Covid 19 and Your Life #2: It's Personal

[Fury Resurrected]

10 hours ago, BigFatCoward said:

Is it reasonable to lift my mask to take a drink when i'm on the train, there is nobody within 6 rows of me, and I've just cycled to the station and am thirsty as fuck.

If you can do so without touching the front of your mask.  If it’s the ear loop kind, you’re good if you can unloop an ear and grab a drink quick. If you pull it up or down you’re contaminating your hands and anything you touch thereafter.

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

1 minute ago, Fury Resurrected said:

If you can do so without touching the front of your mask.  If it’s the ear loop kind, you’re good if you can unloop an ear and grab a drink quick. If you pull it up or down you’re contaminating your hands and anything you touch thereafter.

Isn't everything public getting highly contaminated at this point? 

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

6 minutes ago, Triskele said:

We just need that Arizona church to send their tech out to everyone that kills 99.9% of the virus.  

I had to Google this to figure out what you were talking about. Even the most charitable interpretation of the NYT article I first found were, strange, to say the least. 

It reminded me of this:
 

 

[Leofric]

8 minutes ago, Tywin et al. said:

Isn't everything public getting highly contaminated at this point? 

Yeah, I would think the outside of the mask isn't much more contaminated than any other part of your clothing.  I would be more concerned about opening a water bottle or sipping from a cup that has been exposed to a confined, potentially contaminated atmosphere and drinking from it.   When I have worked in contaminated zones (hazardous waste and chemical, rather than biological) that required PPE, eating and drinking was strictly prohibited, you waited until you had decontaminated and were in a "clean" zone to drink or eat.

[Fury Resurrected]

13 minutes ago, Leofric said:

Yeah, I would think the outside of the mask isn't much more contaminated than any other part of your clothing.  I would be more concerned about opening a water bottle or sipping from a cup that has been exposed to a confined, potentially contaminated atmosphere and drinking from it.   When I have worked in contaminated zones (hazardous waste and chemical, rather than biological) that required PPE, eating and drinking was strictly prohibited, you waited until you had decontaminated and were in a "clean" zone to drink or eat.

That type of scenario is designed to protect *you* from outside contaminants. With droplet precautions the goal is to protect *others* from being exposed to you. And with COVID-19, the entire planet is pretty much a contaminated zone. The mask is there to catch and contain your own droplets, if you touch it, it’s no different than coughing into your hands. I have had to take hours of WHO and other training modules for COVID-19 and take annual bloodborne pathogens training. The front of your mask is lava and if you touch it you might as well not wear it if you can’t wash your hands immediately.

 

@Tywin et al.- it is, but that doesn’t mean it’s okay for you to add to it.

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

23 minutes ago, Leofric said:

Yeah, I would think the outside of the mask isn't much more contaminated than any other part of your clothing.  I would be more concerned about opening a water bottle or sipping from a cup that has been exposed to a confined, potentially contaminated atmosphere and drinking from it.   When I have worked in contaminated zones (hazardous waste and chemical, rather than biological) that required PPE, eating and drinking was strictly prohibited, you waited until you had decontaminated and were in a "clean" zone to drink or eat.

This is where my mind specifically went to. How is a restaurant, coffee shop, insert whatever suppose to work? Driving around this morning running errands, I saw a lot of diners offering indoor seating for meals. Even with ideal social distancing, I'm not sure how that would work.

8 minutes ago, Fury Resurrected said:

That type of scenario is designed to protect *you* from outside contaminants. With droplet precautions the goal is to protect *others* from being exposed to you. And with COVID-19, the entire planet is pretty much a contaminated zone. The mask is there to catch and contain your own droplets, if you touch it, it’s no different than coughing into your hands. I have had to take hours of WHO and other training modules for COVID-19 and take annual bloodborne pathogens training. The front of your mask is lava and if you touch it you might as well not wear it if you can’t wash your hands immediately.

 

@Tywin et al.- it is, but that doesn’t mean it’s okay for you to add to it.

I recently spent a few days in the hospital. I watched a nurse take her mask off, and another nurse stapled it back together for her. Wonderful, right?
 

[Zorral]

8 hours ago, RhaenysBee said:

Three hours and I barely know more than I did before

Damn!  This is all too frustratingly familiar for so many years. This pretend 'health' system just sux.  It's the opposite of healthy.  Medical yes, medical up the wazoo, but it isn't healthy.  Just a system to extract wealth from the proletariat classes.

 

[DireWolfSpirit]

6 minutes ago, Zorral said:

Damn!  This is all too frustratingly familiar for so many years. This pretend 'health' system just sux.  It's the opposite of healthy.  Medical yes, medical up the wazoo, but it isn't healthy.  Just a system to extract wealth from the proletariat classes.

 

That's been my view of it for years now.

Imo you've better odds at a honest transaction with a corner car lot salesmen or your average car mechanic than you do with a medical professional.

The main way I stay healthy is by exercising and staying as FAR AWAY as possible from doctors and hospitals.

[RhaenysBee]

24 minutes ago, Zorral said:

Damn!  This is all too frustratingly familiar for so many years. This pretend 'health' system just sux.  It's the opposite of healthy.  Medical yes, medical up the wazoo, but it isn't healthy.  Just a system to extract wealth from the proletariat classes.

 

Well our healthcare is free, so at least when something’s up and nobody bothers to figure out what it is in time and you die, you don’t die bankrupt. But yes, it’s doubtlessly a system with many faults that only keep accumulating over the years. 
 

[Zorral]

3 minutes ago, RhaenysBee said:

Well our healthcare is free, so at least when something’s up and nobody bothers to figure out what it is in time and you die, you don’t die bankrupt. But yes, it’s doubtlessly a system with many faults that only keep accumulating over the years. 
 

Ya, I thought I recalled you lived elsewhere, not the good ol fweedum USA.  Not dying of bankruptcy is something.

 

 

[RhaenysBee]

8 minutes ago, Zorral said:

Ya, I thought I recalled you lived elsewhere, not the good ol fweedum USA.  Not dying of bankruptcy is something.

 

 

There weren’t many times in my life when I could say this, but this year I don’t mind that I wasn’t born into the land of the free, with all the awfulness y’all are coping with over there. Not that it’s a great year anywhere else in the world, 2020. 

[Zorral]

1 hour ago, RhaenysBee said:

There weren’t many times in my life when I could say this, but this year I don’t mind that I wasn’t born into the land of the free, with all the awfulness y’all are coping with over there. Not that it’s a great year anywhere else in the world, 2020. 

We here feel the same way. Sigh.  Though a lot of us have tried to have it be different, not just this year, but for decades, even our whole lives.

~~~~~~~

In the meantime when it comes to covid-19 being personal, this story in the Atlantic Monthly -- limited clicks, 5 per month -- of Covid-19 and supermarkets is really interesting.  It's particularly intense reading the experience of one of the truck drivers who kept us getting our stuff all spring and even now.  She was driving during the worst of April -- she couldn't get anything to eat, and had no where to wash or pee.

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2020/07/supermarkets-are-a-miracle/612244/

 

[Mladen]

4 hours ago, RhaenysBee said:

There weren’t many times in my life when I could say this, but this year I don’t mind that I wasn’t born into the land of the free, with all the awfulness y’all are coping with over there. Not that it’s a great year anywhere else in the world, 2020. 

Given the situation in Serbia with all shenanigans about COVID-19 and epidemiological reports, plus the ending of Parliamentary system and of course the confrontations in Montenegro between people and the police, I feel like I would give a lot not to feel what I feel about my native countries. I can't even begin to describe all those feelings when I see one man practically being crowned King, or doctors lying about numbers or police kicking people.  

[Fury Resurrected]

3 hours ago, Tywin et al. said:

This is where my mind specifically went to. How is a restaurant, coffee shop, insert whatever suppose to work? Driving around this morning running errands, I saw a lot of diners offering indoor seating for meals. Even with ideal social distancing, I'm not sure how that would work.

I recently spent a few days in the hospital. I watched a nurse take her mask off, and another nurse stapled it back together for her. Wonderful, right?
 

I despair for humanity. I have also seen a lot of medical staff cross contaminating things in the past

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

21 hours ago, Fury Resurrected said:

I despair for humanity. I have also seen a lot of medical staff cross contaminating things in the past

It may not shock you, but for the entirety of of life, IT WILL SHOCK ME AT JUST HOW BAD DOCTORS ARE AT SIGNING DOCUMENTS! Like seriously, wtf. These highly educated fucks can't even spell their own names correctly when you point to them the line they need to sign their names on. 

[RhaenysBee]

7 hours ago, Mladen said:

Given the situation in Serbia with all shenanigans about COVID-19 and epidemiological reports, plus the ending of Parliamentary system and of course the confrontations in Montenegro between people and the police, I feel like I would give a lot not to feel what I feel about my native countries. I can't even begin to describe all those feelings when I see one man practically being crowned King, or doctors lying about numbers or police kicking people.  

I had no idea something like that is going on there  Talk about an inclusive media that isn’t caught up in political hate or repeating the hottest international shock news like a parrot. One would think we might care what’s going on in our area. My heart goes out to you and hope Serbia, as well as Montenegro will see the end of this insane year in health and safety.  

[RhaenysBee]

So I got an appointment at the private clinic I sometimes go to after all - they did tell me on the phone to get there punctually so I don’t spend time In the waiting room and asked me to wear a face mask. FIRST ever time since the lifting of the restriction that any establishment asks me to keep to precautions. That was a very positive experience. If the doctor actually listens to my little story about the origin of my current symptoms and my medical history, it’ll be worth the two hundred odd euros. I just want this year to be over. Then again I’m sure Covid will stretch into 2021 and it’s really up to the individual to make things more bearable this year or the next, I can hardly expect the universe to do that for me. It’s just been the most difficult year of my life. But here’s to this remaining the most difficult year of the rest of my long and prosperous life. And here’s to acknowledging that my life is still pretty darn good and easy compared to several millions of people’s in the world. 

 

[Zorral]

1 hour ago, RhaenysBee said:

here’s to acknowledging that my life is still pretty darn good and easy compared to several millions of people’s in the world. 

It's a great mantra for all of us for whom this unquestionably true, at least for now.  With the full-fledged death cult exercising their coup d'état of this nation and all its parts, making enthusiastic alliance with all the fascists, nazis, etc. of the past and present, the future can only continue to worsen.  Plus they are stupid about everything, except destruction.  Destruction, the more violent the better they like it, is the only thing they know and the only thing they care about.

In the meantime with the health issues here, we have switched as much as possible to Chinese American physicians and health care professionals.  We had already begun doing this Before, but now particularly we are appreciating the truly high quality of their training and especially, their dedication to listening to their patients and willingness to think a little outside the traditional allopathic medical playbook by which insurance oriented old school medical dogma was practiced.  These practitioners are deeply impressed with Cuban medicine and training and they get very excited when they learn we actually know well some Cuban doctors.

 

 

[JGP]

My daughter's test isn't scheduled until tomorrow, but my household is now under a mandatory lock-down [testing exempted] until the swab results from my 10 year come back negative for covid.

Fuck.

[JGP]

Hellberta, my current and temporary home, is shifting into Phase 2 of returning to normalcy. 

When I'm out and about, I have my mask on. Same with the kiddos, but I really don't take them anywhere unless we have to. But yeah, 90+ % of the people I see aren't wearing masks.

It's ridiculous.