Humans are not averse to a stupid online "challenge". We've had the challenge where everybody ate laundry detergent for some reason, we've had the challenge where everybody consumed dry cinnamon powder because they enjoyed coughing(?), and we've even had the "boiling water challenge", which is basically just felony assault with the word "challenge" attached for legal reasons.
Now from the creators of the Skull-breaker Challenge (i.e. humans) we have the #CoronaVirusChallenge, which began trending earlier on Friday. Wondering what the hell it is? You aren't alone.
For the large part, humans are sharing some pretty unorthodox DIY methods that people are using to avoid the new coronavirus. A lot of them, however, appear to be aimed at stopping you from getting the coronavirus by killing you via suffocation first.
As well as people doing it for a joke, there have been people spotted doing this in the wild.
They're even making masks for their cats.
While this may be a bit of fun/a bit silly, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and people who don't want to catch and/or spread the coronavirus would prefer you play the "wash your goddamn hands" challenge, which we have been alarmed to discover is something people will only do when faced with a global health threat. It's much more effective than face masks, and there's less chance of suffocation.
The goal is to wash your hands for around 20 seconds, which is around the time it takes to sing Happy Birthday twice.
Fortunately, people have been compiling lists of other 20-second choruses to sing along to, so you don't go out of your mind with Happy Birthday on repeat.
You might also want to join the "please for the love of god stop touching your face" challenge recommended by the CDC, which people are finding more difficult than it sounds, as demonstrated by this press conference on what not to do if you want to avoid COVID-19 below.
If you need some more help, there's a website that will shout at you when you touch your face, to train you out of doing it.
The CoronaVirusChallenge is also trending because some people just want to jump on the hashtag to give the world a little light relief amidst this serious global health threat.
And share something nice a doctor did for a patient in China.
If you want to take a lesson away from this, it's that you should get your information from respected health sources like the CCD rather than a hashtag. And please, please please, wash your goddamn hands.
