COVID-19 and Photography: Part 1a, Update - Understanding how the virus spreads

In the U.S., COVID-19 has already killed more than 193,000 people. It's done it in less than seven months. COVID-19 is a serious, highly infectious coronavirus. Since writing Part 1 of this series, nothing has changed about how serious the virus is and that photographers, amateurs and professionals alike, need to determine how to safely make photographs in the COVID-19 pandemic world. The photographic community needs to not only remain stay safe and healthy, but ensure, to the extent possible, that we don't spread the disease to others while making photographs.

While much about COVID-19 is still unknown, since writing Part 1 in late June, scientists have learned a great deal more about how the virus spreads. Here's what we know at this time.

COVID-19 and Photography: Part 1, Understanding how the virus spreads

In the U.S., COVID-19 has killed more than 100,000 people. It's done it in less than five months. COVID-19 is a serious, highly infectious coronavirus. Photographers, amateurs and professionals alike, need to determine how to safely make photographs in the COVID-19 pandemic world. We need to not only stay safe and healthy ourselves, but ensure, as much as possible, that we don't spread the disease to others while making photographs.

While much about COVID-19 is still unknown, scientists have learned a great deal about how the virus spreads in the last several months. Here's what we know at this time.

COVID-19 transmission is primarily person-to-person.
 
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has said for months that the primary way that COVID-19 spreads is person-to-person. It's spread mainly between people who are near to each other, six feet or closer, via respiratory droplets expelled from an infected person when they cough, sneeze, or merely talk. The droplets are inhaled by those nearby, infecting them. The CDC therefore recommends that during the pandemic, everyone “socially distances” by staying six feet or further from those around us.

Does the end of Windows XP support mean trouble for photographers using it?

Does your computer run on Microsoft Windows XP? If it does, you're not alone. As of the end of last month, NetMarketShare reported almost 30% of computers world-wide are still running Microsoft Windows XP, more than three times the total number of Apple computers running all versions of OSX.

As of April 8^th, Microsoft is ending support for Windows XP. That means Microsoft will no longer be providing security fixes, and other critical updates and patches to the 13 year old operating system.

You might ask if the end of Microsoft Windows XP support signals upcoming trouble for its users? In my opinion, it does!