We’re pretending to be Safe (Covid-19 Virus Thoughts)

We’re pretending to be safe. I have struggled to understand the thinking of those in charge, but the logic just isn’t there. Conspiracists, will tell you it’s not that real. I tend to step back and observe things from a strangers view, Michelle tells me I’m too analytical. Maybe if more people were analytical of things, we would have better politicians, doctors, and safer practices towards one another.

I’m not in the conspiracy crowd, but I do ask why and try to look at things from the outside. Too many people just blindly follow directions and trust that what we are hearing is the truth, and they have our best interest in mind. We’re dumb. No, I mean that in a literal sense. Not all of us maybe, but the vast majority blindly follow advice, and what others tell us. We give up safety in exchange for convenience. Those in business, tell us what they want us to hear, for convenience.

The virus is real, it kills. Yet we see no “real” attempts by local or national authorities to stop the spread or fatalities. We still can’t get an adequate vaccine supply in Alabama. Partial shutdowns, then cries of dying businesses, then reopening. We are governed, by a majority of those that value money over human life. We send billions to other countries, that could be used to shore up the US during a lock down. The conflicts/wars we are involved in cost the US an estimated $38 Million and an hour. So, one has to ask, are we being manipulated for votes and money? Or is this truly the real world.

Outside
Let’s look at how we are “protecting” ourselves. We wear a mask outside in many states and cities. Other places allow no mask outside, yet we pass within one or two feet of others on the street. Some of us give a wide berth as we pass. Yet no one thinks of the draft that follows a person as you pass them. What they exhale is pulled along with them for several feet and swirls outward from them in that light draft as well. Then mask less people walk right through the area where the virus could be lingering.

Inside Areas (Restaurants)
In Restaurants, most have signs that require you to wear a mask when entering. Once you are seated, you may remove your mask. They generally have an empty booth or table between diners to provide six feet social distancing. Look at this in a truly analytical view. Does the virus truly have a limited distance of the optimal 6 feet? As people walk by, are they not carrying a potential virus along in their wake, from table to table. Can the servers interacting with other tables not carry the virus in their wake, hands or clothes? I’ve joked that the virus has been told not to enter occupied table areas. Barring jokes aside, does the establishment utilize HEPA filters rated to stop microbes? I doubt it. We all breathe the same air. Which brings us to the next great thing most have bought into.

Inside Areas (Planes, Trains, and Automobiles) No, not the movie.
For some reason, airlines do commercials to assure us that a flight in a totally sealed can, sitting inches from one another is safe. “We filter our air”, they say. Imagine the expense, and modifications it would take to filter microbes on an airliner, by an industry already at the brink of failure, efficiently. The extra handling of the HEPA filters when they are changed, due to possible hazardous biological contamination would be another cost. I understand that some people have to work and travel. I believe the majority are not working people, but those trusting the commercials. Manybe we can believe a government agency. The Defense department went as far as to say,
What we’re told, and actual facts. 2020
Although there has been no evidence of plane flights causing many super-spreader events, there have been cases of transmission. In September, a man flying from Dubai to New Zealand tested negative for the virus, but was, in fact, infected and passed it on to other passengers. The flight had 86 passengers and seven of them tested positive for the virus when they arrived in New Zealand, despite having worn masks and gloves. The seven passengers had been sitting within four rows of each other and the virus’s genetic sequence in six of seven of the positive passengers was identical.
Me? I wouldn’t fly on a bet.

“overall exposure risk from aerosolized pathogens, like coronavirus, is very low” and concluded that a person would have to be sitting next to an infectious passenger for at least 54 hours to get an infectious dose of the virus through the air. But the “54-hour” number has since been removed from the report at the request of the authors, who worried it was being misinterpreted.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/25/travel/air-travel-safety-coronavirus.html

I know the virus is real. I think our family had it last year in the first outbreak. My mother-in-law passed away during the time we were all sick, she had prior lung problems. I have a forum member that is in the hospital now, with the Covid-19 virus. What do you think, are we being careful enough? Are we getting the support we need? Or is this crisis just being squeezed for all it’s worth.

How would you combat this crisis.
Comments always welcome.

Revenge, of the Spiders.

As some will recall, I battled the Spider horde in August, and won. Or so I thought. 

Last Thursday night, while sitting on the couch watching TV, I felt a pinprick to my left elbow. I looked and saw nothing on the arm of the couch, nor close by. Friday, it was itching, I wanted to use a rasp file to scratch it. Saturday it was starting to swell some. Sunday it was sore to the touch and turning red. 

Monday I visited the doctor, who gave me some antibiotics (oral). It slowed down the swelling, and I felt we would survive this one.

Wednesday, I awakened to a terrible pain, the swelling was immense, and there were red streaks up and down my arm. This happened overnight. Back to the doctor. I was given an injection of some type of very strong antibiotic, and told to continue with the Bactrim twice a day, soak the elbow three times a day and apply prescribed ointment.  Overnight, the swelling went down about 80% red streaks vanished. 

Thursday when I got up, there was redness once again, along with a slight increase in the swelling at the puncture site. So, back to the doctor. Doctor advises give it one more day, if not improving, then it may need to be opened up. 

It’s now Friday morning, about the same condition, but there is redness along the bottom of my arm. The skin is sore to the touch in that area. 

This had to be a special spider that the other survivors hired. I can just imagine him, small,  muscular. With one of those stupid bandannas around his head. Maybe some type of ninja symbol on his back. A scar near one of his eight eyes. Anyway, who the hell needs eight eyes! He could have succeeded in his “hit” with his eyes closed and three legs tied behind his back.

So I will spend this nice Friday, somewhere besides where I’d like to be. At least I’m alive to be there. 

Don’t worry, I plan retaliation on a grand scale. 

Comments welcome,

The old RedBull Joke is no longer funny

Someone once posted “This morning I put RedBull in my Coffee Maker instead of water, Now I can smell Colors!!”  That statement dear friends is no longer funny.

After a short stay in the hospital for Food Poisoning this past week, and a reaction to Levaquin, I can now indeed nearly smell Colors.
It started the day of discharge from there. The smell intensified to an ugly, mutated hyper smell of the simplest items, to the point I had to breathe in through the mouth and out the nose to avoid gagging.

I walked in my Office room where the computers are and could smell the warm plastic from the AC adapters down beside the desk, yet I could not smell the Cat’s litter box at all across the room. The joy of a cup of Coffee is now gone for the time being, replaced with a super smell that triggers some reaction that makes you want to retch.
The simple act of getting a slice of bread out to make toast is futile, it appears to my nose to be the odor from a 300lb loaf of bread that is just about 2 minutes from sprouting into a hideous, alcohol smelling abomination, with green growth.

Temperature changes also trigger the weird mutant smell. Looking in the fridge for ice cubes causes it. Laying in bed and rolling over making the air puff out from under the covers at your face (temp change from cool room to warm air escaping the covers) causes the mutant smell. Worst of all there is no description I can come up with to convey its odorous horror. It’s not Biologic like sinus problems, nor chemical that I can remember. It belongs only to the pits of imagination of a twisted medicine reaction.

I was the honored receiver of several small plastic bottles of a super antibiotic called Levaquin, via IV over the 1.5 days in the Hospital. My regular doctor took me off it as soon as I described the feeling of jelly knees, headache, slurred speech and smells. The mutant smell is abating somewhat, but I wonder if it will ever return to normal for me or last days, weeks or months. I guess I’m one of the unlucky ones that can’t tolerate it.

The wonders of modern medicine. Comments welcome.