By Erin Tucker

Having left a $4 billion path of destruction in Iowa alone, the storm on August 10 was one for the books. Like many of you, nobody here at Tucker Law had heard of a derecho . . . that is until we were almost blown away by one.

Although we're hoping that you escaped damage, some of you may still be in the process of trying to find a tree service, roofer, contractor or home repair company to help you put things to rights.

Here are a few tips and red flags from Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller to keep in mind when you consider hiring someone to do the work.

Be wary of storm chasers.
Be suspicious of tree removal, cleanup and home repair workers who show up at your door unbidden. They might be storm chasers — individuals who are constantly on the move from one disaster to another. Some of them might be trustworthy, but the problem is they're transient. You're likely to be unable to reach them if the work turns out to be unsatisfactory . . . if their 'fix' needs a fix.

Do your homework before doing your home work.
Research reputable, local businesses before you contact them. Even if it's not a long-established business, a local company will be much more motivated to do what you've hired them to do to protect their reputation because they live here.
 
Check out whoever you're considering.
Ask for and check local references before you sign a contract give anyone any money. You can check on complaints through Attorney General Miller's office and with the Better Business Bureau and check to see whether whoever it is you're considering has been sued by customers through Iowa Courts Online. You can also check on a contractor’s registration and bonding at the Iowa Division of Labor website. Ask for a copy of the contractor's liability insurance certificate.

Make sure you have verifiable contact information.
Get the company's address, phone number and email. Contractors who don’t provide a local phone number and a local physical address (not a post office box) are probably not local. Check the numbers by calling. It's also not a bad idea to write down the license plate number and vehicle description, or take a picture of the vehicle and plate, and keep the information for your records just in case.

Getting several written estimates.
The cost of work can vary considerably from company to company, so get more than one estimate, Compare and choose the best one for you which may mean taking more than just the price into account, factors such as availability, materials and guarantees.

Get a contract in writing.
Before work begins, get a written contract and don’t forget to read it — detailing the price, payment terms, exact scope of the work, brand and/or specifications of the materials to be used, who is responsible for permits, start and completion dates and remedies if the contractor fails to meet deadlines. For example, the contract could be nullified if the contractor doesn't start on time.

Understand your insurance.
If you’re filing an insurance claim to cover the costs of damages, negotiate the details with your insurance company directly and not through a contractor. Understand what your insurance provider will cover before you sign a contract.

Explore financing options.
It’s usually safer and a better deal to get financing through your local bank or credit union rather than a contractor.

Know your right to cancel.
If you sign a contract somewhere other than the contractor's regular place of business, such as at your home, you have three business days to cancel the contract without penalty.
    
Avoid paying large sums or the entire job up front.  
If you need to make a partial advance payment for materials, make your check out to the supplier and the contractor. Insist on a "mechanic's lien waiver" in case the contractor fails to pay others for materials or labor.

As always, we're just a phone call away. Let us know if we can help.

By Kelly Sargent

I'm an National Public Radio fan; one of the podcasts I listen to on a regular basis is Science Friday. When I popped in my earbuds Friday night, August 21, I was surprised to hear the derecho in Iowa featured and Iowa Public Radio reporter Kate Payne being interviewed about it. Kate describes the ways that victims of the derecho in Iowa, might be suffering more than past hurricane survivors, and having spent time in Florida covering hurricanes, she has a basis for comparison. I've attached a link to the podcast. It's worth a listen. 

Dealing with the Aftermath of Iowa's Devastating Derecho

By Kelly Sargent

It felt like a hurricane, but it was on dry land.

Some news sources called it a category 4 inland hurricane, others referred to it as an F3 tornado, but meteorologist and Forbes senior science contributor, Marshall Shepherd, says the correct word is derecho. I’d never heard of it either.

A derecho is a line of intense, widespread,  straight-line windstorms that moves across great distances with forces rivaling those of rotating hurricanes and tornadoes.

Whatever you call it, it was destructive. With sustained winds of 70 to 140 miles an hour, it cut a swath 1000 miles long from eastern Nebraska, through Iowa and into parts of Illinois, Indiana, Wisconsin and Michigan.

But the worst of it was right here in Iowa.

It came on so fast! The storm-alert sirens started blowing, but we couldn't figure out why. At that point it still looked like a regular day outside. Boy were we wrong. 

It started to rain, but then it started to blow. The power was on and off three times in the space of about a minute at our house, and then it was out permanently. We took ourselves and the furry children to the basement to wait it out. It blew and blew and blew. Later we learned that Ankeny, where we live, had been hit by 100 mile an hour winds. 

Erin’s privacy fence was decimated — 4” X 4” posts set in concrete snapped off like match sticks. At Rob’s, a big tree was toppled behind his house, but fortunately did no damage. When we walked outside at our house, it looked like a bomb had dropped.

Our behind-us neighbor had a row of seven, tall pine trees along the property line between his backyard, ours and our next door neighbor’s. Three of those trees were snapped in two. Our backyard looked like a bomb had gone off, but we were lucky: our garage, house and vehicles were all undamaged. Unfortunately for our next door neighbor, one of those downed pine trees impaled his garage in four places and took out our power line that traverses his back yard.

Below are four photos of our backyard in the aftermath. Below that are two pictures of our backyard neighbors.

Altogether some 800,000 households were without power across the Midwest, 330,000 were in Iowa, and of those nearly 101,000 were in Des Moines and surrounding suburbs, including Ankeny.

Rob was only out of power a day. Erin was without power four days. We were out from Monday until Friday night, five long days and nights, and a power surge fried my laptop and it’s backup drive.

Comparatively, though, we were spared. Cedar Rapids had sustained winds of 140 miles an hour, flipping over large RV homes, blowing semi trucks off the road and onto their sides, and damaging most structures at least to some extent, some severely. In Marion, six miles northeast of Cedar Rapids, 90% of the homes and buildings sustained damage. In Linn County, where both CR and Marion are located, 97% of households lost power, and as of today, August 21, 16,000 people are still without power there. 

Ten million acres of corn and soybean were destroyed or damaged. The Cedar Rapids Gazette reported that the preliminary estimate of damage is nearly $4 billion.

We feel for our friends and neighbors. If there’s any way Tucker Law can help, call us or write to us via email.

We’ll be back in a few days with suggestions from Attorney General Tom Miller on how to avoid being scammed by storm chasers . . . sketchy tree removal and home repair contractors who suddenly materialize after disasters.

,By Erin Tucker

You've probably heard on the news that coronavirus cases have risen dramatically around the world. Here in the US the seven-day new case average has tripled since mid-June. As of July 25 almost 4,200,000 Americans have been infected and at least 146,000 have died.

We're all tired of having to wear masks, constantly washing our hands and not being able to go out to restaurants, theaters and social events without fear of getting sick. It's important not to let down your guard now, though. Infections are surging, the disease is still potentially fatal, and many who contract it find they're left with serious, long-term negative health consequences. 

Although a recent analysis by the US CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) found that most patients exhibit one of three symptoms: fever, cough or shortness of breath —  coronavirus symptoms are wide-ranging. 

​To help you remember, here's the list of symptoms we shared with you in April. Below that is a link to Kelly's list of favorite old, funny movies to keep you entertained while we wait this out.

​Graphic credit: City of Lincoln, Nebraska


1. Fever 
The World Health Organization reported that 88% of individuals infected with COVID-19 experienced a fever. But what temperature qualifies as having a fever? The 98.6 degree Fahrenheit benchmark we've grown up memorizing as 'normal' was arrived at in the mid-1800's, and it's been gradually dropping throughout the population ever since. It's now the exception rather than the rule. In fact 75% of us have a normal body temperature lower than that, so it's important to know what 'normal' is for you. Most adults are considered feverish when their temperature hits 100 F. Fever often elevates in the late afternoon or early evening which makes that an ideal time to check.

2. Difficulty breathing
Although shortness of breath isn't usually the first symptom of coronavirus infection, it's an extremely serious one. Medical experts say that it's important to seek medical attention if you can't breathe deeply enough to take in a normal breath or if you experience persistent pain or pressure in your chest. Some patients have reported feeling as though a tight band was bound around their upper chest constricting their ability to fully inflate their lungs. 

3. Dry Cough
A persistent cough is another prevalent warning sign, but doctors say that it's not just any cough; it's not a tickle in your throat or the urge to clear your throat. It's a dry cough that feels as though it emanates from underneath your sternum deep inside your chest. 

4. Chills and body aches
In journalist Chris Cuomo's case, he was shaking so violently from the chills he had that he chipped a tooth, and his body aches were so severe that he felt beaten up. It may be difficult for those with less pronounced symptoms to distinguish coronavirus chills and achy muscles and joints from flu symptoms. One gauge: if your symptoms don't improve after about a week, but get worse instead, it may be a sign that you're dealing with the coronavirus and not the flu.

5. Inability to wake up
The CDC warns that sudden confusion or the inability to wake up to full alertness, especially in conjunction with other critical signs such as bluish lips and fever, has a high probability of being a medical emergency. Call 911.

6. Digestive issues
In the initial months of the coronavirus pandemic, diarrhea and other digestive symptoms didn't seem to be warning signs. But as the infection has spread yielding more cases and more data, a study revealed there was a subset of milder cases for which the initial symptoms were digestive issues and didn't include a fever. 

7. Pink eye
Researchers found that about 1% to 3% of those infected with COVID-19 had conjunctivitis, a highly contagious condition also known as pink eye. Conjunctivitis isn't a case of everyday bloodshot eyes. A nurse on the frontlines of the residential nursing home in Washington state where dozens died at the onset of the US outbreak said her coronavirus-infected patients looked almost as though they had red eye shadow on the outside of their eyes. 

8. Loss of smell or taste
The American Academy of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery issued a report saying that losing the ability to smell, called anosmia, or the ability to taste are also potential warning signs of COVID-19. Anosmia in particular has been seen in patients without any other symptoms who test positive. Analysis of milder cases in South Korea reported that in 30% of patients the major symptom was a loss of smell, and in Germany more than two-thirds of confirmed cases had anosmia.

9. Extreme fatigue
A World Health Organization study found that nearly 40% of patients out of nearly 6000 COVID-19 cases they analyzed, had experienced extreme fatigue. Chris Cuomo said he was so exhausted that he would he would take what he thought was a 10-minute nap when it had actually been three and half hours. 

10. Headache, sore throat and congestion
The same WHO report also found that almost 14% of the confirmed COVID-19 cases they analyzed suffered headache and sore throat, and 5% experienced nasal congestion, symptoms that can be difficult to distinguish from a cold or flu, so consider the totality of how you're feeling — and don't panic. 

14 Lesser-Known Movies to See You Through

By Rob Tucker

This year, once again I had the pleasure of serving on the Rotary Club of Des Moines college scholarship committee. One winner is chosen from each of Des Moines' six high schools — East, Hoover, Lincoln, North,  Roosevelt and Scavo — to receive an $8000 scholarship. If you're doing the math, that's $48,000 in scholarship money. 

Teammates Kelly Sargent, Mark Lyons and I have been responsible for selecting the East High winner for at least the last 10 years. School counselors narrow the field to four semi-finalists, and we reviews their applications, transcripts, activities, personal essays and in the last step of the process, interview them to select the winner. 

Invariably, it's a rewarding and heartening undertaking to visit with these exceptional young people, but the flip side of that is that they're each and everyone so deserving that it makes our job very difficult.

Normally we would have interviewed the four finalists at East High on a given day, but since classes at all Des Moines public schools were canceled because of the coronavirus pandemic, the interview process was a bit more challenging. Mark persevered, however, contacted our finalists and set up Zoom interviews, and it all went smoothly.
​
Our three runners-up were Jasmine Dao, Sunya Hardi, and Rachel Puok, who will each receive a $100 gift Target gift card to buy items they might need for college. The winner of the $2000 a year ($8000 total) scholarship is Priscilla Macias. 

Priscilla plans to attend Iowa State University to pursue a degree in science. She ranks eighth in her class of 469 at East with a weighted GPA of 4.23. Her school activities include cross country, National Honor Society, Science Bound and Link Crew which gives incoming freshman advice on acclimating to high school. She also serves as class secretary.  

Outside of school, Priscilla works 16 to 20 hours a week at HyVee to contribute to the income in her single-parent household. She mentioned in her application that her parents endured a difficult domestic dispute a couple of years ago. When we asked her how she dealt with that, her answer was “I just persevere.” 

Good advice for all of us today.

Rotary Club of Des Moines scholarship winners
Top row from left to right: ​Nicole Marinero Cea (Lincoln), Jessica Cruz Hernandez (Hoover), Ruth Bropleh (North)  
Second row from left to right: Priscilla Macias (East), Emily Adams (Scavo), Nyana Robinson (Roosevelt)

 By Kelly Sargent

Perhaps you've heard of Juneteenth, but like a large swathe of the citizenry, you may not know much about it. Here's a primer. 

​Juneteenth is an unofficial — and in some states an official American holiday observed on June 19. Also called Liberation Day, Black Independence Day, Freedom Day, and Jubilee Day, it commemorates the 1865 adoption of the Emancipation Proclamation in the last remaining state to which President Abraham Lincoln's proclamation and executive order applied.

Although President Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863 declaring slaves free people, it didn't actually end slavery since it only applied to the 11 states at war with the Union. As the most remote of the Confederate states with only a small presence of Union troops, Texas simply chose to ignore it.

Lincoln recognized that it would require amending the US Constitution to abolish slavery and permanently emancipate the millions of men, women and children enslaved in America, and worked toward that end. In April of 1864 the US Senate passed a proposed Constitutional amendment banning slavery, but it languished in the House of Representatives. Nine months later the House barely passed the amendment with the required two-thirds majority, and the next day, Lincoln approved a joint resolution of Congress submitting it to the state legislatures for ratification.

Meanwhile, in spite of General Robert E. Lee's surrender of his Army of Northern Virginia at Appomattox on April 9, 1865, the Civil War wasn't over. Other contingencies of Confederate troops remained active including Colonel Rip Ford in Texas, and the necessary number of states had yet to ratify the 13th Amendment. 

Juneteenth, marks the day that Union Army Major General Gordon Granger asserted Union authority and read an official order in Galveston, stating in part: “The people of Texas are informed that, in accordance with a proclamation from the Executive of the United States, all slaves are free. This involves an absolute equality of personal rights and rights of property between former masters and slaves."

The first celebration of Juneteenth took place the following year, 1866. What began as local church gatherings evolved into larger community events that spread across Texas and throughout the South. Juneteenth is now celebrated in most major US cities, and 48 of the 50 states recognize it in some way, but only Texas has designated it as a state holiday . . . so far.

Yesterday New York Governor Andrew Cuomo signed an executive order making it a paid holiday for state workers, and an ongoing campaign to declare Juneteenth a Federal holiday has recently gained renewed momentum. 
​
Happy Juneteenth everyone. Black lives matter.

By Erin Tucker and Kelly Sargent

As of May 20 each state that had imposed a stay-at-home order has begun lifting restrictions on businesses and public spaces. The COVID-19 pandemic is by no means over, though. World-wide, cases top 5 million, and according to the WHO, the last 24 hours was the worst day yet for new infections. In the US at least 17 states have recorded an unmistakable upward trend of average new daily cases.

That's why doctors, epidemiologists and infectious disease specialists continue to recommend social distancing and staying home as much as possible until the rate of infection drops more significantly.

Since we're all spending more time at home than usual, Tucker Law team member and movie buff Kelly Sargent has agreed to share a list of her favorite lesser-known, light-hearted classics to help take your mind off the avalanche of scary news. You may be familiar with some of her selections, but there are also probably at least a few you've never heard of. Several of these movies are free on YouTube, the others are available through rental or subscription services

From Kelly:

The Gold Rush  1925  Available on Amazon Prime Video

You might be surprised to discover that a silent movie can be this charming, but The Gold Rush is a true cinema classic: pure gold, if you'll pardon the pun. Charlie Chaplin as the Little Tramp, a character he made famous in a series of movies, heads north to join the Klondike gold rush where he's forced to share a small cabin with another prospector and a fugitive when they're trapped by a blizzard. Finally freed, he meets and falls in love with a beautiful barmaid, but many a missed connection must be overcome before they can be together. 

Earth Girls are Easy  1988  Available on Amazon Prime Video, Vudu, iTunes and YouTube

​​A musical-comedy-science-fiction movie, Earth Girls Are Easy is based on a 1984 song of the same name by comedian, singer-songwriter Julie Brown. The plot centers on events that transpire when a space ship containing three aliens crashes into valley girl Valerie Gail's swimming pool.

​Valerie, played by Gena Davis, Candy Pink played by Julie herself, and the staff at Candy's hair salon try to help aliens Jeff Goldblum, Damon Wayans and Jim Carrey blend in by giving them make-overs. In the process Valerie falls for Jeff's alien self — apparently in real life too since they got married the following year. It's fun to see Jim Carrey in one of his earliest roles.  





The Man Who Knew Too Little 1997  Available on Amazon Prime Video, Vudu, iTunes and YouTube

This is the most mainstream of the movies listed, the one you're most likely to have seen, but I can't resist including it because it's just so funny. It's one Paul and I can watch again and again and never become inured. Bill Murray stars as Wallace Ritchie who hails from Des Moines! as the quintessential, naively-ignorant American traveling abroad for the first time. In London to celebrate his brother James' (played by Peter Gallagher) birthday, he inadvertently gets in the middle of a Soviet espionage plot to detonate a bomb at a British and Russian state dinner. Along the way Wallace falls in love of course. It's the perfect laugh-out-loud sendup of the spy movie genre.

Waking Ned Divine  1998  Available on Amazon Prime Video, Vudu, iTunes and YouTube

When someone in the tiny village of Tulaigh Mhór, population, 52, wins the Irish lottery, best mates Jackie O'Shea and Michael O'Sullivan devise a scheme to figure out who the winner might be, intent upon currying favor with the newly-minted, multi-million-pound neighbor and getting a slice of the pie. After concluding through a process of elimination that the lucky person must be Ned Devine, they pay him a visit and find him dead from the shock of having won. Since Ned is the only one who can claim the prize, Jackie and Michael hatch a plan for Michael to impersonate Ned, but not before the whole town wants in. If you've never seen an old-ish naked guy riding around on a scooter, now's your chance.

Saving Grace 2000  Available on Amazon Prime Video, Vudu, iTunes and YouTube

The marvelous Brenda Blethyn stars as Grace Trevethen whose late husband jumped out of a plane without a parachute. She finds herself left with their manor home on the Cornish Coast but no life insurance proceeds and a crushing load of debt her husband had been secretly amassing. 

With creditors after her and foreclosure imminent, she's faced with the prospect of losing everything. When Grace, who is liked by everyone and happens to have a green thumb, is asked by a friend to tend a few sickly plants, she discovers she's actually nurturing marijuana — and learns how much they're worth! A few clippings plus her ability to scale up seem like the solution to all her pressing money problems. Eventually the whole town inadvertently comes under the influence including a pair of delightful LOL-LOLs (laugh-out-loud little-old-lades) who have some "lovely lovely" for sale.

​The film also stars Martin Clunes of Doc Martin fame and stand-up comedian and former talk show host Craig Ferguson in early roles. 

​
Elvis Has Left the Building  2004  Available on Amazon Prime Video, Vudu, iTunes and YouTube

Although Elvis Has Left the Building didn't garner much attention at the time, we swear by this little-seen, laugh-out-loud farce with its sparkling cast, enough so that we bought the DVD.

Harmony Jones, played by Kim Bassinger, is a top-selling Pink Lady cosmetic saleswoman whose life was forever touched when at seven years old she met the King. Although Harmony has been extremely successful in her career, what she really wants is to meet a nice man to marry and settle down.

In the process of making back-to-back appearances at Pink Lady events near Las Vegas, Harmony encounters a series of Elvis impersonators in hotels and on the road because there's an Elvis impersonator convention taking place in Las Vegas. A string of unlikely but fatal accidents befalls first one Elvis impersonator who happens to be her vicinity and then another and another and another.

Harmony becomes convinced that she's somehow karmically killing them, so when she meets Miles who seems to be the man she's been hoping for — played by John Corbett of Northern Exposure and My Big Fat Greek Wedding fame — but whom she mistakenly believes is an Elvis impersonator, she tries hard to ditch him in order to spare his life. Kim is never not 100% believable, Annie Potts who's always spot on, plays her best friend Shirl, Denise Richards, Sean Astin, Angie Dickinson also makes appearances, and Tom Hanks has a 20-second cameo as 'mail box' Elvis.

House Bunny  2008  Available on Amazon Prime Video, Vudu, iTunes and YouTube

Playboy Bunny Shelley Darlingson, rendered to perfection by Anna Faris, has lived a life of luxury at Hugh Hefner's mansion. Disaster strikes when Shelley turns 27 and is deemed too old to be a Bunny. Kicked out into the real world, she wanders onto a college campus and becomes the housemother at a failing sorority made up of geeky, awkward girls who view her as the answer to all their problems. If anyone can teach them how to attract boys, surely a Playboy Bunny can. 

Anna's rendition of Shelley feels like an extension of the classic, archetypal, blonde, comedic leading lady with flawless timing à la​ Carole Lombard, Betty Hutton and Ginger Rogers who've been, I think, an under-appreciated mainstay of cinema since the first moving picture flickered on screen. Emma Stone and Tom Hanks' son Colin also have starring roles.

By Kelly Sargent

As the number of novel coronavirus cases has risen — as of April 13, 2020 nearly 2 million confirmed cases and 120,000 deaths worldwide; almost 600,000 cases in the US and 23,000 deaths — doctors have recognized more potential warning signs than those first identified. In addition to taking as many precautions as you can, such as frequent, thorough hand-washing and physical distancing, monitoring your health and those of loved ones is vital. Here's a more comprehensive list of possible symptoms.

1. Fever 
The World Health Organization reported that 88% of individuals infected with COVID-19 experienced a fever. But what temperature qualifies as having a fever? The 98.6 degree Fahrenheit benchmark we've grown up memorizing as 'normal' was arrived at in the mid-1800's, and it's been gradually dropping throughout the population ever since. It's now the exception rather than the rule. In fact 75% of us have a normal body temperature lower than that, so it's important to know what 'normal' is for you. My husband's, for example, runs steadily at about 97.7. Most adults are considered feverish when their temperature hits 100 F. Fever often elevates in the late afternoon or early evening which makes that an ideal time to check.

2. Difficulty breathing
Although shortness of breath isn't usually an early symptom of coronavirus infection, it's an extremely serious one. Medical experts say that it's important to seek medical attention if you can't breathe deeply enough to take in a normal breath or if you experience persistent pain or pressure in your chest. Some patients have reported feeling as though a tight band was bound around their upper chest constricting their ability to fully inflate their lungs. 

3. Dry Cough
A persistent cough is another prevalent warning sign, but doctors say that it's not just any cough; it's not a tickle in your throat or the urge to clear your throat. It's a dry cough that feels as though it emanates from underneath your sternum deep inside your chest. 

4. Chills and body aches
In journalist Chris Cuomo's case, he was shaking so violently from the chills he had that he chipped a tooth, and his body aches were so severe that he felt beaten up. It may be difficult for those with less pronounced symptoms to distinguish coronavirus chills and achy muscles and joints from flu symptoms. One gauge: if your symptoms don't improve after about a week, but get worse instead, it may be a sign that you're dealing with the coronavirus and not the flu.

5. Inability to wake up
The CDC warns that sudden confusion or the inability to wake up to full alertness, especially in conjunction with other critical signs such as bluish lips and fever, has a high probability of being a medical emergency. Call 911.

6. Digestive issues
In the initial months of the coronavirus pandemic, diarrhea and other digestive symptoms didn't seem to be warning signs. But as the infection has spread yielding more cases and more data, a study revealed there was a subset of milder cases for which the initial symptoms were digestive issues and didn't include a fever. 

7. Pink eye
Researchers from China and elsewhere found that about 1% to 3% of those infected with COVID-19 had conjunctivitis, a highly contagious condition also known as pink eye. Conjunctivitis isn't a case of everyday bloodshot eyes. A nurse on the frontlines of the residential nursing home in Washington state where dozens died at the onset of the US outbreak said her coronavirus-infected patients looked almost as though they had red eye shadow on the outside of their eyes. 

8. Loss of smell or taste
The American Academy of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery issued a report saying that losing the ability to smell, called anosmia, or the ability to taste are also potential warning signs of COVID-19. Anosmia in particular has been seen in patients without any other symptoms who test positive. Analysis of milder cases in South Korea reported that in 30% of patients the major symptom was a loss of smell, and in Germany more than two-thirds of confirmed cases had anosmia.

9. Extreme fatigue
A World Health Organization study found that nearly 40% of patients out of nearly 6000 COVID-19 cases they analyzed, had experienced extreme fatigue. Chris Cuomo said he was so exhausted that he would he would take what he thought was a 10-minute nap when it had actually been three and half hours. 

10. Headache, sore throat and congestion
The same WHO report also found that almost 14% of the confirmed COVID-19 cases they analyzed suffered headache and sore throat, and 5% experienced nasal congestion, symptoms that can be difficult to distinguish from a cold or flu, so consider the totality of how you're feeling — and don't panic. 

Be especially alert to the more common and serious symptoms as you monitor your health and that of those you love.

In the meantime, until this is behind us — stay home as much as you possibly can and be careful!​

By Kelly Sargent

Together, we're all trying to stay safe and healthy as we collectively weather this global pandemic. In additional to taking as many precautions as you can, such as frequent, thorough hand-washing and physical distancing to avoid infection, monitoring your health and those of loved ones is vital. 

Recently new coronavirus warning signs have released. Here's a list of those you've already heard about and the new, less prevalent symptoms.

Fever 
The World Health Organization reported that 88% of individuals infected with coronavirus experienced a fever. But what temperature qualifies as having a fever? The 98.6 degree Fahrenheit benchmark we've grown up hearing as 'normal' was arrived at in the mid-1800's, and it's been gradually dropping across the population ever since. It's now exception rather than the rule. In fact 75% of us have a normal body temperature lower than that, so it's important to know what 'normal' is for you. My husband's, for example, runs steadily at about 97.7. Most adults are considered feverish when their temperature hits 100 F. Fever often elevates in the late afternoon or early evening which makes that the best time to check it. 

Cough
A cough is another warning sign: 68% of those infected. But it's not just any cough. Dr. William Schaffner from Vanderbilt University School of Medicine says it's not a tickle in your throat or the urge to clear your throat. It's a dry cough that you feel in your chest. 

Difficulty breathing
With coronavirus, shortness of breath can occur with or without a cough and can be a significant and dangerous warning sign. Doctors warn that you should seek medical attention if your chest gets tight or you start feeling as if you can't breathe deeply enough to get a good breath. The CDC also lists persistent pain or pressure in the chest, bluish lips or face indicating a lack of oxygen, and any sudden mental confusion, lethargy or inability to rouse as serious conditions that warrant calling 911 immediately.

Three new potential warning signs
The American Academy of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery issued a report saying that losing the ability to smell, called anosmia, or the ability to taste, known as disgeusia, and conjunctivitis, a highly contagious condition also known as pink eye, are also potential warning signs. Anosmia in particular has been seen in patients without any other symptoms who test positive for COVID-19. 

Conjunctivitis isn't a case of everyday bloodshot eyes. Chelsey Earnest, a nurse on the frontlines of hard-hit Life Care Center in Kirkland, Washington, said her coronavirus-infected patients looked almost like they had red eye shadow on the outside of their eyes. Data from elsewhere indicates that it's a much rarer indicator, but it could be one more sign to seek medical attention if you also have other tell-tale symptoms.

In the meantime, self-isolate as much as you possibly can. Make no unnecessary trips and keep washing your hands thoroughly — at least 20 seconds, making lots and lots of lather. 

By Kelly Sargent

We all touch our faces multiple times an hour without even realizing we're doing it . . . scratching little itches, brushing hair out of our field of vision or crumbs off fromour lips or rubbing our eyes. That’s a problem when there’s an extremely infectious disease on the loose. 

When we’re out in the world, at work or shopping or any public place, we touch all sorts of things scores of other people have touched before we got there. The microbes they left on the doorknob, light switch, handle, elevator button, shopping cart, card reader or whatever it was, are transferred to our hands, and from our hands to other parts of our bodies, particularly our faces. 

Face-touching is a hard habit to break because we all do it so unconsciously, but we should try to minimize it as much as we can. The CDC says that In addition to frequent, thorough hand washing (click here for the proper technique) and social distancing, not touching our faces — in particular eyes, nose and mouth — is another important precaution we can take to avoid being infected with the coronavirus.

Here are some tips to help minimize that involuntary, face-touching reflex.

— Identify triggers. For example if you tend to rub your eyes because they’re dry, try using moisturizing eyedrops. If wearing contact lenses makes you more disposed to rubbing your eyes, consider switching to glasses.

— Keep a box of pop-up tissues within sight and easy reach. When you get the urge to rub your nose, scratch an itch or any other face-touching activity, use a tissue to do it. 

— Apply strongly-scented lotion or essential oil such as lavender or eucalyptus to your hands. Your nose will tell you when your hands are getting close to your face. 

— Keep your hands busy doing something else. If your work leaves one or both hands free for stretches of time, for example when you’re talking on the phone, get a stress ball, fidget-spinner or some other hand-held object to keep your hands occupied.

— Breathe. Anxiety and stress tend to make anyone antsy and restless. Meditation or focused breathing can help you still your body and mind.

— Keep washing your hands! If you forget and rub your nose or your eyes, if your hands are freshly washed, you’ll be fine. No need to obsess. Just be thoughtful and careful.