Coronavirus prep
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You can find KN 95 masks, which the CDC won't approve, though 3M has said they are a very suitable substitute for N95 masks. Most are from China, which I think has a lot to do with it, because many healthcare providers are saying just buy us KN 95 masks, we don't care, get us something. I have an N95 I bought a while back for sanding, but I know an older couple down the street and I was researching options for them. Our one friend, 72, has two compromised older sisters she's very worried about, for good reason.
https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/kenbensinger/coronavirus-kn95-masks-us-wont-import-china
This makes no sense, as we (taxpayers) are paying five times as much for N95 masks as we might pay for KN95 masks. Just read that someone bought the Detroit Police Dept 100K KN95 masks and donated them. They gladly took them and didn't care that the CDC wouldn't approve them.4 -
Tucson's KGUN news wrote about a local nursing home that, though much smaller I think than the Seattle one, has been hit much the same way. I don't believe this will be the last story like this one you hear. All while students this week at the U of A, or U Arizona , have been having house parties. Other students smartly alerted authorities. We need to fine people huge money to stop the idiocy out there.
https://www.kgun9.com/news/coronavirus/24-residents-3-staff-members-test-positive-for-covid-19-at-tucson-nursing-home8 -
At the governor of Minnesota’s press conference yesterday, he said people should notify local law enforcement of violations like this.MikePfirrman wrote: »Tucson's KGUN news wrote about a local nursing home that, though much smaller I think than the Seattle one, has been hit much the same way. I don't believe this will be the last story like this one you hear. All while students this week at the U of A, or U Arizona , have been having house parties. Other students smartly alerted authorities. We need to fine people huge money to stop the idiocy out there.
https://www.kgun9.com/news/coronavirus/24-residents-3-staff-members-test-positive-for-covid-19-at-tucson-nursing-home
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For all of you US folks who have found that your fascination with exponential curve charts has grown exponentially since February, check this link out. It is from UnivWashington and is one of the data sets that governors are using to plan resources. It provides info by state as well as a national snapshot. https://covid19.healthdata.org/projections
My county has tested fewer than 1% of the population, so clearly the majority of infections are not being tracked. Our public health department has stated that everyone should assume that they have likely been exposed to the virus when they are out where other people are when running essential errands (food shopping, for example). That makes total sense to me and helps me be at peace with the physical distance admonitions that are likely going to be in place for another two months.
In terms of handling groceries, I don't wash packages down but I do wash my hands after handling packages. I wash fresh produce the same way I always have given the prevalence of food-borne illnesses (included fruits that are peeled before eating uncooked).
This is a marathon, not a sprint. My expectation is that there will be periodic episodes of break-outs over the next 18-24 months until a) more people develop immunity and b) vaccines are available, likely also influenced by what sorts of mutations (if any) develop.
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lynn_glenmont wrote: »rheddmobile wrote: »cwolfman13 wrote: »moonangel12 wrote: »snowflake954 wrote: »@snowflake954 Lol! The mask is going to be the fashion accessory to have in 2020 and beyond.
Can't you just see the fashion models walking the catwalk next year in masks? We'll all be wearing them.
That is precisely what I pictured....."I'm too sexy for this mask.....too sexy for this mask....so sexy it hurts"
- Right Said Fred
I'm in the middle of my second book about the 1918 flu epidemic, and both talk about people starting to wear masks anytime they went out, and the first had photos of some US city (I forget which) in which everyone is wearing masks.
My sister took her dh shopping the other day, they both wore masks(you're not seeing it much here....yet). Somebody yelled across the aisle at her, telling her she's not supposed to be using them, they're for other people. She's 75 and her dh is 80, has Alzheimer's. Seriously??? And I've offered to stay with him or get food for them countless times. But until Friday, when her dd sent her a couple more masks for extra caregivers to wear, she wouldn't allow me in their home.
If you read the CDC website, they do not recommend wearing masks...they are of little to no value to the general public in coronavirus protection. This is not an airborne virus and masks only really serve as a false sense of security. They are necessary for medical workers as they can obviously not socially distance themselves from their patients and there is more aerosol transfer in a hospital setting.
Yeah, the thing is, the CDC is lying about this. There have been several articles in various major news sources about how their messaging changes as the availability of masks changes. In particular the message “a normal person (as you just quoted ‘member of the general public’) couldn’t possibly use a mask properly, only trained medical professionals get any benefit from them.” Yeah, that’s baloney. It’s not that hard, and if they wanted us to know, they would be sharing mask-training videos instead of telling us not to buy masks. It doesn’t help the public confidence when any child can see through what’s being said by the experts.
Masks don’t stop aerosols, and viruses go right through them, but they do stop droplets. There’s no hard data about protection levels, but in Asian countries which commonly use masks, studies have found they make it about 80% less likely to get the seasonal flu. All of the countries which have successfully suppressed Covid-19 have also put their whole populations into masks in public. Masks aren’t perfect but they do help. The question is, who gets them?
Right now there are hospitals which are requiring doctors to wear masks and not allowing nurses to wear them because “they aren’t necessary.” Who spends more time with patients? Clearly the nurse. In terms of exposure the nurse is more exposed. But doctors are presumably regarded as more essential.
I'm way behind in this thread, so I'll probably find it's already been mentioned further down, but the Washington Post has reported thatOfficials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are considering altering official guidance to encourage people to wear masks in public.
Unfortunately it's just in a bullet list of coronavirus news highlights, with no further info I can find. There's a hyperlink in the paragraph on the CDC, but it's to a story that's nearly two weeks old and not about the masks. Also, just noticed, between the first time I read the paragraph I quoted and came back from looking at the old story they linked to, they deleted a sentence about how encouraging people to wear masks in public would be more in line with official policy in other countries.
I'll put the link here, but no guarantee the entire paragraph won't disappear, I guess.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2020/03/31/coronavirus-latest-news/
Also way behind. So maybe this has been said already, but even sinple hankerchief masks or something that stops drops (not aerosol) is still better than nothing at all. Every little thing that we can do to slow this down, especially when covering up with a hankerchief causes no harm, should be taken. Lots of little actions can still help, even if that is 1 less person in 20 to get the virus. The only way to contain this is to get the R0 below 1.0 for long enough to die out. So any action to lower the R0 is important.5 -
It is interesting when realizing how close one has become to getting infected because of the long incubation period and learning about spread weeks after it has already happened.
Example: I ran a marathon in Albany, GA on Mar. 7. I didn't take any extra precautions and wasn't really worried at the time. Little did I know that I was running through a hotspot in progress, went to a street fair after the race as well.
Story: Days After a Funeral in a Georgia Town, Coronavirus ‘Hit Like a Bomb’ https://nyti.ms/2WX2F2r7 -
VA governor saw too many people at parks and beaches, so... We have a Stay at Home order until... June 10
One of the widely circulated photos of idiots at the beach was local here in Virginia Beach. I was shopping for essentials yesterday and I think a couple of them that crowded the beach were in the store with me. While the vast majority were aware and using social distancing, two of them in particular needed to be slapped.
Sadly the morons from the populated areas will head to the quieter areas if they don't impose the "Stay at home" order, so just be glad we are stuck with most of them.3 -
I don't recall seeing this yet, my Dad's rebuilding a computer and ordered a part from EBay. Turns out it's from China and it was stopping at the border because of the virus.
On salad, I just finished eating cabbage for lettuce. My stores were out of the bins of spring greens, spinach, and kale plus all the bagged lettuce was gone. I don't eat the bagged stuff aside of spinach or baby kale and I'm guessing since more people are eating at home they want salads with dinner. My cabbage lasted two weeks so I had something left out of running out of Romaine.4 -
On the curve and where the US is and so on, I thought this was useful in thinking about it: https://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/look-beneath-the-national-numbers
"Let me note one of the known unknowns we should be thinking about as we roll into the coming brutal weeks. We are looking at national statistics – infections, tests, fatalities, hospitalizations. But these are likely illusory. There really is no national outbreak. There’s a big New York outbreak which still dominates the national statistics and will have its own discrete dynamics. It seems very likely you will have a series of other regional and metropolitan area outbreaks unfolding across the country in the coming weeks. So the national numbers will be misleading. In epidemiological terms the US is more like Europe as a whole, rather than any individual country, especially when states are playing such an outsized role combating the disease because of a significantly distracted federal response....
I’ve seen estimates that the ‘peak’ in the US is likely to come in mid-April. It’s hard for me to make sense of those projections. It’s supposed to come roughly around then in New York. But as you can see for now New York is close to half the current ‘national’ outbreak despite the state making up less than 6% of the US population. If you have anything like what is currently happening in New York happen in large sections of the rest of the country these numbers are likely to be dwarfed by what is to come and the peak of infections and fatalities significantly further out into the future.
Again, known unknowns. One of the reasons it’s hard to make sense of these graphs is that testing is not at all evenly spread around the country. The US is no longer clearly behind most countries in testing. The US is approaching a million tests and has been testing about 100,000 people a day since late last week. But the numbers are very unevenly spread around the country...."3 -
MikePfirrman wrote: »You can find KN 95 masks, which the CDC won't approve, though 3M has said they are a very suitable substitute for N95 masks. Most are from China, which I think has a lot to do with it, because many healthcare providers are saying just buy us KN 95 masks, we don't care, get us something. I have an N95 I bought a while back for sanding, but I know an older couple down the street and I was researching options for them. Our one friend, 72, has two compromised older sisters she's very worried about, for good reason.
https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/kenbensinger/coronavirus-kn95-masks-us-wont-import-china
This makes no sense, as we (taxpayers) are paying five times as much for N95 masks as we might pay for KN95 masks. Just read that someone bought the Detroit Police Dept 100K KN95 masks and donated them. They gladly took them and didn't care that the CDC wouldn't approve them.
In Europe - Spain I think - they bought Chinese masks and found that they had a huge failure rate. Same with the tests. If only 30% work as they should, there are going to be a lot of sick health care providers.3 -
cwolfman13 wrote: »lynn_glenmont wrote: »cwolfman13 wrote: »moonangel12 wrote: »snowflake954 wrote: »@snowflake954 Lol! The mask is going to be the fashion accessory to have in 2020 and beyond.
Can't you just see the fashion models walking the catwalk next year in masks? We'll all be wearing them.
That is precisely what I pictured....."I'm too sexy for this mask.....too sexy for this mask....so sexy it hurts"
- Right Said Fred
I'm in the middle of my second book about the 1918 flu epidemic, and both talk about people starting to wear masks anytime they went out, and the first had photos of some US city (I forget which) in which everyone is wearing masks.
My sister took her dh shopping the other day, they both wore masks(you're not seeing it much here....yet). Somebody yelled across the aisle at her, telling her she's not supposed to be using them, they're for other people. She's 75 and her dh is 80, has Alzheimer's. Seriously??? And I've offered to stay with him or get food for them countless times. But until Friday, when her dd sent her a couple more masks for extra caregivers to wear, she wouldn't allow me in their home.
If you read the CDC website, they do not recommend wearing masks...they are of little to no value to the general public in coronavirus protection. This is not an airborne virus and masks only really serve as a false sense of security. They are necessary for medical workers as they can obviously not socially distance themselves from their patients and there is more aerosol transfer in a hospital setting.
I assume that when you say it is not an airborne virus you mean that it is not aerosolized and sinks to surfaces very quickly, but without that explanation, I think saying it is not airbone can be misleading, as people are liable to think that means it can't pass through the air, and that everything they've heard about the dangers of someone coughing or sneezing on them or just being within six feet of them is not true.
I also think that the folks in the store yelling at elderly people (clearly at high risk, and thus not the general population) for taking whatever added precaution they can, even if the protective value is small, were jerks. Sure they should stay home if they possibly can, but to assume anyone you see out in the world has a less valid reason than you do for being there is at least at self-centered as one elderly couple using two masks that are supposed to be "for other people." Why not suggest the elderly couple go back to the car and offer to do the shopping and bring it out to them?
I would think people would know the difference. I'm not remotely a health care professional and I know the difference.
The same populace that can't keep simple carbs and complex carbs straight will clearly understand the difference between "airborne" and "aerosolized".
🤨
I have to think people know the difference between a virus floating around in the air and getting directly sneezed or coughed on...I have to think that or I have to lose all faith in humanity...it's one or the other.11 -
I am honestly disgusted with some people in my community. The grocery store parking lots are littered with disposable gloves, people are just stripping them off and dropping them wherever. There's dog poop on the sidewalks, and cars and trucks zooming down residential streets running stop signs and red lights.
This is a very small city, mostly residential and rural. I don't know what to make of this behavior. There's always littering, irresponsible dog owners and speeders of course, but it's almost like it's become acceptable to abandon socially responsible behavior as long as one is following physical distance rules.26 -
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/mar/31/virologists-to-turn-germany-worst-hit-district-into-coronavirus-laboratory
"German scientists have announced what they described as a first-of-its-kind study into how coronavirus spreads and how it can be contained, using the country’s worst-hit district as a real-life laboratory.
The virus has spread more widely among the 250,000 residents of Heinsberg – a district in North Rhine-Westphalia bordering the Netherlands – than anywhere else in Germany, with 1,281 confirmed infections and 34 deaths. More than 550 people have recovered from the illness so far. The advance of the virus in Heinsberg, nicknamed “Germany’s Wuhan” after the Chinese city where the global pandemic emerged, is between two to two and a half weeks ahead of the rest of the country.
Over the coming weeks the district will be used by leading virologists and a team of 40 medical students as a sort of laboratory for studying the virus. The “Covid-19 case cluster study”, launched on Tuesday morning, will follow 1,000 people who have been chosen because they are representative of the German population as a whole...."
(The rest at the link -- looks like likely to be a really informative study.)10 -
I am honestly disgusted with some people in my community. The grocery store parking lots are littered with disposable gloves, people are just stripping them off and dropping them wherever. There's dog poop on the sidewalks, and cars and trucks zooming down residential streets running stop signs and red lights.
This is a very small city, mostly residential and rural. I don't know what to make of this behavior. There's always littering, irresponsible dog owners and speeders of course, but it's almost like it's become acceptable to abandon socially responsible behavior as long as one is following physical distance rules.
I suspect it has something to do with societal norms being a bit topsy turvy right now. People who would normally feel peer pressure to act in socially acceptable ways are showing their true nature when nobody is there to see and/or they observe others behaving the same way.
I read this article a long time ago and dug it back up, because it seems applicable here:
https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/anthropology-in-practice/why-dont-people-return-their-shopping-carts/
I'm a cart-returning rule-follower even when no one is around to see. *I* still know that I didn't return that cart (insert other social situation of your choice), and it eats me up inside.12 -
So is there anywhere that you can get any kind of masks? I'd like to get some for my parents to wear when they go to the grocery store (they refuse to let me shop for them, grrrr). I don't have a sewing machine or I'd try to figure out how to do something from scratch.4
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Potentially changing information on it being “airborne” or not...
https://www.fox5dc.com/news/coronavirus-could-be-airborne-study-suggests2 -
So is there anywhere that you can get any kind of masks? I'd like to get some for my parents to wear when they go to the grocery store (they refuse to let me shop for them, grrrr). I don't have a sewing machine or I'd try to figure out how to do something from scratch.
https://www.yahoo.com/huffpost/how-to-make-face-mask-from-fabric-covid-19-162753601.html1 -
So is there anywhere that you can get any kind of masks? I'd like to get some for my parents to wear when they go to the grocery store (they refuse to let me shop for them, grrrr). I don't have a sewing machine or I'd try to figure out how to do something from scratch.
https://www.yahoo.com/huffpost/how-to-make-face-mask-from-fabric-covid-19-162753601.html
Thanks!1 -
I wonder if something like this would be of any use? I have one I bought for my hair. It's polyester but definitely big enough to double up and add some sort of filter material between the layers. Of course, at some point you can't breathe...
https://www.amazon.com/Unisex-Original-Multifunctional-Headwear-Graphite/dp/B07BJ3D4PD/1 -
I am honestly disgusted with some people in my community. The grocery store parking lots are littered with disposable gloves, people are just stripping them off and dropping them wherever. There's dog poop on the sidewalks, and cars and trucks zooming down residential streets running stop signs and red lights.
This is a very small city, mostly residential and rural. I don't know what to make of this behavior. There's always littering, irresponsible dog owners and speeders of course, but it's almost like it's become acceptable to abandon socially responsible behavior as long as one is following physical distance rules.
I suspect it has something to do with societal norms being a bit topsy turvy right now. People who would normally feel peer pressure to act in socially acceptable ways are showing their true nature when nobody is there to see and/or they observe others behaving the same way.
I read this article a long time ago and dug it back up, because it seems applicable here:
https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/anthropology-in-practice/why-dont-people-return-their-shopping-carts/
I'm a cart-returning rule-follower even when no one is around to see. *I* still know that I didn't return that cart (insert other social situation of your choice), and it eats me up inside.
Thanks for the link - I'm going to sit down and enjoy the read this afternoon 😊
I'm a rule-follower too, and tend to think in terms of how my behavior might adversely affect other people. I think I'm taking some of this community disrespect personally and I really need to let that go. I have enough stress in life right now 🙄12
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