ISOLATION - Your Experience

[Tronhard]

I think that these pandemics are more frequent than many people give them credit for.
https://www.history.com/news/6-devastating-plagues

I was watching a documentary on the history of London that showed how plagues occurred frequently, and were slowed down only by the development of science-based infrastructure, such as an effective sewer system and clean water supply. However, my understanding was, and it is logical, that those with the least resources: (starting with situational awareness), space, living conditions, mobility and health are most likely to fall foul of such events. Richard's comments about lack of awareness, and thus lack of countermeasures, would support the proposition that those populations will be particularly hit. We have yet to see how this will play out in places like Bangladesh, India and Pakistan, with huge, dense and ill-informed populations and poor medical resources.

There is also a danger that either by accident or design, the pandemic will be introduced to the huge camps of refugees - especially those from the middle east and Africa, who live in the most squalid of conditions, with minimal services. In such a scenario dedicated supporters would likely be overwhelmed and likely to fall victim too. It would resolve a lot of inconvenient issues for many countries if those refugee numbers where whittled down.

If you think this is far-fetched, according to the research I have done, smallpox was brought to the Americas with the influx of gold miners. For British Columbia this occurred in 1862 when smallpox devastated the hitherto powerful native first nations, leaving them vulnerable to exploitation. There is debate that the epidemic was started deliberately by Frances Poole, with the connivance of the colonial powers, in an effort to undermine the hold of indigenous tribes over their resources.

The Center for Disease Control says natural smallpox epidemics develop slowly, take months to reach a climax and a common death toll is only about 30 percent of a population which has suffered an epidemic episode. Yet within only a few weeks 80% of the native populations had succumbed. The suggestion is that such intensity was deliberate, and certainly the colonial authorities, already aware of the disease in settled areas, did very little to provide medical assistance to coastal nations.

[rpcrowe]

My son-in-law is sick. He has taken the COVID-19 test and is waiting for the results. He may have COVID-19 because he persisted against all advice to go on a fishing trip to Louisiana, after the COVID-19 started its way through our nation. It was a combination of his feeling invincible and his being a Trump supporter/believer

Hopefully if he does have COVID-19, which considering the impact of the Virus on New Orleans - might be likely, it will be a mild case. He does say that he is beginning to feel better

We are not going to get a handle on this outbreak until people stop listening to Trump and take this horrible outbreak seriously! My son-in-law's abject stupidity and selfishness has exposed my daughter to COVID-19 and has also exposed anyone else he came in contact with. I am not uncaring, just damned angry

[Tronhard]

Not being able to venture out has meant that we are spending more time investigating our immediate surroundings. My step daughter came across this little fellow, a NZ Weta, sitting on one of our garden chairs, waiting to warm up. They DO like the dark and shade, obviously their body colouration is designed for that, and while they might at first appear intimidating they are, in fact, gentle creatures. This one was about 10cm (4") from front to back).

All images hand-held with Canon EOS 80D, and Canon EF-S 600 f2.8 USM macro

[DanK]

excellent captures. Interesting that it seems to ahve two sets of antennae. I the bottom ones must be something else.

[LePetomane]

One of the things that bothers me the most about this self imposed isolation is that I am unable to see my 9 m/o granddaughter. I did talk to her via Facetime. All she did was babble and spit food.

[rpcrowe]

An alarming report came out from the India news channel WION. Apparently, COVD-19 can be spread by people for eight or nine days after the symptoms disappear and they no longer test positive for the virus

We also know that washing one's hands goes a long way in preventing the virus. However, it seems inconceivable to me that, health workers in hospitals do not have decontamination stations in which they can be physically decontaminated in water/soap spray stations...

Early on in my Navy career, we did a lot of training for ABC (atomic, biological and chemical) warfare. The use of decontamination stations was integral in protecting oneself from ABC attacks...

With the lack of protective suits, It seems to me that a combination of the use of breathable rain gear and a deconn station might help greatly.

I have a friend whose husband is a doctor working on the front lines in a hospital for COVID-19 sufferers. HE WEARS HIS CLOTHING HOME AFTER HIS SHIFT! Then disrobe in his garage where his wife gathers the clothing and washes it. IMO. there should be 'dirty and clean" sectors of any COVID-19 treatment facility...

[Cogito]

I live in the UK and am considered "vulnerable" so it's lockdown for me... but in addition, I broke my knee in January and am still in a knee brace. Sod's law - can't get out for 2 reasons...

[Tronhard]

I live in the UK and am considered "vulnerable" so it's lockdown for me... but in addition, I broke my knee in January and am still in a knee brace. Sod's law - can't get out for 2 reasons...

Better than having them happen in series I guess. In NZ our whole country is in lockdown

[Tronhard]

The Big Queue...

I checked the website for our local supermarket and it said 7:00am, so I manged to arrive at 7:15am only to find that the store hours have been changed (but not updated on their website) to 9:00am. On the other hand there were people forming a queue already, so I joined in and hunkered down. In the ensuing period until opening more and more people arrived and when I finally go in and did my shop, this was the view that greeted me on the way to the car... What you can't see is it continue all the way around the car park and down the adjacent street!

[mugge]

One of the things that bothers me the most about this self imposed isolation is that I am unable to see my 9 m/o granddaughter. I did talk to her via Facetime. All she did was babble and spit food.

I would speak quite severely to her next time

[LePetomane]

I would speak quite severely to her next time

Mugge, she is possibly the cutest baby girl I have ever lad eyes upon with her mother being a close second.

[DanK]

One of the things that bothers me the most about this self imposed isolation is that I am unable to see my 9 m/o granddaughter. I did talk to her via Facetime. All she did was babble and spit food.

I sympathize. all of my grandkids live within roughly 20 miles (32 km), and we were used to seeing them often. The oldest (4) can FaceTime with us, and the second, who is going on 2, recognizes that it's actually us and interacts a bit. The youngest really can't process it yet. It's very difficult.

[Manfred M]

Paul / Dan - I have very limited sympathy. Our only grandson, who is a couple of months shy of turning four, lives in Hong Kong but is currently in Japan with my daughter's in-laws. My daughter and grandson are scheduled to return to Hong Kong this weekend, before my daughter's 90 days visitor's limit runs out.

Hong Kong to Nagoya, Japan is an inexpensive (when the airlines are flying) 3-1/2 hour flight. Coming to Ottawa, Canada is usually around 24 hours of travel that typically involves two stop-overs / aircraft changes, so we have not seen the little one in almost 2 years. Facetime and Facebook Messenger are the only way we get to see him.

My daughter is not looking forward to 14 days of self-isolation in a 435 square foot, 2-room apartment with an active child. On the other hand, she feels it is going to be quite challenging keeping him away from his father, who will be staying in the other room...

[rpcrowe]

It is a stressful and unhappy time when families, especially those families that reside in close proximity cannot physically see and touch each other.

However, experience in Hong Kong, Italy and the USA has proven that clusters of COVID-19 can result from family gatherings.

My wife and I have resigned ourselves to the sad fact that it may be a long time until we physically reunite again with our daughter and son-in-law, especially since he became ill upon his return from a fishing trip to the state of Louisiana, which has become one of the hot points of COVID-19 transmission.

No news yet about his test results however, it appears that if he was infected, he could have one of the milder cases of that illness.

I can relate to your family in H.K, Manfred. I remember the minuscule size hotel room we stayed in when we visited H.K....

[LePetomane]

I like to consider myself apolitical but the more politicized this issue becomes the more political the solution becomes.

[rpcrowe]

Went to the local supermarket this morning about 9:30 AM... The store has senior hours from 7:00 AM until 8:00 AM on Tuesdays and Thursdays but is is pretty busy at those times. There were virtually no customers shopping when we arrived...

Since we know the layout of the store pretty well. we organized our shopping list to coincide with that layout to preclude having to walk down any aisle more than one time.

Used an N95 face mask as well as latex gloves and sanitized the carts with an alcohol based sanitizer.

The store has a "clean" cart area - in which the carts have been sprayed with a disinfectant solution, and a "dirty" cart area in which carts are awaiting the disinfectant spray-down...

Many of the shelves were bare but, we managed to buy enough to support us for at least a week... Our plan is to shop no more often than once each week and less often if possible. We get our chicken feed and dog foo shipped in and we have an emergency stock of these items.

The market checkers are now behind a Plexiglas shield and only accept credit/debit cards for payment. If you bring your own shopping bags (common practice in California due to legislation that was aimed at reducing plastic waste) you must bag the grocery items yourself. They do not touch used bags.

Our metropolitan area is pretty low on the scale of COVID-19 infections as compared to many other areas. A doctor friend who works in one of the biggest local hospitals surmises that this low rate or transmission may be due to the early lock down in our area. He also states that in his hospital, car accident injuries are way down due to lack of traffic on the streets and roads.

Of course, our metro area is compose of many different municipalities which have different regulations. The City of Coronado, across the Bay from San Diego has not closed its beaches. I wonder if this is due to the fact that it is a Trump supporting area Since that is these are virtually the only beaches open - they attract crowds of stupid/selfish beach goers from the other municipalities who don't abide with social distancing.

[DanK]

I like to consider myself apolitical but the more politicized this issue becomes the more political the solution becomes.

With many governments, it wouldn't be political. For example, there isn't a substantial difference between the actions taken by the Republican governor of MA and the Democratic governor of RI. Both are taking expert advice seriously and working hard to come up with responses that balance competing demands. This isn't a matter of liberal vs. conservative. But when we have a federal government that refused to take expert warnings seriously (not just once, but numerous times), reduced funding for and in one case simply abolished the offices charged with preparing us for problems like this, refused to make any preparations (such as ramping up purchases of protective gear for medical personnel), repeatedly lied to the public about the severity of the problem, and continues to make ad hoc decisions without regard to science, the solution is necessarily political. There is no avoiding it. The only solution is political: to get rid of the people who are needlessly putting our citizens and our medical personnel at mortal risk.

[davidedric]

And yet it seems that Trump's approval ratings are rising.

It's common enough for folks to rally round a figurehead in times of crisis.

But, oh dear (that's British understatement)

[DanK]

Yes, they are. I think there are several reasons for it. One is the rallying around the leader. A second is a very powerful media and social medial apparatus that works to put him in a positive light. A third is a general lack of information, which is partly a result of the loss of traditional, shared media sources. I would wager that not more than half of the population, if even that much, knows about some of his more serious failures in this situation--e.g., his repeated ignoring of warnings from inside the government as well as outside. A day or two ago he said that "no one knew" how serious it would become. What that really means is that he didn't know because he paid no attention, but a lot of the population is fed that line with no correction.

[LePetomane]

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