200802 covid day 145

august 2



It is covid day 145: 4.5 months, more than 20 weeks. I don't think any of us imagined this. Haha, I don't think any of us is imagining it, either! Whatever the naysayers claim, this is not a drill nor a hoax. Just count the extra graves, talk to a "SALT" (sick-a-long-time) person, a "long hauler", they have named themselves. *sigh* I will have to save "SALT" for my novel. perfect for a post-apocalyptic knowledge-lost society. Oh, wait. That's us.    
  
[I mean no disrespect nor hurt to covid -19 long-haulers for whom this illness has been a rollercoaster of debilitating symptoms week after week, while the medical profession is scratching its head.] 

Toronto has opened to stage 3 and I saw people in the bar at the nearby plaza, unmasked, how else to drink?, and gyms are open and beauty salons. The schools are set to open in September (with precautions). At our house, however, we are still adhering to full lockdown protocol against covidtamination (Robin's word) because we can't figure out what's changed. Yes, numbers are down; the hospitals are able to breathe again, albeit through a mask. But isn't that because we have been in full lockdown for 4 months? So, yes, thankfully the numbers are down. And so it is safe to go out and dine and drink and shop, but, please wear a mask. The very act of insisting on masks shows that Captain Covid is still out there. Those who were not being careful during lockdown will continue being not careful, and young people, champing at the bit to get out, may be unable to keep things in control.

This is the church
And this is steeple
Open the doors
And out come all the people
And still some of them have covid 19.


Spain re-opened on June 21; I presume that they decided case numbers were down. But there have been "at least 224 local outbreaks"*; 15 of Spain's 17 geographic regions are wearing masks again* (the people not the regions). Doctors are asking again about asymptomatic transmissions* Of particular interest is the sharp rise in cases among 10 to 19 years*, in other words, schoolchildren and post-secondary students. It shows, at least that this age-group spreads infection, 
There has been speculation that children don't spread or don't get civid-19 as much as the general population; which seems doubtful considering they spread everything else. The speculation is based on identified cases among children. But it is good to remember that most children have been at home for 4 months protected by their parents' adherence to protocols. Remember also that if they just had a slight cough or runny nose they might not get tested or see a doctor. As the articles below suggest, they just don't know. [Urls 1 and 2]  But children under 10 and teenagers making out in the dark spread their nose and mouth droplets like a rain-wet dog shaking off.
For now, we are still at stage 1. We go to stores (almost wholly nearby trusted businesses) and strictly for necessities. However, I have said before that we are among the lucky ones who have suburban green space and incomes coming in.
   No school for many means no break from and no help for a dysfunctional family nor contact with a variety of adults, as well as missing nutrition programs and health care that is brought into schools, and last, not least, learning and socializing. No school means no time for parents to work and earn money. Who does this remind you of? 10 points! The poor, the marginalized, the minorities. The people in the world upon whom most everything depends, the most needed and the most needy (they work in factories, hospitals, restaurants, grocery stores, they pick your fruit and the deliver it to your home)#3. All these lives "matter".  I cannot judge nor wish ill-will towards those who want to get out and breathe the summer air and run and laugh. Let's hope "laughter is the best medicine". It might all just work, if we are very careful. (But "I see dead people.**", sad face.)

Please be safe.

The Director-General of WHO spoke last Monday, said:

"But although our world has changed, the fundamental pillars of the response have not: political leadership, and informing, engaging and listening to communities.

And nor have the basic measures needed to suppress transmission and save lives: find, isolate, test and care for cases; and trace and quarantine their contacts. 

Keep your distance from others, clean your hands, avoid crowded and enclosed areas, and wear a mask where recommended.

Where these measures are followed, cases go down. Where they’re not, cases go up."


Who Director-General's opening remarks at the media briefing on COVID-19 - 27 July 2020.




2. American Association for the Advancement of Science



*Article: Reopening Plans In Spain Falter..., Raphael Minder; The New York Times International Weekly: August 1-2, 2020

** The Sixth Sense, Hollywood Pictures, 1999





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