Etherknitter

COVID-19 III

My information feeds are an interesting mix of professional, knitter, phone forcefeeds and Twitter forcefeeds.  (I didn't sign up for the obligatory feeds, but curiosity often compels me to look.  Yes, I know I could opt out, but yeah, curiosity.)

Common themes appear.  

-Many complain that they are wasting a lot of time.  Whether it is from underlying angstiness, human nature, or the sense that time ahead is limitless, who knows.  Different recipes and proportions for different folks, of course.  I am giving myself backslaps for what I get done, rather than my generational guilt and self-chastisement over what I don't get done.  

-Knitters seem to be in a knitting funk.  No knit-mojo.  Here we are, with all the time to knit, and we can't.  Or don't.  See time theme above.  I am knitting long-term projects, so I am making little apparent progress. 

-We are opening the good bottles.  The wine boys are doing the same, without prior discussion amongst ourselves.  Whether it is consolation, or the unacknowledged recognition that survival is not a certainty, no matter.  

I am walking more (nod to EB on that), vacuuming more, consolidating more (yarn with yarn, #6 dpns with #6 dpns, etc).  Our Saturday departmental Zoom meeting suggested that locally, the new infection/new ICU admissions might be slowing.  We are not at a plateau yet.  I see many conjectures in the media about "what will happen next".  In their brazen attempt to attract eyes, and clicks, I am sucked in until I remember that the news is not news until it has happened.  So I will not read nonmedical opinions about new surges and new infection rates and new death rates that have zero evidence to support the suppositions.  That is the rabbit hole of madness.

 

 

COVID-19 From the trenches II

The news clips along, and with it, our fears.  

I continue to see stupid articles about the virus on the web.  One source discussed how the 6 foot rule was not accurate, because coughing or sneezing spread the virus farther than six feet.

Duh.  Have you ever seen one of those slo-mo clips of a sneeze?  Yeah.  It's disgusting, and I'm not going to link one here.  You have mad web skillz, I am sure you will find one of either coughing or sneezing.  No one promised that 6 feet was enough to protect from forced expulsion of aerosolized particles via sneeze or cough.  For that matter, there is minimal data (if any, really) that suggest that all droplets will drop to the ground within six feet of the breather.  At the same time that the media is suggesting greater than six feet (why yes, that is a good idea), we still have social undistancers walking around supermarkets and public parks.  I'll stop there, because Mr. Etherknitter tells me I am being too scoldy.  (Cynical perhaps, but no, I am not scolding. Just trying to put 'facts' in some kind of more accurate and thoughtful perspective.)

Someone linked a yoga video search on Amazon, all free: https://www.amazon.com/s?k=yoga&i=instant-video&language=en_US&crid=3BD6XPZJNQOH8&linkCode=ll2&linkId=3e419293e08bc4819db313050c63364e&sprefix=yoga%2Cinstant-video%2C220&tag=airfarewatchdog-20&ref=nb_sb_ss_i_1_4

How can you not love this?  Moving meditation, flexibility, and affordability all in one link.  You can also find yoga classes on Youtube.  I need to try them out before I provide links.

Another probably premature news factoid was about losing one's sense of smell as a COVID-19 symptom.  This Slate article (not necessarily an authoritative source by an stretch, but the author did the due diligence of tracing back the spotty research that was supposed to have substantiated this).  Many viruses cause transient loss of smell.  Some actually cause permanent loss of smell.  The cardinal symptoms of fever, cough, shortness of breath, etc. are better signals in the noise of trying to figure out if you've got it.  

Edited to add a link to the Slate article: https://slate.com/technology/2020/03/coronavirus-sense-of-smell-nytimes-fact-check.html

Then there was this.  Laughed endlessly.

 

And have you seen the Youtube video of the Les Mis adaptation by a family of five in Britain?  Keep your eye on the boy with the yellow/black striped jersey.  He has a future.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xcO8UhxMixw

And then, of course, there is this mostly reasonable article about masks.  My hospital does not consider the masks adequate for use in clinical contact with COVID-positive patients.  I agree 150%.  But protecting yourself in public makes sense.  And this is a way to do it. 

://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2020/03/28/masks-all-coronavirus/?utm_campaign=wp_to_your_health&utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter&wpisrc=nl_tyh&wpmk=1 

Just remember that it does not take the place of social distancing, or the six+ feet rule of contact with other humans.

The peak of the Massachusetts surge is predicted to be ~April 15.  It will last for 2-3 weeks based on what I have been told.

Each year, we need a new influenza vaccine before flu season hits.  The reason for that is because the flu virus is very clever, and mutates rapidly.  That is also why statistics show that the vaccine for flu developed each year is not 100% effective by the time flu hits the Northern Hemisphere.  (The vaccine is developed each year based on the strains circulating in the Southern Hemisphere.  The time period between development and Northern Hemisphere injections gives the bugger time to mutate.  That is probably an oversimplification, but the logic holds.)

That is also  one of the reasons why virologists have theorized that we need a vaccine for coronavirus:  continual mutation.  What I have heard in the medical grapevine is that the virus, so far, has not shown substantial mutation (fact sources not checked by me).  Past performance is no guarantee....right.  So we need a vaccine to protect those who have avoided infection, and one that will serve in case the virus pulls the mutation card out of its hat.  I leave you with a ray of hope:  https://www.the-scientist.com/news-opinion/covid-19-vaccine-frontrunners-67382   And no, I would not think a vaccine carried by a monkey adenovirus is a good idea (one of the choices).  We got this one from either pangolins or bats.  HIV came from a non-human primate vector.  I am not interested in monkey adenovirus used as a vector for a vaccine. 

Stay well.  Stay distanced.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The views expressed on this post are my own and do not reflect the views of my employer.

COVID-19 From the trenches I

I have been meaning to blog for a bit.  Then the virus hit the USA, and it has been all work all the time since then.  I am not one of the lucky ones who can cocoon amidst her snowfort of toilet paper, and knit.  

I spent too many hours at work, and too much time not listening to the panicked news reports in early March.  I missed the toilet paper rush.  Thanks to the Muse for setting me up with toilet paper!  I am blogging now because you need to hear me say things.

I just got a text from the state COVID public hotline that the nonessential businesses would be closed until early May, and the stay at home order will be in place also.  breathes sigh of profound relief  I was terrified that the state would not have the balls to do that.  The governor did, and he absolutely has preemptively saved lives.

During our times away from work, we are doing what everyone is doing.  Walking the neighborhood circuit is now a habit.  We see neighbors, stand many feet away, and chat at a low yell.  We met new ones last week.  Now we wave to all the people in passing cars.  It seems unmannerly not to do so.  They wave back.  We may be in better shape.  

The statistical models that informed us what the peak of infection looked like were what made the draconian measures begin in mid March.  The surge that is happening seems at least 2 weeks earlier than the models predicted.  Prolonged social distancing is the only solution to keep it from getting much much worse, and we now have that in place.

Anyone who says yes, I am young and I will survive the infection is falling prey to the hard-wired human belief that nothing bad will ever happen to them.  The more this happens (https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/26/opinion/doctors-coronavirus-safety.html) the less likely survival is.  The more we find out about the virus' clinical course, the more frightening it becomes.  One of the difficult facts that I have seen recently is that 66% of Americans have a medical problem that can predispose them to a critical course of illness.  That medical problem is obesity.  Dr. David Ludwig wrote this today in the NYT: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/30/opinion/obesity-us-health-coronavirus.html

We are cooking more at home.  An occasional foray into the world occurs to restock vegetables.  We missed the hand sanitizer and wipes hoarding.  Trying to find those is an exercise in futility, so we don't make worthless trips to find what doesn't exist.  Yes, we were working when all that was happening.  Please don't say "thank you for your service".  My ear hears you say "thank you for dying before I do because I got all the Purell".  

Health care providers in New York are having to make decisions about who lives and who dies because there aren't enough resources to care for everyone.  That is the scenario everyone feared.  It is now happening nearby.

So PLEASE stay home.  So many lives depend on it.  Despite social distancing, the medical system is beyond capacity.  Giving up on social distancing will make sure many more die.  Do not do the American thing and assume someone will step in to take care of you when disaster strikes.  I have echoed Mr. Spock, the Vulcan science officer in Star Trek, so many times over the last two months:  the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few.  You may not be the one put on the last of the ventilators.  Here is another opinion:  https://www.bostonglobe.com/2020/03/30/opinion/message-public-mass-doctors-nurses-ethicists-about-coronavirus/  STAY HOME.  Social distancing is not sitting in the same room with friends for hours, staying six feet apart.  The respiratory droplets spread.  

Dr. David Ludwig has been a voice of reason in the medical world for many years. If you know me at all, you know I follow his dietary guidelines most of the time.  Mr. Etherknitter points out that it is far too late from a COVID-19 standpoint to get metabolically healthy by losing weight.  He is right.  So the best strategy right now is to stay home.  STAY HOME.  

Knitters and spinners and weavers and introverts are not overly dismayed by staying at home for a prolonged time.  I miss my people, but know that this is what needs to be done.  I am finishing the front (after finishing the back) of the saddle shoulder pullover.  Two sleeves, and then we will see if this works.  I now understand my mother's "does it fit??" question when she unveiled our sweaters.  I have resisted buying yarn as consolation because a. I have yarn and b. money is not a given.  I am going stash diving today to see if I have yarn for Floatini.   Yes, startitis is alive and kicking.  I haven't given in yet, but I will.  Seems a benign way of coping.

The snowdrops are done.  Scilla are blooming.  Hellebores are blooming.  I see optimistic maples in early full bud.  I ponder the transient nature of humans on the planet while life that is not caring about a virus unfolds around us.  The chipmunks are awake.  The Cornell hawks have laid three eggs.  Life continues.

Any post that puts "COVID-19" in the title is not going to be a beacon of optimism.  But I hope to at least present to you what the data shows, what the data doesn't show, and what makes sense from a medical and epidemiologic viewpoint now.  Read.  Or do not.  The choice is yours.

Amended to add: "The views expressed on this post are my own and do not reflect the views of my employer."

February, The Valley of the Deer-