the fear propaganda” aren’t running around with their arms in the air screaming, they are simply advocating taking small steps to limit spread. They are encouraging people to be prepared in advance so that they aren’t out last minute with hordes of others stocking up for social distancing.

These actions were called “panic” a month ago, but now those who had shamed others are the ones taking these precautions. And they’re calling the next level of preparedness “panic”.
And if we get through this because enough people practice social distancing, these shamers will say “see, I told you so, it wasn’t that bad after all”.
But these people are freeriders. As a colleague put in, “Being the last person to finally pick up a bucket and start bailing out the boat isn't something to be proud of, nor is admonishing those who are doing the bailing and then patting yourself on the back when you step ashore well rested unlike the rest.”