This article aims to share personal thoughts and experiences since late January 2020 when I first learned about what was the beginning of a Global challenge, and by doing it I would like to call attention on what we can do in order to prevent further harm to our lives.

So, it all started for me during a great experience of going back to my country (Brazil) after almost 6 months living in Spain, to participate in a Summit for Rocket.Chat as the newest employee of the company. It was January 23rd and I was watching the news in my hotel room when I first heard about the recent epidemic happening in China, at the city of Wuhan, even though we learned later that it all started in December. From hundreds in an isolated city in China to a global pandemic of around 100,000 people infected (reported World Health Organization - WHO - on March 6th 2020) in less than 2 months!

Everyday we are facing the increasing number of Countries with Covid-19 cases, new and revised predictions of the impact in the global economy and sadly the number of fatal victims still increases.

All that makes me think about so many things like how our world is GLOBAL! We are all connected, more than ever in history! Our economy is linked, our lives are connected with families, relatives and friends in different countries, different languages, but sharing the same Earth and in some ways, the same ¨Information¨ and ¨Rights of Information¨! This also leads me to a ¨Call to Action¨, where knowledge, sense of community and technology are the best ways to stop this current Global enemy of making more damage.

Learning Points

There are new measures that the scientists and authorities have learned during the outbreak of Covid-19 in China that are worthwhile sharing, but also there are measures that everyone knows of and should take in our daily lives to prevent more infections:

Back to Basics:

Wash your hands every time after you go to the bathroom/sneeze/eat and take public transportation, go to public places and go to social events. Our hands are the most powerful means for dissemination. Washed right and for 20 seconds;
If you have the flu or any contagious disease, do your best to stay at home! Or at least lower your contact with other people and use a mask if you need to go out. Even though this one is self-explanatory, it is always good to remember that our immune system plays a big role in stopping or accelerating the spread of the virus;
If you are sneezing, use a tissue, paper tissue or even your elbow to block the perch
Again, if you are not feeling well, avoid public places and being around people, especially if you are in a Country where the outbreak has started (right now major outbreaks in South Korea, Japan, Italy and Iran and growing case count in US and Europe.);
Mask is for those who are ill, not for people that are healthy. It is much more to avoid spreading contagious disease;
Inform yourself, seek advice from safety and health authorities and learn through recognized press and well known health personalities. Information and knowledge will help you and others to take appropriate actions, avoiding panic and wrong attitudes.

Takeaways from China

According to WHO experts, these were the key measures to decline cases in China:

"Velocity is Key" - China offered tests and treatment for free, so the country could rapidly identify who had the virus! With this information they also could determine potential cases by identifying the contact tracing of the infected person, to start quarantine and so stop dissemination in the network of a person to another. This might be a challenge for some Countries where public health is not offered and structured for massive service;
There were other public health measures that affected millions in China, but it is hard to think it would be allowed in open and democratic countries due to human rights. Those measures were "Cordon Sanitaire" and "Lockdowns" for infected people. It certainly helped to stop the spread, it for sure needs to be done in a way to guarantee that those people will receive treatment and be able to maintain their basic needs being attended to at the least. But again, this to me looks extreme measures and don't fit the majority of our occidental culture as it impacts in restrictions on freedom of movement;
Cancelation of public gatherings by closing schools, events, factories, public transportation, and any event or organization where the high number of people together would allow the Covid-19 to spread. Well, some of these measures may have to be taken depending on how severe it is spreading in each country. Italy and Iran already are adopting these measures and each nation must be prepared to it;
Information, taught the 2 (two) initial most commonly symptoms of infection that must be investigated to the population: Fever and Dry Cough! If you have only a running nose and are sneezing, it is not Covid-19, but an ordinary flu. By doing that they avoided many people seeking for tests and treatments with no reason.
Information to the population on prevention and detection, fast detection of cases and tracing of close contacts (between 5 to 15% of close contacts of an infected person gets infected), fast treatment plus isolation for the infected and quarantine of their close contacts and restructured health and hospital systems to absorb the demand of this new disease, including new technology adoption (WeChat1 for prescriptions online, instead of doctors appointments), new infrastructure of hospitals and fever clinics were built besides some adjustments on their process and procedures to respond to the epidemic and get it under control. * Rocket.Chat can do the same, see below.

Information: To be on top of findings and preventions, I've selected a few websites that might be interesting to check - Updates from World Health Organization (Global view, Regional view and Country view), Main CNN page you will find live updates on Covid-19, CNN Videos on Health, 20 Seconds Video on How to Wash your Hands properly

Call to Action

Besides taking the basic habits listed above and making sure to be up-to-date on what is happening to World and my hometown and surroundings, as a working mom, I will use more than before the solutions of Rocket.Chat and advocate it to my professional network! It responds to the need of remote work without loosing workflow, process and face-to-face (1 to 1, 1 to many) meetings through video or audio calls.

At Rocket.Chat we are committed to enabling the world to communicate freely through an Open Source platform with thousands of developers and users in our Community! Now, when the world must keep productivity and communication flow through new ways of collaborating and virtual tools we will keep our Community solution offer free of charge and we are engaging our technical community members to support us in answering questions to support organizations that want to implement Rocket.Chat to their teams as a tool of remote work as well. Click here to find out more.

Some ways Rocket.Chat helps to prevent Covid-19 while boosting productivity:

Real-time Communication tool for teams to collaborate from any location;
Advanced Security features (like end-to-end encryption) and compliance certifications to keep your data secure and private;
Open-source solution with monthly releases boosted by an active community with thousands of developers;
Numerous integrations through Rocket.Chat marketplace, real time and rest APIs;
Substitute in person meetings with Audio and Video features;
Ideal solution for DevOps team with integration of processes and tools such as ChatOps;
Omnichannel solution to keep interacting with website visitors, customers, suppliers, partners, investors and any other stakeholder;
Several implementation options, On-Premises or SaaS, according to your policies and needs.