COVID-19 Coronavirus Information and Discussion

[ronmac]

When we first started trying to clean the basement of black mold and scrape up asbestos floor tiles in the early 00s, my wife got a couple face masks. My April project is to get the basement reorganized, we had a flood in the fall and now I've got time to get it all straightened out. What do I find but two N95 masks. Not sterile of course but I'll try my best to clean them up. They have metal strips in the nose area so it's not like I can put them in the microwave. Maybe the dishwasher?

^^^ Clean them by hand with woolite or something similar and then use a hot iron! That will get them hot as hell and steam them clean. My wife works in a hospital and that's how we're cleaning our home-made masks. Caveat - if the old masks are not in great shape or have the start of dry-rot they may not hold up to ironing.

<edit> On second thought, I'm not sure N95's will hold up to this treatment like ordinary cloth masks, but maybe they will. Also if your'e looking to disinfect I also don't know other than using vaporized hydrogen peroxide, which some hospitals use on equipment in general and some are using on N95s as well I'm told...

Don't N95 masks eventually expire?

[Poisoned Youth]

^^^ Yeah I don’t think I’d use them. Just make a cloth mask. It’s not like anyone comes to North Dakota anyway.

[Buddhabreath]

^^^ 5 years if sealed per 3M but that does mean it’s not a hell of a lot better than nothing even if expired - and Top Cat is right- throw those suckers out if you found them unpackaged and exposed in a moldy basement, I guess that’s the case if you feel you have to clean them up. My bad and good catch Mr. Top Cat.

[Zeuhlmate]

Having corona infection for the second time?

https://en.yna.co.kr/view/AEN2020040...ional/national

[Sean]

Times like this makes me appreciate PE all the more. An unbiased place where people from around the world can talk freely with no agenda behind it is becoming rarer. Thank you all for sticking with us all these years.

[lak611]

I like this one.

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[Teddy Vengeance]

As most of you probably know, Japan enacted emergency measures a few days ago, extending through the 7 most infected prefectures. My prefecture, with only 11 confirmed cases thus far (knocks on wood three times) is not among them but almost all domestic flights from those locales to where I am have been suspended and its very far by train.

For those keeping score, Japan's recent spike can be attributable to a few things: March 20-22 was a three-day weekend, typically used for Cherry Blossom Viewing parties. While the numbers were definitely down from previous years there were still crowds entering and leaving the most popular locales (such as Shinjuku Gyoen Mae in Tokyo). The other is March 31/April 1st which marked the end/beginning of the fiscal and academic years in Japan. A number of people changed jobs, schools, and dwellings on these days -- which probably didn't help. We were also late in completely closing off flights from certain countries (cough- U.S. - cough- U.K. cough)

The emergency state has very little legal force -- it is not a lockdown of the type we are seeing in many other places. In Japan (like Sweden) there is a belief that most of the public will naturally comply with common sense behaviours due to social cooperation and peer pressure (Japan is not at all heavy-handed in terms of arresting miscreants of any stripe relying instead on ingrained social mores). The biggest problem however is the work. In Japan, showing your face at work and being at your desk looking busy is prioritized over actually getting your work done. The idea of working from home is anathema to those employed in those ubiquitous Tokyo/Osaka offices, which means that they are still commuting on the trains. One of the rare instances in which efficient transit system has its down side. Although I can access my work computer (at a university hospital) from home, many Japanese institutions and businesses don't allow this to happen for the sake of security. But now its a question of data security vs. public health...

On a very positive note, I noticed that in Thailand the number of recoveries has been higher than the number of new infected cases for a few days now. A lot of Asia seems to have flattened the curve but I suspect Japan might be behind it.

[MYSTERIOUS TRAVELLER]

There's a vid circling on Facebook among proggers but I can't make it work here. Toyah Willcox posted under the caption Happy #lockdown lunch. Anyhow, she and her husband, some dude named Robert, dance in evening wear in their kitchen. Fripp actually smiles. HE SMILES!

and people still claim this isn't the end of the world... now we have evidence!

[Top Cat]

^^^ 5 years if sealed per 3M but that does mean it’s not a hell of a lot better than nothing even if expired - and Top Cat is right- throw those suckers out if you found them unpackaged and exposed in a moldy basement, I guess that’s the case if you feel you have to clean them up. My bad and good catch Mr. Top Cat.

no problem, my friend. I was just addressing the issue of using them again in general and not in response to your post.

Times like this makes me appreciate PE all the more. An unbiased place where people from around the world can talk freely with no agenda behind it is becoming rarer. Thank you all for sticking with us all these years.

[jglfan]

Homemade ventilators: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/it...Dwb?li=BBnb7Kz

[Zeuhlmate]

Czech nudists reprimanded by police for not wearing face-masks

https://kafkadesk.org/2020/04/05/cze...ng-face-masks/

[SunshipVoyager1976]

and people still claim this isn't the end of the world... now we have evidence!

Toyah posted it on Twitter as well:

https://mobile.twitter.com/toyahoffi...63820053381122

[Zeuhlmate]

Good news perhaps:

In Denmark you donate blood on voluntary basis, you don't get payed, and the blood is used on danish hospitals after a screening.
1.487 donations have been checked for corona but only 1,6 of 1000 had antibodies against covid-19.
If we assume that the test is not perfect, one estimates that 127.000 persons (of 5,5 millions) have been infected in Denmark and the mortality is thus only 0,16 percent.
Donors are generally in better condition than the average person, so probably more than 127.000 are infected, which leads to an even lower mortality rate.

But if your infection was very mild, it might not protect you against another covid-19 infection.

This is qualified guesswork and estimations.

https://www.dr.dk/nyheder/indland/do...kaster-nyt-lys

[Jerjo]

Mask update - upon further inspection, one of the N95s was never used and in a safe place. The other one was used and is in the trash. My wife ordered cloth masks off Amazon last week. They'll get here end of May/early June so her BFF is going to sew a few for us and mail them.

[aith01]

Having corona infection for the second time?

https://en.yna.co.kr/view/AEN2020040...ional/national

Relapsing from an infection that was never fully neutralized is different from contracting the virus a second time after the immune system has already handled it (which is not what this article seems to be about). This can happen with any virus, and it's a reason to be sure to get enough rest and fluids etc. so that your immune system can fight it off completely.

[polmico]

Times like this makes me appreciate PE all the more. An unbiased place where people from around the world can talk freely with no agenda behind it is becoming rarer. Thank you all for sticking with us all these years.

It is pretty cool, right?

[TCC]

I like this one.

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Touché!.

[TCC]

Toyah posted it on Twitter as well:

https://mobile.twitter.com/toyahoffi...63820053381122

Thanks for this!

[TCC]

Times like this makes me appreciate PE all the more. An unbiased place where people from around the world can talk freely with no agenda behind it is becoming rarer. Thank you all for sticking with us all these years.

It is pretty cool, right?

Yes and yes and thanks to you all!.
And as I wrote before:

One for All, All for One!.


Pura Vida!

[mozo-pg]

Times like this makes me appreciate PE all the more. An unbiased place where people from around the world can talk freely with no agenda behind it is becoming rarer. Thank you all for sticking with us all these years.

...and thanks to you Sean for inviting us into your house for all these years!!!!

[Shadow]

It was so nice out today Scott dressed casual for work:

[Zeuhlmate]

Coronavirus : la Finlande découvre que ses 2 millions de masques achetés à la Chine sont inadaptés
Les protections «made in China» commandées par le pays scandinave ne respectent pas les normes requises pour être utilisées dans un environnement médical.
L'Espagne, la Turquie et l'Australie renvoient leurs masques chinois

http://www.leparisien.fr/societe/cor...=AD-1481423552

English: https://translate.google.com/transla....php&sandbox=1

[Poisoned Youth]

Interesting article that focus on the science that shows NYC cases largely coming from Europe:

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/08/s...e-genomes.html

[Zeuhlmate]

Interesting article that focus on the science that shows NYC cases largely coming from Europe:

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/08/s...e-genomes.html

Basicly showing that NY has more contact with Europe (Italy?) than with China (Wuhan region) ?

[Trane]

can't believe that China would (knowingly?) deliver unfit masks after being the origin of Covid

Basicly showing that NY has more contact with Europe (Italy?) than with China (Wuhan region) ?

More like a chain reaction: Wuhan-Iran-Italy-Spain-then NYC as the worst hit countries or cities
(France fits between Italy & Spain, but that's border states)

France has epicenters (like Alsace and Oise), but plenty of place where with few cases