Coronavirus prep
Replies
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spiriteagle99 wrote: »Someone in the region was ticketed yesterday ($225) for breaking the Stay at Home order. She was just driving around, supposedly, and was stopped by a cop. If she had been smarter, she would have said she was going out for a hike, but she told him she was bored and just driving to get out of the house. I wonder if that will become common or if she just was used to set an example?
Our store shelves are still remarkably empty, at least in the afternoon. No frozen vegetables, no TP or hand sanitizer, etc. They did still have their sale items on sale as usual.
This is super silly. People driving around aren’t in contact with each other. I don’t know if this is true in Memphis, but in Southaven the mayor pointed out that he encourages people to drive around to keep from going nuts.5 -
Nony_Mouse wrote: »Reading this thread it kind of seems like the US is going to hell in a handbasket really, really fast.
It depends greatly on geography as there is little coordinated national direction or facilitation and most everything is happening at the state level.8 -
rheddmobile wrote: »bmeadows380 wrote: »janejellyroll wrote: »
I guess I don't get the thing about being horrified about the cursive writing. Our grandparents had some skills that we don't have. My great-nieces and nephews will doubtlessly possess the ability to do things that I cannot. There's no general reason why skillsets must remain unchanging through generations.
It will be rather difficult to read original source information for a historian if they can't read cursive handwriting, and before you ask, I had a friend who started into a History Master's degree and it was vital that they get their information from the original sources, not copies or typed copies.
So one downside of not learning how to read cursive is a loss of history and information. If Great-grandaddy's journal is passed down, how will the child who can't read cursive read it and learn about his ancestor's thoughts?
Exactly. I’ve recently been doing some transcription for NARA of original documents from the Civil War. Got halfway through one dispatch and realized it answered a question that historians had been arguing about, having to do with the course of a particular battle. Most of what I’m transcribing is perfectly beautiful, legible handwriting in cursive, but surprisingly few people today are able to read it! Do we really want to have to call in experts to read our own history?
Okay, grant that the Civil War was 150 years ago, and maybe you don’t care about that. What about letters from within your own family? The love letters your mom and dad exchanged while they were engaged and he was away at college? Your grandma’s recipes? The inscriptions in your family Bible? Not being able to read cursive means not being able to read any private document from the very recent past.
There is, undoubtedly, "an app for that". We live in a different time. You will find digital solutions for most obscure skills.
When I was little, my grandmother used an abacus to calculate sales. I learned how to use it because I used to help her. We had them as toys, but few children my age knew how to use it beyond the most basic one line addition. It didn't matter because they learned other methods (pen and paper) to calculate numbers, and they had other tools (calculators) to make that easier if needed. It was an obscure skill then, and it's even more obscure now.... and there's an app for that.8 -
bmeadows380 wrote: »janejellyroll wrote: »
I guess I don't get the thing about being horrified about the cursive writing. Our grandparents had some skills that we don't have. My great-nieces and nephews will doubtlessly possess the ability to do things that I cannot. There's no general reason why skillsets must remain unchanging through generations.
It will be rather difficult to read original source information for a historian if they can't read cursive handwriting, and before you ask, I had a friend who started into a History Master's degree and it was vital that they get their information from the original sources, not copies or typed copies.
So one downside of not learning how to read cursive is a loss of history and information. If Great-grandaddy's journal is passed down, how will the child who can't read cursive read it and learn about his ancestor's thoughts?
Can you read old English? I can't. Scholars can. Scholars of the future will learn cursive. It's not as if there is no instructional information, or as if it's particularly hard. Future scholars won't need to search for some obscure Rosetta stone.
Can my son read the letters his grandfather sent home from his military assignments overseas? Yes, he can. Did he have to read a handwritten (gasp!) message his friend received in a birthday card from a relative because the friend couldn't? Yes, he did. Some kids can't even sign their names, they can only print them. We're not talking an obscure or by-gone language that only scholars use - we're talking current, contemporary language that kids are not allowed to learn at school how to read and write. Casting the ability to read and write in cursive as an unnecessary skill best reserved for scholarly men - how very sad. There was a time, not that long ago, where only wealthy men were deemed important enough to need to know how, and in fact it was actually illegal for some people to learn to read and write.8 -
MikePfirrman wrote: »Diatonic12 wrote: »So much doublespeak or doubletalk. Now they're telling everyone that wearing a mask protects others from 'you' but that road runs both directions. I knew on day one that masks and gloves offer protection but there's not enough to go around. I've been improvising since the dawn came to light as I've been taking care of others for years.
@MikePfirrman Do you know if pneumonia and shingle shots offer any protection vs. having none.
I'm not a scientist or a doc but I don't think that either do. I think both are a good idea, but I haven't gotten either of them. I'm a strong proponent of AHCC, a mushroom derivative supplement. I believe, if I'm not mistaken, that both Shingles and Pneumococcal stem from the HPV virus, the same one that causes certain cervical cancers. AHCC is a supplement that has been clinically proven both to boost the immune system and also eradicate HPV viruses over time. I'm certainly not antivax by any wild stretch of the imagination, but I prefer AHCC, which is also fantastic in general right now. If I were a healthcare worker, I'd be taking AHCC daily. Essentially, it helps your NK and T Cells work much more efficiently and actively.
No comment on prophylactic supplements, but about the bolded:
There are multiple HPVs (Human PapillomaVirus): Dozens, probably over 100. It's a family of viruses, similarly to the way Coronaviruses are a family. There are multiple STDs (sexually transmitted diseases) that are HPVs (about 40). Some of those cause genital warts. Some of those cause cervical cancer. Some HPVs can cause lung infections.
Each type, as a generality, causes distinct diseases, or clusters of diseases, but all the HPVs are not one thing, just as some types of the common cold are Coronaviruses, but are not the same thing as the novel Coronavirus that causes COVID-19.
Chicken pox and shingles are Varicella zoster, not an HPV. IMU, it's a herpes virus (also a larger family, which includes some STDs, but the STDs are not Chicken Pox or Shingles).
I know this is off-topic to the thread, for which I apologize, but there's so much dysfunctional information circulating in the world about HPVs (and the HPV vaccination), and Varicella (and the Shingles vaccination), that I didn't want to let this unclarity pass without comment.
Thanks Ann for the clarification. Like I said, I wasn't sure about Pneumococcal. I didn't imply anywhere that Covid-19 was an HPV. Also, there is a human clinical trial already on if AHCC, which as I mentioned kills HPV, can prevent (I should say reduce the chances of getting) Covid-19, which aren't the same thing, I realize. What that trial will find out, who knows. But at this point they are throwing lots of prescription pills at it without any clinical proof.2 -
In on-topic news, the SaveMart grocery chain announced protected hours for medical personnel and other first responders.7
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bmeadows380 wrote: »So one downside of not learning how to read cursive is a loss of history and information. If Great-grandaddy's journal is passed down, how will the child who can't read cursive read it and learn about his ancestor's thoughts?
You can't necessarily read great-grandaddy's journal now, however -- or at least you can't necessarily read gggg-grandaddy's journal. Standard taught writing changes over time and reading old-fashioned handwriting is a skill (and varies from place to place). Reading old censuses can be tough, and other documents often tougher, and that's not even talking about ones that might be in, say, Latin. I am luck enough to have some letters my ggg-grandfather wrote back to his family in England after emigrating to the US, and they are hard to make out despite my knowing cursive (although it's a skill -- readable cursive -- that I have lost substantially since I type everything almost). I have some wills that are even older, and they are tougher still. There are classes in how to read old fashioned handwriting and will no doubt be classes in how to read cursive for those interested.8 -
Now, huge numbers of people who normally go out to workplaces daily are staying home. Substantial numbers of the 20% of people who've used 80% of the supply are now using home TP instead of industrial-roll TP.
When I was last at Costco (3 weeks?) home TP was out of stock, but there were still cases of the bigger industrial rolls. Coincidence?
(
<== please note LOLs, and refrain from arguing the point logically. I'm joking. Mostly.)
ETA, with some extra : Not two minutes after I typed the above, I heard an NPR story (on All Things Considered) in which they mentioned that the shift from workplace to home TP was probably one (small) factor in the TP demand, though far from the most important one. Weird coincidence!
That makes sense. I actually heard that if you go downtown (which is mostly a business district) it's easy to find. Happily, I am not currently in need.1 -
Chef_Barbell wrote: »T1DCarnivoreRunner wrote: »cmriverside wrote: »T1DCarnivoreRunner wrote: »Chef_Barbell wrote: »T1DCarnivoreRunner wrote: »It may not be just a question of being able to afford food. I keep my diet pretty restrictive to help manage BG. It has been more and more difficult to find the food that I eat. I had been switching to just beef because I had the most success with that. Last time I went shopping, there was no beef, so I got some eggs, turkey, and cheese. Next time, there may be no animal products at all.
A couple months ago, I transitioned my cat from canned to dry food. It worked faster than planned and I still have some canned food yet. I had been putting out a can for him every once in awhile, but have decided to stop doing that and will keep the canned food in case I run out completely. It is turkey and very low carb because no gravy. I had switched to this food back when I had a diabetic cat, but he died in Oct. 2018 and I just recently decided to switch my remaining cat back to dry for cost and convenience reasons.
Wait... you're gonna stock cat food to eat yourself? :noway:
No, I already have the cat food. Just going to keep feeding the cat dry food and hold back the wet canned food in case.cmriverside wrote: »T1DCarnivoreRunner wrote: »It may not be just a question of being able to afford food. I keep my diet pretty restrictive to help manage BG. It has been more and more difficult to find the food that I eat. I had been switching to just beef because I had the most success with that. Last time I went shopping, there was no beef, so I got some eggs, turkey, and cheese. Next time, there may be no animal products at all.
A couple months ago, I transitioned my cat from canned to dry food. It worked faster than planned and I still have some canned food yet. I had been putting out a can for him every once in awhile, but have decided to stop doing that and will keep the canned food in case I run out completely. It is turkey and very low carb because no gravy. I had switched to this food back when I had a diabetic cat, but he died in Oct. 2018 and I just recently decided to switch my remaining cat back to dry for cost and convenience reasons.
Where do you live that you can't find meat?
This was last Sat. in Dyersburg, TN. They had some meat, but almost no beef except for the roast beef lunchmeat. They had 4 dozen eggs (all medium), of which I bought 2. And I got some turkey lunchmeat as well as a block of cheese. I had started switching to beef at the beginning of 2020, and got to 90% beef by Feb... was 100% by Mar. until that happened. Hadn't eaten cheese at all this year until that.
ETA: The roast beef lunchmeat, I was able to get 2 pack, I think 7 oz. each. That was the last of their beef.
Okay, so you found what you needed. Just not what you wanted.
I believe (based on nothing at all) that the stores are stocking all day, but not a full shelf at all times, to dissuade the panic-buy-55-cases of meat shoppers. There is enough supply, but not if everyone fills three refrigerators all at one time. These kind of posts that, "There was no mea!!!" just fuels the fear
You got what you needed.
I said there was no beef and explained that I had to change my diet (from beef only) to the animal products that were available. I'm sorry if you thought I was saying there was no meat. There was very little, but not zero. There was zero unprocessed beef, however. So I got the little bit of processed beef that remained, as well as some other animal-based foods. I'm fearful that when I go this weekend, there will be no animals at all based on the limited supply I saw last weekend, including zero beef (which is why I had to change my diet). I also pointed out that I will eat canned cat food before I eat heavy carb plants... and if that is all that remains available is rice or other carbs, then I have some cat food kept at the ready in case. I hope that is more clear.
That's a bit much imo 🤷🏼♀️
Not sure what you mean... I eat this way because I have found it is optimal for BG management. Are you suggesting that I suddenly switch back to eating plants? Since I've been eating carnivore for enough years now, such a change would make me quite sick in addition to causing BG issues. Keep in mind that toilet paper has not been available at all for weeks without any idea when it will be available again.*
*As a side-note, I found it somewhat comical that Walgreens put toilet paper in their ad despite that it cannot be purchased online at all and is completely sold out at all stores within a 1 hr. drive. I may as well laugh because it sure doesn't help to cry about it.
ETA: Another useful tip while on the topic of toilet paper... if you have to use something else like paper towels or old clothing, do not try to flush it. Even paper towels don't break up the same way, so put them in the trash instead.5 -
while not in a room holding a patient's hand or helping to intubate patients of the COVID-19 pandemic, we Clinical Laboratory Scientists, phlebotomists and lab assistants are in the lab handling the many infectious specimens from these same highly infectious patients. We, too, are on the front line placing ourselves at risk. The shortage of PPE and staffing also affects the laboratory which in turn directly affects patient care.
I have been seeing many posts and media articles lamenting the fact that we are too far behind in COVID-19 testing from where we should be, and I felt perhaps it was a good time to give a little extra insight into this issue. Let's look at some important stats.
In the United States right now, there are approximately 310,000 laboratory professionals employed. There are 2.89 million nurses employed. There are 1.2 million doctors. In the US, there are approximately 350 million citizens. For laboratory professionals who take the brunt of all tests, that leaves 1129 people per one laboratory scientist, and one person averages 39 various tests per year, which culminates in 14 billion tests.
Right now, in this pandemic, we are at a shortage for testing supplies. This is something many media sources are reporting daily, and leads us all to believe that the biggest hindrance to testing volume in the US directly hinges on the availability of testing supplies... But this is not the only hindrance, and perhaps it is time to shine light on another hidden shortcoming in this country.
We are at a severe shortage of testing professionals, and we have been for many years. Our profession is one that tends to hide in the background despite our integral roles in disease research, patient care, treatment, and diagnoses... and this is because we tend to be the introverts or the nerds of healthcare, and we like it this way. Most other healthcare professionals don't even realize we require 5-7 years of college education.
Last week, in a 6 day period, the US performed 335,000 COVID-19/SARS2 tests. At the time, there were 62 labs capable of performing this testing. Each test takes approximately 15 minutes of hands-on time, and these 62 labs employ approximately 1600 lab scientists. This means 83,750 hours of testing occurred across 1600 people. To accomplish this, each scientist would have required 52 hours to accomplish this volume ON TOP of all the other testing that is required on a normal basis, since I think we all realize other diseases don't stop due to a single viral outbreak. And this is all assuming none of these professionals get sick.
We are at a severe shortage of testing supplies, yes. But for too many years now, we have also been at a critical shortage of the only professionals capable and trained to run these tests for the 3rd largest population in the world.
Hospitals do not recognize our importance in the COVID-19 battle. Now is the time to shine the light on our role in healthcare. But as we place ourselves at risk to help our patients, we deserve the same consideration as the other healthcare workers on the front line. Fair wages and hazard pay would go a long way to help bring in more scientists to help in the hard hit areas and in the areas that have yet to be hit.
It's time we start telling our kids and our friends about the hidden side of healthcare so we can be better equipped in the future. The strain and the stress is overwhelming for many labs in our country, and they are doing an unbelievable job, as are the faces at the front of this pandemic- our nurses, doctors, RT's, phlebotomists, EMT's, EVS and many others. We are also very lucky to have MLT's and lab assistants in our ranks to work alongside us in the lab. We are all working hard and we are all in this fight together
A very good description of my profession.21 -
We now have a localized hotspot in SA. A nursing home on the SE side of town (which has previously been cited for poor conditions) has an outbreak of COVID-19. More than 60 people tested positive, including 8 employees, and one person has already died.
Several of the employees who tested positive also work at other nursing homes.
I ventured out to the grocery store yesterday. I managed to find everything I wanted/needed, but I did notice that the TP aisle was completely empty. There was at least plenty of bread and milk. I did get irritated when I went to check out because it was a total *kitten* with the social distancing. The checkout lanes had plastic partitions for the cashiers and baggers, which was nice.5 -
amusedmonkey wrote: »rheddmobile wrote: »bmeadows380 wrote: »janejellyroll wrote: »
I guess I don't get the thing about being horrified about the cursive writing. Our grandparents had some skills that we don't have. My great-nieces and nephews will doubtlessly possess the ability to do things that I cannot. There's no general reason why skillsets must remain unchanging through generations.
It will be rather difficult to read original source information for a historian if they can't read cursive handwriting, and before you ask, I had a friend who started into a History Master's degree and it was vital that they get their information from the original sources, not copies or typed copies.
So one downside of not learning how to read cursive is a loss of history and information. If Great-grandaddy's journal is passed down, how will the child who can't read cursive read it and learn about his ancestor's thoughts?
Exactly. I’ve recently been doing some transcription for NARA of original documents from the Civil War. Got halfway through one dispatch and realized it answered a question that historians had been arguing about, having to do with the course of a particular battle. Most of what I’m transcribing is perfectly beautiful, legible handwriting in cursive, but surprisingly few people today are able to read it! Do we really want to have to call in experts to read our own history?
Okay, grant that the Civil War was 150 years ago, and maybe you don’t care about that. What about letters from within your own family? The love letters your mom and dad exchanged while they were engaged and he was away at college? Your grandma’s recipes? The inscriptions in your family Bible? Not being able to read cursive means not being able to read any private document from the very recent past.
There is, undoubtedly, "an app for that". We live in a different time. You will find digital solutions for most obscure skills.
When I was little, my grandmother used an abacus to calculate sales. I learned how to use it because I used to help her. We had them as toys, but few children my age knew how to use it beyond the most basic one line addition. It didn't matter because they learned other methods (pen and paper) to calculate numbers, and they had other tools (calculators) to make that easier if needed. It was an obscure skill then, and it's even more obscure now.... and there's an app for that.
There is no app for that. That’s why NARA had to recruit thousands of actual humans like me to do it.9 -
rheddmobile wrote: »spiriteagle99 wrote: »Someone in the region was ticketed yesterday ($225) for breaking the Stay at Home order. She was just driving around, supposedly, and was stopped by a cop. If she had been smarter, she would have said she was going out for a hike, but she told him she was bored and just driving to get out of the house. I wonder if that will become common or if she just was used to set an example?
Our store shelves are still remarkably empty, at least in the afternoon. No frozen vegetables, no TP or hand sanitizer, etc. They did still have their sale items on sale as usual.
This is super silly. People driving around aren’t in contact with each other. I don’t know if this is true in Memphis, but in Southaven the mayor pointed out that he encourages people to drive around to keep from going nuts.
From what we are being recommended here, it's not silly at all.
Basically, the more you drive around the greater chance of needing maintenance on your car, more fuel stops (potential contact with virus at the pump), more chance of breakdown or road accidents. If something happens, someone then has to risk exposure by going out to help.
We are expected to only drive to supermarkets/pharmacies/medical centres, or of course essential workers going about their jobs.
Unlike spiriteagle99's suggestion, we couldn't even get away with saying we are heading out for a hike...we are expected to only walk locally near our homes.
Though from the traffic on the roads when I walk the dog, I am sceptical that everyone is following the expectations.12 -
rheddmobile wrote: »spiriteagle99 wrote: »Someone in the region was ticketed yesterday ($225) for breaking the Stay at Home order. She was just driving around, supposedly, and was stopped by a cop. If she had been smarter, she would have said she was going out for a hike, but she told him she was bored and just driving to get out of the house. I wonder if that will become common or if she just was used to set an example?
Our store shelves are still remarkably empty, at least in the afternoon. No frozen vegetables, no TP or hand sanitizer, etc. They did still have their sale items on sale as usual.
This is super silly. People driving around aren’t in contact with each other. I don’t know if this is true in Memphis, but in Southaven the mayor pointed out that he encourages people to drive around to keep from going nuts.
From what we are being recommended here, it's not silly at all.
Basically, the more you drive around the greater chance of needing maintenance on your car, more fuel stops (potential contact with virus at the pump), more chance of breakdown or road accidents. If something happens, someone then has to risk exposure by going out to help.
We are expected to only drive to supermarkets/pharmacies/medical centres, or of course essential workers going about their jobs.
Unlike spiriteagle99's suggestion, we couldn't even get away with saying we are heading out for a hike...we are expected to only walk locally near our homes.
Though from the traffic on the roads when I walk the dog, I am sceptical that everyone is following the expectations.
This makes sense to a degree. But I know many cars are more prone to issues if left sitting too long. This is particularly true for my Prius and its hybrid battery. I've been going once per week for groceries and am nervous about not taking it out often enough. However, I just went for groceries and was able to find beef. I went to 2 stores as the first was limiting (maybe why they had some). They had none of the beef on sale this week (T-Bones), no surprise. And they were limiting to 2 packs of ground beef. The second store had no ground, so I ended up buying more expensive steak. So if this keeps up, I will be going 2-4 times weekly anyway.7 -
Every day at 7pm EST... there is cheering out of the windows across NYC for the essential workers. It's touching and chokes me up.
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rheddmobile wrote: »spiriteagle99 wrote: »Someone in the region was ticketed yesterday ($225) for breaking the Stay at Home order. She was just driving around, supposedly, and was stopped by a cop. If she had been smarter, she would have said she was going out for a hike, but she told him she was bored and just driving to get out of the house. I wonder if that will become common or if she just was used to set an example?
Our store shelves are still remarkably empty, at least in the afternoon. No frozen vegetables, no TP or hand sanitizer, etc. They did still have their sale items on sale as usual.
This is super silly. People driving around aren’t in contact with each other. I don’t know if this is true in Memphis, but in Southaven the mayor pointed out that he encourages people to drive around to keep from going nuts.
From what we are being recommended here, it's not silly at all.
Basically, the more you drive around the greater chance of needing maintenance on your car, more fuel stops (potential contact with virus at the pump), more chance of breakdown or road accidents. If something happens, someone then has to risk exposure by going out to help.
We are expected to only drive to supermarkets/pharmacies/medical centres, or of course essential workers going about their jobs.
Unlike spiriteagle99's suggestion, we couldn't even get away with saying we are heading out for a hike...we are expected to only walk locally near our homes.
Though from the traffic on the roads when I walk the dog, I am sceptical that everyone is following the expectations.
Right, that was my thought, especially avoiding unnecessary accidents. I do have to eventually drive my car to keep it operational, so will go to a grocery store that's slightly farther than my closest ones when I do, but I understand that we are being discouraged from driving too (although I have no fear that I will be arrested for doing so).3 -
I wouldn't call it horrifying, but I do think it's a shame kids aren't learning cursive anymore. It's a task that requires a rare combination of creativity and precision. And beautiful handwriting has always made me 🙂. But it's a different world now, and hopefully some parents will still teach their children penmanship as a craft or a hobby.
While Virginia deaths are still comparatively low, hospitalizations are starting to rise faster. Locally in Central VA our numbers are still relatively low out in the boondocks. Was pleased to hear that UVA is participating in a trial that's already started for an antiviral. Fingers and toes crossed that they can come up with a treatment that will give people with symptoms a better chance of coming out unscathed!9 -
Good piece on cursive and differences: http://www.bbc.com/culture/story/20170502-what-your-handwriting-says-about-you2
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Good piece on cursive and differences: http://www.bbc.com/culture/story/20170502-what-your-handwriting-says-about-you
This is pretty much what I was thinking of. Cursive writing isn't some kind of universal writing beyond the ages. I have a whole bunch of stuff from way back when from my dad and I can barely make it out...I read cursive just fine...my cursive...the cursive I was taught in 2nd grade, not cursive from somewhere in the 1700-1800 hundreds. It mostly looks like chicken scratch to me. This notion of not being able to descifer something it's in cursive if our kids don't learn this obsolete skill is kinda funny. Like I said, I can read cursive just fine...just not that of the 1700-1800 and even early 1900s.
I'd personally rather my kids do things like learning to type, learning software, learning how to do online research, etc...its far more important than an antiquated writing style. I'm 46 and haven't penned a damn thing since bootcamp in 1993. *kitten* moves on.
I will just presume this gets a general disagree from *kitten* morons...I'm apparently on the full on disagree button...take care *kitten* dip *kitten*...interesting that you have no actual opinion or anything like that and you just click your stupid *kitten* button. Don't be a *kitten* *kitten* and actually say something *kitten*...*kitten* cry babies...10 -
Off topic, but: IMO a greater worry than cursive is that current-day records are not on paper, but electronic.
With each change in storage technology, records are lost. (An analogy is what happened to the then-sparse then-mostly-unimportant data when we moved from literal floppy disks to CDs/DVDs to USB storage, while upgrading our processing boxes along the way: Do you still have all your old household data, carefully transferred to the newer storage medium?)
If you believe the cloud-storage companies are converting every single thing they ever stored, forever, during tech changes . . . I think that's naive. (Yes, you may see all your data transferred. Did they transfer data from inactive/deleted accounts? Deceased account holders? etc.)
With each change in app fashionability, more data goes "poof". How about those MySpace pages? The older MFP logging data they said they'd dump? The photo-storage sites that have gone out of business? The blogging platforms? Social networks sites like Ning that are bye-bye? How will our great-grandkids read those?
Household records from history tend to be in family ledgers and record books. The online bills, blogs, photos, etc., that paint a similar picture of my household are spread all over the internet, and many companies aren't committing to leave infinite years of data out there. Historians will not have this data. (Are you thinking they won't care? They seem to care about analogous data from a century or two back.)
Furthermore, the electronic world has its own jargon, that will age and be near-untranslatable. Younger folks, how's your ability to interpret ASCII art? Will the future folks understand abbrevs? Emojis? (If you're not sure about some, you probably look them up online. Will that reference exist?).
Cursive gets people excited, but I don't think it's nearly as big a problem.10 -
'Do vaccines against pneumonia protect you against the new coronavirus?'
No. Vaccines against pneumonia, such as pneumococcal vaccine and Haemophilus influenza type B (Hib) vaccine, do not provide protection against the new coronavirus.
The virus is so new and different that it needs its own vaccine. Researchers are trying to develop a vaccine against 2019-nCoV, and WHO is supporting their efforts.
Although these vaccines are not effective against 2019-nCoV, vaccination against respiratory illnesses is highly recommended to protect your health.
https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019/advice-for-public/myth-busters
Thanks for the previous replies. This particular answer does seem like more doubletalk in some ways. Sigh.
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@kimny72
Thanks for that Forbes article about masks. I went down an internet rabbit hole with that one! It was good!
https://www.forbes.com/sites/tarahaelle/2020/04/01/should-everyone-wear-a-mask-in-public-maybe-but-its-complicated/?fbclid=IwAR0ZwcAFs3WS_0e0cnLO-OczcxRX_W33CSgjcr0tfNH5tEFrp1815Pm4i9k#147ca23da02f2 -
Further to what @jo_nz posted, this is our specific advice in NZ:
Leaving your house
Please stay at home as much as you can. Any unnecessary travel could spread COVID-19. If you are over 70, or are immunosuppressed, you should not be leaving the house at all.
Some people will need to go outside occasionally. For example to take a short walk for exercise or mental wellbeing, or to visit local essential services like the doctor, pharmacy or supermarket.
If you do leave the house, here are some do’s and don’ts to remember:
Keep a 2 metre distance from other people at all times.
Stay local if you go out for exercise and stay close to home.
Keep it solitary when going out, just by yourself or with the people you live with.
If you're exercising in your neighbourhood and it's too busy, go home. Go out later.
Help our emergency services by only doing safe activities, such as going for a walk.
Don’t go swimming, surfing, hunting or tramping.
Don’t touch surfaces others may have touched and avoid park benches or playgrounds.
Don’t travel far from home, especially not to baches or second homes.
Only shop for essential supplies.
Wash your hands regularly.
See more tips about Shopping safelyhttps://covid19.govt.nz/help-and-advice/for-everyone/shopping-safely/
Stay local
Your local area means the area near your home that you regularly visit for essential services.
What is considered local will differ depending on where you live. City dwellers may have a supermarket or dairy close by. If you live rurally, you may need to take a drive to reach these.
If you live in an area where a walk in the neighbourhood isn’t practical, you can drive a short distance to reach an area, like a beach, where you can go for a quick walk. If the beach is busy, and you can’t stay 2 metres away from other people, go home. Do not stay at the beach and sunbathe and please do not swim.
Most of all during this time, we encourage you to continue to be kind to one another. Stay in touch with your older relatives and vulnerable people, talk to your friends, whānau and neighbours over the phone and see if they need your support.
Acts of kindness and maintaining these connections is essential while we work to stop the spread of COVID-19.9 -
cwolfman13 wrote: »Good piece on cursive and differences: http://www.bbc.com/culture/story/20170502-what-your-handwriting-says-about-you
This is pretty much what I was thinking of. Cursive writing isn't some kind of universal writing beyond the ages. I have a whole bunch of stuff from way back when from my dad and I can barely make it out...I read cursive just fine...my cursive...the cursive I was taught in 2nd grade, not cursive from somewhere in the 1700-1800 hundreds. It mostly looks like chicken scratch to me. This notion of not being able to descifer something it's in cursive if our kids don't learn this obsolete skill is kinda funny. Like I said, I can read cursive just fine...just not that of the 1700-1800 and even early 1900s.
I'd personally rather my kids do things like learning to type, learning software, learning how to do online research, etc...its far more important than an antiquated writing style. I'm 46 and haven't penned a damn thing since bootcamp in 1993. *kitten* moves on.
I will just presume this gets a general disagree from *kitten* morons...I'm apparently on the full on disagree button...take care *kitten* dip *kitten*...interesting that you have no actual opinion or anything like that and you just click your stupid *kitten* button. Don't be a *kitten* *kitten* and actually say something *kitten*...*kitten* cry babies...
I miss the days of being able to see what the *kitten*s were when you quote someone before you hit "post reply." Although, I think that was before the kitten filter.8 -
Diatonic12 wrote: »'Do vaccines against pneumonia protect you against the new coronavirus?'
No. Vaccines against pneumonia, such as pneumococcal vaccine and Haemophilus influenza type B (Hib) vaccine, do not provide protection against the new coronavirus.
The virus is so new and different that it needs its own vaccine. Researchers are trying to develop a vaccine against 2019-nCoV, and WHO is supporting their efforts.
Although these vaccines are not effective against 2019-nCoV, vaccination against respiratory illnesses is highly recommended to protect your health.
https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019/advice-for-public/myth-busters
Thanks for the previous replies. This particular answer does seem like more doubletalk in some ways. Sigh.
How is it double talk? The vaccines won't protect you against getting infected by SARS-CoV-2. Not having an immune system weakened by other illnesses may help you fight it off, or prevent your immune system by becoming overwhelmed with too much to try to fight off, should you become infected.11 -
Diatonic12 wrote: »'Do vaccines against pneumonia protect you against the new coronavirus?'
No. Vaccines against pneumonia, such as pneumococcal vaccine and Haemophilus influenza type B (Hib) vaccine, do not provide protection against the new coronavirus.
The virus is so new and different that it needs its own vaccine. Researchers are trying to develop a vaccine against 2019-nCoV, and WHO is supporting their efforts.
Although these vaccines are not effective against 2019-nCoV, vaccination against respiratory illnesses is highly recommended to protect your health.
https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019/advice-for-public/myth-busters
Thanks for the previous replies. This particular answer does seem like more doubletalk in some ways. Sigh.
Pneumonia is just a type of lung infection. It's a very broad term. There are many things that can cause lung infections (various types of bacteria, viruses and even fungi). According to one source I read, there are more than 80 bacterial causes of pneumonia, alone (not counting viruses, fungi).
The "pneumonia vaccine" protects against some of the common bacterial causes of pneumonia (not all, I gather it protects agains 20-some of the 80-some).
Coronavirus is a family of viruses, with different members of that virus family causing different diseases that have varied symptom sets. (Some versions of "the common cold" are caused by viruses in the coronavirus family, as I understand it.)
This novel coronavirus causes COVID-19, a new disease to humans. One of the the things that can happen as a result of this disease is lung infection, i.e., pneumonia.
So, it's good to get the pneumonia vaccine to protect against the 20-some bacterial forms of pneumonia. But it won't protect against pneumonia caused by coronavirus.
Does that help sort the double talk at all? :flowerforyou:8 -
So I ordered masks for my family of four today from epsy...not really convinced that these will do jack *kitten* as they are not medical at all, but I've been compelled by higher powers than mine...that's what happens when you're married. I don't deny that they can make things somewhat better...maybe...., but I really don't think they're the game changer that so many around here anyway think they are, especially when everyone is like, "yeah...masks...now we can all hang out and do whatever"....I think they're going to do more harm than good...false sense of security for an American public that thinks they're invincible anyway....now they think some cotton makes them Iron Man and Wonder Woman. I expect more morons out and about with masks than we had before masks...because morons...9
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I wouldn't call it horrifying, but I do think it's a shame kids aren't learning cursive anymore. It's a task that requires a rare combination of creativity and precision. And beautiful handwriting has always made me 🙂. But it's a different world now, and hopefully some parents will still teach their children penmanship as a craft or a hobby.
While Virginia deaths are still comparatively low, hospitalizations are starting to rise faster. Locally in Central VA our numbers are still relatively low out in the boondocks. Was pleased to hear that UVA is participating in a trial that's already started for an antiviral. Fingers and toes crossed that they can come up with a treatment that will give people with symptoms a better chance of coming out unscathed!
I agree, calling aspects of arithmetic or penmanship teaching horrifying seems to lack perspective, especially now. Can the kids add using the method being taught? Do they arrive at the right answer? Can they write a coherent sentence? If so, great! It's not the way I was taught? Oh well, but get off my lawn.
What I would call horrifying is the mendacity and incompetence of the US Federal government response to the pandemic caused by the White House wasting weeks of advantage that will lead to orders of magnitude increase in lives lost, as well the decimation of our economy in the process. That seems a bit more important right now.12 -
just_Tomek wrote: »Easter is next week. I already did get my parents upset telling them I will not be coming over for breakfast / dinner.
Anyone else? How many do you think are going to stay home and not visit family / friends???
I have no idea about the percentages at large. I know I'm staying home rather than visit family, and I know the family I would be visiting otherwise are staying home and not having anyone else over.1 -
lynn_glenmont wrote: »
I can't give you cites because my source was listening to NPR and BBC on radio, but I believe there's a new study out in just the last few days showing potentially-infecting particles from coughs/sneezes traveling much farther than previously thought (like twice as far), plus some fairly new information about the nature of virus shedding by people who are still asymptomatic.
You are referring to this, I believe https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2763852?appId=scweb
and this https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2020/03/31/824155179/cdc-director-on-models-for-the-months-to-come-this-virus-is-going-to-be-with-us
Thank you. The JAMA paper sounds like it may be what I heard mentioned in passing, and while I don't think I heard the Redfield interview or a focused news item about it, that's consistent with what I did hear in the reports.
Normally, if I hear something on NPR/BBC/other audio source, I can find the story in a text or audio snip on their web sites, and would include it in a post. In this case, I hadn't zeroed in on the radio items for follow up when it occurred, had the radio on all day, had no idea what service/program mentioned it. Appreciate you being a better researcher! :flowerforyou:
Shifting gears:
Throughout all of this rapidly evolving public-policy response, I'm aware that we (including me) sometimes aren't able to acknowledge in our guts that scientists and public officials are human beings, who, like us, can be confused, communicate poorly, change their minds (and should, BTW), and generally make mistakes. Keeping that in mind is especially difficult in a context where some officials clearly are negligent, willfully ill-informed or self-dealing actors. (I won't go further than the generality, avoiding the politics prohibition here - and my intent is not partisan anyway, as IMO all large-scale groups include a segment of idiots and scoundrels.)
Of course, their mistakes are high-stakes and incredibly costly (in lives!) at a time like this. They've taken on the job (like doctors, or police, or others whose jobs routinely involve life and death matters), so we can hold them to high standards, but holding them to inhumanly high standards is just unrealistic. (Not saying we can't or shouldn't hold them accountable for even well-intended actions that turn out to have disastrous consequences. We can, and should. With some compassion, IMO. Any decent human who makes a deadly error, and realizes it, has a burden of conscience, as well, possibly life-long.)
Just my dumb opinions, as usual.
Thinking about what I've written on this subject, I hope I didn't come across as though I thought that those behind the messaging on masks were evil or even completely in the wrong. Sadly, I think that to the extent that they were trying to avoid hoarding of medical masks by the general public, they were probably right that there are too many people who would try to do so if given a message of "we need to save medical masks for health care professionals on the front lines, but the rest of you should cover your mouth and nose in public with whatever non-medical or makeshift mask you can find."
Edited to try to fix the quote nesting. I'm seeing so much more of this problem lately that I'm wondering if it's an MFP glitch.
To me, no, you didn't come across that way.
Part of the reason I wrote what you just quoted (and frankly stupidly did so in a part of the thread where it didn't logically tie up ideally), was that I thought I'd not been clear. My basic point (in my post that I think started this subthread) was that I'm seeing a few people (mostly in my FB feed) quickly leaping to conspiracy theories and/or outrage over the shifts in mask recommendations. "Why didn't they tell us that before? Were they trying to kill us?" (<== cartoon level representation).
I don't think that's reasonable. Personally, I think the situation should be interpreted mainly as human beings, who happen to be officials, trying to make sense of a mountain of information that keeps growing and changing. Some people I know bizarrely seem to think that pretty much all officials know everything all at once at the start (including a bunch of secret stuff), and manipulate it cynically (or at least officials from "those other parties" do). That's bizarre thinking, to me. (JMO) Officials are regular humans no different from us, mostly.
I don't want to try to imagine what you're thinking behind the limited interpretation I can make from what you do write, but do have the impression that you may feel that the impulse to avoid a public run on masks loomed larger, in officials' initial thinking, than I do.
I think that I'm giving relatively more weight to the officials being humans trying to sort out a lot of conflicting advice, in a context where most politicians/deciders are not subject-matter specialists; and I'm thinking that there was initial belief that (near-)universal mask wearing by the general public was not going to have a major helpful effect, and had some potential negatives (such as a run on supply more urgently needed elsewhere).
Recently, more information seems to be coming out (various ways: studies, clear expert consensus emerging from what was previously a less-clear diversity of expert statements, etc.), and shifting the apparent weight of masks' importance. That's just my inexpert impression, nothing more.
If this perception about your/my opinions is even true, I don't particularly want to chase it down between us to the Nth degree. I respect your intelligence and opinions over a long period of posts here. I don't consider the opinion I've perhaps mistakenly attributed to you to be an irrational one. I haven't seen you say anything that's (IMO) irrational about this topic. Some of your posts have seemed to me to be asking me to defend my opinon, focusing on a sub-part of my (intended, maybe unclear) thesis, so I've responded.
I'm not an expert on what the experts (such as researchers) are saying. I wasn't trying to pile up a mountain of evidence (specific studies and their timing) to support the the idea that calm, rational people could/couldn't have or should/shouldn't have made a "general public should wear masks" recommendation earlier, or not. The people acting haven't had the luxury of calm rationality: I think most are thinking on their feet as best they can, under tremendous stress, with such expert advice (from many quarters, needing to balance many competing factors of various weights) as they can find.
Thank you for fixing the quote nesting. I'm the one who broke it, and didn't notice until too late to edit. I don't know how it happened, but assume it was my typo, since I haven't had that problem with any frequency.
Thanks, Ann. Yes, what you think I'm thinking is pretty spot on. Seems like a good place to leave it.3
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