Coronavirus prep

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  • kimny72
    kimny72 Posts: 16,011 Member
    I watched a YouTube video about gymnasts returning to their gym to workout. They had temp check at the door, left shoes at door, and had to bring their belongings in a plastic tub, because cubbies are too close together. Then they proceeded into the gym and dumped all their tubs next to each other. No water fountains, but they can share a balance beam, and take turns on other equipment. I don't know if anyone is familiar with gymnastics, but that equipment does not get sanitized. Gymnasts are bare handed, barefooted(for the most part) and share and sweat on all mats, bars, beams, trampolines, etc for years! I had to just roll my eyes at the ridiculousness of social distancing (and/or lack thereof) in this type of situation.

    How often do you put your mouth or eyes on the beam, though? As long as you keep your hands strictly away from your face until you can wash them, the virus is not coming through your foot into your body. It also isn’t transmitted through sweat.

    I would be more concerned about circulated air, since some studies of actual cases have found transmission at quite a distance in enclosed spaces where people are breathing heavily.

    Gymnasts are known to spit on their grips before bars, though. 🤷 And you know kids touch their faces...
    My point was that none of the rules really made sense. The kids touch all the surfaces, but can't use cubbies or water fountains, but can put their belongings next to each other and share equipment.

    Plus all that chalk flying around I have to imagine tickles your nose, gets in your eyes...
  • gradchica27
    gradchica27 Posts: 777 Member
    I watched a YouTube video about gymnasts returning to their gym to workout. They had temp check at the door, left shoes at door, and had to bring their belongings in a plastic tub, because cubbies are too close together. Then they proceeded into the gym and dumped all their tubs next to each other. No water fountains, but they can share a balance beam, and take turns on other equipment. I don't know if anyone is familiar with gymnastics, but that equipment does not get sanitized. Gymnasts are bare handed, barefooted(for the most part) and share and sweat on all mats, bars, beams, trampolines, etc for years! I had to just roll my eyes at the ridiculousness of social distancing (and/or lack thereof) in this type of situation.

    How often do you put your mouth or eyes on the beam, though? As long as you keep your hands strictly away from your face until you can wash them, the virus is not coming through your foot into your body. It also isn’t transmitted through sweat.

    I would be more concerned about circulated air, since some studies of actual cases have found transmission at quite a distance in enclosed spaces where people are breathing heavily.

    Gymnasts are known to spit on their grips before bars, though. 🤷 And you know kids touch their faces...
    My point was that none of the rules really made sense. The kids touch all the surfaces, but can't use cubbies or water fountains, but can put their belongings next to each other and share equipment.

    And don’t get me started on bathrooms being closed. I have boys so they can find a tree, but moms? The girls’ team?

    Not to mention nowhere to wash your hands...which we’re supposed to be doing all the time. And places are still not restocked in hand sanitizer here, so that may not be an option (plus young boys + hand sanitizer= murder. Their hands are always scraped up and they are trying to avoid getting it in all the cuts, then they inevitably rub their eyes...). Bathrooms are still supposed to be closed here, but some kind soul (possibly a coach who couldn’t deal by their 4th hour of practice?) has been opening them.


    AnnPT77 wrote: »
    Gisel2015 wrote: »
    I found this article interesting and applicable to the way that some/or most of us are feeling.

    https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/08/health/quarantine-fatigue-is-real-coronavirus-wellness/index.html

    Yes, I still wear masks when out at the store, etc, but I can feel myself relaxing a bit. I no longer disinfect every single doorknob in the house nightly like I did a few months ago (we have a LOT of doors). After a lot of reports saying likelihood of catching it from groceries is quite small, I don’t disinfect all the things. I still “quarantine” most, but with less rigor. Also starting to see some friends again, though not really going anywhere inside.

    I noticed my son is the only one wearing his mask to/from soccer anymore, and in certain stores I’m no longer in the majority with my mask (among employees and shoppers).
    wrote:
    "It's reflected when we become impatient with warnings, or we don't believe the warnings to be real or relevant, or we de-emphasize the actual risk," she added. "And in doing that, we then bend rules or stop safety behaviors

    This is huge—the “don’t believe warnings to be relevant”. For ex, our neighborhood pool is reopening, but you cannot bring ANYTHING with you. No pool toys, no floats, no goggles. GOGGLES? I suppose I get the toys, bc they could be shared. But how is me wearing my own goggles (which would at least somewhat shield pool water from my eyes, if I were infected, I suppose) to swim going to increase anyone’s risk of getting sick? That’s the kind of ridiculous seeming rule that throws all other rules into question.

    Lots of things seem not to make sense. Like soccer requires a mask to/from the field, but baseball does not. Soccer requires parents to stay in the car, baseball allows one parent at the field for some levels/leagues. Soccer wasn’t allowing them to pass the ball. With their feet. No one was touching it with their hands. How they were going to get sick from kicking a ball to each other from 6’ away? Too risky, but baseball lets them throw a ball to each other with their hands? Even from pretty compliant and cautious people like me, these rules engender grumbling and eye rolls. From people less compliant? I imagine they’re more likely to label every rule as ridiculous.

    I'm speculating, but it seems like there are two perspectives on this sort of thing.

    From the perspective of people participating in many different activities, the disparate rules really, really don't make sense - so inconsistent across activities, and some rules potentially don't even seem logical taken by themselves.

    From another perpective, the perspective of the process we're all in, I think it's totally understandable, almost inevitable.

    We have a plethora of organizations, some with formal governing bodies, some with loose coordinating associations, some just run by local people, sometimes those running them are only volunteers. The national governing/coordinating groups may be trying to provide some guidance, but they're in a context where nearly every state has different rules, and sometimes different phases within regions in a single state (and potentially a layer of city/county requirement on top of the state ones). All of the regulations/guidelines are changing dynamically, with short notice . . . and the science on which they're based is still unclear and evolving by the day. Not every organization has advisors who understand the science, plus the ins & outs of the particular activity (the sport, for example), plus know the regulatory layer.

    I don't see how a coherent, consistent set of rules across sports, facilities and activities is going to emerge this fast, from this kind of environment. I think it's a miracle that we have as much clarity and consistency as we have, frankly, even though it isn't much.

    Imagine yourself (generically, not PP specifically) asked to create safe practice guidelines for X activity that you or a family member are active in and familiar with. You have a week or two notice, at best - knew it was coming, but that much time seeing guidance on the specific regulations. How easy would that be? How much more expertise or guidance do the people actually defining the practices have than that (varies from about what you have, on up to lots - but probably mostly toward the "not very much" end of the scale)?

    I think we're all used to an environment where (mostly) things are known and understood, there's time to develop new guidelines because most challenges to the established order are slow-rolling. This is different, but we still want and expect the orderliness that goes with more normal circumstances.

    Not realistic, IMO. What we have here is a bunch of people, with incomplete information, on a short time-scale, doing the best they can, IMO.

    I get all that, I do. I realize it’s difficult, and that everyone is trying to CYA as well. Our rules for soccer are coming from the state association, which is affiliated with USA soccer, so there were a lot of people chomping at the bit to restart competitive soccer...we were getting weekly emails of “maybe in a week or two!” for a solid 2 months, so there was ample time for planning. And yes, I realize the situation has been evolving (don’t touch anything ever! Has become “touching stuff is not the main pathway of transmission, just wash hands and keep away from people”, for instance).

    I’m not faulting people for not knowing exactly what to do in a fluid situation—just pointing out that the resulting hodgepodge of rules, some of which seem to make little sense (the goggles) or are particularly burdensome (the no bathrooms and being forced to sit in your car when it is 97/“feels like 103” while watching other non-team related people stroll about the park) are making many people feel rebellious and resentful. And that’s not going to end well.
  • Theoldguy1
    Theoldguy1 Posts: 2,493 Member
    Gisel2015 wrote: »
    I found this article interesting and applicable to the way that some/or most of us are feeling.

    https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/08/health/quarantine-fatigue-is-real-coronavirus-wellness/index.html

    Yes, I still wear masks when out at the store, etc, but I can feel myself relaxing a bit. I no longer disinfect every single doorknob in the house nightly like I did a few months ago (we have a LOT of doors). After a lot of reports saying likelihood of catching it from groceries is quite small, I don’t disinfect all the things. I still “quarantine” most, but with less rigor. Also starting to see some friends again, though not really going anywhere inside.

    I noticed my son is the only one wearing his mask to/from soccer anymore, and in certain stores I’m no longer in the majority with my mask (among employees and shoppers).
    wrote:
    "It's reflected when we become impatient with warnings, or we don't believe the warnings to be real or relevant, or we de-emphasize the actual risk," she added. "And in doing that, we then bend rules or stop safety behaviors

    This is huge—the “don’t believe warnings to be relevant”. For ex, our neighborhood pool is reopening, but you cannot bring ANYTHING with you. No pool toys, no floats, no goggles. GOGGLES? I suppose I get the toys, bc they could be shared. But how is me wearing my own goggles (which would at least somewhat shield pool water from my eyes, if I were infected, I suppose) to swim going to increase anyone’s risk of getting sick? That’s the kind of ridiculous seeming rule that throws all other rules into question.

    Lots of things seem not to make sense. Like soccer requires a mask to/from the field, but baseball does not. Soccer requires parents to stay in the car, baseball allows one parent at the field for some levels/leagues. Soccer wasn’t allowing them to pass the ball. With their feet. No one was touching it with their hands. How they were going to get sick from kicking a ball to each other from 6’ away? Too risky, but baseball lets them throw a ball to each other with their hands? Even from pretty compliant and cautious people like me, these rules engender grumbling and eye rolls. From people less compliant? I imagine they’re more likely to label every rule as ridiculous.

    How in the world does one play soccer without passing the ball?
  • T1DCarnivoreRunner
    T1DCarnivoreRunner Posts: 11,502 Member
    I went to Wal-Mart for the first time in months. As usual, very few people wearing masks and everyone getting all close to each other. They also had 1 of the 2 doors blocked off, or so it appeared. I thought that didn't make any sense whatsoever until I saw someone coming in that door on my way out. I didn't understand, so I followed the barriers around and it turns out that there was an opening on the side of the building where they take the carts back. There was no signage as I approached the store and I assume that they had people directing customers early on (March?), but now assume that everyone knows to go around to the side of the store to get to the opening in the barricades and then follow the side of the building (there is a space between the building and the barricades) all the way back around towards the entry door. But I'm an unusual customer in that I haven't been there for awhile. So apparently I ended up going in the wrong door. At least I was covering my nose and mouth, unlike most everyone else.
  • GaleHawkins
    GaleHawkins Posts: 8,159 Member
    Dnarules wrote: »
    Supposedly Type A people are more likely to get a more virulent case of Coronavirus. https://www.news-medical.net/news/20200603/Blood-group-type-may-affect-susceptibility-to-COVID-19-respiratory-failure.aspx "A lead SNP was also identified on chromosome 9 at the ABO blood group locus, and further analysis showed that A-positive participants were at a 45% increased for respiratory failure, while individuals with blood group O were at a 35% decreased risk for respiratory failure."
    and
    ""Our data thus aligns with the suggestions that blood group O is associated with lower risk compared with non-O blood groups whereas blood group A is associated with higher risk of acquiring Covid-19 compared with non-A blood groups," the authors state."

    I read part of this, and this snp was also in an area with a gene involved in immune response, so definitely preliminary.

    They found a second region showing an even stronger association, but there are several genes in the area, so they can't pinpoint one yet.

    Somehow I missed this news and of course I’m now googling this like crazy—which, as usual, leaves me more confused. This article (and a few others) suggests the association of A blood type with adverse outcomes and O with less risk of infection was only significant for A+ and O+ (sigh of relief, as oldest son and I are A- and my physician husband is O+, now wondering if my 3 other Rh+ kids ended up A or O, post partum fog erased everything but the big needle).

    So continued googling brings up other articles that do not specify Rh +/- (just that A blood group as a whole is at higher risk). So now vaguely uneasy and more confused about whether we need to ramp up our vigilance as our area opens up more.

    I agree it is confusing. I am Type A- which is rare it seems. I did get some info from the link below not that I understood it. :)

    https://science.org.au/curious/people-medicine/blood-types#:~:text=Blood%20types%20are%20determined%20by,type%20(once%20called%20Rhesus).



  • ReenieHJ
    ReenieHJ Posts: 9,724 Member
    Our small town local theater just reopened this past weekend. They're doing 25% capacity, and offering masks at the door to those who need them, but not requiring anyone to wear them. The 2 movies playing? Smoky and the Bandit and Mulan. :)
  • GaleHawkins
    GaleHawkins Posts: 8,159 Member
    There is new research coming out about possible ways to prepare for the coronavirus pandemic that may be of interest to some. While there is no known cure for COVID-19 so preventing potentially deadly side effects is about as good as it gets in my view. Many today use Vitamin K1 and K2 already so this research is just a potential bonus feature for us but others may not have had the same experiences.

    https://naturalproductsglobal.com/europe/dutch-researchers-urge-vitamin-k-supplementation-to-protect-against-covid/

    https://openheart.bmj.com/content/2/1/e000300
    The health benefits of vitamin K

    https://nutritioninsight.com/news/ashwagandha-and-propolis-may-hold-covid-19-preventative-and-therapeutic-value-say-researchers.html
  • kshama2001
    kshama2001 Posts: 28,052 Member
    kimny72 wrote: »
    Movies. You all explained hair cuts to me and I appreciate it. I still haven’t got a haircut.

    Movies. Thinking about it only from the owners point of view. Why are they not open? Because they sell tickets online, it would be easy to limit people in each theater and plan ahead for distancing—every other row, seats between groups. Of course they wouldn’t be full and they often were on weekends before. But they might be fuller on weekdays since so many people are off work or working odd hours at home, and kids are out of school. I don’t ever go to the movies, so I don’t know how everything really works. It’s just that the movie theaters around here say they may have to close permanently because of the revenue lost, and I don’t see how they can fix that by staying closed now.

    My concern would be (and theirs might be) air circulation. There was a case somewhere where one person with covid spread it to everyone sitting on the same side of the room in the restaurant, and no one right across the aisle from them. The assumption was the air conditioning kept pushing the particles the positive person was shedding straight across all the other tables. If circulation or filtration is poor, any virus particles could just sit in that room or swirl through over and over. And you're all probably sitting in there for 2 plus hours.

    I also wonder if the costs of opening and maintaining a large building like that simply can't be covered by a partial opening and it's actually less of a loss to keep it closed.

    The air circulation issue is why my scaredy-cat butt will be avoiding pretty much any enclosed space I have no control over the environmental controls, other than grocery shopping, for the foreseeable future, unless it's something where I'll be in and out in a couple of minutes.

    I have a friend who is a hair stylist and was not at all looking forward to going back to work due to not being allowed to have the AC on.

    I have no idea if that applies to movie theaters - probably not, since the grocery store has AC - but I certainly have no interest in going to a public building with no AC this time of year here in Massachusetts.
  • lemurcat2
    lemurcat2 Posts: 7,885 Member
    I've been going in one day a week (it's pretty empty). We've started officially opening, but my office has (based on others who have been there, I haven't been since the protests started as there were riots/looting downtown and actions to discourage anyone from coming in) continued to be pretty empty. As of next week we are encouraged to be there at least once a week on a scheduled day with others. That's my plan, and I think it may be somewhat back to normal in July (perhaps wishful thinking), if there's not a huge spike due to all the protests.

    I'm not worried about my workplace (I have a personal office and it will be lightly staffed, and I will drive in), but mostly elevators, and if I have to stand in line to get in it's going to make the whole thing not worth it. My building and office requires masks in common areas (anywhere but a personal office).
  • Buttermello
    Buttermello Posts: 127 Member
    ReenieHJ wrote: »

    Very interesting. That might explain why (here in Italy) survivors of COVID19 are asked to donate their blood. Andrea Boccelli just donated, and it was all over the News. The plasma is used on those who are fighting the disease. They've had good luck with this approach.

    100% of the patients I work with are COVID positive, and we have been giving the plasma to the patients who qualify for it, for around 3 weeks now - the results are astounding! I'm in Chicago, FWIW.

    Can you elaborate? Is this the cure and hope people have been waiting for? TBH, haven't read a lot about Covid-19 lately, it gets overwhelming.

    I wouldnt say it's a cure, as not all patients qualify to have it, and receiving blood products has it's own inherent set of risks. It is an excellent treatment for certain patients though.
  • whitpauly
    whitpauly Posts: 1,483 Member
    debtay123 wrote: »
    our hospitals, nursing homes etc are NOT letting in visitors right now at all. I live in Ga. A sad case- my sister-in-law- lost her grandma in the nursing home yesterday- she feels she died on a broken heart- her grandma stopped eatting a while back, would not take meds, had forbidden the family to put in a feeding tube-(it seems that she THOUGHT they had "thrown her away"( her words) BECAUSE they stopped visiting her. They could not make her understand that due to COVID 19- they could not come to visit- only talk on phone or stand outside the window to wave- but everytime- she told them_"y'all done throwd me away"- this thing is SAD- on so many levels- Stay safe and continue to pray!!!!!!

    😭 That's so heartbreaking!
  • T1DCarnivoreRunner
    T1DCarnivoreRunner Posts: 11,502 Member
    https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-lilly-exclusive-idUSKBN23H35S
    Eli Lilly and Co could have a drug specifically designed to treat COVID-19 authorized for use as early as September if all goes well with either of two antibody therapies it is testing, its chief scientist told Reuters on Wednesday.
  • lemurcat2
    lemurcat2 Posts: 7,885 Member
    Has anyone else gone back and read this thread from the beginning? I just did that yesterday, and I'm not kidding that this should be preserved as a historic document. It's real-time thoughts, opinions, and experiences from people all over the world as this crisis evolved. It's a really interesting look at how our views and lives changed as this thing progressed. There are actually historians looking to preserve this type of documentation for future study...not sure if any of them are on MFP, though. :D

    That's a good idea.

    I was a member of a book discussion forum when 9/11 happened (yes, I'm that old), and the general chat thread had the first events being reported and then discussion of everything after -- at first it entirely took over the thread and then it go spun off into its own topic which went for ages with all the various reactions, related developments, etc. I saw a few years ago that it had been preserved despite the forum and successor forum no longer existing. I wonder if it still exists -- not sure I'd want to read through it, but maybe.
  • ReenieHJ
    ReenieHJ Posts: 9,724 Member
    I keep reading the story about Nick Cordero; what a struggle he and his family have been and are going through. :(