BELIZE CITY, Mon. June 1, 2020– With the latest easing of restrictions in the State of Emergency, athletes and sports fans may be getting a little impatient; but, “discretion is the better part of valour,” and our health authorities feel it is still prudent to delay participation in competitive sports, for obvious reasons.

In my football experience in playing days, our motto was that attackers/strikers are supposed to take chances, but defenders were to “tek no chance.” And, without an effective cure, we are still playing defense against this COVID-19 right now. Our authorities are advancing our economic attack, but cautiously, step by careful step. We can’t afford to rush in opening everything up, otherwise we may be open to the dreaded “contra golpe.”

In a sense, though spared the brunt of the pandemic, we can say that our Jewel, Belize is in the proverbial “eye of the storm” which is raging with death to the north – the US, and to the south of us – Brazil, while we sit and pray here in the middle of Central America with only 2 deaths so far and no current cases. (A number of Belizeans have perished in the US from the coronavirus; but here in the Jewel, ironically, the early passing of brother Hubert Pipersburgh may have saved many other Belizean lives, by signaling to us how serious a killer this COVID-19 can be.) But we don’t want to relax our guard and get careless now, lest the storm winds of the pandemic begin blowing us apart.

The advice given below is still relevant one month later:

Why that social distance stuff is absolutely CRITICAL right now
Dr. Alan Inglis, M.D. <[email protected]>

Tue, Apr 21 at 4:14 PM
It went from a phrase no one had ever heard of… to one all of us are using, every day.
Gotta keep that social distancing going to prevent the coronavirus!

We quickly got the basic rules down pat: Keep six feet from everyone else, at all times — something that’s already become instinct for many of us.

The other day on the news, I saw a crowd of shoppers lined up outside a store… each one six feet away from the other.

But how important is the rule?

VERY… as you’ll see in a moment… because there’s a key difference between coronavirus and more typical infections like cold and flu.

It’s one that makes that distance not just important…

It turns it into a matter of LIFE and DEATH for older Americans, as well as anyone with preexisting conditions.

Why SOCIAL DISTANCING is critical for coronavirus survival

I’m a skeptic by nature.

You want me to do something, you better lay out some facts — so believe me, when officials say everyone’s gotta stay practically locked up inside, you’d better believe that my first instinct is to question it.

But I didn’t have to question this one for long…

I watched the COVID-19 coronavirus news with alarm when it first broke in China at the start of the year, and prayed it would never reach here.

Then it did.

The problem with this virus is that it spreads quickly, effectively, and efficiently.

One British infectious diseases expert calculated that in the time it takes 14 people to be infected by a single person with flu, the coronavirus can spread to 59,000 people!

Now, a new report shows a key reason it’s so infectious, and it’s not just that it’s completely new to the human immune system.

It’s that it begins to spread BEFORE the symptoms even appear!

Someone can be carrying the germ… and spreading it in the air through breathing… without realizing they’re infected.

This isn’t rare, unfortunately.

It’s not even uncommon.

The new report finds that 80 percent of the people who carry and pass the germ along DON’T KNOW they’re sick!

The study in the journal Science finds these people have symptoms so mild they never imagine it’s the infamous coronavirus. Some might have no symptoms at all.

But they not only have it, they’re passing it on — potentially to anyone they meet.

And that, friend, is why I’m doing my best hermit impression right now. I stay at home, go out only for groceries — and even then, I (grudgingly) use the self-checkout to limit contact.

I bank via snail mail (remember that?) and… with apologies to friends, neighbors, and even my Saturday night band get-together… ALL social visits are on hold right now.

We all keep in touch via phone, email and FaceTime so it’s not too lonely, and I’d suggest you do the same until this whole thing passes.

In Good Health,
Dr. Alan Inglis, M.D.