We’re all nervous about the COVID virus and for prostate cancer patients who tend to be more elderly they the concerns are a little greater if people get a pneumonia.  It’s more serious think of the COVID 19 virus is nothing more than a common cold but with the potential to progress into a really bad pneumonia and most people. it starts like  a cold and ends like a cold.  

however  COVID 19 is different from most  other cold viruses because it spreads to  the lungs more frequently and acts more  aggressively. when it gets there please  realize that not everyone who catches  COVID19 is at equal risk for  pneumonia the greatest risk is in older  people smokers people with  immunodeficiency’s people with heart  disease diabetics alcoholics or people  with other serious health problems like  emphysema asthma liver disease or kidney  disease to put this in perspective.
let's  talk a little bit about the common cold  because we actually know quite a bit  about the common cold and COVID 19 comes  from the same viral family as the common  cold the common cold is an upper  respiratory tract infection a URI that  affects the nose throat sinuses and  larynx like other colds  COVID 19 can  cause fever cough sore throat body aches  etc.

 the average adult gets two or three  colds a year symptoms may include sore  throat sneezing runny nose fevers  coughing and recovery usually takes one  to three weeks cold viruses can be  contracted through the air from people  who are coughing or sneezing. but the  greater risk is by touching and animate  objects and surfaces doorknobs faucets  light switches that have been previously  touched or coughed on by or sneezed on  by someone who's sick  the  COVID 19 cold virus can survive  outside the body on in Anna  surfaces for up to a week.

 so if you  touch an infected surface you now have  the virus sticking to your fingertips  if those hands touch your eyes your nose  or mouth  the virus sticks to those mucous  membranes it penetrates into the cells  and starts the process of infection   COVID 19 can't penetrate through your  skin it only enters the body via the wet  surfaces of your mouth eyes or nose.

  let's talk a little bit about viral  pneumonia  remember Cova acts just like any other  cold unless it drops down into the lungs  people who develop pneumonia usually  start with a typical cold upper URI  symptoms that WE previously described  let me distress.

 one time that the corona  virus infection is just a plain old cold  unless it gets into the lungs and  produces pneumonia not all types of  pneumonia are equally serious many cases  don't even require hospitalization.  however those who are sick enough to go  to the hospital show high fevers serious  coughs shortness of breath and sometimes  pain when they take a deep breath dying  from pneumonia  is much less common than it used to be  standard Hospital support which includes  antibiotics intensive care units trained  respiratory care technicians oxygen  support and mechanical respirators all  make a huge difference. 

WE realize of  course that antibiotics can't treat the  corona virus directly however  antibiotics do prevent bacterial  pneumonia which is a known serious  complication of viral pneumonia .so what  is the actual mortality rate for the  COVID 19 virus we can get some sense  of COVID 19's danger by reviewing an  inadvertent experiment performed on a  large group of people on a quarantined  cruise ship the diamond Princess cruise  ship out of approximately 3,700  passengers 700 .

were infected and six  perished were these people  representative of the rest of us average  Americans not exactly as people on  cruises tend to be older. however we now  know that older people are particularly  vulnerable to  COVID  so this was an experiment performed in a  relatively more vulnerable population  compared to the demographics in an  average. 

American city as it turns out  six people out of the 700 who were  infected died all six were over 70 years  old. so the estimated  COVID 19 mortality  rate comes in at around 1% for older  people the risk for younger people is  far lower .how do you avoid getting  COVID  19 basically the same way you avoid any  cold after all  COVID 19 is a cold virus  let me describe my personal experience  dodging colds in my daily workplace I'm  a 65 year old physician who works in an  office seeing patients for over 30 years  normally. 

WE greet and shake hands with at  least 10 to 20 people a day I love my  work and I love being around people but  my job is obviously very high-risk for  picking up viruses and getting sick yet  even with all this daily human contact .WE  almost never catch a cold at most maybe  I come down with the cold every three to  four years maybe so what's my secret WE  live in constant awareness that my hands  and my entire surrounding environment  are covered with infectious viruses. 

WE  never touch my eyes mouth or nose  without first washing my hands keeping  my hands off my face does the trick many  of you are diligently sterilizing your  surrounding environment by wiping down  all your counters. Keyboards, phone, doorknobs, and that may help a little bit.  however it's not going to help if you  keep touching your eyes nose or mouth  eventually one of those sneaky viruses  will get you I'm also not much of a  believer in face mass unless it's a way  just to remind you to keep your hands  off from touching your face relatively  few people catch colds by being coughed  on more than 95 percent of the calls we  get come from our own hands sure if  someone with a cold sneezes or coughs  near me.

 I take precautions WE temporarily  cease inhaling and move away so that I  don't breathe the standing air that  closely surrounds them as a service to  others. when WE have a cold I confess to  anyone I'm greeting that. I am infected  and I abstained from shaking hands when  my patients have  coal's. 

they kindly warned me not to  shake hands with him as well this is a  common courtesy to extend when coping  with symptoms of a cold or flu now of  course we're entering into a brand new  era with this new type of cold that can  progress into a pneumonia and some  people handshakes are a thing of the  past obviously anyone with active cold  symptoms should be at home isolated  until the symptoms go away like smoking  cigarettes indoors moving around in  public with a cough or a runny nose is  unacceptable is there a treatment for  coronavirus.

 presently there is no direct  treatment for the corona virus. however  it is well known that zinc inhibits the  propagation and spread of the cold  viruses from their starting place in our  throat area to other areas of the body  like the lungs to minimize that viral  spread throughout the body. 

anyone who  feels new onset of cold symptoms should  keep their mucous membranes  their mouth and throat constantly bathed  in zinc  until the cold symptoms abate Col deze &.  zai camera a couple of the products that  are available over-the-counter at your  local pharmacy just recently. I read some  fascinating very preliminary research  about an antibiotic called  hydroxychloroquine that enables zinc to  enter into infective cells more  efficiently initial studies seem to show  faster resolution of  COVID symptoms. when  hydroxychloroquine and zinc are used  together i'm talking about patients with  pneumonia problems. if anybody you know  develops a viral pneumonia you might  want to mention to them or their  families about the possibility of adding  hydroxychloroquine to the zinc it's an  inexpensive well tolerated antibiotic.  

it's easily obtained I have one other  tip that I'd like to share over and over.  I see people with colds and stuffy nose  sniffing to prevent any of the  secretions running down their face. I  kind of want to grab them and tell them  to stop doing this. when they sniff third  nasal secretions inward they're sucking  the virus down into their lungs  increasing the risk of getting pneumonia  use a tissue or a handkerchief for those  runny noses. but don't suck the infected  secretions down into the lungs. so I  conclude  colds are very contagious and as a  result they spread far and wide very  quickly cold epidemics usually only come  to an end after most the general  population has been infected and a broad  spread herd immunity develops do.

 I  believe that people are going to be able  to stop touching their faces under this  new threat of  COVID 19 I suspect. It’s going to be hard for many people to change their ways and consistently avoid  touching their faces however. I know  through my own experience that I've  learned over many years that if the  discipline of the hands can be mastered.  it really works personally I have no  nervousness being around people or  crowds. because I know that I control my  destiny I'm the only one who can infect  me. 

I hope this information will give you  a greater sense that you can control  your destiny it is very difficult to be  disciplined I even wash my hands before.  WE go to sleep because I don't know what  they're gonna do after WE go to bed at  night but WE truly believe if you're  careful in this regard that you can  prevent yourself from catching this.