The Virus

[Scrawler]

Mad cow disease. We didn't just let that go on. Ya know?

I am still not donating blood because of it

[Chrissy]

Mad cow disease. We didn't just let that go on. Ya know?

I am still not donating blood because of it

You're perfectly safe with letting them take yours.

[Scrawler]

Mad cow disease. We didn't just let that go on. Ya know?

I am still not donating blood because of it

You're perfectly safe with letting them take yours.

That is not what the Canadian Blood Agency says.

[Deb]

There is no perfect safety anywhere that there are other people. I am very aware that people are infectious for some time before they show symptoms.

[DaveBj]

Mad cow disease. We didn't just let that go on. Ya know?

I am still not donating blood because of it

I read just today that the CDC has lifted that restriction, either yesterday or today. I have not yet confirmed it, but if I am able to, I will come back here and say so.

[Scrawler]

Mad cow disease. We didn't just let that go on. Ya know?

I am still not donating blood because of it

I read just today that the CDC has lifted that restriction, either yesterday or today. I have not yet confirmed it, but if I am able to, I will come back here and say so.

Thank you, that is interesting to know. I will check if this has filtered to the Canadian Blood Agency.

[DaveBj]

There is a new memo issued today by the CDC, but the conditions are unchanged as far as Mad Cow is concerned. People who were in the UK for a total of 3 or 4 (don't remember exactly) months from the mid-1980s to the mid-1990s are still excluded from donating. I was posted there for 4 years.

In other news, Alabama is now under a stay-at-home order starting tomorrow at 1700. Conditions are basically the same as those that we personally have been living under for the past four weeks; no change in our lives there. What may be a change is that our Walmart is now limiting occupancy to a percentage (20% or 40%, depending on which report one reads) of the total allowed occupancy. That, combined with the stay-at-home order, may trigger a stampede tomorrow, which is my usual shopping day.

[85AKbN]

University of Pittsburgh scientists believe they’ve found potential coronavirus vaccine 4-2-20 [ nypost.com ]

Pitt Scientists Develop Potential COVID-19 Vaccine 4-2-20 [ pittsburghmagazine.com ]

[Lady Onogaro]

There is a new memo issued today by the CDC, but the conditions are unchanged as far as Mad Cow is concerned. People who were in the UK for a total of 3 or 4 (don't remember exactly) months from the mid-1980s to the mid-1990s are still excluded from donating. I was posted there for 4 years.

In other news, Alabama is now under a stay-at-home order starting tomorrow at 1700. Conditions are basically the same as those that we personally have been living under for the past four weeks; no change in our lives there. What may be a change is that our Walmart is now limiting occupancy to a percentage (20% or 40%, depending on which report one reads) of the total allowed occupancy. That, combined with the stay-at-home order, may trigger a stampede tomorrow, which is my usual shopping day.

The stores here are now limiting the number of people who come in, thank goodness. But you can see that families are still using them for their daily outings. I just don't think folks know what to do with their free time except to watch TV or shop. Now that the malls are closed, they seek out any store that has a variety of products. For sure I would not be bringing my small children and babies to any stores right now, but I see them out at the grocery and Lowe's even today. I know what sometimes you can't leave the kiddos by themselves, but at those times, I just feel it is prudent to shop at times when you would not have to bring them along. And of course, the number of families in the stores means the number of people that can't go in the store.

[VertOlive]

It has gone so weird here. All the people off work are inundating the malls and stores, despite the local judge issuing a stay at home order with attached penalties. Kids everywhere. There is just no way to police this massive outpouring of idle people in the streets and shops and beaches. No more attempts at any kind of distancing now. This is in the city of Corpus Christi proper on the mainland. On the Island, we're buttoned up tight and people are still distancing.

The governor has issued an executive order proclaiming that churches must now be open as of March 30. I've no idea what the other denominations are doing, but the Bishop's office replies to phone inquiries as to what's going on with a brief "No comment at this time, click". So for Easter Week, it appears the Diocese is closed. But the city is wide open.

[welch]

Very quiet in Manhattan. I had to go down to Morningside Heights (Columbia University area) tyo pick up prescriptions last night from a 24-hour Walgreen's / Duane Reade. Empty, eerily empty. One or two people each block, all wearing masks. Walgreens has spacing marked off, although at 9 or 10pm, almost no one in the store. One pharmacist, one person working the counter. One guy picking up medications. He and Iwere wearing masks. The two pharmacy people were joking about a huge water bug they had seen. "We don't have anything like that in New Jersey!" I saw a subway pass the 125th Street overpass, saw a south-bound commuter train rush by.

Strange.

[Kaputnik]

I get Emails from the town where I work, quoting COVID-19 statistics for the three nearest towns. 10 confirmed cases in my town of just under 10,000 people, 19 in the next town over out of just under 20,000. No deaths here that I've heard of, but 5276 cases in Connecticut and 165 deaths state wide. So I'm taking it quite seriously.

But it was a pleasant day today, in the low 60s, and I went for a walk after work in my shirtsleeves for the first time this year. The sunny Saturday had tempted more people out of doors, but the little park and the town sidewalks where I walk were still lightly enough peopled that it was easy to keep that 6 foot or more distance. If the sidewalks do get crowded, there are other possibilities.

I haven't been to the store this week, but I will need to pick up some fresh fruit and vegetables in a few days. Haven't had much luck finding face masks that seem trustworthy. I've found instructions for making your own, and plan to try that before my next trip to the grocery.

Various other personal concerns, but scanning the news makes them seem relatively unimportant. Assuming that I'm around to see it, it will be quite interesting to see the long term effects of this, once this particular virus is history.

[Chrissy]

It has gone so weird here. All the people off work are inundating the malls and stores, despite the local judge issuing a stay at home order with attached penalties. Kids everywhere. There is just no way to police this massive outpouring of idle people in the streets and shops and beaches. No more attempts at any kind of distancing now. This is in the city of Corpus Christi proper on the mainland. On the Island, we're buttoned up tight and people are still distancing.

The governor has issued an executive order proclaiming that churches must now be open as of March 30. I've no idea what the other denominations are doing, but the Bishop's office replies to phone inquiries as to what's going on with a brief "No comment at this time, click". So for Easter Week, it appears the Diocese is closed. But the city is wide open.

This is very sad news. Current worldwide experience has shown this behaviour will merely spread the virus more quickly to more people. I hope the city has plenty of healthcare that can cope with the influx of cases before it sorts out where it's gone wrong.

[Pterodactylus]

It has gone so weird here. All the people off work are inundating the malls and stores, despite the local judge issuing a stay at home order with attached penalties. Kids everywhere. There is just no way to police this massive outpouring of idle people in the streets and shops and beaches. No more attempts at any kind of distancing now. This is in the city of Corpus Christi proper on the mainland. On the Island, we're buttoned up tight and people are still distancing.

The governor has issued an executive order proclaiming that churches must now be open as of March 30. I've no idea what the other denominations are doing, but the Bishop's office replies to phone inquiries as to what's going on with a brief "No comment at this time, click". So for Easter Week, it appears the Diocese is closed. But the city is wide open.

It seems you changed your mind......

What about “....we are adults and can do whatever we like...”


What about:

....

Here where we are they have not shut down, I assume you’re referring to Europe. The crucial point here is whether the virus is any worse than any other and whether or not this widespread overreaction is necessary. You think yes, I think no.

...... unfortunately I think (and also said it before) every country which did not took drastic and strict countermeasures will have to pay a very high price.....

And the US is hot spot number 1, already surpassed Italy, Spain, France, UK, ... by far.

You can thank your famous president.

How many people in the US you have currently without health insurance? ... wasn’t it about 27 millions?


Here In Austria we go into the 4th week of almost complete shut down (began when we had only a handful of infections) and measures seem to work.
It already costs a immense amount of money, the economy is massively suffering, many people lost at least temporarily their jobs and we will have to pay the economical bill at least for several years.
But I’m fine with this, itˋs mainly only money.

Here is the current statistic for Austria:

[Deb]

I think you could ease up on VertOlive, Pterodactylus. There's no need for that.

13 residents have died in a care home in Glasgow. Something horribly wrong there. Old people in homes must feel terribly trapped in this situation. My mother is in a care home in the US and they are in total lockdown as two workers there have the virus. She has not seen another person for more than a week and it is getting to her.

Here in my little town in the far north of Scotland, all is very quiet. Most of the cars parked across the road have barely moved in weeks. Occasionally people will pass by with their dogs or out on their bicycles. People seem to be doing what they should though I don't know what it's like in the town centre where there is likely to be more activity than in my quiet residential street. I had to shop on Thursday this week. It was thankfully quiet and the shelves were well stocked apart from toilet roll, pasta and, strangely enough, baking soda and rosemary. What delicacy are people making?

We would love to shut the door and stay in until this crisis is over, but my husband has to go to dialysis three times a week. He is in the highest risk category, with kidney failure, bronchiectasis and COPD. Of course staff at the hospital are as careful as it is possible for them to be, but people can be infectious before they are symptomatic. We have a few masks but he thinks it would be difficult to wear a mask for the four hours of his dialysis. It may come to that.

It's bright, sunny and breezy. There are weeds out there that demand my attention and I have four little shrubs to plant.

[ethernautrix]

Olga Tokarczuk, Polish author, wrote this (translation in the next post):
Olga Tokarczuk:

„Okno
Z mojego okna widzę białą morwę, drzewo, które mnie fascynuje i było jednym z powodów, dlaczego tu zamieszkałam. Morwa jest hojną rośliną - całą wiosnę i całe lato karmi dziesiątki ptasich rodzin swoimi słodkimi i zdrowymi owocami. Teraz jednak morwa nie ma liści, widzę więc kawałek cichej ulicy, po której rzadko ktoś przechodzi, idąc w kierunku parku. Pogoda we Wrocławiu jest prawie letnia, świeci oślepiające słońce, niebo jest błękitne, a powietrze czyste. Dziś podczas spaceru z psem, widziałam jak dwie sroki przeganiały od swojego gniazda sowę. Spojrzałyśmy sobie z sową w oczy z odległości zaledwie metra.
Mam wrażenie, że zwierzęta też czekają na to, co się wydarzy.
Dla mnie już od dłuższego czasu świata było za dużo. Za dużo, za szybko, za głośno.
Nie mam więc „traumy odosobnienia” i nie cierpię z tego powodu, że nie spotykam się z ludźmi. Nie żałuję, że zamknęli kina, jest mi obojętne, że nieczynne są galerie handlowe. Martwię się tylko, kiedy pomyślę o tych wszystkich, którzy stracili pracę. Kiedy dowiedziałam się o zapobiegawczej kwarantannie, poczułam coś w rodzaju ulgi i wiem, że wielu ludzi czuje podobnie, choć się tego wstydzi. Moja introwersja długo zduszana i maltretowana dyktatem nadaktywnych ekstrawertów, otrzepała się i wyszła z szafy.
Patrzę przez okno na sąsiada, zapracowanego prawnika, którego jeszcze niedawno widywałam, jak wyjeżdżał rano do sądu z togą przewieszoną przez ramię. Teraz w workowatym dresie walczy z gałęzią w ogródku, chyba wziął się za porządki. Widzę parę młodych ludzi, jak wyprowadzają starego psa, który od ostatniej zimy ledwie chodzi. Pies chwieje się na nogach, a oni cierpliwie mu towarzyszą, idąc najwolniejszym krokiem. Śmieciarka z wielkim hałasem odbiera śmieci.
Życie toczy się, a jakże, ale w zupełnie innym rytmie. Zrobiłam porządek w szafie i wyniosłam przeczytane gazety do pojemnika na papier. Przesadziłam kwiaty. Odebrałam rower z naprawy. Przyjemność sprawia mi gotowanie.
Uporczywie wracają do mnie obrazy z dzieciństwa, kiedy było dużo więcej czasu i można było go „marnować”, godzinami gapiąc się przez okno, obserwując mrówki, leżąc pod stołem i wyobrażając sobie, że to jest arka. Albo czytając encyklopedię.
Czy aby nie jest tak, że wróciliśmy do normalnego rytmu życia? Że to nie wirus jest zaburzeniem normy, ale właśnie odwrotnie – tamten hektyczny świat przed wirusem był nienormalny?
Wirus przypomniał nam przecież to, co tak namiętnie wypieraliśmy - że jesteśmy kruchymi istotami, zbudowanymi z najdelikatniejszej materii. Że umieramy, że jesteśmy śmiertelni.
Że nie jesteśmy oddzieleni od świata swoim „człowieczeństwem” i wyjątkowością, ale świat jest rodzajem wielkiej sieci, w której tkwimy, połączeni z innymi bytami niewidzialnymi nićmi zależności i wpływów. Że jesteśmy zależni od siebie i bez względu na to, z jak dalekich krajów pochodzimy, jakim językiem mówimy i jaki jest kolor naszej skóry, tak samo zapadamy na choroby, tak samo boimy się i tak samo umieramy.
Uświadomił nam, że bez względu na to, jak bardzo czujemy się słabi i bezbronni wobec zagrożenia, są wokół nas ludzie, którzy są jeszcze słabsi i potrzebują pomocy. Przypomniał, jak delikatni są nasi starzy rodzice i dziadkowie i jak bardzo należy im się nasza opieka.
Pokazał nam, że nasza gorączkowa ruchliwość zagraża światu. I przywołał to samo pytanie, które rzadko mieliśmy odwagę sobie zadać: Czego właściwie szukamy?
Lęk przed chorobą zawrócił więc nas z zapętlonej drogi i z konieczności przypomniał o istnieniu gniazd, z których pochodzimy i w których czujemy się bezpiecznie. I nawet gdyśmy byli, nie wiem jak wielkimi podróżnikami, to w sytuacji takiej, jak ta, zawsze będziemy przeć do jakiegoś domu.
Tym samym objawiły się nam smutne prawdy – że w chwili zagrożenia wraca myślenie w zamykających i wykluczających kategoriach narodów i granic. W tym trudnym momencie okazało się, jak słaba w praktyce jest idea wspólnoty europejskiej. Unia właściwie oddała mecz walkowerem, przekazując decyzje w czasach kryzysu państwom narodowym. Zamknięcie granic państwowych uważam za największą porażkę tego marnego czasu – wróciły stare egoizmy i kategorie „swoi” i „obcy”, czyli to, co przez ostatnie lata zwalczaliśmy z nadzieją, że nigdy więcej nie będzie formatowało nam umysłów. Lęk przed wirusem przywołał automatycznie najprostsze atawistyczne przekonanie, że winni są jacyś obcy i to oni zawsze skądś przynoszą zagrożenie. W Europie wirus jest „skądś”, nie jest nasz, jest obcy. W Polsce podejrzani stali się wszyscy ci, którzy wracają z zagranicy.
Fala zatrzaskiwanych granic, monstrualne kolejki na przejściach granicznych dla wielu młodych ludzi były zapewne szokiem. Wirus przypomina: granice istnieją i mają się dobrze.
Obawiam się też, że wirus szybko przypomni nam jeszcze inną starą prawdę, jak bardzo nie jesteśmy sobie równi. Jedni z nas wylecą prywatnymi samolotami do domu na wyspie lub w leśnym odosobnieniu, a inni zostaną w miastach, żeby obsługiwać elektrownie i wodociągi. Jeszcze inni będą ryzykować zdrowie, pracując w sklepach i szpitalach. Jedni dorobią się na epidemii, inni stracą dorobek swojego życia. Kryzys, jaki nadchodzi, zapewne podważy te zasady, które wydawały się nam stabilne; wiele państw nie poradzi sobie z nim i w obliczu ich dekompozycji obudzą się nowe porządki, jak to często bywa po kryzysach. Siedzimy w domu, czytamy książki i oglądamy seriale, ale w rzeczywistości przygotowujemy się do wielkiej bitwy o nową rzeczywistość, której nie potrafimy sobie nawet wyobrazić, powoli rozumiejąc, że nic już nie będzie takie samo, jak przedtem. Sytuacja przymusowej kwarantanny i skoszarowania rodziny w domu może uświadomić nam to, do czego wcale nie chcielibyśmy się przyznać: że rodzina nas męczy, że więzi małżeńskie dawno już zetlały. Nasze dzieci wyjdą z kwarantanny uzależnione od internetu, a wielu z nas uświadomi sobie bezsens i jałowość sytuacji, w której mechanicznie i siłą inercji tkwi. A co, jeśli wzrośnie nam liczba zabójstw, samobójstw i chorób psychicznych?
Na naszych oczach rozwiewa się jak dym paradygmat cywilizacyjny, który nas kształtował przez ostatnie dwieście lat: że jesteśmy panami stworzenia, możemy wszystko i świat należy do nas.
Nadchodzą nowe czasy.”

[ethernautrix]

Google translation ( note that "virus" is a masculine noun, and so it's "personal pronoun" is he):

ETA: I read about half and the last paragraph and rushed to share. I'm not sure I agree about borders. A wall is a border between neighbors in an apartment building, and I prefer my autonomy. But extrapolating that out... That wasn't what moved me about Tokarczuk's essay. Everything but that part (about which I'll want to contemplate further). Also, I don't want to get sucked into blaming. Plenty of time to review once we are on the other side of this emergency.


Olga Tokarczuk:

Window
From my window I can see a white mulberry, a tree that fascinates me and was one of the reasons why I lived here. Mulberry is a generous plant - it feeds dozens of bird families with its sweet and healthy fruit throughout the spring and summer. Now, however, the mulberry has no leaves, so I see a piece of a quiet street, which is rarely crossed by anyone walking towards the park. The weather in Wroclaw is almost summer, the sun is shining, the sky is blue and the air is clean. Today while walking the dog, I saw two magpies chasing an owl from their nest. We looked into the eyes of the owl from a distance of only a meter.
I have the impression that animals are also waiting for what will happen.
For me, the world has been too much for a long time. Too much, too fast, too loud.
So I don't have the "trauma of seclusion" and I don't suffer because I don't meet people. I don't regret closing the cinemas, I don't care that shopping malls are closed. I only worry when I think of all those who lost their jobs. When I found out about preventative quarantine, I felt a kind of relief and I know that many people feel the same, though they are ashamed. My introversion, long strangled and abused by the dictate of overactive extroverts, brushed off and left the closet.
I look out the window at my neighbor, a busy lawyer whom I had seen recently when he was leaving the court in the morning with his gown slung over his shoulder. Now in a baggy sweat suit he is fighting a branch in the backyard, he seems to be cleaning up. I can see a couple of young people walking an old dog who has barely walked since last winter. The dog shakes on its feet, and they patiently accompany it, walking slowly. The garbage truck receives garbage with a great noise.
Life goes on, and how, but in a completely different rhythm. I cleaned up the closet and took the newspapers read to the paper container. I replanted flowers. I picked up the bike from repair. I enjoy cooking.
Childhood images persistently come back to me, when there was a lot more time and could be "wasted", staring out the window for hours, watching ants, lying under the table and imagining that this is the ark. Or reading the encyclopedia.
Is it not so that we have returned to the normal rhythm of life? That the virus is not a disorder of the norm, but just the opposite - that hectic world before the virus was abnormal?
After all, the virus reminded us of what we denied so passionately - that we are fragile creatures, made of the most delicate matter. That we are dying, that we are mortal.
That we are not separated from the world by our "humanity" and uniqueness, but that the world is a kind of a great network in which we are stuck, connected to other entities with invisible threads of dependence and influence. That we depend on each other and no matter how far we come from, what language we speak and what the color of our skin is, we get sick the same way, we are just as afraid and we die the same.
He made us realize that no matter how weak or vulnerable we feel, there are people around us who are even weaker and need help. He reminded us how delicate our old parents and grandparents are and how much they deserve our care.
He showed us that our hectic mobility threatens the world. And he recalled the same question that we rarely had the courage to ask ourselves: What are we actually looking for?
So fear of illness turned us back from a looped path and necessarily reminded us of the existence of nests from which we come and in which we feel safe. And even when we were, I don't know how great travelers, in a situation like this, we'll always go to a house.
Thus sad truths were revealed to us - that in the moment of danger thinking returns in closing and excluding categories of nations and borders. At this difficult moment, it turned out how weak the idea of ​​the European community is in practice. The Union properly gave up the match by forfeit, passing decisions in times of crisis to nation-states. I consider closing the national borders the biggest failure of this miserable time - the old egoisms and categories of "ours" and "strangers" have returned, which is what we have been fighting over the last years hoping that it will never format our minds again. The fear of the virus automatically evoked the simplest atavistic belief that they were guilty of strangers and that they always bring a threat from somewhere. In Europe, the virus is "somewhere", it is not ours, it is foreign. In Poland, all those returning from abroad have become suspects.
The wave of latched borders, monstrous queues at border crossing points were probably a shock for many young people. The virus reminds: borders exist and are doing well.
I am also afraid that the virus will quickly remind us of another old truth, how much we are not equal. Some of us will fly by private planes to a house on an island or in a forest retreat, while others will stay in cities to operate power plants and waterworks. Still others will risk their health working in stores and hospitals. Some will earn an epidemic, others will lose their lives. The crisis that is coming is likely to undermine those principles that seemed stable to us; many countries will not cope with it and in the face of their decomposition, new orders will wake up, as is often the case after crises. We sit at home, read books and watch TV series, but in fact we are preparing for a great battle for a new reality that we can not even imagine, slowly understanding that nothing will be the same as before. The situation of forced quarantine and bribing the family at home can make us realize what we would not like to admit: that the family is bothering us, that marriage ties have long since faded. Our children will quarantine Internet addiction, and many of us will realize the senselessness and sterility of the situation in which mechanically and inertia lies. What if the number of killings, suicides and mental illness increases?
Before our eyes, the civilization paradigm that has shaped us over the last two hundred years is blowing away: that we are the masters of creation, we can do everything and the world belongs to us.
New times are coming.

[Deb]

Very good, very perceptive reading of the situation. I agree about the borders, the usual nationalistic nonsense. There is only one humanity and it's a virus we're at war with, not each other. We should be thinking about what will follow on from this, what the new reality will be. If we survive, of course. There's no guarantee of that!

[ethernautrix]

Last weekend was warm and sunny in Wrocław (as is today - blue skies with a tinge of chill in the air), perfect for a bike ride, to give myself and Łapa exercise.

Because so many were lulled outside by sunshine a week ago, Wrocław's mayor asked if the city's residents were insane and closed the parks and boulevards and promenades, all my walk and bike routes year-round, not only during nice weather.

I don't know if bicycling is banned. I want to make myself a food-carrier backpack (write UBER EATS or PYSZNE.PL on it, cop their colors) so that I'll look like I'm on the job. Heh.

Every walk -- errands and to care properly for the dog -- I make sure to observe social distancing, holding my breath like a Japanese pearl diver when passing people where there isn't enough distance. Social distancing isn't new to me in public, being a foreigner in a land with an exceptionally difficult language to learn. (Especially with translation technology and friends who speak English, or communicate to me through our mutual dear friend who is my Polish bureaucracy Sherpa; also, subtitles).

These days, my Sherpa and I wear masks when out on errands, for what it's worth.

I took Łapa for a walk at 22:00 last night ( 🌃 <- I like this!), and it was eerily desolate except for a handful of passengers on otherwise empty trams and busses. And that one young man who raced his car down a quiet street, wheels squealing as he took the turn at too high a speed under the old rules. Brakes squawking down the block, and more noise when he hit the gas to back up. I was both HOORAY! and Geez, what an asshole. Hahaha. It's always okay until somebody loses an eye.

I've always loved night walks. I've joked about becoming a Night Walk Ninja Squad of One (+ Łapa). Out walking for an hour between the hours of 22:00 and 03:00, especially the later part of that range, when the quiet and desolation are expected. I'm afraid that others will catch on and crowd the streets then. Who can sleep, anyway?

And the weather is only going to become more and more beguiling.

[Chrissy]

3000 people went to Brockwell Park in London yesterday because it was a nice warm day. It's going to be even warmer today so they have had to close the park. Sadly some people just won't listen.
It's Easter next weekend. Part of me hopes it's raining cats and dogs and blowing a gale. That might keep some in.