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Corona Virus Disease/(SARS-CoV-2) II


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2 hours ago, ILI said:

Belgian robotics professor Albert De Beir turns €20 Decathlon diving mask into approved medical mask. 

decatlon diving mask turned into medical mask.jpg

Easybreath.JPG

 

Very cool masks.  Also, 20 Euros seems like a great deal for a good-quality diving mask.  However, sales of diving masks, especially unusual ones like that, are pretty low most of the time, so a typical dive shop might have a few dozen at most in stock, so they could get cleaned out in a single day.

 

In related news, last week I was in my local drugstore and noticed that they had lots of toilet paper.  I thought, “That’s fine.  If Costco keeps getting sold out by mid-day, I can still get some here.”  Today, I was in the drugstore, and I thought, “Maybe I should pick up an 8-pack while I’m here, in case I don’t make it to Costco this week.”  Uh-oh!  Too late.  The shelves were bare, and there were only a few packs  of paper towel left.  Hmm...

 

At the cash registers, staff were discussing the new limit on purchasing even paper towel with a customer who had 2 packs in his arms.  Apparently the limit is 1.  I left, and headed to the grocery store next door, which is usually open until 11 pm.  No luck there, because they closed at 6 pm.  No bargain-priced Powerade for me tonight.  Many shops are closing earlier.  Instead of 10 pm, the drugstore closes ar 7.  Okay, but then the Customer Service person on the phone earlier in the afternoon mentioned that while the store closes at 7, the pharmacy section closes at 6.  Okay, good to know, I’m getting my boots on right now!

 

I had been thinking that by now, the panic buyers would have finally settled down, and their storage areas and kids’ bedrooms would be full by now, so TP shopping might be nearly normal at this point, but apparently it’s not.  On the bright side, a buddy mentioned the other day that at Costco, the first hour after the store opens is now reserved for seniors, 65+.  Hmm, maybe to pick up the 30-pack that lasts me for months, I should get up at the crack of dawn and head over there to beat the many-packs-more-than-they-need gang.

 

Still, if that’s my worst problem, it’s a pretty minor affair.  First World problems, am I right?

 

Normally, I wouldn’t bore you with such mundane and trivial stuff, but in this case, I thought it might be helpful and informative to see what life is like in someone else’s city during The Time of COVID-19.

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40 minutes ago, Islander said:

I had been thinking that by now, the panic buyers would have finally settled down,

 

In Belgium, panic buying ('hamstering') has stopped now. All discounts were forbidden (buy 2 for the price of one etc.). Some supermarkets sell only one pack of toiletpaper per customer per day, this is their own initiative and they legally can do this. Now that panic buying is over, the government is at the point of allowing discounts and promotions again, because they saw a substantial price increase (for instance crisps saw a 30 per cent increase when promotions were not allowed).

 

My son got a diving mask from his aunt last summer. If asked, I will happily bring it to the local clinic. It may save lives or protect the healthcare workers.

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17 hours ago, Randyh said:

this  is just a regular chinese wet market , I've seen much worse during my travels in China  --- the most common however is eating dogs -

 

I’ve seen pictures of an Asian food market stall with live iguanas restrained for sale.  With their hands tied behind their backs, they really gave me the impression of being (non-terrestrial) alien hostages or prisoners of war.  I didn’t even want to imagine how they were killed, gutted, and eaten...

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1 hour ago, ILI said:

 

My son got a diving mask from his aunt last summer. If asked, I will happily bring it to the local clinic. It may save lives or protect the healthcare workers.

 

Most diving masks don’t cover the mouth, so the diver can use a snorkel, a SCUBA regulator, or just hold his/her breath to get breathing air.  The ones pictured have integral snorkels, so it would be relatively easy to arrange for filtered air to be supplied to the user, and allow for nose breathing.  With typical masks, the user would have to be breathing with his/her mouth all day, which would cause a very dry mouth, at the least.  They could be set up in a short-term (hours long at the most) emergency situation, but at present there are better solutions.  I may be wrong, so you could call up the clInic and ask if a typical diving mask would be useful to them.

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This is what the start of 'a flattened curve' looks like. The red line indicates the maximum number of ic units in Belgium. If the dark blue line stays under it, and we have the personel to take care of the sick, we should be alright.

 

image.png.8431144fad508ac46434370ca5337418.png

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In Belgium, the government is using cellphone data of all providers anonymously to learn if the population is respecting lockdown. 

Long-distance movement (+50km) is down with 95%, which means lockdown communication is efficient. 

 

The video in this tweet illustrates the incredible impact of spring break in Florida. 

 

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1 hour ago, ILI said:

In Belgium, the government is using cellphone data of all providers anonymously to learn if the population is respecting lockdown. 

Long-distance movement (+50km) is down with 95%, which means lockdown communication is efficient. 

 

The video in this tweet illustrates the incredible impact of spring break in Florida. 

 

 

Too many wild assumptions associated with the analysis, but I think everybody here gets the picture. Thanks for sharing.

 

This is the wildest election year I've lived to see.... thus far. Journalism is dead, fini', capoot in America and the world.

 

 

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Anecdotal accounts coming out of Wuhan indicate a much, much higher toll than officially reported by China. Judging from the volume of ‘urns’ being delivered to families before during and after their epidemic residents estimate that over 40,000 people died from covid19 in Wuhan alone. 
 

Taiwan’s excellent response to covid19 can be somewhat attributed to their relative ‘insider’ access to China and their understandable distrust of the Chinese gov’t. They knew something very bad was happening in Wuhan and did not buy the Chinese cover-up tales (unlike WHO). So Taiwan quickly implemented the steps needed to keep covid19 from spreading into their space.......   and it shows. Had China been honest the rest of the world could have taken similar actions.

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Just now, Pete H said:

There are some hospitals that have been using it for few years as well.  

Wonder if what they called irradiated is still being used on veggie and fruit products. Think there was an outcry by some.

 

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22 minutes ago, billybob said:

Wonder if what they called irradiated is still being used on veggie and fruit products. Think there was an outcry by some.

 

I'm not sure, one more thing on my list to research.  Thanks!  LOL

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1 hour ago, billybob said:

Wonder if what they called irradiated is still being used on veggie and fruit products. Think there was an outcry by some.

 

That would be Gamma sterilization, and it is still used for a lot of things, including some fruits and vegetables.  This would effectively resterilize masks, but probably could not be used to resterilize more than once or twice since it damages plastic and elastomers.  It is also about a 16 hour process, and there are only about a dozen facilities in the US that can do Gamma.  It works by exposing the devices (or veggies) to Cobalt 60.

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2 hours ago, Pete H said:

That's great news!  I wonder why they aren't utilizing mass UVC sterilization?  

And in some cases just plain mass sterilization, or selective.

It seems there are many more crazy people, not normal crazy but full tilt all out crazy.

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