Guys! Guys!
I have a great idea!
Let’s crowdsource our official government COVID-19 recommendations from people’s suggestions from Facebook!
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So, we’re all going to look like hipsters?
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You have been blessed by Hasidic Pastel Goth Snoopy.
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There was a point where Trump was spewing bullshit and I swear Fauci was back there chewing on his lip and looking like his blood pressure had spiked to a dangerous level. I was worried. He might be the only thing keeping us from even worse leadership.
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That Maple Leaf motif will never catch on in the 'States!
There is a point about surgical masks that I haven’t seen raised anywhere and I think it’s important.
Surgical masks are worn by theatre staff to prevent them from breathing (or sneezing or drooling) onto the patient. They aren’t protecting the theatre staff from anything. The don’t filter anything, they just redirect air to and from behind the wearer.
On TV over the last few months, I’ve seen people in China and Italy wearing a mishmash of surgical masks and filter masks and I suspect that most people don’t realise that they are different.
And not all filter masks are created equally. Some of the masks you can pick up in a hardware store don’t come with anything to say what, if anything, they filter. I’m thinking of the one-layer paper ones with the aluminium bit to pinch the nose. They are better than nothing but personally, I wouldn’t use them to protect me from an airborne infection.
Proper industrial masks will say on the packaging whether they are P1, P2 or P3 filters. P3 is more protective than P2, which is more protective the P1.
Personally, when I go out among people now I wear a P1 mask and I consider that to be adequate protection for the the risk here right now. If I perceive that the risk is higher, I have a P3 respirator that I will use if the virus becomes really widespread here.
There is also a crucial difference between a disposable mask and a respirator. Most respirators have a one-way outlet valve. This means that the wearer breathes IN through the filter and OUT through the valve. Exhaled air isn’t filtered. This elongates the life of the filter, gets rid of moisture and generally makes it easier to breath.
I haven’t seen a disposable filter mask with this feature, but maybe they exist.
The salient point of this is that a basic filter mask not only protects you, but it also protects other people from anything that you might be breathing out. A respirator only protects the wearer.
The official line here is that masks won’t do anything to protect you from the virus, but I never bought into that.
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Is it, though? I still don’t know what to expect.
Comparing to Austria, the US has:
- more incompetent top-level leadership
- a far worse public health system
- people who are less ready to follow government directives
- more aggressive air conditioning
… but also …
- a much more powerful executive (Austria’s parliament convened last Sunday and passed a law by unanimous vote. If there was no consensus, the government could not be doing what it is doing).
- people who are more ready to follow rules in general (Austrians are a nation of rule-benders. By comparison, Americans seem to have rules, ).
- more space
- fewer people per area
- less public transport
- more cars
- a preference for at least a foot more of personal distance
- warmer climate across half of the country in winter, and across pretty much all of the country in summer.
So on the whole, much as we are shaking our heads over here at the US government’s mishandling of the situation, I am still unwilling to guess who’s more screwed.
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All things are relative. It’s not that it does “nothing,” it just is generally inadequate. We mask to protect our patients from us, not the other way 'round. As I said earlier, any port in a storm, and if all you’ve got is a t-shirt, then go with that. My thing is we have much better, and just can’t get it.
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It sounds counter-intuitive, but I found solace reading Pushkin’s Feast in Time of Plague last night (as well as the critical essay at the end). We can also feel less alone reaching out backwards in time as well as around us in space.
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It does look like it’s hitting Austria very fast, and it very well could end up being the worse situation of the two. The points you bring up will definitely exacerbate the spread. I do take issue with characterizing the US as a nation of rule-followers, but that’s probably a discussion for a different thread!
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Something to note: facial hair can make face masks ineffective. But, according to the CDC, you’re OK with a “Zappa.”
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Speaking of T-Shirts!!
I’ve never made or tested a device like this but it looks plausible. I think if it were done with additional layers of medical gauze as a filter medium, I would be prepared to take my chances with it.
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So, no Hitler moustache. Got it (whew!)
I am taking this time away from work to grow the whiskers out. So far my beard looks just as crap as I remember.
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That is the best thing I’ve seen today
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Check out this note that came into my email box from a veterinarian:
The Portland Press Herald reported on March 13th that IDEXX have created a COVID-19 test for cats and dogs.
So, there are tests for pets, but not for humans?
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I would absolutely go with that if my other option is au natural, but I will pine for an N95 the whole time!
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You can. Korea and a Taiwan have pretty much done it.
I don’t know how many times we’re going to have to repeat this, but the mortality rate is 10x higher when too many people get it at once and the medical system is overwhelmed. If it happened all at once in the US, that could mean 15 million people dead, in the US alone.
Usually I’m more tolerant of people who live in a fantasy land and ignore quantitative calculations from people who actually know what they are talking about, but right now, your Dunning-Kruger syndrome could easily get people killed, so please fuck off.
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It’s not that they ignore them. They have no understanding. There are a lot of people who think words like “exponential” are math geek things that you don’t have to worry about once you’re out of school. They don’t know why one would use a logarithmic scale on a Y-axis. It’s just meaningless jargon to them.
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