What's the best way to avoid COVID-19 while tubing in the French Broad River in Asheville, NC?
I am going on a family trip in North Carolina soon and we are planning on tubing in the French Broad River while we're there. It is normally a very popular tubing place and I am afraid that we may be in contact with a lot of people. Other than not going, what is the best way to avoid catching covid when we're going tubing?
Answers ( 1 )
It is the same best way on the river that it is anywhere on the planet right now: Avoid allowing other people to breathe on you.
Social distancing is the most effective strategy for avoiding this disease, which is why most masking instructions are "Mask when unable to distance". Being outside in the first place, in an area with breezes, is also a good strategy; air circulation is crucial to the way possibly contaiminated with SARS-CoVID-19 droplets are mitigated; you will never encounter, ,outside a lab, a lone, naked Corona virus- the only way to encounter one is to inhale it in its protective coating of snot, serum or saliva. Air movement assists in helping such droplets fall to the ground, where they become far less able to be inhaled. Think of a balloon- not a helium-filled one, but one you blow up yourself- and it is filled with germs. Now give it a tiny tap away from you, and it goes a foot or so, then it falls to the ground. Tap it any direction other than with the air current, and it goes a foot or so, and falls to the ground. If you tap it with the air movement, it may go a bit further, but will, eventually, fall to the ground.
Which means, just don't stand downwind of other people- makes sense, eh?
So, distance- meaning your own tube- and air circulation, which the river will provide; you have met the first two good-choice guidelines for avoiding inhaling Corona-containing droplets. The third is your mask. I believe in recreational settings, where distancing is possible, masks are not recommended- other than for the ultra cautious. But as soon as you are in an area where you cannot maintain distancing, put your mask on.
Oh, and have fun! Chances are greater you will not contract CoVID, so go and have a great time!