Should all in-person shopping be reinstated? Should it be stopped altogether? Is wearing a mask a waste of time, or is it essential? Will getting the virus now make you immune in the future? How can we protect both our wellness and our economy? What are the best actions I can take to protect myself from this virus? None of these questions have clear answers, and we continue to argue and turmoil over vast uncertainties. As a Computer Science student, I prefer to look to science for answers. I want to protect myself and my family from this virus. The problem was, I didn’t quite know how, until I spoke with Jeffery Ringold, creator of the Human Fulfillment Institute. Jeff cleared my head with some statistics from preliminary studies on COVID-19. Did you know that you are roughly 20 times more likely to end up in the Intensive Care Unit due to COVID-19 if you have a Vitamin D deficiency? Did you know that the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey found that 41.6% of people are Vitamin D deficient? What’s more alarming is that the same study found that the highest rate of Vitamin D deficiency was found in African Americans, at a whopping 82.1%. If you are well read on current research studies then you might know these things, but the vast majority of people are not. According to studies on respiratory infections (which the corona virus falls under), Vitamin D is not the only way to lessen the impact of COVID-19 on your body. Vitamin C supplementation starting at the first signs of respiratory infection have seen an 85% reduction in symptoms, moderate physical exercise has seen a 50% reduction in respiratory infections, and increasing hours of nightly sleep from an average of 6 hours to an average of 7 hours has seen an 81% reduction in respiratory infections. Mindfulness based stress reduction has been shown to decrease incidence, duration, and severity of respiratory infections by similar margins. What does all of this mean? Well, rather than listening to politicians regurgitate ever-changing facts, I choose to take my health into my own hands, and follow the guidelines that research has uncovered. I urge you to do the same. While we are wiping all of our groceries down with Clorox wipes and closing businesses, the evidence suggests a more appropriate response may be to simply inform the public on how they can protect themselves. The whole reason we shut down was to prevent the overflow of hospitals and to reduce fatalities, right? Whether you view the shelter in place orders as a success or failure, it’s clear that the economy is suffering from our current methodology. What if closing all beaches and businesses is not necessary, and there is another way that no one’s talking about? If we combine all of the practices described above on a large scale, we can theoretically reduce the deadliness of COVID by vast margins without closing down businesses and sending millions of people into unemployment and bankruptcy. That is the objective of the Human Fulfillment Institute’s latest petition: a Preventative Health Campaign. You can do your part in reducing the impact of this pandemic by signing and sharing this petition with your friends and family. The petition not only calls for a public education campaign on the information discussed above, but also for economic stimulus for non-profits and wellness organizations like Yoga and Martial Arts studios, who play a critical role in human wellness, and yet are being hit the hardest by shelter in place orders. GetVirtual’s purpose is, in short, to reduce the impact of COVID-19. While we focus on small businesses entering an increasingly digital economic landscape, we are not the only ones with this mission. The Human Fulfillment Institute shares this objective from a human-health and wellness standpoint. This virus has shaken the global economy and taken many precious lives, and it is everyone’s responsibility, including yours, to stand together to face this pandemic as a community.

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