getting outdoors in the time of covid-19

I wanted to start this blog off with some nerdy PT tips on something to the effect of why your shoe is getting worn out on one side or why strong gluts could help you with that hike downhill (more on this later), but it seems like safely getting outdoors in the first place during a pandemic is a more pressing issue.

As a healthcare professional and frontline worker who treats patients with COVID-19, I want to share my outlook that has helped me stay safe both at work and while I'm trying to recreate outdoors.

To simplify how the virus spreads I propose this analogy:

SPIT = PAINT.

Bear with me here...

COVID-19 is a respiratory virus. The virus is mainly spread through droplets, although it can also be spread by aerosol transmission under certain environments.

Droplets = small drops of spit and saliva that can land on your mouth or nose, or by you touching those areas after you touch a contaminated surface. Breathing these in can infect you.

Even when you are talking at a normal volume, there are hundreds if not thousands of spit particles landing on you and all around you. The louder you talk, or if you cough or sneeze, the farther these land.

Since we know you may have COVID-19 without any symptoms, your spit may or may not contain the virus. Because of this, airing on the side of caution, I just assume that I carry the virus.

Now imagine that your spit has a color – it’s paint! (Here’s a study where researchers put food coloring in the subjects’ mouths to measure the spit that escapes.)

So when you are talking on the phone and opening a door, you just got paint all over that door. My phone is surely covered in my own “paint” by now – ew.

FOR YOUR SAFETY – because you don’t want to get sick or pass it along to loved ones:

1) Keep 6+ feet distance, especially from individuals not wearing masks. This is about how far droplets travel before landing on the ground. I'm still friendly, nodding hi, but walking away because I don’t want to be covered in other people’s “paint”. Maybe I don’t like the color they chose – like one that’s filled with a virus...

2) Stay outside and keep to open spaces as much as you can versus indoors. More room to more around and less concentrated for the virus. And more time outdoors! Win win!

3) Wash your hands and sanitize! Think of everything you touch that's outside your house as having that wet neon paint on it... Would you touch your face after running your fingers through some paint? (I mean... maybe, but for the sake of this tip, lets say no.)

If you touch a railing - now there's paint on your hands.

Touch a door knob - paint!

A button to cross the street - MORE PAINT!

If possible, I use a knuckle or an elbow to press those buttons since we have a tendency to touch our faces A LOT. A study from 2015 in a Australian university counted medical students touching their face 23 times per hour on average. Wow.

Use hand sanitizer to get that "paint" (read VIRUS) off of your hands first before adjusting your mask after you touch something else.

When I get home, I take off those clothes “splattered in paint”, at a minimum wash my face and arms, and usually just take a full shower before changing. I’m not trying to color my couch.

FOR OTHER PEOPLE'S SAFETY – because you are a kind person:

1) Wear that mask. Your mask is mostly for others, not you. A regular surgical or cotton mask keeps your spit and mucous that may be carrying the virus from landing on others. And yes, when you talk, even at normal volume, there are spit particles flying onto your surroundings. (Another reason why I cringe seeing people without masks picking out apples and peaches at the grocery store – gross gross gross.)

2) No masks with valves! Because it’s a one way valve, it filters air you breath in, but not what you exhale. So you are still exhaling “paint” out of that valve. And since that mask is probably not fitted perfectly to your face, you can still breath in the virus. Again, masks are not for you – wear them to keep everyone around you safe please!

3) No neck gaiters or Buffs! A 2020 study from Duke university found that there are actually MORE droplets escaping your mouth with these on because they get broken up into smaller particles. Plus it's only one layer.

4) If there isn't space to be 6ft away, turn your face and maybe even your body AWAY from the person as you/they pass by, especially if you are the one without the mask (hopefully that's not the case), so that you are not getting your “paint” on that person.

5) Stay local, or at least try... You probably don’t want other people painting your city with their colors. Try to return the favor.

6) If traveling, bring your supplies to minimize the amount of trips you take within the community. Wear that mask so you are not getting your “paint” all over that community, even if people are 6+ feet away from you. I’ll wear my mask even while gassing up at an empty station so I am not getting my germs all over the pump.

7) Outdoors, use your best judgment. If it’s just me on the trail, and I’m not near surfaces that numerous people are touching, I have my mask handy, but am not wearing it. If the trail is more crowded than anticipated, I put my mask on.

Be kind.

Wear a mask.

Keep that paint away from others.

Be safe.

Wash/sanitize your hands.

Keep the paint off yourself.

Stay wild,

Olga