Continuing coronavirus happenings (Part 3)

I did think that it was odd when I first came to Japan (some 16 years ago), but I have noticed that my normal resting temperature tends to be around 36.5, and anything above that is usually a sign that something is amiss. I have had the flu in Japan several times, and even with the flu, my temperature would barely hit 38. I think that normal body temperature varies from person to person, but I had never really thought about variance between different countries before.

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37 c (98.6 f) is an average of a value that cycles throughout the day. If you have a normal circadian rhythm, your temp will be at a minimum at about 4 in the morning, as low as 96, and peak at about 4pm, as high as 100. We use 100.4 as the cutoff in medicine for a ā€œfever,ā€ although outside of newborns, that still doesnā€™t mean a lot.

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I half-remembered a discussion about historical research and modern body temperatures, and looked it up

http://www.hagstotz-research.de/uc/vbl_1/

Intercultural differences of the perception what is ā€˜normalā€™ and whatā€™s ā€˜elevatedā€™ might come from history, as well.

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End of the month, my employer invites employees to a barbecue. They are trying to make it safe. Outdoors, please get tested, registration required. Many people will also be vaccinated - but not all twice, and some will not have had a jab.

However, thereā€™s a potlach buffet, organised car-pooling, alcohol involved.

Case numbers are growing fast, mostly from holiday returnees, locally. Incidence today above eighty. ICUs still at 70 percent occupation, but I donā€™t know the absolute number of unoccupied beds in the four local hospitals, and if they are equipped for Covid-19 patients.

Iā€™m not going, on principle. Have we learned nothing?

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Alas, this is more like ā€œOh look, the gun nuts have found another way to inflict collateral damage!ā€

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I knew thereā€™s plenty of politicians, activists and organizers who want to turn Florida blue but I would have never guessed it would be end up being an republican who would pull that feat off

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A lot of people refusing the vaccine are doing so because it only has Emergency Use Authorization but those same people are lined up in tents and libraries in Florida to get a treatment that only has Emergency Use Authorization.

My question is, wtf?

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But hey, DeSantis will sell you some regeneron because his major donor has a stake in the company. :man_shrugging:

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Next up on Fox: Do laundry balls cure Covid?

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This is so ironicā€¦ā€no, no, thatā€™s not how we want to cause death, only with our gunsā€¦ā€

In more local news:

:woman_facepalming:t2:

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Well, I guess thatā€™s one way of weeding out the stupid willfully ignorant without infecting anyone else. :man_shrugging:

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I think a key thing Iā€™ve learned is that theyā€™re saying thatā€™s why theyā€™re refusing the vaccine, because someone (on tv or fb or whatever) told them to say that. They donā€™t actually have any self-formed logic or opinions. Itā€™s scary, because it means you really canā€™t reason with them, at all. My neighbor still hasnā€™t gotten the vaccine, and heā€™s at risk. My cousin and his wife (a HCW, ffs) wonā€™t get the vaccine and threw away the paperwork the school sent home so their tweens could get it.
The anti-Vaxx, anti-mask movement is like a mob just running where theyā€™re pointed.

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While there isnā€™t much real-world research on the impact of transparent barriers and the risk of disease, scientists in the United States and Britain have begun to study the issue, and the findings are not reassuring.

A study published in June and led by researchers from Johns Hopkins, for example, showed that desk screens in classrooms were associated with an increased risk of coronavirus infection. In a Massachusetts school district, researchers found that plexiglass dividers with side walls in the main office were impeding air flow. A study looking at schools in Georgia found that desk barriers had little effect on the spread of the coronavirus compared with ventilation improvements and masking.

Before the pandemic, a study published in 2014 found that office cubicle dividers were among the factors that may have contributed to disease transmission during a tuberculosis outbreak in Australia.

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And then thereā€™s the natural human tendency to want to poke oneā€™s head around the barrierā€¦

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