Emergence of a Deadly Coronavirus

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OMG, when it is going to stop?

Pier 1 going out of business, closing all 540 stores

NEW YORK — Pier 1, the seller of wicker chairs and scented candles, said it will go out of business and permanently close all 540 of its stores.

The Fort Worth, Texas- based company said Tuesday that it was unable to find a buyer for its business after filing for bankruptcy protection this year.

It will start going-out-of-business sales as soon as it can reopen stores that have been temporarily shut due to the coronavirus pandemic.

https://www.reviewjournal.com/business/ ... s-2031762/

EFFECTIVENESS OF WEARING FACE MASKS

Researchers have found that wearing surgical masks can significantly reduce the rate of airborne COVID-19 transmission, according to a study released on Sunday.

The study, conducted by a team of scientists in Hong Kong, found the rate of non-contact transmission through respiratory droplets or airborne particles dropped by as much as 75 percent when masks were used.

“The findings implied to the world and the public is that the effectiveness of mask-wearing against the coronavirus pandemic is huge,” said Dr. Yuen Kwok-yung, a leading microbiologist from Hong Kong University who helped discover the SARS virus back in 2003.

It was released by the department of microbiology at the University of Hong Kong and comes as world leaders, including the World Health Organization (WHO), have questioned the effectiveness of face coverings outside of medical settings.

Source: Wearing a face mask can reduce coronavirus transmission by up to 75 percent, study says

This research was based on using COVID-19 live viruses. The subjects in this case were hamsters. The masks were simulated using filters coverings of hamster cages.

THE ADVANTAGES OF THE OUTDOORS

Dr. Timothy Brewer, professor of medicine and epidemiology at UCLA, ventilation outdoors will rapidly disperse any viral particles in the air. When people engage in conversation, they express clouds of aerosols or respiratory droplets. The ventilation outdoors plays a role in dispersing these particles, which is a good thing.

"In the hospital, when we design a negative pressure room, we want to have at least 12 complete air exchanges in the room to prevent transmission of airborne infections or respiratory droplet infections," Brewer explained. "If you're outside, your ventilation greatly exceeds that, so being outside will disperse any viral particles in the air very rapidly."

Sunlight also helps to disinfect particles, though the key factor in reducing virus transmission outside is the dispersion of viral particles by the wind, according to Brewer.

Source: Can I get coronavirus outside? Experts talk wind dispersal, provide safety tips

CDC GUIDANCE CHANGE

The Center of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the federal health agency appears to have recently changed its guidelines from early March that initially said it “may be possible” to spread the virus from contaminated surfaces. The CDC now includes "surfaces or objects" under a section that details ways in which the coronavirus does not readily transmit.

“The virus that causes COVID-19 is thought to spread mainly through close contact from person-to-person (within about 6 feet). Person-to-person contact is a highway. Touching infected surfaces are little paths, but they don’t carry the big viral traffic,” he told Fox News in an email. “To reduce the spread of COVID-19, the safest thing is to continue social distancing, wear masks, and wash hands frequently and thoroughly.”

Source: CDC now says coronavirus 'does not spread easily' via contaminated surfaces

Over 2 months ago on 18 March [page 131 of this thread], I threw out the idea of using a sock as a face mask.
It is a little more complex because I proposed using a stocking made out of thick bamboo material as a face mask because it had anti-microbe properties. It would be nice to have a face mask that kills the virus on contact.
Well I don't think anyone took the concept seriously.
Here is the original post:
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Mr. Rabbitt – Hello, this is KWRM Radio News Report, J. Rabbitt from sunny Corona, California with an interesting story for you today. I have with me an elderly gentleman that has come up with a unique DIY invention to help with the severe shortage of face mask due to the coronavirus pandemic currently devastating our nation. Let me introduce jimmy m.
jimmy m. – Thank you Jack. I’m glad to be on your show this morning.
Mr. Rabbitt – Now tell us a little about your invention.
jimmy m. – Yes, it is a simple little thing. I took one sock and used a bit of VELCRO from my wife’s sewing supplies.
Mr. Rabbitt – So you made this thing out of a sock?
jimmy m. – Well yes, one of my socks.
Mr. Rabbitt – Well where did you get the sock from?
jimmy m. – Yes, I took it from my drawer, my sock drawer.
Mr. Rabbitt – So you took the sock from your drawer.
jimmy m. – Yes, my sock drawer. You know the one under my bed.
Mr. Rabbitt – Was it a used stocking.
jimmy m. – Well not exactly. I had bought it a few months ago. The thought crossed my mind and I discussed it with some people on Wrong Planet. Bamboo Clothing
Mr. Rabbitt – This WrongPlanet, what is that?
jimmy m. – It’s a discussion board whose members…
Mr. Rabbitt – You mean some kind of group that believes in aliens.
jimmy m. – Well, no! There might be a few members that do. But not…
Mr. Rabbitt – So do you believe in aliens.
jimmy m. – What! The message board is composed of Aspies.
Mr. Rabbitt – What is an Aspie? Is that some form of aliens?
jimmy m. – No, but some of the members of the message board feel like they are aliens. Not aliens, like illegal’s coming from below the border, but aliens from outer space.
Mr. Rabbitt – So I think I understand. You believe you are an alien from another planet?
jimmy m. – No, I am an elderly citizen who created a DIY to help with the coronavirus pandemic.
Mr. Rabbitt – So you don’t think you are a space alien?
jimmy m. – We are really getting off topic here. Let me show you. Here is what I used.



I attached a VELCRO to the sock and put it around my head like this.



Mr. Rabbitt – Doesn’t it smell?
jimmy m. – No, I thought I already told you it was a new stocking.
Mr. Rabbitt – Did you ever think of becoming a professional model.
jimmy m. – Well, No!
Mr. Rabbitt – Good, I don’t think you could cut it.
jimmy m. – Hold on young whippersnapper. I ain’t senile yet. This is serious stuff.
Mr. Rabbitt – And you are going to use this DIY to stop the coronavirus?
jimmy m. – Well, sort of. Not the virus itself but what comes after. You see the stocking is very special.
Mr. Rabbitt – You mean like some sort of magic stocking.
jimmy m. – No it is not magic. It is made out of a special material.
Mr. Rabbitt – You mean like a magic material? Or are we talking alien technology?
jimmy m. – Why are you hung up on the word “magic”? It is made out of bamboo.
Mr. Rabbitt – So you made the face mask out of magic bamboo? Did it come from China?
jimmy m. – No it has nothing to do with magic. I don’t know if it came from China. It is only a very thick athletic stocking made out of bamboo. One of the properties of bamboo is that it has antibiotic properties. I experimented with it and it works well.
Mr. Rabbitt – So how did you test it?
jimmy m. – Well I put the sock on my foot and walked around wearing it for over couple weeks.
Mr. Rabbitt – And that was your experiment?
jimmy m. – Well, Yes! You see I have smelly feet and the foot odor is caused by bacteria. I wore the socks for a couple weeks and took them off and put the stockings up to my nose and they smelt fresh. Just like the day I pulled them new out of the box.
Mr. Rabbitt – So you are going to use this magic bamboo stock to stop the pandemic. You do know that the coronavirus is a virus; not a bacteria.
jimmy m. – Yes of course I know that. That’s not the point.
Mr. Rabbitt – I think it is. You are using a magic stocking to kill a foot odor, which is caused by bacteria on a coronavirus.
jimmy m. – No, you are mixing my words all up. I am using bamboo with antibiotic properties to kill bacteria. The coronavirus attacks the throat. It weakens the immune system. Then the bacteria creeps in and infects a person. And in a day or two they are pushing up daisies.
Mr. Rabbitt – So the stocking prevents daisies?
jimmy m. – No! “Pushing up daisies” is an expression for “becoming dead”. You go to the hospital because you are sick and you pick up another bacterial infection that kills you deader than a doornail. The virus may have made you sick but the bacteria is the one that finishes you off. It is called a hospital-acquired infection (HAI). They can be bacterial infections such as pneumonia.
Mr. Rabbitt – So how do you use this invention of yours?
jimmy m. – It is really quite simple. You put it around your mouth and nose and breathe through it. The antibiotic properties of the mask kill the bacteria trying to get inside your throat.
Mr. Rabbitt – So that is all there is to it?
jimmy m. – Well not exactly. You don’t wear the mask around town. It is when you begin to feel the effect of the coronavirus, when you get a fever or a sore throat and you go to bed that you put on the face mask on and wear it. It would even work against opportunistic bacterial infections that materialize after the common flu. I thought about using a scarf made out of this material. But all I could find on the Internet were those thin scarves that the ladies wear. It would have to be much thicker, like this stocking.
Mr. Rabbitt – Well, there you have it. Jimmy m. has created a DIY face mask using a magic stocking to kill daisies.
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Well what I found interesting is that today there was an article of another person who proposed using stockings to make facemark:

Amid the coronavirus pandemic, the question is not just should you wear a mask, but what kind.

A young man known as The Poof Daddy with platforms on various social media, from TikTok to Instagram, made a sock hack for a coronavirus mask -- a simple way to keep safe.

The video, which has been seen at least 14 million times on TikTok, shows Joshua taking a Nike sock and cutting it up to make a mask.

Source: Sock hack for coronavirus mask is a simple way to keep safe