I'm seeing a lot more people using masks. That's good. Unfortunately, I'm also seeing a lot that are using masks that only protect the wearer but not those who may come in contact with someone infected who is wearing one.
Notice the valve on this mask. It allows unfiltered breath and coughs to be expelled by the wearer.
We are likely to get COVID-19 (I've heard estimates of 70 to 80% of us). Fortunately, most people have mild to no symptoms. The severity of the disease is primarily dependent on the strength of our immune system and the initial viral load at infection. About 70% of the severe cases are in people with some level of obesity. We can influence these factors folks. Wearing a mask, even a homemade one, will reduce the initial infection load. Obesity is a result of poor (misinformed) dietary choices and is really pretty easy to correct. The truth is that we blame people for being overweight and sick, but it’s not their fault. Our taste buds, hormones, and brain chemistry have been hijacked by the food industry. Stress is also a complicating factor, as is poor sleep and lack of rest. The concurrent economic collapse coupled with worry about family and friends add to our susceptibility. Perhaps some of us will manage to avoid infection until there is a vaccine. That appears to be a year to 18 months away. That's a long time to be isolated using good antiseptic measures. So this week I thought we should focus on maximizing our own healthy immune system and reviewing protective techniques to minimize infection. Let's try to do more than just survive, but to thrive... and come out of this seismic event better, more thoughtful, and kinder people.
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Wow, guys.
May he keep composing and crooning to the stars in the afterlife...
He co-wrote and debuted the stellar Lean on Me in April of 1972; we'll be reminded of this plaintive song a lot during the coming depression, won't we?
And what a beginning. An OpEd at the NYTimes (not blocked) by Tweed Roosevelt, the great-grandson of Theodore Roosevelt who has personal knowledge of a precedent to Captain Crozier. There are undoubtedly many more precedents and hopefully we'll soon hear about many of them.
In particular, social changes that may have a long term drag on our economy.
Greetings all, I was seeing on an economics blog several points about how there will be long term economic ramifications from this Covid crisis. Lower GDP, productivity loss, bankruptcy, etc. But what I want to focus on here is this:
Hillary Clinton tweeted (and all the usual democratic outlets support this):
Millions of people have lost their employer-tied health care over the last two weeks because of the pandemic.
It's an easy call: Re-open the health care exchanges. https://t.co/otTxOpyB3b
I usually try to resist writing essays of the I'm so shocked that people think this way. Its pointless since much of America freely admits to having parted ways with all conventional morality and logic. But I just happened upon a screed Biden published to supposedly turn out the youth vote that breaks even with unconventional morality and logic.
Here's the money quote up front for ease of reading:
It's a slow and painful process, especially when the powers that be spun the line that masks really don't do anything for you because you don't know how to put it on and it will do nothing to protect you from covid 19. Oh, and there are nowhere near enough for docs and nurses.
I've been told repeatedly, over and over again, whenever a single-payer system was discussed, that the worst possible thing is for people to lose their beloved private health insurance. It's an almost unimaginable crime.
That is exactly what is happening right now, but for some mystifying reason the media isn't outraged.
What to say.
Remember when you could go out, just because...
Fred asks, 'Is it safe out there Dad?'
Made a load of emergency masks over the last few days. Pulled out and played my old clarinet, and cleaned and polished my great-uncle's sword.
Good times.
Stay well.
Much like the collapse in employment, the collapse in GDP numbers is unprecedented.
Obviously GDP is not the best measurement of an economy, but it's the only one that everyone uses.
Seasons come, seasons go and the cycle continues. Most of Americans life revolves around seasons defined by the market place and man-made events. What wrapping paper message in on the boxes of chocolate in the stores. Is it Easter, Christmas, Valentine or Happy Halloween? Which sports season? I became confused as they began to overlap. Is it flu or allergy season? What should I be celebrating or complaining about?
It all stopped. A virus came along. Our carefully constructed illusion of mankind controlling the enviornment is under attack. Mother nature just gave us a time out.
