@edps
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Hand hygiene to cut down covid-19 transmission.
A US friend of mine sent me the following:
. . . : 1) NO HANDSHAKING! Use a fist bump, slight bow, elbow bump, etc. 2) Use ONLY your knuckle to touch light switches. elevator buttons, etc.. Lift the gasoline dispenser with a paper towel or use a disposable glove. 3) Open doors with your closed fist or hip – do not grasp the handle with your hand, unless there is no other way to open the door. Especially important on bathroom and post office/commercial doors. 4) Use disinfectant wipes at the stores when they are available, including wiping the handle and child seat in grocery carts. 5) Wash your hands with soap for 10-20 seconds and/or use a greater than 60% alcohol-based hand sanitizer whenever you return home from ANY activity that involves locations where other people have been. 6) Keep a bottle of sanitizer available at each of your home’s entrances. AND in your car for use after getting gas or touching other contaminated objects when you can’t immediately wash your hands. 7) If possible, cough or sneeze into a disposable tissue and discard. Use your elbow only if you have to. The clothing on your elbow will contain infectious virus that can be passed on for up to a week or more! What I have stocked in preparation for the pandemic spread to the US: 1) Latex or nitrile latex disposable gloves for use when going shopping, using the gasoline pump, and all other outside activity when you come in contact with contaminated areas. Note: This virus is spread in large droplets by coughing and sneezing. This means that the air will not infect you! BUT all the surfaces where these droplets land are infectious for about a week on average – everything that is associated with infected people will be contaminated and potentially infectious. The virus is on surfaces and you will not be infected unless your unprotected face is directly coughed or sneezed upon.”
He assumes that the Covid-19 virus is not aerosoled – jury is out on that, but it is true that sneezing is not a symptom of Covid-19 infection. There are some reasonable strategies in his notes, but latex gloves may be more of a pain than a value, as not only do you have a disposing problem, getting them off without contaminating your hands is close to impossible!
Bob, while I agree that the main value of a face mask is to eliminate the wearer as a transmission agent, this NIH study showed that if 80% of people wore N95 masks then flu/measles outbreaks would be stopped dead. (I think that may be an exaggeration as good hand hygiene/goggles would still be required).
Imo Western Governments tend to ignore such studies as if everyone wore masks Government surveillance of the populace would be stopped dead in its tracks.
The initial major Italian outbreak was centred on Codogno hospital and patient zero was initially asymptomatic, so no precautions were taken. I’d guess that a hospital is probably one of the worst places for such an infection to break out and may help explain a high CFR.
I managed to find the correct Google-foo. Medium size for average/smaller adults, small for children.
@Lee, as vfm has raised questions about your vitamin D dosage you may want at some time to quietly check with your pharmacist. Although it is rare, there have been cases of a miscommunication by the GP. Many years ago, my wife was nearly a victim of such a problem except I looked at the script and said WOW! (that was a case of numbers being transposed)
I’m looking to buy a 3M half mask for my wife. My wife is of an average female size. I do know that my large size mask fits me perfectly, but is too large for her. Does anyone know if the medium size is a better fit for the average female or do I need to order the small size?
If you look up quinine it may well interfere nastily with any other meds you are taking. My advice would be that keeping yourself well hydrate may be a better strategy.
Almost certainly a load of alcohol would be a bad thing. Covid-19 attacks the ACE2 in the liver, and the liver is quickly damaged by alcohol, having two damaging things in the same place does not sound to be a good idea. Although ethanol disrupts viruses I have never known it to cure flu – it just makes the misery more tolerable.
Just to make sure you rattle when you walk, the BMJ published some research back in 2017 which showed that vitamin D supplementation is of value in fending off severe respiratory illnesses. (It effect is greatest for those who are vitamin D deficient.)
Just Remembered:
Andrew Redding — I have no idea if that was a real name, I did not even know that he had a narrow boat.
This guy maybe?
Have a good one!
I would encourage anyone concerned about the future to write to their MP and complain that the Government has been too complacent in its handling of SAR-Covid-19. If we are not very careful we will quickly go from a couple of handfuls of cases to being forced into regional lock-downs with no intermediate steps.
I have zero confidence in the way the Government has handled it so far, and I have written to my MP to express my dissatisfaction.
[edit] I’m not too surprised at a 24 hour doubling in cases. Certainly our government has been lying to us, and I expect a similar lack of truth from others.
Just wait for Indonesia to come clean — two cases pah!! Two thousand is more likely.
Sorry do not remember, but I thought the name was slightly more unusual, and for some reason I think the first name was Andrew.
Incidentally, my wife and I like taking holidays where we can walk from one location to another along a canal tow path (Kennet and Avon is our favourite). We would often stop and chat to the boat owners and a common complaint that they had was the difficulty in registering with a GP, or having a fixed abode for legal purposes. I guess there must be ways around these issues, but it is one to watch if you do manage to live your dream.
I remember someone calling himself “I’m the real …” inhabiting the letters page. IIrc He was always spending obscene amounts of money on kit which he never got to work because he would never rtfm and subsequently either bought something incompatible or screwed up the installation.
A follow-up to the last post to head-off valid criticism that mask-wearing did not eliminate covid-19 in Asia. If you carefully analyse pictures and videos of Asian people wearing masks, in nearly all examples the masks that are worn are ill-fitting loop around the ear cotton ‘vanity’ masks rather than N95 or better masks.
Assuming that this research can be replicated and peer reviewed, it puts to bed the lie that Government shills have been promulgating with respect to the effectiveness of masks.
“It was found that a 50% compliance in donning the device resulted in a significant (at least 50% prevalence and 20% cumulative incidence) reduction in risk for fitted and unfitted N95 respirators, high-filtration surgical masks, and both low-filtration and high-filtration pediatric masks. An 80% compliance rate essentially eliminated the influenza outbreak.”
If Western Governments had promoted the wearing of N95+ masks, and supported such research perhaps we would not now be tottering on the edge of a global recession.
As I said before, people in the front-line with the public such as publicans, restaurateurs, shop-keepers and the like should be encouraged , and not discouraged from wearing masks. Although it will unfortunately not protect all these people from catching anything it will be quite effective in cutting down how much is passed on. They will be wearing masks not to protect themselves, but to protect their customers.
I might at times appear paranoid in my reaction to this disease, to which charge I’d plead guilty, but as @vfm has so often said it isn’t just old pharts such as I that will die slightly early. This nasty disease will kill an unusually high number of young productive people as well. We all have a role in helping to slow down the RATE at which this disease spreads, and we should be using every weapon in our armoury to accomplish that aim. If we can slow it down enough to develop better ways of treating/preventing it then many thousands of our friends and family will live, who would otherwise die.
This Government has been looking at a short-term economic balance sheet in its dissemination of information, and reaction to the disease rather than a longer term strategic view. In my book they have been found wanting, and I will not accept any excuses from them of their not knowing how bad things would get. The BBC/LSE study modelled exactly what was at risk, and what measures are needed to minimise its impact and keep the country running, to which I and others have added a few other inexpensive measures.
You are not THE Simon are you!?
Welcome either way.
Sorry I disagree – while any spivs who leech on society (like most capitalists!) should be deprecated, had this Government allowed concerns to grow naturally from the outset everyone would have been able to get the masks they required. Instead we had Mushroom (no worries) Matt and his ilk having to suddenly admit 25 new cases overnight and surprise, surprise panic buying starts to set in.
What the link does not show is that the US and UK alike have warehouses full of masks for such a pandemic, and a whole raft of legislation to support it. link. As a result hospitals and emergency services are well prepared to ride this one out.
If misfits like vfm and I totally distrust the inept bunch of small brained loud mouths that are in charge, and want to support the spivs and ignore the Government shills just leave us alone to get on with looking out for ourselves and our friends and families. Darwinism in action!
btw the main unpublished reason why Western Governments do not like face masks is that it totally screws up their investment in surveillance equipment.
Iirc the IoM was one of the very last places to get it in the ICL/BBC study. You just have to keep Clarkson et al out!
[edit] and of course no TT.
The latest ICL report states that on average covid-19 cases double each week. I guess the UK situation for the next month depends on how many false negatives we have had in all the testing carried out here. The ICL report 6 isn’t very sanguine about world testing (two thirds not detected), but did not comment on the UK’s ranking as far as I could tell.
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