To mask or not to mask?
(18 minute read)
Are we all gonna die?
Do people
avoid doing things and stay in if all they have is a cold? Do people miss work
if they just have a cold? Should they? Why do we teach people to sneeze into
their elbow pit? Does seeing someone wearing a face mask make us uncomfortable?
Why don’t more guys use condoms? Why do we do what we do? Is a pandemic coming
our way? Are we all gonna die? Short answer.
Some of us will.
The Novel
Coronavirus is projected to have a 2% mortality rate. In other words out of a
hundred people that contract COVID-19 it’s expected that 2 will die. Pretty
good odds unless you’re in the 2 part. That’s the kicker right there. People
are dying. Some of us are gonna die. No way around that. Who, is the question?
Me? You? Loved one? Somebody else?
In the
influenza pandemic of 1918 it’s estimated that 675,000 people in the United
States died. It was called the Spanish Flu because the feeling of the general
population was that the flu originated in Spain. That was a lie. During World
War I Spain was a neutral country and did not lie to their population like the
leaders of the United States and our European allies did.
Don’t worry. Be
happy.
So when
President Trump says that most of us will be okay, that’s true unless the virus
breaks bad (mutates) in a bad way. (BTW having COVID-19 is no cakewalk.) The
problem with that is there are portions of the population that are more
vulnerable. In the Spanish flu pandemic younger adults had a higher mortality
rate in the second wave. Usually with the flu the aged, very young, those with
compromised immune systems and those that already suffer from underlying
medical issues are more vulnerable. It’s harder to remain calm if you have
people or are in one of those groups.
Remain calm
Our
President says that we should remain calm and that politicians (Dems) shouldn’t
politicize the Novel Coronavirus outbreak. Then he immediately went to a rally
of supporters and did that very thing. He has done it since the beginning. It’s
what he does. He’s incapable of being concerned with anything other than how it
affects him.
It would
help the general population if he could do a better job of speaking in complete
sentences and deliver a coherent message AND most importantly STOP LYING. This
is serious. Having the potential of a half million people or more die is
serious. We need serious professionals in charge. People who know what they’re
doing, NOT a Vice President who doesn’t believe in science and a blame-game
President who believes the buck stops anywhere but with him.
Frankly it’s
going to be up to the media and others to do what should have been done from
the very beginning: keep the population informed as to what is really taking
place and what the risks are. Knowledge is power. Truth is power. People do
need to remain calm and not get caught up in stupid conspiracy theories.
We’re in for
a ride. We just have to see how it plays out. I hope to see you on the other
side. In the meantime I’m going to write a couple more thousand words about
this including some things that individuals should and shouldn’t do. And NO,
I’m not an expert, but I do have a
modicum of common sense.
Story time
We happened
to have some surgical masks. Since I have a cold I wore one to a conference
that my wife attended. It seemed the prudent thing to do in the current climate
of fear of the Novel Coronavirus. I have been doing quite a bit of coughing and
didn’t want to spend the day coughing into my elbow pit. Cough drops only help
a little bit and it would be asking a lot of that elbow pit to contain several
hours of coughing.
Now the
night before we left I checked my temperature before I went to bed. It was
normal. 97.6 is normal for me. It was normal when I woke up and right before we
hit the road. Stayed normal. Stayed a cold. Here’s the deal. A person often
doesn’t have a temperature when they have a cold but can still spread it. We
can also spread a cold through things we touch. It’s why they advise against
sneezing into our hands.
(They aren’t
sure yet how the Novel Coronavirus is spreading. The virus could have already
been spreading for up to six weeks and is popping up in places where they don’t
have links.) It can spread without people exhibiting symptoms.
When I
registered as a guest I told the lady at the table that all I had was a cold. I
even brought my own pen so that I wouldn’t have to touch theirs. My wife
brought hand sanitizer which I also used. I washed my hands a couple of times
while we were there. When I took the stairs I didn’t hold onto the stair rails.
Joke
The first
part of the conference was a service in the sanctuary. Shelley and I sat
towards the back and ended up with a pew to ourselves. We took a selfie. For
any pastors that might be reading this if you want people to move towards the
front of the church for the service have some people come early and sit in the
back pews wearing masks. It’s as good as wearing a “Let’s talk about Jesus”
T-shirt on a bus for keeping people away from you.
Even though
I noticed other people attending coughing I was the only one wearing a mask.
Guess who was making people uncomfortable? If you guessed me you’d be right.
When the lunch break came I went out into the parking lot and ate in the car.
To mask or not to
mask
While I’m at
it I do want to mention that an N95 mask WILL NOT keep a person from catching a
virus. They’re real stinking small. Bitty things. A gnat’s butt hole would be
huge compared to a virus. However a mask can help keeping a sick person from
spreading what they have. It will catch the droplets from a sneeze or cough.
Medical
personnel do wear them for protection because they’re often splashing around or
getting splashed with people’s fluids. Masks also prevent people from touching
their own face accidentally. Respirators are a whole different matter
altogether so I’m not even going to bother with those.
We are who we are.
The open
market for the general public is for the most part is out of N95 surgical masks
because people have bought them all up. The vast majority of people that bought
them won’t need them and the people that should wear them won’t have them. Like
people with colds or some kind of contagious virus like Novel Coronavirus.
Doing crap like this is where we are working against ourselves.
People that
have the Novel Coronavirus are the ones that need to be wearing masks. We see
so many people in China wearing them because they aren’t sure who might have
the virus as they’re out and about so I guess it kind of all worked out. Or did
it?
I read a
comment where a President Trump supporter in their comments to a post was all
capping that the information being presented by media was LIES and that the
mortality rate from the flu was higher than that of the Novel Coronavirus.
Mortality rates.
The
mortality rates for influenza are .095% projected to be for the 2019-2020 flu
season. It varies from season to season. So far over 10,000 people have died
due to the flu. The estimate for this season is that 21 million people will
contract the flu. The mortality rate for the Novel Coronavirus is currently
guessed to be at 2%. It may go lower or actually be lower due to inadequate reporting
of symptoms or knowing who actually contracted the virus. It could also go
higher.
Unfortunately the President flipped the rates when he addressed the nation and
as we have learned never admits to making a mistake since he’s a very stable
genius. So, his core base of supporters will always believe what he said is
true. Period. This same group contains those that still and who will forever
believe that President Obama is a Muslim. His core base of supporters are not
going to be an asset in this pandemic. It’s just the way it is.
As mentioned
before, the influenza pandemic of 1918-19 is estimated to have killed 675,000
people in the United States. That influenza strain had a 2% mortality rate on
average. It was higher in some places and lower in others. The mortality rate
was also different for different age groups. The pandemic of 2018 hit young
healthy adults especially hard.
When I
studied art history the Black Death plague was also covered. This was a
pandemic that killed 25 to 35 million Europeans back in the 1300s. Some artists
that existed prior to the plague disappeared after the plague ran its course.
They simply disappeared from history. It’s just assumed that they died during
the pandemic.
The Novel
Coronavirus and resultant disease COVID-19 so far is hitting those with
compromised immune systems or that already have underlying health problems. So
it looks like the young and old will be disproportionately affected. Those with
compromised immune system are always at an increased risk.
Whether you
liked them or not and whether they were successful or not previous Presidents
did at least make the attempt to try and unite the country.
Rallies
At every
rally and opportunity President Trump seeks to divide the nation with name
calling, blame and lies. OMG! So many lies. The buck stops with everyone one
but him—the Ducé. The President called the response from the “Dems” a hoax.
That’s probably the worst garbage statement that could come out of a
President’s mouth during a time of crisis.
Previously
Republican leadership, Conservatives (in general), Talking Heads, and then just
citizen Donald Trump never hesitated to criticize the opposing administration
and others. I’m always kind of surprised at the depth of hypocrisy expressed by
so many of them now. Why in the world would they not expect the leadership of
the Democratic Party and liberals in general not to do the same?
Here’s something.
The Obama Administration stopped the spread of Ebola. President Obama’s
response worked. President Trump has been undoing everything that the black
President did. He took apart the policy and infrastructure that was already in
place to deal with a pandemic. He ignored the lessons learned. His supporters
cheered his actions.
When I hear
these people say that others want this to happen so that President Trump will
lose the election it’s just disgusting. There may be some sociopaths out there
that like the idea of several hundred thousand people dying but the vast
majority of the population I dare say is NOT so inclined.
I’m with the
group that fervently hopes that this turns out to be a whole bunch of nothin’!
Back to 1918
I want to go
back to 1918 to cover the government response then. Putting it simply, they
lied. Ostensibly they lied to protect the war effort and boost morale. This
resulted in many more deaths. It’s hard to quantify the numbers. Philadelphia
went ahead and held a parade at the worst possible time. The flu spread like
wildfire. They had so many die that the dead were left in homes and on the
streets for days. The dead were buried in mass graves. Keep in mind that this
flu only had an overall 2% mortality rate.
This isn’t
to alarm people. It should just serve as a reminder that stupidity kills. Inept
leadership kills. Conservatives have been cheering taking government apart.
Well guess what? They took apart and crippled the health care infrastructure
that we needed. President Trump put Vice President Pence in charge. This is a
man that doesn’t believe in evolution. Yes. Really. He doesn’t believe in a lot
of other science as well, like climate change. I would love for someone to ask
him how old he thinks the world is or if he thinks its round or flat. He has
zero experience with dealing with a pandemic. The conservative party line is to
minimize and blame others.
Back to story time
Remember the
story that I was telling about wearing a mask to a meeting? I know that seems
like forever ago at this point. Remember that I said that I took of selfie of
us setting in a pew? Well, I posted that as a comment to another post along
with the joke of having a pew to ourselves. An immediate response was that I
should have stayed home. Really? Should I have? Do people stay home with colds?
Well, they
can if they want to but seeing people or being around people with colds isn’t
really all that unusual. People will go to work with a cold. Hell, people will
go to work really sick. I remember working with guys telling me that they had a
fever of 103 but, “made ’er in!” A week or so later half the crew would be out
sick. For what it’s worth people will go around other people with Covid-19 even
some of those that know they have it. It’s the way we are.
If people
are worried when they see someone with a mask should they leave or ask the
person wearing the mask to leave? These days the latter is kind of risky.
Discretion at times is the better part of valor when it comes to the
possibility of exchanging bodily fluids.
Stupidity kills.
Here is one
idea. In the midst of an infectious disease outbreak avoid large gatherings of
people like rallies. President Trump and Democratic candidates are still
holding rallies! Seriously.
People
should immediately suspend all campaign events and gatherings. No kidding. At
this point we really don’t know who has it and who doesn’t. IF you can, stay
away from gatherings of people. Or you can wait for a quarantine to be
announced. But you’re still going to need sustenance.
Remember Philadelphia.
When it
comes to quarantines the poor and working class in general will be harder hit.
We have 40 million people living in poverty in this country. They can’t afford
to miss work. They’ll go to work sick. The difference is whether they eat or
not, whether they can pay the rent, etc. Being able to stay home and not suffer
financial hardship is a luxury.
While I’m at
the poor can’t afford health insurance so going to the hospital can have
catastrophic financial consequences. Since President Trump has been in office
all that his administration has done is reduce medical insurance coverage to
the poor. He never had a plan for better insurance and neither did the
Republican Party. People will pay for that with their lives.
There are
critical services that have to be provided. Hospitals will be quickly
overwhelmed. Many people with COVID-19 will still require hospitalization even
if they will survive. Health care workers will be hit hard in the first wave. Same
holds true for first responders. May God bless all of them.
We depend
upon our nation’s infrastructure to keep running. We want our utilities to
work. We depend on it. We depend on people being there when we need to buy
groceries or pick up medication. Working
people will do this. They will show up while the rest of us hole up.
You know
what? I’m just going to stop here. There’s a lot more to say about all of this
and where we go from here. But here in the beginning I want to say that I wish
us all well. If there are people that you need to say things to get it said.
Now’s a good time. Perhaps we’ll get lucky and this will blow over.
In the
meantime, Peace be with you.