peejman

When last year? A nasty bug of similar description passed through here Nov-Jan. Personally, I think it was C-19, which helps explain the relatively low impact its had here since.

We've thoroughly enjoyed the "Drain The Oceans" series on NatGeo. Its fascinating in a nerdy sort of way. We've also started watching their "Barkskins" series and its good too.

So today we were finally allowed to go back to church. Masks, pre-registration, no singing, and social distancing (<50% capacity) were required. Sitting through the service was the longest I've had to wear a mask so far. A few observations... I was really hot to begin with but that faded, 90 deg outside surely didn't help. All but one person, a 7 yr old, were wearing their mask correctly (nose and mouth covered). None of the masks I saw (mine included) had any sort of reasonable seal around the face. Most were downright loose. If part of the intent if masks is to reduce the amount people touch their face, they seem to have the opposite effect. My mask slowly sagged below my nose and moved a bunch whenever I talked, requiring adjustment. I observed most people fiddling with theirs on multiple occasions. Most of those I spoke with gave a little shrug or eye roll on the topic of masks. One guy's mask had a clear panel over his mouth. Very strange to look at but you don't realize how much lip reading you do until you can't see anyone's mouth.

Microchips are already here... https://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/security/a33003219/michigan-bill-worker-microchips-rfid/

Interesting data, I'm glad to see some demographic info. Funny that the news never reports any of this. 84% of those who've died were over 60, 65% were over 70. Only 6% of postitive cases have been hospitalized. Id be curious about the duration of the hospital stays compared to the outcome.

This is interesting, from their own attorney no less....

Probably spent the morning working as a rodeo clown at his local 4-H show.

Hence the suspected data manipulation. You'd think the CDC and the governments (both state and federal) would publish exactly how they're using the data to help minimize differences between agencies. I would want the rules clearly defined and well known by everyone involved to keep the data as clean as possible. It's the same garbage in, garbage out (GIGO) as with any other sort of data analysis. We live in a time where a significant number of people blindly trust the .gov and a significant number of people refuse to believe anything the .gov presents. Consensus is impossible.

Here's a good explanation of how N95 masks work...

I got first hand accounts from 2 people who've gotten letters from the CDC that state everyone in the household is considered "probable" when any one tests positive. I haven't personally seen the letters, but I have no reason to suspect what they've said is inaccurate.

Neato.

Yes, but the heat will do the same thing as will the hygroscopic nature of the mask fibers. The virus is just a particle surrounded by a fatty membrane. Anything that removes or damages the fatty membrane kills the virus.

If you were running a hospital as a business (pre-pandemic), would you keep a surplus of unused and very expensive equipment? They don't either. The best efficiency point is just below 100% occupancy. You need only enough beds to be able to clean and turn them. As for masks 100% of the time... Is that really in our best interest? Seems to me it would certainly reduce the rate of transmission of lots of bugs, which is good in the short term. Long term, doesn't herd immunity need to be established with the end goal of a healthier population? If a location is having an outbreak and the medical resources are nearing capacity, then measures to limit transmission are appropriate. If the medical resources are in good shape, then continuing with herd immunity seems the best long term solution until a viable vaccine is produced.

Vickers Berthier?

Keep in mind that hospitalized doesn't necessarily mean ICU or ventilator. My wife told me today that a friend's daughter tested positive with no symptoms. She takes ballet and the instructor got the sniffles, tested positive, so all 42 students got tested. I'm not aware that any of them are sick beyond the sniffles. So from what I've heard about reporting, that's at least 2 positives and something like 100 probable as the CDC counts all family members as probable when one is positive. That said, I agree that positive tests are nearly meaningless. Unfortunately the deaths are the most accurate, and even those are questionable.

9 are currently hospitalized, no info on how long they've been there, or anything else. I believe that's the most. 5 deaths, most recent one was April 28. Fun test story from the aforementioned ICU nurse.... A patient had heart surgery, tested negative just before surgery. A few days in recovery and the patient has a mild fever (which isn't unusual) gets tested again and it's positive. Protocols immediately follow isolating all the staff who've come in contact and multiple patients who've had surgery since. Less than 24hrs later, the fever goes away and the patient tests negative. Lots of gyrations about conflicting test results and what to do. Another 24hrs goes by, all the staff and the patient get tested again, all negative. False alarm.

Not to me. A friend's wife is a ICU nurse at Ft Sanders. She says its still nearly empty. Less than half the normal patient load. There's normally always some number of folks in the ICU with respiratory distress for various reasons, but that number is lower than usual and has been for 4 months.

I've seen that story before, but this article has some interesting bits of info. Of the 148 people involved, only 48 got tested (32%) with 2 positive (1.3%). Still... lots of questions. What kind of masks? Were they wearing them correctly? At what point did the stylists have symptoms, if any? Did anyone else have symptoms? There is no mention of anyone being hospitalized. Big jumps percentage wise, but still very small numbers.

Masks are largely a placebo. Respirators would limit the spread.

That certainly throws a monkey wrench in your plans. I see the number of positive tests continue to climb, but the worst symptoms I've heard of is just the sniffles. Very few deaths have been reported, which is good. So that tells me that we're doing exactly what we should be, pushing through the herd immunity while the weather is warm and people are generally more healthy. Doing that now should mitigate this coming winter.

Is the other grandmother ill? If so, what are her symptoms?

https://www.clawhammersupply.com/blogs/moonshine-still-blog/7207958-methanol-will-moonshine-make-you-blind During the distillation process methanol is concentrated at the start of the run because it has a lower boiling point than ethanol and water. The boiling point of methanol is approximately 148 degrees farenheit, which is quite a bit lower than ethanol (the good stuff). This means that methanol (148F boiling temp) will start to boil before the ethanol (174F boiling temp). This is why moonshiners always throw out the first bit of shine they produce

Same as when moonshine gets done wrong and they don't bleed off the methanol.

I've got a K31 and haven't heard of these before. Looks darn cool. Let us know how they shoot.

A big can of bear spray, maybe. The typical key-chain pepper spray is just going to make them mad.