Health Matters By Dr Tim Allison: Kindness matters – it can save lives during pandemic
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Kindness is something that we all welcome. When people are kind to us it makes us feel better and when we are kind to others our lives are improved.
The benefits of being kind are far wider than simply improving our mood though. For example, I expect that we can all recognise how kind and considerate drivers on the roads are less likely to cause accidents than aggressive and impatient drivers.
In a hospital or healthcare environment a programme called Civility Saves Lives demonstrates how lives are saved when staff are kind and civil.
Kindness matters when it comes to Covid and can also save lives. Tackling Covid is not just about keeping to the rules. Vaccination is making a huge difference to the impact of Covid and I continue to encourage everyone to take up the offer of both doses of vaccine.
We should not rely on vaccination and rules alone though, and as restrictions continue to be slowly relaxed there are things that we can all continue to do to control virus spread.
Washing hands is a basic precaution against many infections and is really important to reduce the chance of Covid transmission.
We may not hear as much about hand washing now as we did at the start of Covid, but it is still vital and will continue to be important when the pandemic has finished.
We should wet our hands, then wash with soap and take 20 seconds to wash, which is about the time it takes to sing Happy Birthday twice.
Using hand gel to clean our hands is a suitable alternative when soap and water are not available.
Taking time to wash our hands often will reduce Covid, while a quick wave of our hands under the tap will have little effect.
Covering our mouth and nose with a tissue or sleeve when we cough or sneeze will also help, then throwing away the tissue and washing our hands.
Wearing face coverings when it is hard to keep a distance from people remains important and we should also try to avoid touching our nose or mouth. It is no coincidence that infections other than Covid have been less common in recent months.
As people take precautions against Covid they are also effective against other diseases such as influenza.
When we take time to wash our hands, we are not only being kind to ourselves, we are also being kind to other people and reducing the spread of infection.
When we wear a face covering it is showing kindness to others by reducing the risk of passing on infection.
When we take a Covid test we are showing kindness to others.
If we need to self-isolate because of Covid symptoms or a positive test we are both obeying the rules and being kind to others.
Vaccination will save lives, following the rules saves lives, but so does kindness.
• Dr Tim Allison is NHS Highland’s director of public health and policy.
