Coronavirus

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MajGenl.Meade
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Re: Coronavirus

Post by MajGenl.Meade »

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For Christianity, by identifying truth with faith, must teach-and, properly understood, does teach-that any interference with the truth is immoral. A Christian with faith has nothing to fear from the facts

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BoSoxGal
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Re: Coronavirus

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From the LA Times:
Op-Ed: On the COVID frontlines, we’re tired of hearing lame excuses for risky behavior

By Mark Morocco Nov. 23, 202012:47 PM

In my world, there is a lot of anger — most of it kept professionally hidden.

In emergency rooms and intensive care units across the country, frontline nurses, respiratory therapists and doctors like me have been in danger every day for eight months. Smothered in PPE, we’re doused in coronavirus every day while we take care of the very sick, the worried well and the dying. Some of the dead aren’t patients; some are colleagues, friends and our own families.

We are furious and we are exhausted. And now we face again the flooding of our hospitals.

We’re tired of seeing patients who got the virus after their kid’s “limited” birthday party or because they went out to a restaurant dinner with “close friends” or flew to a celebration in a state “that didn’t have much COVID.”

It didn’t have to be this way.

We bent the curve, then let it bend right back. Distracted and tired, our focus faded.

Fall is aptly named. People aren’t made to be perfect, but damn, we should be better than this.

What you do — how we ALL act in the next six weeks — will make the difference between an inconvenient fall and a disaster that will take years to overcome.

Until months AFTER the vaccines arrive, the same simple steps will be required. Not just in California, but also across our un-United States.

Wear a mask whenever you leave the house. Stop doing dumb stuff, like going to parties, destination weddings and the French Laundry. Stop listening to know-nothings who spout “science” on YouTube and Twitter.

Stop being crybabies about a little inconvenience. We already have more than 250,000 reasons to weep — and to be thankful we are alive and can still do something about it.

So avoid crowds. Wash your hands. Stay home. Why is this so hard?

You may have noticed that I’m a little bit on edge.

The problem is, people don’t understand the danger. Yes, you may have attended a party and you’re fine. You’re young, you’re healthy. What’s the problem?

If you don’t understand, go back and read a story by Karen Kaplan in this newspaper. She reported how a single wedding of 55 people in Maine infected 27 guests. None of them died and some didn’t even have symptoms. So, no big deal, right? Wrong. The infected guests went on to infect others, who in turn spread it themselves. Over the next 38 days, the wedding was responsible for infecting at least 176 people, and seven of them died.

Multiply that mistake thousands of times across our country and you have real trouble. You don’t have to get sick to transmit COVID. You can kill someone you’ve never met in another state, or their mother, or they can kill yours.

What you do matters.

We’ve reached that place in the movie where there are so many zombies we have to hide in the basement. Except the zombies are down there with us, fresh from an “essential” shopping trip, and now their kid has a cough.

So this column is a warning, a confession and a cry for unity — perhaps even patriotism.

If you come to me in the ER, you’ll never know what I’m thinking about you or your choices. Like the virus, I don’t care if you’re from Orange County or North Dakota. You’ll get 100% from me and my crew, no matter who you are or what you did — or didn’t — do. Even if you say this is a political conspiracy or a test of “liberty,” or you call us “sheeple.”

COVID doesn’t care how you vote, where you live or if you die. The fire burns all around us and we are dry grass, from sea to shining sea.

In my world, we are deeply disheartened to realize that, as a country, the United States can’t unite as other countries have, and that the work of crushing this virus turned out to be too complicated for our leaders and our neighbors. Now we are in danger of losing perhaps half a million people or more.

It makes front-liners like me feel as though our work doesn’t matter.

The way people, including the president, are behaving seems un-American. How can the world’s strongest democracy be unwilling to fight a winnable war on our own soil to protect our own lives and those of our neighbors? A lot of us won’t even don masks to aid the fight.

As I put on my PPE before a shift in the ER, I think of seasick WWII soldiers, riding toward a beach as other young men on shore tried to kill them in the surf. Compared to what they faced, what I do is easy.

Then, no one knew how long the war would last or if they would survive. People back home collected rubber and bacon grease for years, gave up countless liberties and luxuries, and no one ever called the war a hoax, even if they never saw a Nazi in their backyard.

We’re eight months into COVID. World War II lasted six years and a day. The Great Depression lasted 10 years. The 1918 flu lasted two years and two months.

Are we really that soft? That careless? That selfish?

It’s great news that a vaccine is likely to come soon, but don’t depend on it to save you and the people you love. Like the last man shot in war, you might get the virus before you get the vaccine.

There is still time to save lives. Stay at home, and when you have to go out, wear your mask everywhere. Break the virus chain. Do it for yourself. Do it for those you love. Do it for your country.

Come, be a hero.

Mark Morocco is a Los Angeles physician and professor of emergency medicine.
For me, it is far better to grasp the Universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring.
~ Carl Sagan

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Gob
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Re: Coronavirus

Post by Gob »

Our local rag just did an article on me and Hen being separated by Covid.
“If you trust in yourself, and believe in your dreams, and follow your star. . . you'll still get beaten by people who spent their time working hard and learning things and weren't so lazy.”

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BoSoxGal
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Re: Coronavirus

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It’s a nice piece - sorry you guys are stuck in this situation but at least you are better prepared than most for the challenges of long distance relationship.

Love to Hen, Hatch and Hen’s mum.
For me, it is far better to grasp the Universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring.
~ Carl Sagan

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Long Run
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Re: Coronavirus

Post by Long Run »

Queue up the jokes about a slow news day. Actually, your situation highlights the many ways in which the pandemic has impacted us. Hoping you and Hen see each other IRL soon.

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MajGenl.Meade
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Re: Coronavirus

Post by MajGenl.Meade »

Amen
For Christianity, by identifying truth with faith, must teach-and, properly understood, does teach-that any interference with the truth is immoral. A Christian with faith has nothing to fear from the facts

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Sue U
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Re: Coronavirus

Post by Sue U »

Gob wrote:
Wed Nov 25, 2020 10:13 am
Our local rag just did an article on me and Hen being separated by Covid.
And here I thought you were separated by about 10 time zones.
GAH!

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Guinevere
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Re: Coronavirus

Post by Guinevere »

Sue U wrote:
Wed Nov 25, 2020 7:24 pm
Gob wrote:
Wed Nov 25, 2020 10:13 am
Our local rag just did an article on me and Hen being separated by Covid.
And here I thought you were separated by about 10 time zones.
That’s less Mencken and more Youngman. Clue the cymbals! :mrgreen: :mrgreen:
“I ask no favor for my sex. All I ask of our brethren is that they take their feet off our necks.” ~ Ruth Bader Ginsburg, paraphrasing Sarah Moore Grimké

Burning Petard
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Re: Coronavirus

Post by Burning Petard »

Thanks, BSG, to passing on the Op-Ed. Many in my extended family are retired hospital workers of various forms. I never thought of the valid resentment that all the 'hoax' messaging brings on to those who have to work into dangerous fatigue while caring for those who ignore the prevention steps.

snailgate.

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Sue U
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Re: Coronavirus

Post by Sue U »

Guinevere wrote:
Wed Nov 25, 2020 10:35 pm
That’s less Mencken and more Youngman. Clue the cymbals! :mrgreen: :mrgreen:
In that case, take my wife, also too. :lol:
GAH!

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Gob
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Re: Coronavirus

Post by Gob »

Sue U wrote:
Wed Nov 25, 2020 7:24 pm
Gob wrote:
Wed Nov 25, 2020 10:13 am
Our local rag just did an article on me and Hen being separated by Covid.
And here I thought you were separated by about 10 time zones.
The time zones are really just part of the problem. We had planned for her to come home for Nov and most of Dec, so we could have that time together. Quarantine, no flights, and the fact that I'm not willing to risk her health by her travelling put a stop to that!

Lovely photo of us on the article though, taken by my mate Janet.
“If you trust in yourself, and believe in your dreams, and follow your star. . . you'll still get beaten by people who spent their time working hard and learning things and weren't so lazy.”

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Econoline
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Re: Coronavirus

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People who are wrong are just as sure they're right as people who are right. The only difference is, they're wrong.
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Gob
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Re: Coronavirus

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Love it!
“If you trust in yourself, and believe in your dreams, and follow your star. . . you'll still get beaten by people who spent their time working hard and learning things and weren't so lazy.”

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Scooter
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Re: Coronavirus

Post by Scooter »

Mayo study supports effectiveness of masks and social distancing

Findings show masks are very effective, even at a one-foot distance, and six feet of social distancing is highly effective even without masks.


ROCHESTER, Minnesota — With the likelihood that some families still will blend on Thanksgiving and over the weekend — despite the recommendations of health experts — Mayo Clinic released the unpublished results of a study they’ve been working on.

The study shows how effective masks and social distancing really are in preventing the spread of the coronavirus.

Guidance at the beginning of the pandemic, Mayo Clinic doctor Matthew Callstrom admits, was confusing.

“Is six feet somehow magical? How much do masks really help?” Callstrom said.

So Mayo Clinic engineered a study to measure the effectiveness of masks and social distancing from a practical standpoint.

“We simulated how people work together, maybe eating lunch together. So we actually measured what that interaction looked like. In terms of particle transmission,” Callstrom said.

Using mannequins distanced at one foot, three feet and six feet apart, researchers measured the amount of respiratory droplets and aerosols when one participant is masked, both are masked, and neither are masked.

The study found masks especially helpful for protecting others.

When the COVID-positive simulated mannequin wears a mask, the amount of exposure on the target is reduced by more than 99%, even at just one foot distance.

Researchers also found masks protect the one wearing them. If the COVID source is unmasked but the target wears one, exposure is still reduced 60% at one foot, and much more with distance.


Image
Credit: Mayo Clinic

The study found that "magical" 6-foot distance really is the point at which exposure severely drops off, even without masks. “In fact, if you're wearing a mask and they're six feet away, it's at baseline. So that combination of masking and distancing is very important,” Callstrom said.

Simulations also indicate cloth masks and paper surgical masks are equally effective in protecting against COVID-19.

“There's a lot of confusion about whether or not it's (masking) truly valuable, but we've objectively shown that its absolutely critical,” Callstrom said.
"If you don't have a seat at the table, you're on the menu."

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BoSoxGal
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Re: Coronavirus

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That’s a relief to read. I think I posted before I’ve been prohibited from wearing a mask at my current workplace, so it’s basically eat/feed the dog and be at risk for covid19, or stay at home and starve. My client has agreed to let me mask when we are in very close contact during ostomy care, and when we are in the car together (it’s his wife who freaked out about me coming to work with a mask - strangely at just the same time I learned she’s a Trumpanzee, I’m sure there’s no connection). Otherwise I’ve been doing my level best to always stay 6 feet apart from folks in the house and keeping my fingers crossed - so nice to know the 6 feet unmasked is relatively effective at reducing transmission. Hopefully I’ll make it to a vaccine.
For me, it is far better to grasp the Universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring.
~ Carl Sagan

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Long Run
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Re: Coronavirus

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BoSoxGal wrote:
Sun Nov 29, 2020 3:12 pm
I’ve been prohibited from wearing a mask at my current workplace,
How is that even possible? Are you directly hired by the people you care for or is there an agency?

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BoSoxGal
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Re: Coronavirus

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Long Run wrote:
Mon Nov 30, 2020 1:13 am
BoSoxGal wrote:
Sun Nov 29, 2020 3:12 pm
I’ve been prohibited from wearing a mask at my current workplace,
How is that even possible? Are you directly hired by the people you care for or is there an agency?
I’m directly hired and supervised by my clients, but paid by the state. If I reported this client to the state he’d lose his eligibility for caregivers I’m sure, but it’s not his choice - he’s a victim of domestic abuse in the form of coercive control. I would never want to be the reason he loses eligibility for caregivers. I also care about him and don’t want to abandon him. Yeah, it sucks. But if I insisted on wearing the mask his wife (at this point it’s one of those marriages in name only) would make his life even more miserable and he would probably feel forced to terminate me. He likes me well enough, but he is totally crazy about my dog Riley who goes to work with me and is basically a therapy dog for a very sick man who hasn’t been allowed to have a pet for several years since his last dog, also a border collie, died. He’d be heartbroken.

Sadly in my line of work you see families very up close and intimate, where they can’t hide their warts and wounds. I have seen families rally and create the most amazingly loving environments for family members succumbing to Alzheimer’s or Lewy body, and I have seen families be utterly cruel to their family member in the midst of them dying of cancer. It’s not all happy families just because someone gets sick; sadly it’s not uncommon for spouses to abandon their spouse when they get seriously chronically ill or terminally ill. Sometimes they actually walk out and other times they stay ‘together’ and refuse to participate in a meaningful way in caregiving, and check out emotionally or engage in outright emotional cruelty like telling the person how much better things will be when they finally die. I shit you not.

The things I’ve seen in my legal career and in my healthcare career, it’s really no wonder I am more and more misanthropic as time marches on.

Anyway, I’m sure I’m not the only in home caregiver experiencing this, as there are plenty of reluctant maskers here - just maybe not as many as elsewhere. But unemployment is sky high so we aren’t really in a good position to bargain - like many other employees in other fields working for bosses who think masks are foolish face diapers. Thank you Mr. Biggest Loser 45*.
For me, it is far better to grasp the Universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring.
~ Carl Sagan

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Re: Coronavirus

Post by ex-khobar Andy »

Interesting data, Scooter. It really makes the point that masks reduce the risk, but by far the most important is that the potential spreader should wear it. As they have always said, you wear it for the other guy.

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Long Run
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Re: Coronavirus

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BoSoxGal wrote:
Mon Nov 30, 2020 2:51 am
But if I insisted on wearing the mask his wife (at this point it’s one of those marriages in name only) would make his life even more miserable and he would probably feel forced to terminate me.
Like most people, we don't wear masks around our house. However, we do when a contractor comes in (and they are masked as well). But caregivers are more like family members. Your client is home all the time, so he is highly unlikely to have COVID unless he gets it from someone who comes in and out of the house. I assume that is the spouse, and you do not trust her prevention practices.

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BoSoxGal
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Re: Coronavirus

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My client isn’t home all the time, he attends multiple medical appointments monthly and goes out into the community to shop and conduct errands (PO, drug store, grocery store, etc.). I wish he would limit his exposures more given his multiple vulnerabilities that make him very high risk, but I believe he is placing his confidence in his prior infection with covid that had him on a ventilator for a few weeks in March/April. He is starting to talk about the fact that he’s seen the evidence of reinfection and more serious illness on second infection and I think it’s starting to concern him, but his attitude is somewhat fatalist because he knows his family aren’t compliant with mask/social distance beyond what is unavoidable, so he is likely to get his biggest exposure risk by being in the home with them in close proximity of all their exhalations.
For me, it is far better to grasp the Universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring.
~ Carl Sagan

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