OT: John Oliver on the corona virus

That was a good one. I hope Pence watched it too. Maybe he'll adopt the hand washing song for use here!

John S wrote in news:r3iu40$8g9$2@dont- email.me:

Already watched it. That guy actually gives us good news on many issues.

Americans got casual because of the automobile, IMO. That casuality affected our educational systems along with a sprinkling of school taught racisms. Many folks are kinda dumb.

Essentially, we're doomed because most men and now most women do not even know how to do dishes right, much less their own hands and household touched surfaces.

I predict 80% infection rate in the US by the time it is over, and the survival rate here will establish factual stats on it.

I think it is a bit higher than the 2% trending rate. South Korea's numbers should give us some clue.

Them going about town spraying some unknown crap (onto people) will do absolutely nothing.

Rick C wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@googlegroups.com:

From the timeline he gave in yesterday's news conference, he was the hero of Indiana's 'historic' medical response situation in place right now.

He claims to have "found out" about the 'outbreak' after the fact and that the first thing he did was bypass the Indiana laws and allowing a 30 day exchange program. So from his POV, he jumped right on it.

But it was after it already happened, so he screwed up a long time before it came down and that part we do not see 'news' of.

Pence's crucial contribution was shutting down the local Planned Parenthood clinic which happened to be the only organisation in the area that did free HIV tests.

It made the local "right-to-life" crowd very happy, and he ignored the public health downside.

It showed up in his Wikipedia biography years ago.

His public health credentials aren't impressive.

You can't effectively keep your hands clean, and don't need to.

Keep them out of your eyes and nose and you're most of the way to safety.

CH

Clifford Heath wrote in news:v%l7G.168866$ snipped-for-privacy@fx19.iad:

Excessive washing can defat the tissues and make them even more succeptible to intrusion.

Mankind has been too touchy for an eternity. Fingernails means scrape-y too.

Wet facial orifices (orifi?)are always where we fail.

We dismiss any chance of an attack (microbial). Just like a cigarette smoker cannot see that every little puff contributes to poorer health. "That happens to somebody else, not me..."

Humnas will be broken until we can raise a kid away from the other kids and actually teach proper daily behaviors that change the way his kids get raised, etc. etc.

One step at a time. If we do not die of stupidity along the way...

I wonder if the face masks are effective 'cause they keep you from touching your face? I also wonder about how long it takes the flu virus to die with those ethanol hand sanitizers... I'd love to see a graph of number vs time. (The web is a fire hose in this regard.. one article.)

Does anyone leave it on for the recommended 30 seconds?... (let alone minutes.)

George H.

Oh and nice post here on slatestarcodex

The fact that China's new cases are down to 100+ a day now suggest that it can be contained. I don't fully trust China's reporting, but if it was continuing on an exponential curve there or anything close to that, it would be obvious by now. And no disease that I'm aware of has spread to 80% of the population. This really is what Rick would call alarmist.

That is offset by the fact that there are people who have it with mild symptoms who never get tested and are not recorded. In the US, as of last week, we only would test people who had flu symptoms, who tested neg for flu and who had a history of possible exposure. The case near Sacramento, that patient was in two hospitals for a week, with the CDC refusing to run the test. You won't find it when you don't look for it.

pt the hand washing song for use here!

ety.

thread/

Great posts. Reading about Zinc possibly helping with colds reminds me of the various quackery surrounding cold cures. There is one that is homeopat hic (which means it contains virtually nothing of the curative agent due to repeated 10x dilutions) where they have one very old study with statistica lly insignificant results showing it may work. Another that is advertised as being developed by a "school teacher".

It had not occurred to me that there will develop all manner of quackery ar ound this pandemic. At some point we will see people walking around with u nderwear over their heads I'm sure. Heck, that one might actually help. W ho's going to get close to that person?

dopt the hand washing song for use here!

afety.

n-thread/

f the various quackery surrounding cold cures. There is one that is homeop athic (which means it contains virtually nothing of the curative agent due to repeated 10x dilutions) where they have one very old study with statisti cally insignificant results showing it may work. Another that is advertise d as being developed by a "school teacher".

around this pandemic. At some point we will see people walking around with underwear over their heads I'm sure. Heck, that one might actually help. Who's going to get close to that person?

I have no idea about Zn, but it seems like something that should be studied. But who's going to fund that? (It has almost no 'market value' if it works.. Zn lozenges are cheap.)

Hmm it's interesting that people (in the US) think the point of face masks is to keep yourself from getting the disease.

George H.

The data says they're not really effective in stopping you getting infected.

They are effective in stopping sick people spraying their droplets far and wide.

Dunno. Relevant facts though:

• these viruses can live on hard surfaces for 24 hours.

• places with hard surfaces produce about 3x more infection than timber-lined places.

CH

On Tuesday, March 3, 2020 at 12:53:41 PM UTC-5, Rick C wrote: At some point we will see people walking around with underwear over their heads I'm sure. Heck, that one might actually help. Who's going to get close to that person?

You're not far off!

Just this afternoon, one of our interns showed me an online image of a man wearing.....

Just Google "Feminine Napkin as Face Mask"