Coronavirus COVID-19 - Global Health Pandemic #85

[Tillicum]

Some people in our area have stopped wearing masks. Gradually over the last month more and more are shopping without masks. So much so that I bought another freezer and stocked up again. I'll only do pickup orders from now on. We have a mask mandate in our state but it's being ignored now. The business where my husband works will be closing it's doors to the public Monday and all business will be handled online, over the phone or from the dock outside. All government buildings and schools are enforcing mask mandates and social distancing but local businesses can't control it.

 

[Deleted member 158085]

Highly unlikely a federal mandate would be constitutional. The CDC has the ability to quarantine borders and restrict travel between states, but only the states have the ability to mandate in their states and, even then, depending on their state constitutions, the legislatures can overrule a governor's mandate as they did in Kansas.

FGS, we didn't even need a mandate. We needed the constant suggestion/plea for citizens to mask up and to have that behavior modeled from the top down. We needed an "Ask not what your country can do for you" moment from the get-go. We needed to follow the steps that worked during WWII to get compliance on what at first would feel like "extreme" measures. We needed it to be framed as a patriotic duty. We did none of these things at the top, and that will go down in history as our massive American failure.

 

[Legally Bland]

Downing Street confirmed that Boris Johnson would hold a press conference at 4pm on Saturday, after scientists on the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) told him Covid-19 was spreading significantly faster than their worst-case scenarios and could kill 85,000 people this winter.

[...]

Everything except essential shops and education settings could be closed. Johnson and the chancellor, Rishi Sunak, were to spend the weekend trying to work out what restrictions could be imposed without causing major damage to the economy.

Speaking in a personal capacity on the BBC Radio 4 Today programme, Prof Calum Semple, a member of Sage, said the country was in a second wave of the virus. “Unlike the first wave, where we had a national lockdown which protected huge swathes of society, this outbreak is now running riot across all age groups,” he said.

He said there were “many more cases, particularly in younger females between the ages of 20 and 40”, with three to four times as many women in that age group going to hospital as men, because they were being exposed to the virus in hospitality, retail and some educational settings.

Prof John Edmunds, a professor of epidemiology and population at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and a Sage member, said the spread of coronavirus in England had been worse than the forecasted worst-case scenario “for some time”.

Edmunds criticised the government’s current approach to the pandemic, saying that it “guarantees high incidence across the country over the winter”.

Johnson to hold press conference as England Covid lockdown looms

 

[Deleted member 158085]

I agree. It's probably not combining hand-washing and distancing with mask-wearing.

I keep wondering if we're going to see a rash of cancer a couple of years down the road, though, due to absorbing some of the chemicals in today's hand sanitizers.

Are we using cancer-causing agents in our hand sanitizer? Real question.

 

[Knitty]

My county in Florida has the dubious distinction of being home to the school with the highest number of COVID-19 cases, though we're in a different town. We're in the Panhandle, not in one of the counties that you'd expect because you have heard all about them since March. We don't have a huge spike occurring, yet, but are seeing cases go up little by little. Florida, of course, is going up exponentially again.

We've had a rally, a state fair, a market aimed at helping the business in my town because the main artery between our town and the town that brings the business in for them is closed until at least March because of Hurricane Sally and a negligent contractor. I saw few masks at pictures of those events. Tonight the city is having a Halloween thingie on the football field with the local businesses, also to help them. They say masks are required, but we've all seen that before. I don't have high hopes.

ETA: What made me start this post in the first place - that when I take my dogs out, they make me go with them. And on Saturdays, it's sounds just like every year sounds. It's sounds like football parties, not small.

 

[weepingangel]

Trailer for new Michael Bay thriller shows world in year 4 of lockdown as mutated strain of COVID wreaks havoc – Boston News, Weather, Sports | WHDH 7News

More at link
A newly released trailer for the first feature film to be made during the pandemic, “Songbird,” imagines a dystopian reality where a frightening COVID mutation has forced the world into a fourth year of lockdown.

Michael Bay’s thriller is set in 2024 and features K.J. Apa and Sofia Carson, who play a couple that has been separated by the pandemic in a world that is living under marital law.

COVID-23 — a new strain of coronavirus — attacks the brain and has exacted more than 8,400,000 deaths in a single year.

Thermal scans are required and results alert the authorities of infected people, who are then forced into quarantine camps.

eta- I found the video to be a little intense FYI. (Pg-13. But intense for me personally )

 

[dixiegirl1035]

Are we using cancer-causing agents in our hand sanitizer? Real question.

In this case, California is your friend with their Prop 65 list. Their list is the most comprehensive in the US MOO if you want to take a peek after looking at your hand sanitizer ingredients.

Attached is the link to the latest Jan 3 2020 list,

https://oehha.ca.gov/proposition-65/proposition-65-list

STATE OF CALIFORNIAENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCYOFFICE OF ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH HAZARD ASSESSMENTSAFE DRINKING WATER AND TOXIC ENFORCEMENT ACT OF 1986CHEMICALS KNOWN TO THE STATE TO CAUSE CANCER OR REPRODUCTIVE TOXICITYJanuary3, 2020

 

[ilovewings]

Thank you for that link! I downloaded the Playbook and I've quickly scanned it and ran text-recognition so I can now search the text. It seems decent but it appears to be only a "proposal" that was never voted on or enacted. However, in going through it, I can see it offers a good plan for progressing -- what it doesn't do is set up a federal mandate -- it actually proceeds through states for mandating, which is what we're doing.

I'm going to read it in-depth when I get a bit more time. Looks like a great read!

Glad you like the link! i don't think the playbook was meant to be "law" or voted on, or be a Federal Mandate : it is more of guidelines ( i think) to help formulate the plan in navigating thru a pandemic. What we have now is each state doing its own thing and that is not working out so well.

 

[ilovewings]

Are we using cancer-causing agents in our hand sanitizer? Real question.

Hand sanitizer - Wikipedia

 

[Yesiamapirate]

Perhaps "packed like sardines" is hyperbolic, but they are more than three times as populated when you compare land mass to population.

The U.S. has 9.8 million square miles of land mass and a population of 307,760,000.

China has 9 million square miles of land mass and a population of 1,333,670,000.

I totally get how Australia has a lower infection rate, given that their land mass is 7.7 million square miles and their population is only 21,948,000.

So, given that the Chinese have been traveling and they opened up in March, it's very odd that they have a tiny fraction of the deaths the US has.

Very odd.

Could their numbers be “off”? MOO

 

[dixiegirl1035]

Could their numbers be “off”? MOO

Could our numbers be "off"?

 

[Seenit]

Trailer for new Michael Bay thriller shows world in year 4 of lockdown as mutated strain of COVID wreaks havoc – Boston News, Weather, Sports | WHDH 7News

More at link
A newly released trailer for the first feature film to be made during the pandemic, “Songbird,” imagines a dystopian reality where a frightening COVID mutation has forced the world into a fourth year of lockdown.

Michael Bay’s thriller is set in 2024 and features K.J. Apa and Sofia Carson, who play a couple that has been separated by the pandemic in a world that is living under marital law.

COVID-23 — a new strain of coronavirus — attacks the brain and has exacted more than 8,400,000 deaths in a single year.

Thermal scans are required and results alert the authorities of infected people, who are then forced into quarantine camps.

eta- I found the video to be a little intense FYI. (Pg-13. But intense for me personally )

That is a scary trailer. Please, God, don't let that be our future.

 

[Seenit]

All three of us in my household have now tested positive. Where the heck did we contract if from?

 

[dixiegirl1035]

All three of us in my household have now tested positive. Where the heck did we contract if from?

Did you go outside your home at all in the last 5-10 days? It's gonna be so hard to track now that the numbers have exploded. I'm 100% isolated INSIDE (except for tree clean up after storm and garden) for some time. Exception for trunk delivery of groceries.

May you all recover quickly and have no bad effects!

 

[CoverMeCagney]

All three of us in my household have now tested positive. Where the heck did we contract if from?

Oh @Seenit , so sorry to hear this. Hope you all get through it without too much trouble, please look after yourself and keep us posted ((hug))

 

[Yesiamapirate]

I suspect that many of these positives who claim they took every precaution or wore a mask "always" are not counting the times they allowed their grown kids and little grandchildren inside their homes, all unmasked. People seem to think they don't need to mask around family. Oh, if that were only true this entire thing wouldn't be half as terrible!

I know someone very well who always masked, took every precaution, except for hugging and hanging out with her grandkids. She ended up on a ventilator for a month. She's coming off of it now but it's clear that she has some serious damage that may make the rest of her years miserable.

I agree. The friends in my age group mid 50s to 70s always wear a mask in public. They wash and follow the rules. EXCEPT... they all see family, indoors with no mask. That includes grandkids of all ages. So you can say among my friends on the outside they look compliant. But they are opening themselves up to big risks with family. Somehow that is safer. Even though the grandkids are in school, sports ...etc. One can say masks may not be working because everyone is wearing them out and about and infections continue to rise. But among my friends, there is a reason. PS...Mr Pirate and I are not like our friends. My opinions, of course.

 

[Deleted member 158085]

Some people in our area have stopped wearing masks. Gradually over the last month more and more are shopping without masks. So much so that I bought another freezer and stocked up again. I'll only do pickup orders from now on. We have a mask mandate in our state but it's being ignored now. The business where my husband works will be closing it's doors to the public Monday and all business will be handled online, over the phone or from the dock outside. All government buildings and schools are enforcing mask mandates and social distancing but local businesses can't control it.

Interesting. Here, too. While business signs have gotten bigger and more emphatic about the mask mandate, I am seeing more and more slackers.

 

[Yesiamapirate]

Could our numbers be "off"?

I am open to that possibility as well.

 

[Deleted member 158085]

Hand sanitizer - Wikipedia

So probably not?

 

[dixiegirl1035]

So probably not?

Not that I found either, but did the list for all to have their own opinion.

IIRC way back... the antibacterial soaps were found to be a no no after they were at first very very popular, until they were not.

For myself, I'm a soap and water for the MOO proven 100% killing of a virus cell as the cheap and easy route. Yes, bacteria on your counters could be bad, but soap and water is the best for virus vs. bacteria as it dissolves very very quickly their lipid envelope and *poof* no longer is infective.