This is the third webinar in the COVID-19 Expert Panel series led by the Columbine Health Systems Center for Healthy Aging. In this series, we will be answering community questions related to health and COVID-19.
PANEL QUESTIONS
– What can we do to boost our immune system to fight off COVID-19? Are there nontraditional supplements we can try? (5:55)
– I’ve heard that Vitamin D is important to protect us from COVID. Why is that? How much should you take? (8:40)
– Is it safe to eat out at restaurants if you’re in a high-risk group? Why is it that you can’t get COVID-19 from food? (12:58)
– How effective is a vaccine likely to be? When will it be available? (17:14)
– Would you feel safe getting a vaccine that has been fast-tracked through the FDA approval process? Would you wait until many people have received it first? (21:30)
– If a primary caregiver is over 60 and caring for a school age child, would you recommend sending the child back to school or doing home school with the child? (26:00)
– What are elementary and middle schools doing to protect from contamination as our children return to school? (28:16)
– I’m so distressed by the administration’s insistence on opening schools, and curious about how we’re going to handle that locally. I have a non-profit that serves needy families of school-age children, and we’re struggling with how to provide service if/when schools re-open. (31:40)
– Is it safe to travel by car around the state using gas stations, restaurants and hotels. And what precautions would you advise? (34:40)
– As a physician, I thought a person has to develop the infection (replicate the virus) to spread. What does current data say about rapidity of COVID transmission between people? (38:12)
– Can dogs or cats give a human COVID? Can a human give it to a dog or cat? (45:46)
– I have been fighting with my spouse over so many things related to COVID. We disagree on things to a degree I haven’t experienced before. How do we work on keeping some peace over disagreements? And:
– The media (especially headlines) seems to be focused on things that create the biggest emotional response, rather than a balanced discussion of facts. But it’s the only way we learn of the latest information. How can we develop a mental model to cope with the steady “fear and doom” information? (51:32)
CHAT QUESTIONS
Q: I’ve heard that Vitamin D deficiency makes us more vulnerable to COVID, and that people with darker skin are more likely to have low vitamin D levels. Is this true? What’s a good level & how do we know?
A: You can get lab testing to test your vitamin D level. A level above 30 is recommended. There could be a link to the amount of melanin in people with darker skin tones—that maybe people with darker skin absorb more UV light and thus have less UV light available to photoactivate vitamin D in the bloodstream. But, we aren’t aware of studies that have confirmed this to be true.
Q: Is it a bad idea for a high-risk person to have a massage?
A: It depends on your comfort level with that exposure. If you and the masseuse both wear masks, that is likely very effective in minimizing risk. But massages last usually at least 30 minutes, which is considered significant exposure.
RESOURCES
– Optimizing Your Immune System:
– Healthy Aging:
– Vitamin D:
– List of foods containing Vitamin D:
– Dietary Supplements-Vitamins and Minerals:
– Equine COVID and COVID-19 are not the same thing:
