Aunty’s Seattle based daughter sent an easy hand sanitizer recipe that she and her chemist PhD pal (Marcy Kang) made.

8 ounces (1 cup) of 91% Isopropyl Alcohol

2 ounces of distilled water

10 drops of your favorite essential oil

Mix in a bowl, pour into 2 oz. spray bottles and label them. (makes 4 bottles)

Easy!  Right?  Well, with this coronavirus craze going on, finding isopropyl alcohol was very difficult because most stores were sold out.  The only place I could find it was at the Pillbox Pharmacy in Kaimuki.  It was much more expensive there and I also ended up buying a pint of their awesome Oregon strawberry ice cream but both, imo, were well worth it.  You could use the more normal 60% isopropyl alcohol but it won’t evaporate as quickly.

How did it turn out?  Quite nice, with a strong alcohol after smell, which is rather comforting in this day of coronavirus paranoia.

Speaking of which

Dr. Edwin Endo sent an email about this virus and what to do.

Here is the text:

IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT – A simple but good to know guide on Coronavirus

1. If you have a runny nose and sputum, you have a common cold

2. Coronavirus pneumonia is a dry cough with no runny nose.

3. This new virus is not heat-resistant and will be killed by a temperature of just 26/27 degrees (82-85*F). It hates the Sun.

4. If someone sneezes with it, it takes about 10 feet before it drops to the ground and is no longer airborne.

5. If it drops on a metal surface it will live for at least 12 hours – so if you come into contact with any metal surface – wash your hands as soon as you can with a bacterial soap.

6. On fabric it can survive for 6-12 hours. normal laundry detergent will kill it.

7. Drinking warm water is effective for all viruses. Try not to drink liquids with ice.

8. Wash your hands frequently as the virus can only live on your hands for 5-10 minutes, but – a lot can happen during that time – you can rub your eyes, pick your nose unwittingly and so on.

9. You should also gargle as a prevention. A simple solution of salt in warm water will suffice.

10. Can’t emphasize enough – drink plenty of water!

THE SYMPTOMS

1. It will first infect the throat, so you’ll have a sore throat lasting 3/4 days 2. The virus then blends into a nasal fluid that enters the trachea and then the lungs, causing pneumonia. This takes about 5/6 days further.

3. With the pneumonia comes high fever and difficulty in breathing.

4. The nasal congestion is not like the normal kind. You feel like you’re drowning. It’s imperative you then seek immediate attention.

Overkill and hype

It is better to be overly cautious but keeping our hands off of our face and clean are the 2 best ways to stop this virus from invading us.  In this day and age of internet news and reports, we sometimes have too much information and this can spread fear and survival behavior out of perspective.

Financially, it is killing the stock market and will affect Hawaii as a tourist destination, which will hurt us for a while.  We can’t do much about that but we won’t run out of toilet paper and water.

A year from now we will look back and breathe a sigh of relief.  For now, please keep on washing hands and don’t panic.