Coronavirus COVID-19 - Global Health Pandemic #41

[musicaljoke]

This is GOLD for any Canadians trying to navigate the gov't benefits programs. It is compiled by Associate Professor Jennifer Robson, Political Management, Carlton University.

Benefit_information_3_27.pdf

 

[mickey2942]

US coronavirus: Doctor says, ''We are slowly descending into chaos' - CNN

Miami. We saw this situation coming a month ago. Sadly. And the governor still doesn't get it!

 

[Lilibet]

Today I learned that bats are mammals. That blows my mind. I thought they were some kind of mutant bird. That's why the virus jumps so easily to people - finally makes sense.

I’ve known bats are mammals, but it’s not one of those facts I keep handy, so it’s been interesting to be reminded. I had to look up baby bats (called pups) to see how cute they might be. They are IMO.

ZooBorns

 

[zecats]

How do gowns, gloves and masks go out of date?What? They "disinigrate" or whatever?

DH found some white "rubber" gloves in the garage just the other day, the kind you might wear when washing dishes. I don't really know how long they were out there, but so far I had two of them rip right down the middle just from wearing them.

 

[CSIDreamer]

I just got a text from my soon to be DIL. Her father was rushed to the hospital for a brain bleed. Her mother isn't allowed to be with him and she's falling apart. They're both in their 60s in poor health. My heart is breaking. If ever there was a time we all need to hold each other, the time is now. I hate this virus!

How awful. I'm so sorry.

 

[mickey2942]

As a child, we used to pet bats, they hibernate in the winter, and would be hanging in the basement of my grandparents ski lodge. They are super soft, and tiny.

I know, we shouldn't have done that. But, when people tell you not to play with bats, of course, you can't NOT do it.

 

[10ofRods]

Very tragic, to be sure, but I have actually been thinking about the number of suicides/murder-suicides that would take place as the result of COVID-19.


Utterly tragic.

This is where my heart is engaged. People are really stressed out and many do not understand this virus very well. Killing one's family out of fear of a virus is (of course) madness, but we all know here on WS that when stress goes up, things can go very south in a household.

Think about all the strange relations that have been interrupted by the virus. People who were having affairs and already plotting their way out of a relationship, welp, they're more likely to get irritable. People who had underlying health problems they didn't like to discuss, even with family...they feel increasingly suicidal. Etc.

At a time of great social isolation, we are also called upon to speak what we're thinking and to ask our questions. Kids and teens (and even 20 and 30 somethings) don't really know what a viral outbreak is. Some of us grew up in a world with mumps, and two kinds of measles. A few of us remember polio. My parents remembered small pox. Small pox was still alive on this planet (although largely quarantined) when I was 25.

Small pox was eradicated only through a massive vaccination campaign.

 

[Hatfield]

DH found some white "rubber" gloves in the garage just the other day, the kind you might wear when washing dishes. I don't really know how long they were out there, but so far I had two of them rip right down the middle just from wearing them.

Rubber like in the elastic bands is the one material that can disintegrate over time. I cant tell you how many times I have had a tool with some sort of rubber coating on the handle, and over time, the rubber handle begins to get sticky and slowly deteriorates.

The interesting thing is some rubber handled tools stay fine for almost forever and then other types of rubber handles ends up being a sticky disaster over time. I am thinking depending on how they make up the rubber composition that some lasts a lot longer than other rubber based materials.

 

[Bravo]

DH found some white "rubber" gloves in the garage just the other day, the kind you might wear when washing dishes. I don't really know how long they were out there, but so far I had two of them rip right down the middle just from wearing them.

Yes. I remember back in the day my Mom wearing them to keep her lovely hands lovely as she said lol they were a much thicker grade then. If yours were in the garage perhaps they were subjected to heat/cold/sun over time. They certainly are thinner today than back in the day.

 

[CSIDreamer]

I'm half amused. Apparently there is a competition between Kentucky and Indiana to see who has the least cases. This is a Kentucky news station btw. Indiana has a lot more people. Notice how they are tracking Louisville as a separate entity from the state of Kentucky. Kind of petty. Jmo

WAVE 3 News

 

[KALI]

the reporters said dozens of people showed up. Me thinks that on a normal day, it would have been thousands.
P.S. What a beautiful sight.

This likely has been posted, but really, I thing should be put in the thread once again. Look at the pics in this article. WOW! And that video, OUCH!

The sailors on board, however, seem to have gotten the message.

Help at last: Navy hospital ship the USNS Comfort docks in New York harbor | Daily Mail Online

 

[zecats]

I’ve known bats are mammals, but it’s not one of those facts I keep handy, so it’s been interesting to be reminded. I had to look up baby bats (called pups) to see how cute they might be. They are IMO.

ZooBorns

Interestingly, many people fear that bats will fly into them or even get into their hair. Not true. Bats navigate by echolocation - the active use of sonar. Some even believe their skill at this is better than that of dolphins. And the US Air Force - as I've always been told by my science teacher friends. Anyway, we have them in our yard and I see them abundantly at dusk flying and swooping and turning on a dime. Many types eat up to 1200 mosquitoes per hour, so I'm happy to have them.

 

[Lilibet]

My Aunt live in the Tucson area. There are so many 55+ communities there too, and she lives in a family large one. She told me once, all those neighborhoods are referred to as "God's waiting room." You can probably figure out why.

My former boss’s mother called her retirement community “The Finishing School” ....her generation would probably have gone to one in their youth.

 

[10ofRods]

I don't understand why the churches continue to meet. Are there no doctors, nurses and other medical people in the congregations and on the church boards? These can't be mainstream churches, surely.

The majority of people in science majors are unchurched. They may still be believers, but they don't go to church. And right now, I think most doctors and nurses are too busy to convene a Zoom meeting (and there's no point in holding a big public meeting). If people in their congregations aren't using digital media for communication, they have no way of persuading anyone. Because they are very busy.

The rest of us have to now show common sense.

 

[Trino]

There are several posts that reference the 1918 pandemic as Spanish flu. This is not a correct term.

Spain, like Switzerland, was neutral in WWI, and its media had no qualms about covering the contagious outbreak weakening its population, creating the false impression that this was a Spanish disease.
Why Does Spain Get Blamed for the 1918 Flu Pandemic?

 

[otto]

You think bats are something, wait until you learn about the platypus.

Unbelievable that people eat bats knowing that they carry coronavirus and that they are mammals. The Chinese seem to be attracted to rare food - the more rare, the more expensive, the more prestigious. Bears and gorilla have been mutilated to serve rare menus. I think Prince Charles has it right - preserve and protect animals, get rid of the special prestigious menu.

The pangolin is a protected species, thus making it more of a delicacy for the Chinese menu.

"The shy, harmless pangolin is becoming increasingly well known for one reason: It’s believed to be the world’s most trafficked non-human mammal. Tens of thousands of pangolins are poached every year, killed for their scales for use in traditional Chinese medicine and for their meat, a delicacy among some ultra-wealthy in China and Vietnam.
...

Pangolin scales are made of keratin, the same material that makes up fingernails, hair, and horn. Pangolin scales, like rhino horn, have no proven medicinal value, yet they are used in traditional Chinese medicine to help with ailments ranging from lactation difficulties to arthritis. The scales typically dried and ground up into powder, which may be turned into a pill.

For many years, the Asian species were the primary target of poachers and traffickers. But now that their numbers have been depleted, smugglers are increasingly turning to African pangolins. In two record-breaking seizures in the space of a week in April 2019, Singapore seized a 14.2-ton shipment and and a 14-ton shipment of pangolin scales—from an estimated 72,000 pangolins—coming from Nigeria."​

Pangolins

 

[10ofRods]

Things that make you laugh. My husband used to do contracting and purchasing for an agency not to be named. He had a surplus of funds, end of year, "use or lose", so he spent every dime on stuff for the Surgical department. Gloves, masks, whatever they use..

And was royally chewed a "new one", because they didn't have the storage. Which is bogus, because huge hospitals have tons of space in the basement. The problem is that due to Joint Commission rules for hospitals, so much non durable medical items have dates on them, expiration dates. And JACHO loves to write hospitals up for stuff like that. So, it is easier to not have a stock up supply, than get caught with items out of date.

I'm getting really cynical but things like JACHO and regional university accreditations exist only to promote corporate consumerism and a certain kind of mass buying.

Gonna take a lot of time and public scrutiny to fix it. We older people are not going to be able to fix it alone (not implying you're old - but I guess I am).

 

[book-thinker]

Fascinating..please share more as you learn!

I think the blue strain is being studied as the "more aggressive" form. We have both in the US. The East Coast has more blue. France has more of the red strain (on some graphics it's gold). Italy has more of the blue. All of it is bad, of course. But I think we'll eventually learn that the specific shape and structure of the blue one is harder on our immune systems.

The virus has the unique property of being a "chimera," a blend of a bat virus with a pangolin virus (it's almost entirely identical to a bat virus, and bats hang out with pangolins and the RNA sequences of the pangolin virus inserted themselves into the bat virus. This happens quite a bit in nature.

Viruses may not have brains but it's hard not to view them as clever. Scientists debate whether viruses are alive, but if they are not alive, they sure do have a strong mechanism of survival.

My understanding bat to human is the first mutation. Then human to human. We have 8 different strains of the virus around the world. Would this mean it has mutated again?
The blue strain is the more aggressive then the red, would it mean a difference in mutations.

A great book to read on pandemic’s is “The Great Influenza”
The Story of the Deadliest Pandemic in History
By John M. Barry
I read this book a couple of years back. This book explains how easily a virus can spread and kill millions.

 

[Bravo]

Interestingly, most pool fear that bats will fly into them or even get into their hair. Not true. Bats navigate by echolocation - the active use of sonar. Some even believe their skill at this is better than that of dolphins. And the US Air Force - as I've always been told by my science teacher friends. Anyway, we have them in our yard and I see them abundantly at dusk flying and swooping and turning on a dime. Many types eat up to 1200 mosquitoes per hour, so I'm happy to have them.

We have a bat house at the back of our yard, they really do keep the mosquito population away and we can enjoy our yard and deck. Beats spraying or applying chemicals just to enjoy your yard.

 

[Deleted member 158085]

DH found some white "rubber" gloves in the garage just the other day, the kind you might wear when washing dishes. I don't really know how long they were out there, but so far I had two of them rip right down the middle just from wearing them.

A garage probably gets hot, though, and that could account for damage to the gloves.