Well, that’s scary news.
Have you heard about the coronavirus yet? Im just kidding, we all have right? I am a Firefighter / Paramedic and I have been in the medical field providing emergency care for the last 15 years of my life. What’s my take on this whole thing? Its a virus. It doesn’t make your brain melt out of your skull, its morbidity rate is rather low and mostly affects the elderly and those with a predispostioned weakend immune system. However it is still something to take precautionary measures against. Running to the store and buying everything you can find? No, and I’m not sure who said there was going to be a toilet paper shortage anyways. Washing your hands more often and avoiding large crowds in which the virus could be spread? Sure. The number one method of reducing the risk of disease transmittal taught in every infection control class I have ever attended is proper hand washing. Social distancing did mitigate the infection rate of the Spanish Flu, so we are good to go on implementing that as well.
I think my biggest concern with this is fear. Fear is what makes everything worse, and fear is what the news media likes to inflict upon its viewers more than anything else. “If it bleeds it leads” is unfortunately the truth when it comes to reporting. For instance: I have contacted numerous radio and television stations to inform them that my company, Firehouse Pressure Washing, is offering free playground sterilization while schools are closed. I am waiting to hear back on if they can help me spread the word. Thats what I consider a “positive news story”. It will make people feel good about what we are doing. The news media will most likely want to see our employees in full protective gear including respirators (none of this is needed) actually doing the work. This is what I consider a “negative news story” as it inflicts fear to see an individual suited up in a Level A or B HAZMAT suit (I have been a HAZMAT Technician for 12 years). So while I want to spread the word about our free playground sterilization offerings, I don’t want to inflict fear inadvertently by having us all suited up on the news reports. If you know anyone at your childs school that works in the office, please have them go to www.firehousepowerwash.com and fill out a contact form so that we may get their schools playground on the list.
What we do at Firehouse Pressure Washing: we use a chemical, Sodium Hypochlorite, which is the main chemical in bleach. However we have access to this chemical at higher concentrations and we dilute this chemical to the proper ratios to preform house, concrete and roof cleaning. As it turns out per CDC guidelines, when we dilute our Sodium Hypochlorite to clean whatever surface we are applying it to, it is in compliance with CDC guidelines to kill COVID-19. This means that anything we clean, the goal usually being to kill off algae and mold, is also killing the pandemic virus affecting all of our lives. See what I did there?
In closing, remember to keep yourself and others around you safe, but remember that this is not a flesh eating zombie virus that many news outlets are making it to be. And it is not, and will never be, political, no matter who’s side you may be on. In my extensive schooling and ongoing education of emergency medical training there was never a chapter or lesson based on a virus’ strength due to who was in the Oval Office. The correlation between the two is simply ludicrous and an attack on the general intelligence of the citizens of our great nation. So call us today for your spring cleaning of algae and mold (and COVID-19) and remember “No one is better with water than a Firefighter on his day off”.
-Mike Dingler
