n95 dust masks

[seedcorn]

Based on what one sees on the telly and observes while driving to and from the grocery, the coronavirus quarantine is not always being observed. Government official continue to appeal to nobler instincts, but with mixed results.

Does history provide a Plan B? Indeed it does! Dr. Charles Ingrao elaborates on public health strategy in 'The Habsburg Monarchy, 1618-1815.' ''The Habsburg monarch Joseph I invoked harsh rules for those who violated quarantines. A contemporary wrote: 'If you break the laws of the quarantine, you will be tried with military haste; the court will scream out a sentence to you … and after that you will find yourself carefully shot and carelessly buried.'

Sounds like I’ll be shot regardless. Been nice not knowing anyone.... suppose to stay secluded home, except can go to work, go to grocery stores, hardwares, liquor stores, gas stations, etc..... oh, support local businesses and eating establishments-just eat in vehicle (isn't that called a drive in?). I’m so busy following all these instructions I don’t have time to stay home......

 

[flowerbug]

Herd immunity. Protect the vulnerable by all means, but let the daily business of life go on. Our local hospital is a ghost town, as are many others across the country.

And there certainly can be global collusion. Not impossible by any means. No foil hat here. Just simple common sense.

even with lockdown we still have gone from 50 to over 300 cases in the past few weeks. this is just for our county. a neighboring county where a cousin is an ER physician as part of the staff having to cope with 1,100 cases. today's numbers for MI are:

Daily Confirmed Cases
1,058
Daily COVID-19 Deaths
153

for the small towns around here those kinds of numbers would mean about half the town infected in one day and 1/10th the population dying...

 

[Zeedman]

even with lockdown we still have gone from 50 to over 300 cases in the past few weeks. this is just for our county. a neighboring county where a cousin is an ER physician as part of the staff having to cope with 1,100 cases. today's numbers for MI are:

Daily Confirmed Cases
1,058
Daily COVID-19 Deaths
153

for the small towns around here those kinds of numbers would mean about half the town infected in one day and 1/10th the population dying...

I hope COVID-19 wasn't already circulating at the February seed swap...

 

[seedcorn]

I hope COVID-19 wasn't already circulating at the February seed swap...

Or it was and you have built up immunity to it.

 

[Dirtmechanic]

There,s a lot of people that think most if not all of us have been exposed ,,,some got sick, others a little less, some hardly at all ,, What's your thought ,, typing this on my phone ,,not easy,,,

Not yet, and as people become immune they will serve as insulators in addition. As it grows, it slows.

Annnd although I truly enjoy crusty commentary carving covid conditions, I need to drop this graph here.

 

[valley ranch]

We were all sick in February ~ lasted for weeks ~ we believe it was this Luhon or covid What ever you call it ~ no we didn't go to the hospital or doctor ~ everyone didn't get the same degree of sick ~ my daughters and I were the sickest ~ Sickest is a good word isn't it ~ got me in the lungs ~ there are thousands and thousand of people coming each week from China ~ this thing wasn't spread by one person or two or ten ```

Some who are exposed show little or no sign ~ others get damn sick ~ or Darn Sick ```

 

[Dirtmechanic]

We were all sick in February ~ lasted for weeks ~ we believe it was this Luhon or covid What ever you call it ~ no we didn't go to the hospital or doctor ~ everyone didn't get the same degree of sick ~ my daughters and I were the sickest ~ Sickest is a good word isn't it ~ got me in the lungs ~ there are thousands and thousand of people coming each week from China ~ this thing wasn't spread by one person or two or ten ```

Some who are exposed show little or no sign ~ others get damn sick ~ or Darn Sick ```

I have been tagging along on the genetic tracking for covid as they keep announcing the genetic evolutions from dna bits they identify. I read yesterday they found dog dna. So a dog ate a bat basically. Then there are the bits from the different populations of humans, found at different times on different continents. When the final chapter are done it will be an interesting tale to read.

 

[Zeedman]

People that work with virus out breaks on a daily basis-swine producers-will all tell you the only way to control a virus is either infect all (they develop their own antibodies) or vaccinate. Since this virus likes to mutate. Vaccines of very limited use. Whenever everyone comes out of their homes, the virus will then be spread to those who have not been infected. IMO, it’s not IF you will get introduced to this virus but when.

Caution anyone to not get excited over stats since currently all deaths are being credited to Coronavirus.

Unfortunately, I believe that COVID-19 would cause an excessive number of fatalities if allowed to spread unchecked - and that the media is hyping this negatively. Instead of focusing on the threat & what we can do to overcome it, the majority of the media seems to be more concerned with politicizing it, which I find distasteful.

That being said...

H1N1 did not ravage through nursing homes as COVID-19 does, nor with as high a mortality in that population. Because of its long gestation period & asymptomatic carriers, it is much more contagious than the flu. Whole rooms of people have been infected because a single carrier was present with them for a short period of time. So comparisons of COVID-19 (where efforts have been made to contain it) to the flu (which was allowed to spread unchecked) are comparing apples & oranges. For all intents and purposes, regardless of its origin, this disease has the properties of a biological weapon, given its impact on the entire planet. Hopefully it does not mutate before we get a handle on it, I've seen no evidence up to this point that it has done so.

Yes, the media is now inflating the death toll... NY decided to add those "probably killed" by corona virus, in spite of the fact those additional people were not tested, and could as easily have died from non-COVID pneumonia, flu, COPD, or a heart attack. That inflation of fatalities will probably continue from this day forward, for political reasons. But regardless of that inflation, we are losing about 1000+ people per day who were diagnosed... and that number continues to grow, in spite of the no-contact restrictions. So those who use the present numbers to downplay the severity of the outbreak are, IMO, off base.

As @seedcorn stated, the pandemic won't end until (a) the entire population has been exposed (herd immunity); (b) the vulnerable population has received an effective vaccine; or (c) effective treatment(s) are available to reduce or prevent loss of life.

There is some question as to how long ago COVID-19 has actually been spreading through the population... but option (a) is being prevented from happening by "stay-at-home", and is unsustainable unless/until widespread testing becomes fully accessible. Otherwise, the disease will just resume spreading until the majority of the population has been exposed. This would allow us to restart the economy, and put people (at least temporarily) back to work - but at a greater loss of life than any pandemic in our lifetime. According to Johns Hopkins, there are over 26,000 fatalities in the U.S. as of this date; so uncontrolled, we could realistically expect a death toll well over 100,000. It saddens & angers me that to serious proponents of this proposal, many of us on this forum in our later years would be considered expendable.

The best we can hope for - and what I believe is most likely to happen - is that option (c) is able to prevent loss of life until an effective vaccine can immunize the population. We are not there yet, but several drugs have shown great promise, if they can be approved & manufactured in sufficient quantities. In the interim, the proposal to distribute & require masks of anyone in the public sphere, along with behavioral precautions, would allow many to return to work with minimal risk. It appears that mask production has been increased to the point where that may happen soon... hopefully hand sanitizer follows suit. Those measures would allow us to return to some semblance of normality.

I guess this went a little long, my apologies for the long-winded post... guess that means I haven't got it yet. Time to turn in.

 

[Gardening with Rabbits]

This antibody test to see if you have been exposed and immune, how does this work? If you had the measles in the past or were vaccinated then blood work will show you are immune, but if you had influenza A last year or a few months ago, would there be antibodies in your blood? Now they are saying that they are finding no antibodies in survivors, so isn't that to be expected or in your blood you have antibodies to the Hong Kong Flu, the Swine Flu, influenza A, influenza B, if you had those in the past?

 

[flowerbug]

I hope COVID-19 wasn't already circulating at the February seed swap...

if you were exposed then and got infected then you'd be over it by now - at least all the reading i've done so far to date doesn't indicate it hangs around. if it did there would be indications that your surrounding community would have had outbreaks. this is a very infectious virus.

all my seed samples were packed up the weeks before that event so i think they were safe. even if someone coughed on them and the virus particles are still there i'm pretty sure that washing your hands after opening and planted them a person should be safe.

i don't know if it was circulating there, but i cannot tell for certain without testing being available if i was exposed. i do recall some slight illness, but i can't remember the exact timing. i didn't have any complications whatever it was. Mom has not complained of anything at all (but she also may not tell me everything). i do know that there were some people coughing and sniffling there. at that large an event it would be strange if nobody was sick - especially that time of the year (flu season).

i do remember telling Mom to wash her hands if she touched anything there as i had heard the news already (the 18th of Jan). my brother had just gone through open heart surgery about 10 days previous and we were going to visit him after the Seed Swap so i was paranoid about spreading anything to him. i made a point of keeping my distance and washing my hands.

i am such a homebody that i've seen very few people since then, but Mom is much more out and around (before the lockdown came about) - we also continued our normal routine of cooking things for some people and she visited some friends of hers.

both of us though are constantly bringing up crud due to lung issues, seasonal allergies and in Mom's case she works with fabric/dust a lot and the various laundry detergents/scents bother her so she sprays things with apple cider vinegar as she irons so she's coughing from either that or the stench of the scents (some are so bad that even after she washes things they still stink).