Thank you.
We had two flu+ patients the week before and two Covid+. Flu is still out there.
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The CDC tracks flu cases and deaths October 1st to May 31st. Approximately 35 weeks in total, or 24 weeks season-to-date. 22,000 deaths in 24 weeks vs 33,000 in 6 weeks. Not a favorable comparison.
Also, a pandemic refers to geographic spread, specifically an outbreak which spans multiple continents, not the fatality rate.
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Yup. We ignore the seriousness of flu much as we ignore the risk of riding in a car at 80 mph a few feet from other hurtling vehicles. Familiarity.
At the risk of offending (am I in the wrong thread? 
) we probably need to develop some calluses regarding Covid-19 as well.
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I have been looking at this. Am I wrong that the research is saying that hand sanitizer is not a great option?
Just quoting CDC. Oh see, they’re lumping flu in with pneumonia - percentage of deaths attributed to pneumonia and influenza is 7.4%, above the epidemic threshold of 7.3%. As of 2 April estimated flu deaths were 24,000.
It isn’t an option that stands alone. It will take a mixture of preventative measures. Hand sanitizers are only one tool in the tool box.
I think one problem hand sanitizers have is that they don’t work how most people assume they work, so the effectiveness is jeopardized in the real world. But that means more education on proper technique.
But hand sanitizers are cleaning up after the mess is made, in a way…so, other preventative measures like masks become very important. But masks aren’t perfect either, so when you combine the efforts of the two, you have more effectiveness.
I am willing to grow some calluses for Covid.
I’m not willing to for mental health/suicide, Covid-induced poverty, etc.
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For about $15, or free to most people with even less-than-comprehensive medical insurance, five minutes of time, and the discomfort of a sore arm for a few days, one can not only be prevented from dying due to seasonal flu, but kept from infection with near certainty.
If we didn’t consign vast swaths of our country to poverty, and didn’t give in to ignorance and superstition, we could make death from seasonal flu much less familiar.
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Yes. Very much agree.
All you have to do is throw salt over your shoulder while petting a black cat under a ladder, and you will become immune. Right?
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That’s what it means in the short term. But that’s not a long term solution. You said, “Maybe we flattened the curve too much. Maybe not enough people got it?” The number at which “enough” people have gotten it so it stops transmission is estimated at 60-70% or 190-210 million Americans. With a mortality of 1% you can see how that’s not a real solution.
I agree that the economy can’t continue this way and I think we will have to open some things back up. But Disney World and sports/concerts will really have to be close to the very last things we open back up and I think a timeline of 12 months, as sucky as that is, seems accurate. Right now we only have two choices for endgame - vaccine/effective treatment or hundreds of thousands, maybe millions of deaths. I’m not saying that we should choose one of the other, but just that there isn’t a 3rd choice, right now. (Increasing testing and contact tracing will help us if we choose “lots of deaths” but it will still be pretty grim).
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There was a German study which was buried in the cascade of headlines, and not yet peer reviewed, that asymptomatic SARS-CoV2 carriers shed the virus about 1000x the rate of flu or other URIs. The upshot being that one could pick up the virus just from being in proximity to someone breathing or speaking normally, and that surface contamination was much less of a vector than airborne transmission.
Also study after study after study has shown that good handwashing technique with non-anti-bacterial soap and water is vastly more effective than using consumer-grade hand sanitizer and doesn’t have the side-effect of creating resistant viruses and bacteria.
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Has that been proven or is that an assumption?
Proven.
We know that hand sanitizers (when used properly) kill coronavirus (COVID-19). There were tests done proving this. We also know that wearing masks reduces the likelihood of breathing/coughting/sneezing out the virus. This is why there is such the push now to make everyone wear masks.
Do you think masks will make the buses safe? Honestly, I do not.
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I’m not smart enough to catch your drift. But my point was that, unless one is immunocompromised or has an autoimmune disease, there is no reason for not being vaccinated against communicable diseases that isn’t based on ignorance or superstition.
Sorry. I was just trying to be funny. That’s all. No point.
In case this is interesting here’s what we found at Fort Leonard Wood on Tuesday (30 miles from our house). This is a big place. With several schools - lots of soldiers.
The guards at the gate are wearing masks and gloves. They no longer handle your ID. They stand back from your vehicle. A couple of weeks ago signs urged folks entering the Fort were to report if they’d been out of state. This week the guards were demanding to know if we’d recently traveled 60 miles from the Fort.
No entry to the commissary without a mask. I was met by a masked and gloved employee offering hand sanitizer. I declined. I’d rather see it upon exit.
We were also there for prescription refill. This is all done from one’s car now, with runners - gloved and masked - going into the pharmacy. Couple weeks ago folks were in the pharmacy with chairs 6 ft apart.
I saw one bus that was a 5th wheel. Driver was not exposed to riders.
Otherwise, the Fort was a busy place. Not quite as busy as 2 months ago but busy.
Just meant as info. One way an authority is trying to manage a lot of people.
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The gloved part I’m not so sure about. I don’t really understand how having a glove on really helps. YOur glove becomes contaminated in the same way your skin does, and then you have to figure out something to do with it that won’t lead to further spread once you are done with them for the day/time. Just the act of taking them off can contaminate your hands, and then still require sanitizer and/or hand washing just the same.
Now, I do think that the idea of hand sanitizer upon arrival is much the same as wearing masks. Wearing the mask protects others from you, not you from others (except indirectly). If you happen to have COVID-19 on your hands, then applying sanitizer before you enter means what you touch will be safer for others after the fact (less spread).
Applying hand sanitizer afterwards protects you. Applying before protects everyone else.
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