You don’t need to wear mask at all times. Only wear it in crowded places where you may run into other people.
the Trump administration has ruled that gun shops are considered essential businesses that should remain open as other businesses are closed to try to stop the spread of coronavirus, AP reports.
Gun control groups called it a move to put profits over public health.
After days of lobbying by the National Rifle Association, the National Shooting Sports Foundation and other gun groups, the Department of Homeland Security this past weekend issued an advisory declaring that firearms dealers should be considered essential services just like grocery stores, pharmacies and hospitals and allowed to remain open.
The agency said its ruling was not a mandate but merely guidance for cities, towns and states as they weigh how to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.
In recent weeks, firearm sales have skyrocketed. Background checks the key barometer of gun sales already were at record numbers in January and February, likely fueled by a presidential election year. Since the coronavirus outbreak, gun shops have reported long lines and runs on firearms and ammunition.
Background checks were up 300% on March 16, compared with the same date a year ago, according to federal data shared with the NSSF, which represents gunmakers. Since Feb. 23, each day has seen roughly double the volume over 2019, according to Mark Oliva, spokesman for the group. (Guardian)
Trump accused of using coronavirus briefing as corporate advertising spot
Donald Trump was accused on Monday of turning his daily White House coronavirus briefing into an advertising spot for corporate allies, even as the number of US cases topped 160,000.
The US president paraded several company leaders in the White House Rose Garden, starting with Mike Lindell, the chief executive of MyPillow, who has become a regular cheerleader for Trump at his campaign rallies.
Trump praised companies for doing their “patriotic duty” by producing or donating medical equipment to meet America’s most urgent needs. “What they’re doing is incredible,” he said. “These are great companies.”
He went on to invite Lindell, Darius Adamczyk of Honeywell, Debra Waller of Jockey International, David Taylor of Procter & Gamble and Greg Hayes of United Technologies to make short speeches. He introduced Lindell as a “friend” and riffed: “Boy, do you sell those pillows, it’s unbelievable what you do.”
Lindell then stood at the presidential podium and said his company has dedicated 75% of its manufacturing to producing cotton face masks.
Then, in a bizarre gear change, Lindell went into campaign rally mode and referenced the date of Trump’s election. “God gave us grace on November 8, 2016, to change the course we were on,” he said. “God had been taken out of our schools and lives, a nation had turned its back on God.”
“I encourage you to use this time at home to get back in the word, read our Bibles and spend time with our families.”
Trump told reporters: “I did not know he was going to do that, but he’s a friend of mine and I do appreciate it. Thank you, Mike.” (Guardian)
Do watch the video. The idea of the mask is to make people AROUND you safe. The idea is that by wearing a mask, you are not the one spreading germs around.
The idea behind the video is “Your mask protects me. My mask protects you.”
Look at the daily cases here. People there have curfew, schools are closed, … but people go to work.
@thebigchef Is Westchester County where that lawyer who fell ill lived? I believe they did a lot of contact tracing there and tested people who had mild cases/were asymptomatic. I think it was over 100 families from the synagogue he attended that were connected to him, which likely included a lot of children. That all may have skewed the death rate in comparison to NYC, where people are only getting tested at the hospital.
In Colombia, the police have come up with a novel way to dissuade people from leaving their homes.
An empty coffin, decorated with flowers and a the word “Coronavirus” in gold lettering, driven around in a hearse. (Guardian)
Here’s a video of the last 4 minutes or so.
Couldn’t we wear washable fabric ones? I’ve worn one that I made each time I’ve gone shopping (only twice so far in the quarantine) and washed after each time in the laundry and it’s fine.
And grocery stores are putting up sneeze/cough barriers at each check stand as fast as they can. Problem solved.
Michigan gov to cancel school for rest of the year. Seniors graduate and students move up to next grade. With some exceptions I assume.
Did you read about that choir in Washington State? We know there is asymptomatic spread. How close do people have to be for this to happen? We don’t know that.
That was funny! Somehow DH didn’t know before this that they were brothers.
Whatever happened to all the thread support for ‘let the medical experts decide’?
Both the US Public Health Service and W.H.O. say no masks necessary. Are the mask-ers suggesting that they have no humanity? Don’t want to save additional lives?
I would wear one in places that might not presently be crowded but had recently had people since the virus might be able to hang in the air 3 hours.
Problem helped, not solved.
Forgot to include the link
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2020_coronavirus_pandemic_in_the_Czech_Republic
COMMENTARY: COVID-19 transmission messages should hinge on science (from U Minn)
Short-range aerosol transmission is also a strong possibility. Taking lessons from the little we already know about COVID-19 as well as influenza, SARS, and MERS, all of which show many similarities to COVID-19, the precautionary approach suggests that we focus on preventing short-range aerosol transmission in both public and healthcare settings.
In the face of supply shortages, the CDC last week changed its recommendations to allow the use of medical masks instead of respirators, saving the latter for aerosol-generating procedures.1 Healthcare organizations must return to using respirators for confirmed and suspected COVID-19 patients when supply chain problems are resolved.
What the public can do
The public should avoid crowded spaces, stay home when possible, prepare for a lengthy period at home in case of quarantine, and follow public health and government instructions.
Mixed messages about COVID-19 transmission
To date there is no direct research-based evidence describing exactly how SARS-CoV-2 is transmitted. Many sources say that COVID-19 is transmitted only by droplets and contact, but guidance from leading public health groups on transmission routes are inconsistent and conflicting.
(Droplet transmission is usually defined as "respiratory droplets carrying infectious pathogens [that] transmit infection when they travel directly from the respiratory tract of the infectious individual to susceptible mucosal surfaces of the recipient, generally over short distances, necessitating facial protection."3 Close contact involves hand transfer of surface contamination to mouth, nose or eyes, hand washing and gloves being common controls.)
The WHO says, "Based on the available evidence, the COVID-19 virus is transmitted between people through close contact and droplets, not by airborne transmission."4 The WHO derived its COVID-19 guidance from its MERS guidance,5 China’s experience with COVID-19, and WHO experience with SARS and MERS.6
(Airborne transmission is defined as "dissemination of either airborne droplet nuclei or small particles in the respirable size range containing infectious agents that remain infective over time and distance."7 An important requirement of airborne transmission is that it can occur only at a long distance from the source, according to the CDC.8)
In risk communication guidelines for healthcare, however, the WHO states, “COVID-19 appears to spread most easily through close contact with an infected person. When someone who has COVID-19 coughs or sneezes, small droplets are released and, if you are too close, you can breathe in the virus” (emphasis added).9 But wait: Inhalation is not part of the traditional definition of droplet transmission.
For healthcare organizations, the CDC recommends airborne, in addition to standard (contact) and droplet precautions, for the care of COVID-19 suspected or confirmed patients.10
For the general public, the CDC describes SARS-CoV-2 transmission as primarily by droplets from coughs or sneezes, which “land in the mouths or noses of people who are nearby or possibly inhaled into the lungs” (emphasis added).11 But, again, inhalation is a new addition to the traditional definition of droplets. In contrast to its recommendations for healthcare, the CDC makes no mention of airborne transmission in public settings.
The CDC admits some possibility that COVID-19 may be transferred by hands to mouth, nose, or eyes from contaminated surfaces, but notes that "this is not thought to be the main way the virus spreads."11
The Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, which has dealt with by far more COVID-19 cases than any other agency, says that COVID-19 transmission occurs primarily by respiratory droplets and close contact, with the "possibility of aerosol transmission in a relatively closed environment for a long time exposure to high concentrations of aerosols."12
I heard even before that choir that choral groups for some reason have higher droplet/exposure of spreading viruses.
Part 2
Based on research now more than 70 years out of date, the infection control paradigm of contact, droplet, and airborne transmission fails to recognize inhalation of small airborne particles very close to an infectious source—ie, within 6 feet.13
Some everyday examples might help for illustration. Have you ever seen dust particles traveling through the air in a beam of light? Some of these eventually deposit on surfaces, but many remain airborne for long periods. Have you ever used hairspray or aerosolized cooking oil? Many of those droplets remain airborne nearby as you inhale particles and smell hairspray and cooking oil for several minutes.
The same thing happens when someone coughs or sneezes. Talking, breathing, coughing, and sneezing create an aerosol (a suspension of particles in the air) containing particles in a range of sizes, with viable infectious organisms present in both small and large particles.14-20
Infectious aerosols are inhalable
Contrary to popular belief, the larger particles (5 to 15 micrometers [µm]) will not immediately drop to the ground but will remain airborne for several minutes. Smaller particles (less than 5 µm) will remain in the air for many minutes or even hours.
All particles will immediately begin to evaporate (mucus contains a lot of water), which means the range of particle sizes will decrease overall. Smaller particles are more affected by diffusion than gravity, thus making them more likely to remain airborne. In the absence of air currents, airborne particles will disperse slowly throughout a space (see the figures below).
Figure 3. After more time (time = 2), the small particles are uniformly dispersed and more of the larger particles have settled from the air. Persons B and C will inhale particles that are generally smaller, have a smaller size range, and are at a lower concentration than at time = 0.
ll of the particle sizes in a typical cough or sneeze aerosol are inhalable. The larger particles will deposit in the nose, while smaller particles deposit in the lungs, where cell receptors for many infectious respiratory viruses are typically located.
Likelihood of infection from close-range aerosols
Higher doses of infectious particles are more likely to result in infection and disease. Healthcare workers, whose work brings them close to more people with more severe symptoms in relatively enclosed spaces, are at more risk than the general public at being exposed to a dose of infectious particles that could lead to infection.
The Wuhan, China, experience supports the likelihood of close-range aerosol transmission. After initially receiving and treating COVID-19 patients in the existing healthcare system and experiencing healthcare worker infections, China deployed a tiered hospital model very similar to that used for Ebola patients in the United States.21 Patients with critical or severe symptoms were moved into designated wards or hospitals while those with mild symptoms were cohorted in temporary hospitals in repurposed buildings. Healthcare workers wore full protection, including a gown, head-covering, N95 filtering facepiece respirators, eye protection, and gloves.22
A recent non-peer-reviewed report from Germany supports aerosol transmission of COVID-19 at close range.23 (ref Woelfel et al, 2020). Throat and nasal swabs from nine patients in Germany with mild symptoms found virus RNA in upper respiratory system tissues, with the highest amounts of virus shedding in the first 5 days as symptoms were developing. Live virus was found in 17% of swab samples and 83% of sputum samples in the first week but not after day 8. Different genotypes found in a paired throat swab and sputum sample from one patient suggest that replication may occur in the throat independently from the lung. These findings differ from sampling in SARS patients, in whom nasal swabs were much less likely to be positive, live virus isolation from throat swabs was very rare, viral loads were 1,000 times lower, and build-up took 7 to 10 days after symptom onset. All urine and blood samples in the German patients were negative.
Droplet transmission likely less important than thought
Droplet transmission is probably much less important for most respiratory infectious diseases than is short-range aerosol transmission by inhalation. Aerosol particles are not all large, and they do not all immediately fall to the ground. It is rare for coughs or sneezes to be propelled into nearby mouths or noses. The eyes, however, may be a portal of entry for some infectious organisms, such as influenza viruses.26,27
Viability in air
A very recent study found that SARS-CoV-2 aerosols remain viable for up to 3 hours,32, which is similar to the viability of SARS-CoV in air33 and MERS-CoV.34,35 This is adequate time for exposure, inhalation, and infection to occur both near and far from a source.
To think we would attack a fellow poster about their “humanity”.
We continue to blow away any sense of norms and decorum around this being a welcoming place.
You guys have no idea what a nice, warm and caring person that poster is in real life. Terrific dad and always available to help students and parents.
He is also entitled to an opinion. We can disagree without such vitriol.
And to think several others hit the like and agree button. Nice.
Wonder why I’m still surprised people fight over bread at Walmart.
Or some 32 year old self righteous maniac knocks over an 82 year old woman using a walker for not following social distancing rules in the hospital. The woman died.
I guess humanity has left the building here on this thread too.
In the middle of a national crisis a little kindness can go a long way.
If grocery stores are indeed putting up sneeze/cough barriers at each check stand as fast as they can, then that would seem to indicate that all the other workers–the ones who are in the store but not at the check stand–might also benefit from sort of protective gear…something portable and easy to wear, something like, hear me out…a face mask?
Something about this - and really the whole coronavirus panic - reminds me of the famous C.S. Lewis quote:
“Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron’s cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.”