Random Babbling Thread 120

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You know that everything that isn't taped off will be occupied by usually more than one idiot convinced that they are immune to covid-19. We've even had plenty of cases of such idiots here tearing the tape and not stopping until they were fined. The virus remains on plastic and metal for up to 3 days, which makes any kind of outdoor fitness and playground equipment the perfect vector to spread the infection. Even when nobody is there in person to pass on the virus and you think you're safe.

 

I personally am partial to the breed of idiot that gets tested, turns up negative, and turns that into the idea that they cannot get it in the future.

Darwin award contestants, the lot of them.

 

Though they're still working it out, the transmission of SARS-CoV-2 is primarily through person-to-person contact, not through contaminated surfaces or food. It's a respiratory virus so that generally means you have to inhale it somehow to be infected.

I heard one report from a food safety person who said a person with COVID-19 could sneeze into your salad before putting the lid on it and you'd be fine eating it. Not sure if I believe that since you could inhale while eating, but I think the point was eating the virus is not the same as inhaling it with respect to transmission; and I'm sure some bit of trying to soothe people.

Young healthy people doing risky things not in accordance with self isolation to slow the spread of COVID-19 are just playing the odds, though it's still selfish.

 

The virus can enter your body via your mouth, nose or eyes. Since we tend to touch/poke at all three all the time even subconsciously, there's a very high risk of transmission via contaminated hands. Hence the constant warnings to wash your hands thoroughly with soap that we're hearing here. The relevant health authorities here are advising the population to treat anything bought externally as potentially contaminated.





More info: https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019/advice-for-public, https://www.canada.ca/en/public-hea...facts-about-coronavirus-disease-covid-19.html

This message brought to you by the PSA department of Sorcerer's Place.

 

Tal - Such information is for safety's sake I'm sure, which I'm not saying you should ignore, since as I said they are still working it out.

CDC indicates: "It may be possible that a person can get COVID-19 by touching a surface or object that has the virus on it and then touching their own mouth, nose, or possibly their eyes, but this is not thought to be the main way the virus spreads."

 

Sure, that's true enough. But when lives are at stake, I personally wouldn't risk it.

 

The likelihood of any playground or outdoor fitness equipment remaining used by only a single person long enough for the virus to theoretically, under the right conditions, be rendered harmless, is in my opinion far lesser than the likelihood of someone else coming along and picking up the virus touching the same infected surfaces before that happens. Honestly, this kind of downplaying the potential danger seems very odd to me. Even if the chances of infection are only very low -- say 5% -- why would anyone sensible want to risk it? There are even previously healthy young people lying in our hospitals on respirators over this. Germany has a suspiciously low statistic of deaths due to covid-19, which is several times lower than the next "best" country in this regard. There are a number of reasons why this could be which are still under investigation, but by far the easiest explanation is that the danger is under-reported or cause of death attributed not to covid-19 but to previously existing conditions. Which I'm sure is more soothing for the general public in terms of thinking that they're not at risk unless they're among the elderly or have diabetes and/or high blood pressure, but I feel that that's a false sense of security.

As for the earthquake, it shook me awake because my bed was vibrating so hard, so I definitely felt it. It was reportedly also felt in parts of Italy, Austria and even some parts of Germany, among others.

 

Italy and Spain are literally on the verge of collapse over it and they've enacted some of the strictest measures possible -- but too late. The deaths in the US are going to be in the hundreds of thousands. If we did nothing, the death toll would certainly be at least several times as high. Also keep in mind that according to the latest reports, there is significant chance of incurring permanent or near-permanent lung/organ damage and associated diseases (ARDS has 30-40% mortality rate) for some of those who recover from covid-19.

Relevant recent article: Video reveals lung damage in US coronavirus patient: 'People need to take this seriously'

 

Here's the latest:

 

200? That's very outdated stats you've seen. The current death toll for the US is 4127+: https://www.arcgis.com/apps/opsdashboard/index.html#/bda7594740fd40299423467b48e9ecf6