Officiating Post COVID-19 ???

[johnny d]

Wearing a mask is pretty much useless. The coronavirus has a diameter somewhere between 60-140 nanometers. The pores in the material of the masks people are using are much bigger, meaning the virus can pass right through. In fact, the pore size on the N95 medical mask can filter 99% of particles between 0.1 - 0.3 microns. Sounds impressive, except that converts to 100 - 300 nanometers, again meaning much of the virus can get through the filter.

[BillyMac]

Originally Posted by johnny d

Wearing a mask is pretty much useless. The coronavirus has a diameter somewhere between 60-140 nanometers. .

Surgical masks are not stopping the tiny corona virus particles, they're stopping the larger diameter respiratory droplets (that contain tremendous numbers of the much smaller diameter corona virus) from being exhaled or spit out by those that have COVID-19, especially from those that are asymptomatic for COVID-19 and who don't know that they're sick (and may not be socially distancing, or can't socially distance, like at work).

A mask, be it a surgical mask, or an N-95 mask, doesn't have to be 100% effective to be better than no mask at all.

I'm sure that many of us have seen slow motion video of respiratory droplets been coughed or sneezed out of one's nose or mouth and how far they can travel.

How are surgical masks useless?

[BillyMac]

Originally Posted by BillyMac

I'm sure that many of us have seen slow motion video of respiratory droplets been coughed or sneezed out of one's nose or mouth and how far they can travel.

And it doesn't have to be sneezing, it can be talking (especially loud talking), singing, whistling, laughing, or breathing deeply (especially through one's mouth).

Of course the droplets won't go as far as with a cough or sneeze, but they could still end up on a faucet, elevator button, keyboard, phone, light switch, countertop, dinner plates, drinking glasses, cutlery, gym equipment, scissors, church pew, etc., someone (maybe an at risk person), touches that object, and then touches his nose, mouth, or eyes, and they get sick, maybe really sick (enough to be on a ventilator), or even die.

All because somebody else refused to wear a surgical mask (not to wear a mask is our God given right as Americans, we are free and have the freedom to do as we chose, like it says in the Declaration of Independence, or the Gettysburg Address, or the Magna Carta, that's why we defeated the Germans at Pearl Harbor).

How can I be sure that I don't have COVID-19 right now this second? Maybe I have it and I'm asymptomatic? And testing is nothing more than a snapshot in time. I've named my mask Charleen, and she helps me to keep my loved ones, and strangers, safe, maybe not 100% safe, but safer than if I didn't wear her.

Asians, especially Chinese and Japanese, have been wearing surgical masks for years, in some cases for particulate pollutants from burning coal, but in many cases to prevent the spread of infection. It's accepted there. We may have to learn to accept it here, especially before we come up with a vaccine.

[SNIPERBBB]

What if there's never a vaccine? They've never come up one for any of the other human coronaviruses(common cold, SARS-1, MERS, etc). Even the flu today is a remnant from the Spanish Flu and that vaccine still is maybe 50% on a good year

[JRutledge]

Originally Posted by SNIPERBBB

What if there's never a vaccine? They've never come up one for any of the other human coronaviruses(common cold, SARS-1, MERS, etc). Even the flu today is a remnant from the Spanish Flu and that vaccine still is maybe 50% on a good year

Then we have choices to make don't we? And I think at the end of the day we do not need a vaccine. We need something that will prevent people from dying. Even a treatment is just as good as a vaccine. And even if there is one, I am like others probably not taking it anyway, at least at first. I never take a flu shot for some of the same concerns.

Peace

[Camron Rust]

Originally Posted by JRutledge

Then we have choices to make don't we? And I think at the end of the day we do not need a vaccine. We need something that will prevent people from dying. Even a treatment is just as good as a vaccine. And even if there is one, I am like others probably not taking it anyway, at least at first. I never take a flu shot for some of the same concerns.

Peace

Or, we just realize that life is meant to be lived and not in fear of something like a virus and the fact that all people die eventually. We can take reasonable precautions, even some aggressive precautions, but we don't necessarily have to stop everything. It could be just another step in the evolutionary cycle and that, while not pleasant, may just run its course in time, taking a fair number of people with it, and fading away, even if we do nothing.

[JRutledge]

Originally Posted by Camron Rust

Or, we just realize that life is meant to be lived and not in fear of something like a virus and the fact that all people die eventually. We can take reasonable precautions, even some aggressive precautions, but we don't necessarily have to stop everything. It could be just another step in the evolutionary cycle and that, while not pleasant, may just run its course in time, taking a fair number of people with it, and fading away, even if we do nothing.

It sounds like people are trying to make this political statement. I said we have a choice now don't we? That means that some people will risk their health to do things that others will not. It is not about stopping everything. You can continue while others will not. And when the right people die in your life and we still have no "fix" then again it might influence your choices. We all have choices. We act like we are mandated to do things.

Peace

[SNIPERBBB]

Sneezing in your hand does as good as a mask does and then you can wash said hand almost immediately. Sneeze into a mask you'll need a new one unless you like smelling your snot all day. We aren't doing surgery.

If it weren't for local health department busy bodies, nobody would be wearing masks that arent already immunocompromised. You definitely won't see one in the medical facilities I work at outside of the ORs. Even the WHO is saying no healthy people should be wearing masks.

[BillyMac]

Originally Posted by SNIPERBBB

Sneezing in your hand does as good as a mask does and then you can wash said hand almost immediately.

Many people certainly stifle their sneezes and coughs, but how many stifle their talking loudly, singing, whistling, laughing, or breathing deeply?

[SNIPERBBB]

Originally Posted by BillyMac

Many people certainly stifle their sneezes and coughs, but how many stifle their talking loudly, singing, whistling, laughing, or breathing deeply?

Well unless your making out with them while they're doing that, your pretty safe from that dangerous laughing.

[BillyMac]

Originally Posted by SNIPERBBB

Even the flu today is a remnant from the Spanish Flu ...

Not sure what that means. There is not a single "flu today". H1N1 caused the Spanish flu in 1918, and Swine Flu in 2009, but there are about a dozen different types of viruses that cause human influenza and a variety of these viruses appear every year. H1N1 was here in 1918, caused a lot of influenza epidemics and pandemics in many other years, and it will be back again.

H1N1 may have been here before 1918, but we've only known about human viruses since the late 19th/early 20th century, and proof that influenza was caused by viruses was not obtained until 1933.

[SNIPERBBB]

Originally Posted by BillyMac

And it doesn't have to be sneezing, it can be talking (especially loud talking), singing, whistling, laughing, or breathing deeply (especially through one's mouth).

Of course the droplets won't go as far as with a cough or sneeze, but they could still end up on a faucet, elevator button, keyboard, phone, light switch, countertop, dinner plates, drinking glasses, cutlery, gym equipment, scissors, church pew, etc., someone (maybe an at risk person), touches that object, and then touches his nose, mouth, or eyes, and they get sick, maybe really sick (enough to be on a ventilator), or even die.

All because somebody else refused to wear a surgical mask (not to wear a mask is our God given right as Americans, we are free and have the freedom to do as we chose, like it says in the Declaration of Independence, or the Gettysburg Address, or the Magna Carta, that's why we defeated the Germans at Pearl Harbor).

How can I be sure that I don't have COVID-19 right now this second? Maybe I have it and I'm asymptomatic? And testing is nothing more than a snapshot in time. I've named my mask Charleen, and she helps me to keep my loved ones, and strangers, safe, maybe not 100% safe, but safer than if I didn't wear her.

Asians, especially Chinese and Japanese, have been wearing surgical masks for years, in some cases for particulate pollutants from burning coal, but in many cases to prevent the spread of infection. It's accepted there. We may have to learn to accept it here, especially before we come up with a vaccine.

Well I'm sure those lovely ladies sitting in trailers outside of hospitals would gladly shove that cue tip through your nose and into the back of your throat if you want the really fun test. They tell those ladies that you should see the fear in your eyes to know if they went far enough. Or you could get the antibody test which is a bit less invasive. I'm glad I wasn't near the labs the day they started doing the tests in house as they grab every employee they can grab hold of to do calibration tests.

[BillyMac]

Originally Posted by SNIPERBBB

Well I'm sure those lovely ladies sitting in trailers outside of hospitals would gladly shove that cue tip through your nose and into the back of your throat if you want the really fun test.

That's my daughter. When Connecticut first started COVID testing she stepped up and VOLUNTEERED to do the testing, more dangerous back then due to a shortage of personal protective equipment for nurses (she used the same N-95 mask for her entire first week, keeping it in a labelled brown paper bag overnight). Last week, as Connecticut hospitals decided do elective surgeries, she went back to her regular job as a post-operative nurse, however, she continues to VOLUNTEER to do COVID testing on weekends because trained nurses are needed, especially nurses like my daughter who specialize in safety and personal protective equipment education and supervision.

When she's not working, she's self isolating (because of her job, she's at high risk to get COVID) and hasn't had any contact with me, her two siblings, or her nephews, to protect us. She's my health care hero.



Also, while rapid tests still require the swab to be inserted high up into one's nasal passage, most testing today only involves the simple painless swabbing of the inside both nostrils.

[BillyMac]

Originally Posted by BillyMac

That's my daughter. When Connecticut first started COVID testing she stepped up and VOLUNTEERED to do the testing ... When she's not working, she's self isolating (because of her job, she's at high risk to get COVID) and hasn't had any contact with me, her two siblings, or her nephews, to protect us. She's my health care hero.

She does this, despite putting her own health at risk, and isolating herself from her family and friends, because she feels like she's making a difference, she's preventing the spread of this virus, and she's saving lives.

Florence Nightingale Pledge: With loyalty will I aid the physician in his work, and as a missioner of health, I will dedicate myself to devoted service for human welfare.

[SNIPERBBB]

As far as I know I can possibly be practically bathing in covid as I handle medical waste, covid specimens and more all day.With less protection than any poor nurse. I've handled crap that will literally melt surgical gloves in seconds that wasn't always securely closed. Been in the labs when they've had live AIDS spilled on the floor. Outside work I'm constantly exposed to giardia, distemper, rabies, tularemia, hantavirus, tetanus and who knows what else that laugh at covid.

It's just another problem filled with problems. Some of the measures taken when this first reared it's ugly head and we had next to nothing for information. Now we got more information than we know what to deal with. Most of it has shown that if your not in a nursing home ran by a new york politician, your odds of dieing is shockingly low