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Coronavirus

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Twoapenny:
I went to visit my sister earlier in the week.  Numbers where she and I live are pretty low and the kids were starting back to school this week, so we thought we'd try to get a meet up in before they all went back, in case the numbers shot up when that happened.  We had a really lovely time and I'm very glad we did it when we did as she's just messaged me to say they've already shut down two year groups and they only started going back Monday, on a staggered timetable (this isn't at a school her kids attend but one nearby).  Positive test results have risen very sharply over the last couple of weeks, much of it being attributed to people going away on holiday and bringing it back with them.  I'm kind of just avoiding all but unavoidable news about it now.  In all honesty the way governments, the media and many people have behaved just makes me feel that there's no hope for the human race so I'm concentrating on just doing my thing and not fussing about what anyone else is doing anymore.  That feels healthier to me just now.  We had zero cases across the county last week in July - first week in September we have 53.  It's not a huge number compared to many other parts of the country but it's bigger than zero.  Zero makes me happy.  It just feels like a kick in the teeth for all the people who've worked hard all the way through, whether by staying home or by continuing their jobs in shops, hospitals, bin collection and so on.  All that hard work undone.  We're lucky that our only outdoor things are either walking in open spaces or places where precautions are being taken and are easy to follow so we'll stick with that.

Hopalong:
Hey Amber,

YOU'RE well grounded in reality, I know! But just in case you run across other misinterpretations like that on forums or social media and you want to boost the dialogue, this is a really helpful site:

https://www.factcheck.org/2020/05/cdc-hasnt-reduced-covid-19-death-toll/

May fall on deaf ears, of course, since most of us have them stuffed with politics these days (Note to self....). It is frustrating how politicized the pandemic has become. Tragic and deadly.

One reason I fixate on sources was when I worked for Prevention Health Books we were trained for months in proper sourcing about health claims. (Interesting, because when the company began they published a lot of uncritical, unstudied claims --"drink this herb tea to cure....275 different ailments" -- "everything alternative is better for you than everything conventional/Western" --etc.). But years ago they smartened up and made every single article or book chapter science- and evidence-based. It was a requirement and they took it very seriously. We interviewed loads of top-level researchers, doctors, credentialed health experts and footnoted every single declarative statement about anything we recommended you should put IN your body or do WITH your body, for health. Natural and alternative were fine, but even without Western-standard evidence, we were willing to add it in if something was known to be safe, even if the mechanisms weren't well understood (like acupuncture). If something was merely opinion or anecdotal, but known to be safe, we made clear with the language that it wasn't rigorously proven though it MIGHT or MAY be beneficial.

I ate it up. I loved the responsibility of using language that way, and believing with the books that we were helping people (as well as making profit).

hugs
Hops

Twoapenny:
Well numbers are rising very rapidly here again now, not so much in the part of the country I'm in but other areas are really being hammered.  It is apparently back in the care homes, having been almost completely eradicated there, and schools are closing as quickly as they re-open.  Hospitals have apparently been told to prepare for a steep rise in admissions over the next few weeks and winter is around the corner.  I'm hoping it's a bit of a blip and it will settle down again but we are getting ready to settle in for a long winter, in all honesty.  I'm just keeping my fingers crossed it doesn't get too bad again.

Hopalong:
Fingers, toes and all hairs crossed here too.

Steady marching rise in cases, hospitalizations and fatalities. We're a multi-cultural huge-university/small city surrounded by very rural communities, so you can imagine the difference between mask-wearing in town and outside it. AND, because we don't have enough jobs for rural areas, a huge percentage of city jobs are filled by county residents. So we're entirely intermingled as a district.

I am anxious about the housecleaner I hired, who comes once a month. It's a big relief but also a concern. She agreed to wear a mask but I vacate while she works (and she had her mask below her nose when I met her...more than once). I can't promise myself she'll wear it the whole time though I hope trusting her is okay (feels like putting my life in a stranger's hands). I know nothing about her household but she seems neither hostile nor serious about masks. My doctor said to stay out for two hours AFTER she leaves, to give the micro-droplet plumes time to settle...he said they linger in the air for hours. So the challenge of where to go during winter is afoot. Worked out fine for her two visits so far but I'm doubtful.

I may give up and stay in my bedroom for six hours, asking her to do that room and the bathroom first. When I wander around town in my car, I have only a friend's backyard for peeing, which she's fine with. Easy in summer but winter would be weird. It's hard to plan this right without a pod!

Maybe M and I will be mellow enough that I can spend one day a month over there. Or a new friend or existing friend with fierce virus vigilance would be open to it too. There will be an answer.

hugs
Hops
PS--ordered more disposable masks and will leave a fresh one out for her each time. She might be wearing (poorly) the same one over and over which would also defeat the point.

Twoapenny:
That is difficult, Hops, and it is my concern about mingling with people.  I was fine with my sister as she's been shielding all this time as well so low risk, but other friends have wanted to get together and they're not shielding (in fact the opposite, out more than I would be even without a pandemic lol).  So being with them concerns me more.  That is hard for you, six hours is a long time to fill up, especially once it gets cold so a bedroom day does sound the most logical way to deal with it.  I did read a good article today that there are thoughts by researchers that mask wearing is making the viral load weaker, so people are catching it but not getting so ill from it (which is what they think might be happening here, case numbers are up but the death rate is much lower).  No comfort to anyone who gets it, obviously, but I would hope more evidence that masks are making a difference would make more people wear them (although I suspect many would claim any claims made were fabricated so perhaps not!).  It is a worry although I'm trying not to - we're doing all we can and we're lucky in our area that most people seem to be doing the same.  I hope things settle down in your area soon, are the universities all open again now? xx

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