My mother’s orchidsPeople talk, people say, and although many, if not most read reliable places to get the right information, so many variations of “reliable” info go around, discredit the truth, people act suspicious and perhaps believe some theories and on the long run, they fail to take care of themselves properly.
Reading reliable data from places such as CDC can be tricky. To fully grab the info, one must observe all the little intricacies of the site, so you have an educated guess. Following is one example of that info from the CDC.
CASES AROUND THE WORLD
Confirmed Recovered Deaths
9.63M 4.86M 490K
+167K +5,336
This is the stats for today 6/26/20
What does the number under the total amount is? Today’s added numbers. The interesting part is the difference between confirmed cases and recovered. 9.63 million Confirmed against 4.86 recovered. The question is, where are the missing numbers between one C or the other one R? What does that mean? Got it? Those numbers belong to the hospitalized people plus the people that either had mild symptoms or are asymptomatic but were tested. That means that there is a potential of five million people around the planet that can contaminate others. OK, let’s subtract almost half a million dead people. That number still is very high to take this threat so lightly.
Infectious disease specialists are begging the world to stop going out. OK, either you put food on the table, or you help to reduce the spread. We find a conundrum here, and who wants to attempt to respond?
Scientists have suggested that perhaps the best possible way to go out to wherever, is proper wear of PPE. Proper social distance, not touching the face, and washing the hands thoroughly. I see and hear just a few people around the world are doing precisely the proper part of the safety measure. So, against my inclination, I will be redundant.
Proper wear means, using a clean nose and mouth guard every day. Wearing an acetate face cover may protect the eyes from getting infected; otherwise, goggles are recommended. Proper social distance means no closer than six feet, where people are breathing normally. At the gym, running path, bicycle path, etc. where people breathe more intensely, the distance should be longer. Much longer. No touching the face means your hand will not reach the face area. And washing the hands means with an excellent disinfecting soap, no less than 20 seconds and covering every bit of the hand.
Places that have open some businesses are alarmed because the numbers of infected, hospitalized, and deaths are growing as bad as the initial wave of the spread. That means people, even if only a few, are not following these measures, we are doomed for a long time to come.
Face covers protect the person from getting a little bit of those fluids the body expels while breathing, talking, etc. but as well, protect others from being infected if you are an asymptomatic carrier. Social distance is a second barrier to avoid both cases. Washing the hands is as well another layer of protection. It is not precisely known how long the virus may survive on many types of surfaces. However, it is believed that most at least 3 hours. If you remember crazy people spitting on food shelves, produce, even to people’s faces, it is not a stupid guess that someone probably spits on the handle to open your car’s door. Or the handrail at the escalator, you name it.
The significant risk of this pandemic threat actually is not the virus itself, the painful death, or the suffered survival because it leaves organs damaged, not even the economic fallout that threatens everything else. The real threat is, how long is this going to last? One year? A year and a half? Whether a vaccine is developed or not, the risk of a vaccine as history shows is: vaccines may work on some people, but not everyone. In fact, to perfect a vaccine requires loads of research, and meanwhile, some people may die from the vaccine too.
On the other hand, pulmonary diseases leave a severe scar on the sufferer. Their life will not be as it used to be. Today, researchers still are investigating if survivors and asymptomatic people may suffer the effects of the virus later in life. The fact is we do not know enough, although we may adventure to use unrelated stats from other similar diseases. Covid 19 is a new virus, and we are not catching up with it fast enough to avoid several more millions of deaths. Therefore the least we can do is to cooperate – to make sure the virus does not have any place to go ever!
