Meeting Every Change with Constancy: Protecting Yourself as Policy Shifts
Recently many friends have asked me how we should protect ourselves now that the country's pandemic-control policy is undergoing major change. Considering that most of my readers are cancer patients and their families—this group is indeed the most vulnerable—I feel it is necessary to write an article answering everyone.I had previously been urging many friends to get vaccinated. Experience abroad shows that vaccines should first be rolled out among cancer patients and the elderly, because these are the priority groups to protect. But because of the information warfare, many people became vaccine skeptics and have still not been vaccinated.This is regrettable. There is still a window of opportunity now, and getting vaccinated within this window is still better than not getting vaccinated at all. So anyone without a vaccine contraindication should get vaccinated as soon as possible in the near term. This window is short. Although the state will take every measure to flatten the infection curve and slow the spread in order to save more lives, many people will still be infected this winter. As the number of infected people out in the community grows, it will become very hard to avoid being infected ourselves.There are many claims going around about Omicron, and quite a few of them are irresponsible extremes. Some people think it is milder than a cold, while others think it is terrifying; some say there are no aftereffects, while others say the aftereffects are dreadful. Any claim that exaggerates without supporting data is unreliable. We need the ability to think independently and judge for ourselves. The best approach is to spend less time scrolling our phones and stay away from the chaotic flood of information sources; this helps us escape the influence of information warfare and is also greatly beneficial for keeping our emotions steady.Our situation in the mainland is closest to that of Taiwan, so once our containment policy changes, what happens will be roughly similar to what happened in Taiwan. Since Taiwan changed its pandemic-control strategy in May, there have been deaths every day. As of today, Taiwan's death toll stands at 14,334. By the end of June 2022, Taiwan's total population was 23,186,278, while our mainland population is 1.4 billion—about sixty times that of Taiwan. So we can roughly extrapolate our future situation by taking Taiwan as a reference.Cancer patients are a special group, and in this special period we must learn to protect ourselves. Everyone knows that vaccines offer a certain degree of protection but cannot completely block infection or death. We are not the robust young people; we should minimize going out into the community. When buying groceries, we should go at the time the market is least crowded and wear a proper N95 mask.I even recommend wearing goggles. During severe periods of the epidemic I always wore sports-style goggles (the reason I don't wear medical goggles is that I personally feel they are too conspicuous). Data shows that people who wear glasses have about a thirty percent lower chance of infection than those who don't, because glasses can block the virus from spreading through the conjunctiva of the eye.In the future we will not need to wear masks and goggles permanently; we only need to wear them during severe periods of the epidemic. When the epidemic recedes, taking off the mask and goggles will lower the chance of infection considerably. Because the virus keeps mutating, countries that have adopted coexistence policies now basically experience two or three epidemic waves every year, and our future situation will be much the same. Taking self-protection measures during peak waves can reduce the risk of dying from infection.When we are at home, we should also regularly disinfect doorknobs, refrigerator handles, toilet lids, and similar surfaces, ventilate rooms frequently, and wash our hands often after coming home. When the epidemic is severe in our area, we should also watch out for aerosol transmission through sewage pipes and ventilation systems, and take protective measures in the bathroom and kitchen. Avoiding infection remains the best self-protection strategy for cancer patients. Although infection rates abroad are high, vulnerable people there who protect themselves through multiple measures still manage to avoid infection. So after national policy changes, we should still meet every change with constancy and try our best to avoid infection.But even if we do everything right, we may still be infected, so we must then activate our second line of defense: relying on our own nonspecific immunity to deal with the virus. Maintaining good routines, getting enough sleep, moderate sun exposure, a varied diet, not overeating, moderate exercise, and supplementing common vitamins all help strengthen our nonspecific immunity. Doing all this lets us minimize the chance of progressing to severe or critical illness after infection. If we neglect our lifestyle, even otherwise healthy young people can die; in Taiwan a few young people with no underlying conditions have died in this wave because they were careless.If you are infected, you should proactively contact the epidemic-prevention authorities for help. Our government will surely provide cancer patients and others with underlying diseases with more medical care than the general population, in order to lower the case-fatality rate. It is reasonable to keep some fever-reducing medicine at home. After infection, one quite effective measure is to drink plenty of water; if medicine runs short or is not very effective, drink more water and supplement vitamin C.When the epidemic arrives, don't panic; staying calm and rational is what matters. Don't take medicines at random. There is currently no over-the-counter drug that specifically treats COVID or its aftereffects, so I do not recommend that cancer patients hoard large quantities of medicine. If policy changes greatly, the state will surely open up pharmacies and make usable drugs available to everyone, so there is no need to panic. Maintain good communication with the doctors you know well and turn to them for help in time.Keeping a moderate stock of common cancer medications, so as to avoid frequent hospital visits during a medical-resource crunch, also helps lower the risk of infection. Same with grocery shopping: buy more at a time; there is no need to run to the market every day. Places crowded with people, such as hospitals and markets, are where the virus spreads most easily.Finally, I hope everyone will find more at-home pastimes to soothe the emotions and keep one or two pieces of fitness equipment at home, sticking to regular exercise. I enjoy watching Jin Yong's wuxia dramas and dip into them from time to time; I also like playing a musical instrument. I have a spinning bike at home and grow some flowers and plants, and these help me ease a great deal of my negative emotions.I hope all of this is helpful to everyone.