Skills to Obstruct Pandemics: How to protect yourself and your community from COVID-19 and similar infections

by Frank E Ritter, Amanda C Clase, Stephanie Leigh Harvill

Overview

COVID-19 is disrupting life around the world. People in every country are forced to adjust their lives and protect themselves and loved ones from this sweeping pandemic. But the concept of a pandemic is not new. No matter the outcome of this strain of coronavirus, a pandemic can always hit.

So what can you do to better understand COVID-19 and similar infections?

SKILLS TO OBSTRUCT PANDEMICS is a short but comprehensive how-to guide for people who want to protect themselves and others in current and future pandemics. These strategies can be done by everyone, and the language in STOP is easy to read without prior medical knowledge. It offers practical information and actionable daily practices to help flatten the curve. This is not a first-aid kit to treat COVID-19; it's a zeroth-aid kit to help you avoid it.

The author team includes MDs, RNs, and PhDs with knowledge of medicine, nursing, public health and disaster medicine, and learning theory. The people who reviewed it included further MDs, nurses, a psychologist, and a nutritionist.

This book includes:

• A quiz at the end of each section to help you retain information and begin healthy practices
• Information on how COVID-19 transmits through the air
• Daily strategies to help you avoid coronavirus and live in quarantine
• Useful resources for external reading on important topics
• Access to an online tutor to help you understand how viruses spread and how to stop it
• All references included as an easy to access website
• And much more

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781620064375
Publisher:	Sunbury Press, Inc.
Publication date:	12/19/2020
Pages:	204
Product dimensions:	8.00(w) x 10.00(h) x 0.43(d)

About the Author

Frank Ritter BSEE PhD CPsychol is a cognitive scientist with an interest in applying cognitive science to the design of human-computer interfaces. Prof. Ritter has written or edited seven books (including Oxford, Springer-Verlag, SAGE, Nottingham) and edits a book series on cognitive models and architectures for Oxford University Press. He is an associate editor of Human Factors, and has been an associate editor of IEEE SMC: Human-Machine Systems. He helped start the College of Information Sciences and Technology, and is also a Professor of Psychology.

Amanda Clase is an Associate Research Professor in Penn State's Applied Research Lab. She has a PhD in microbiology & immunology and has studied public health preparedness and surveillance. Her research interests include biodefense, biosurveillance, infectious diseases, and global health security. Dr. Clase spent 14 years in government service designing and managing biodefense programs.

Stephanie Leigh Harvill is a visual design consultant with a history of working within the field of higher education and the sciences. She earned her bachelor's degree in Fine Arts and a master's degree focused in secondary education and teaching, both from UCLA. She has extensive experience helping translate science to the public in prose and figures.

Editorial Reviews

Get the simple things right first. Low-cost public health interventions have the potential to stop this pandemic in its tracks. While these measures may seem like common sense, in fact, they have to be learned. This text is a great place to start that learning.

High tech, scientific advances in therapeutics, and vaccines will come. In the meantime, the main things are the plain things, simple day-to-day modifications in lifestyle can stop contagion and save lives. This text details these, with practicalities and rationales for their implementation.

-- Dr. John Campbell RN PhD, retired nursing professor, YouTube channel with 737k subscribers

What a great game plan to help us navigate through this pandemic. I'll run with this!

-- Franco Harris, former NFL player, NFL Hall of Fame member

Medical concepts, like Rocket Science, are always hard to translate into understandable and actionable terms. As my fellow epidemiologists-disease detectives-struggle to uncover the secrets of COVID19, Skills offers an approachable blueprint for action that all of us on the planet should heed. An equivalent of a naval aviator or astronaut's checklist for understanding the critical steps necessary to combat COVID.

-- Captain J.M. Linenger, Medical Corps, U.S. Navy (ret.)NASA astronaut/Mir Cosmonaut STS-64, STS-81, Mir 23, STS 84 Physician (MD), Epidemiologist (PhD) and Author of Off the Planet

Nicely executed and quite useful. Always hard to translate science/medicine into understandable and actionable terms. Success!

-- Jerry Linenger, Capt. USN (ret.), MD, NASA astronaut (STS-64, STS-81, MIR, STS-84) and epidemiologist

This book not only gave me the information I needed to understand our role in responding to the pandemic, but it is a practical tool to, "Love your neighbor as you love yourself." I appreciate the expertise and the care that went into this valuable work!

-- Rev. Dr. Joel C. Hunter, Faith-based Community Organizer, Retired Pastor, Chairman, Community Resource Network

From the Publisher