This is presumably taken at a Nebraska parking lot. The business is not identified.

 

Must be brilliant leadership at that business.

It bothers me is that we can’t identify them when they show up in the emergency room. They ought to have a face tattoo identifying them as “No Scaredicat” so the emergency room can turn them away and deal with the problem themselves. Must be scared pussies, right?

There are people, actually quite a lot of people, in this country, and in other countries, who still don’t believe that the Corona Virus exists. Our own President Trump seems to still tell people today that the virus was somehow created to “hurt his re-election.” Yes, as of December 7, there are 67 million people all over the world infected by this disease, and 1.5 million have died, of which 283,000, or 17 percent of all of them, died in the United States. – all just to make Trump look bad. That truly is a world-wide conspiracy the likes of which we have never seen before.

There are now nurses who work in intensive care units who say that patients lash out a them because they think Covid does not exist – yet they are dying of it. There are countless people who ridicule others for wearing masks, because they somehow take their “freedom” away. Do they realize that it costs $20,000 on average for a day in the ICU, and if you need a ventilator, which is required for about 36% of ICU occupants, the cost is about $40,000 a day.

I just bought a set of new, high-end cloth masks for $9.95 each. They are very comfortable. Maybe I have impaired my own “freedom,” but I am doing what I can to prevent going to the hospital and owe them a fortune – if I survive.

Denying the reality of this disease is truly bizarre behavior for rational human beings. Fortunately this illness really does follow Darwin’s theory and those that are stupid enough to ignore it are more likely to die and “clean the genepool” for the rest of us.

Can you tell I am exasperated?

My blogger friend salsawordtraveler has posted his thoughts about priority of vaccinations here. He asked for our input.

Here is my list:

1. Medical workers (doctors, nurses, EMT, firemen, ambulance drivers, nursing home staff)
2. Delivery people (Amazon, FedEx, UPS, USPS, all the folks who come to your door)
3. Teachers, childcare workers, the folks taking care of our kids, college professors
4. Airport staff (TSA, counter people, food court people)
5. Airline flying staff
6. Bus drivers, train conductors
7. Grocery store staff (checkers, packers, etc.)
8. Restaurant staff, waiters, cooks, hosts, bartenders
9. Nursing home occupants
10. Anyone over 80
11. Anyone with preexisting conditions
12. Now it’s starting to be my turn…..

The election in the United States has had us all preoccupied for the last week or two. Meanwhile, Covid-19 is raging all over the world. We all thought March and April were bad. Right now it’s much, much worse.

Here are a number of charts I pulled for the industrialized nations that took drastic measures early on and made huge sacrifices throughout the year 2020. Yet, it was all for nothing. The virus is now spreading more than ever before, and more people are dying. We are not even close to getting better. It’s not just an problem in the United States, even though we have the worst numbers, it’s all over the world, as you can see from the charts below.

Please note that they are not to scale. You have to read the number of cases on the Y-axis to get the true scale of each country.

Data Credit: Johns Hopkins University.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I attribute this problem to the time of year. It’s now cold outside in the northern hemisphere, and people can’t be outside anymore. They gather more inside, and we have learned that this virus spreads through aerosols. It all makes sense.

I feel fortunate that in Southern California we happen to live in a warm climate where it’s still over 25 to 30 degrees Celsius outside during the day and we can eat at restaurants outside. Most people in the world are not so lucky.

This pandemic is obviously far from over.

President Trump actually said at a rally yesterday that “Covid affects virtually nobody.”

Tell that to the parents and siblings of Adeline Marie Fagan, a 28-year-old Medical Doctor in her 2nd year of residency, treating COVID patients. She died on September 19th.

From Facebook:

Adeline was doing wonderfully for the last few days. Last night was no different. Around 10:00 we called and got a good report. As we settled down for the night 30 minutes later, the phone rang – Houston, TX. There was a problem and we needed to decide about performing a procedure to relieve the pressure of a massive brain bleed. The nurse came into her room for a routine task and noticed Adeline was not responsive. They immediately rushed her for a CT scan which showed the extent of the damage. The neurosurgeon said it was a “1 in a million” chance she would even survive the procedure, but that Adeline would have several severe cognitive and sensory limitations if she did survive. Of that the doctor was sure. Everyone was crushed by the events, the nurses, the doctors, and, of course, us. The doctor said they have seen this type of event in COVID patients that spend time on ECMO. The vascular system is also compromised by the virus, resulting in bleeds. We spent the remaining minutes hugging, comforting, and talking to Adeline. And then the world stopped…***

Check the GoFundMe page for more details.

Covid affects virtually nobody.

— Donald Trump

 

This is a report from a friend of my daughter in New York City. She is mid-thirties. I have redacted her husband’s name to XXXX for privacy. These are her words:

Back in March XXXX and I were both sick for 2+ weeks each with what is presumed to be Covid-19. While our cases are considered mild (meaning we did not go to the hospital, we were not able to get tested due to extreme shortages, and were advised via telehealth appointments) it was still the scariest time of my life. Taking care of XXXX while the world reeled and the city fell totally silent, riddled with this mystery illness and mounting deaths, was isolating and awful. Although we did not go to the hospital, this was the sickest I had seen XXXX and our symptoms were beyond the kind we are familiar with caring for at home-like recurring circulation issues and chest pain bad enough to wake me up at night.

We have recovered but up until last month, five whole months later (almost half a year!), we continued to have days of extreme fatigue and recurring lung and chest pain. We would walk the dogs or unload the dishwasher and have that pinching feeling in our lungs, like we had just gone for a marathon run. In May we ventured out for a meandering 3 mile walk. We stopping half way to sit down. It was a sunny WARM day and when we got home, we were both so cold and fatigued we began to shiver and had to take long hot showers just to warm up.

Despite clear sinuses, I completely lost my sense of smell at the start of April. It took nearly two months for it to faintly return and even today it’s still not the same. Today I read this article and it was so comforting to know it wasn’t just me. For me the phantom smell is akin to a disgusting, slightly sweet, stale garlic breath. Like a bad practical joke, mint smells like this, as do many cleaning products, laundry detergents, and some foods. I smell it everyday, multiple times a day. For a while I even thought it was me that smelled. Just last week I started to really lose my patience and complained about it to XXXX, telling him it was as though a spectrum of scents have fallen off in my brain and they now register as old garlic breath. I wasn’t totally wrong.

I am thankful this is all we have to report but I worry for those who are hit harder and I try not to think too much about the unknowns, such as any future health complications that may surface as a result….

It is possible to find comfort in uniting against this and doing the right thing by others. The virus is real. It’s worse than the flu. I know it’s hard and we are all suffering from fatigue (or much much worse) but please wear a mask, practice caution, and be mindful.

And this is why I remain in quarantine.