Emergence of a Deadly Coronavirus

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Call me a nice guy (that would be a first ),
But some sort of face-covering would stop *your* spittle from spreading.
It also would reduce the anxiety of people around you to some degree,
And enhance social distancing if they wrongly believed you were diseased.

I'm not a hi-grade face mask person. That should be for the front line workers.
I hardly go out anywhere, but if I do, it is for a short time.

I am an advocate of everyone wearing something as simple as a bandana to reduce the spread of saliva, however.
I.E. Personal responsibility.

But, just to be on the safe side, I won't touch your post...
Errr. D'oh! <headslap>

Yes towards the beginning, day 3 or 4 after exposure everything started to taste sour. That passed after two days.

Never lost my sense of taste.

Sure, you can be angry with consumers, but that accomplishes nothing. Telling people "don't buy" doesn't usually work. You can't control what consumers buy from a legal open market. It was the responsibility of the government to have a massive stockpile for emergency situations. How much money has the U.S. spent on military, and they couldn't invest a tiny fraction of that on masks, respirators, and other hospital necessities? They have failed us. Many citizens are now creating masks for ourselves, but the average person can't create the specialized masks for hospitals. It's now up to our government to make deals with corporations and other groups both domestically and abroad to deliver or produce masks and other medical supplies for our health workers.

Just heard a report that when Schwarzenegger was governor, California has specialists planning for pandemics. They had stockpiled all the items everyone is short of now, including N95 masks and ventilators in the hundreds of thousands. Then, these were a dropped as being too expensive to maintain.

Modern humans rarely seem able to invest in protection from the possibility of future catastrophes.

The problem with using statistics to reduce the apparent deaths from CV19, is that all those "underlying health conditions" are present in many of us and our loved ones. If CV19 kills me because I have, say, Down Syndrome (underlying heart defects) I am still dead because of the viral infection, not because of the heart defect.

It causes me some concern when people in a support forum for people with a specific disability are quick to dismiss the risks to other vulnerable groups. Just my observation.

In 2005, the George W. Bush administration called for the coordination of domestic production and stockpiling of protective gear in preparation for pandemic influenza. In 2006, Congress approved funds to add protective gear to a national strategic stockpile — among other things, the stockpile collected 52 million surgical face masks and 104 million N95 respirator masks.

But about 100 million masks in the stockpile were deployed in 2009 in the fight against the H1N1 flu pandemic, and the government never bothered to replace them. This month, Alex Azar, secretary of health and human services, testified that there are only about 40 million masks in the stockpile — around 1 percent of the projected national need.

As the coronavirus began to spread in China early this year, a global shortage of protective equipment began to look inevitable. But by then it was too late for the American government to do much about the problem. Two decades ago, most hospital protective gear was made domestically. But like much of the rest of the apparel and consumer products business, face mask manufacturing has since shifted nearly entirely overseas. “China is a producer of 80 percent of masks worldwide,” Laverdure said.

Source: How the World’s Richest Country Ran Out of a 75-Cent Face Mask

There is talk about hoarders being the problem. But that is not what I observed. As word spread about this pandemic in China in January, my wife and I visited large stores and saw people buying up the supplies of face mask. They were buying them by the big box loads, buying up the entire supplies. I don't think they were hoarders. They were oriental. What I saw was China and its people were in a panic and terror mode due to the effects of this pandemic. The crisis was closely followed by their relative in the U.S. and these relatives bought up existing supplies and shipped them back to their relatives in China. It seems like a natural thing for families to do. Hoarders - no. Concerned relatives helping each other - yes.

Do you think I am doing this?
Could you give an example?

Question for jimmy or eikon or anyone else who understands the science of germs.

How safe would it be to go for an epilepsy EEG on 17 April in a hospital? I just realised they never cancelled or postponed the appointment and they will likely say it's a sterile environment. I'm not sure how I feel about it.

This will change if neurotypicals have the capacity to learn from experience.
The world needs to diversify away from China, for a number of reasons.

Here in Australia, we have only one small company making relevant face masks, with the aid of the defence force, but that company now can't access strategic materials.

I do think it is very dangerous to depend so much on one major source, especially when you consider it has an authoritarian government.
Anyone who has emotional empathy, err, I mean a rational orientation, doesn't have to be told this.

Wow

Don't get too excited.
Rumour has it she hates her family and doesn't go anywhere near them.

"Diversify away from China". Perhaps it's my black and white thinking. Perhaps it's because I've never thought it to be a good idea to trade extensively with any Communist government, but rather than "diversify away", in my view I'd rather we stop doing business with China. We never should have started.

I grew up in the 1970s when the USSR was still considered an enemy. It would have been unthinkable to trade extensively and even become dependent on the USSR back then like we've (ugh, I hate the thought of even saying it) become dependent on China.

One of many reasons I think we should stop trading with and doing business with/in China? They're a human rights nightmare. Utterly shameful.

It's done.
No backsies.
And it was done for the simple reason: Westerns societies have huge wage costs, compared to places like China.
Manufacturing would still be in their respective countries if it wasn't for this one fact.

Trade diversity is a real possibility, but not re-manufacturing on a large scale, with the inherent very high wages, in most situations.
Germany seems to be a notable exception, for some reason.

News Flash!
New Zealand website crashed within 24 hrs through people "dobbing in" those who flout lockdown rules. <headslap>
Stupid humans.

You May Be an Aspie If...

... you had to look up the phrase "dobbing in" instead of surmising its meaning from the context of the sentence it was in.

You are very playful today.
Did you "get some" last night?