Corona Virus

[nullnor]

I had 2 N-95 masks. I looked and found them a few months into the pandemic. they worked great. but the bottom elastics eventually broke. and every time I go to the Walmart sections of such things it's empty. thus even when we wear masks, they don't work as effective now.

it's just the beginning. there are no effective masks like N95. we should've gone in full manufacturing them mode.

[The Feral Slasher]

thus my future in HVAC. installing filters that work and ones that don't. yet I am not rushing out there until I understand more.

everything is better outside. but it's a trade off. the warmer and drier air is the more airborne particles will travel. I don't understand humidity. I know as an HVAC guy it's worse to have a dirty filter than no humidifier. ..whether or not particles can travel on air moisture.

CoV-2 is a pretty weak virus in structure. any amount of soap will kill it. being outside even better. but planes are a deathtrap no matter what they do. like cruise ships. air is recirculated there also.

definitely open up all the windows in a church, wear masks, social distance 2-3 people each pew, don't shake hands, or shake hands, personally it was always awkward for me before the virus, and have the heat all the way up for service.

outside air really makes a difference. I've been pretty fearless out here in the country. but humanity will always want to gather. it's our greatest strength and our greatest weakness.

Your comment on airplanes is misleading. All commercial airplanes get a mix of fresh and recirculated air. And the recirculated air is filtered, usually thru HEPA filters. Recent studies have been very positive on air travel

[rhd]

Another small example of people imposing restrictions that are completely unnecessary and just plain dumb. I cycle a lot and often use a trail that goes thru a park. The park has remained open but there is a sports facility w parking lot which the trail leads to. I often cycle thru this lot and pick up the trail again on the other side of the lot. After the pandemic hit, there was a small barrier erected at the entrance to the lot. No sign saying entrance wasnt permitted, just a small barrier. It's easy to go around the barrier so I tried but there was someone in a vehicle (non-emergency) that immediately sounded an alarm, so I turned around and went back. Over several months I have tried to enter this lot and each time there's been someone in a vehicle there that has prevented me from entering. Recently, they've stopped doing this, even tho nothing much has changed re: the pandemic. Maybe they finally realized how utterly useless and stupid this was but it took them several months, and who knows how much money they wasted on paying the guy in the vehicle to sit out there all day and keep people out? Mind you, the rest of the park has always remained completely open.

Another example: Shortly after the inception of the pandemic, stores started designating these one way aisles. It's never been clear to me how this in any way lowers the risk of infection. And nobody pays any attention to these rules anyway. Again, it's not so much we're overreacting as just we're doing stupid and ineffective things and we're not doing other things that actually would be effective. Because the people in charge just dont know what they're doing so they're telling us the wrong things, things that are not protecting us, just making our lives more difficult and eroding our confidence in our leaders.

[The Feral Slasher]

Or how about N-95 filters for ventilation systems? Are there such things? If not, shouldnt there be? If a business cant afford to renovate or replace their entire ventilation system, seems like installing a bunch of N-95 filters would be a low-cost option that could greatly reduce risk of infection. This is another item that I havent heard anyone mention.

HEPA filters are much more effective than N95 masks at removing viruses. You can purchase home air purification systems that recirculate the air thru HEPA filters. I have two of them running continuously at my parents house since they are now having caretakers in the house

[rhd]

I had 2 N-95 masks. I looked and found them a few months into the pandemic. they worked great. but the bottom elastics eventually broke.

Just sew the elastic back on. That's what I did.

[rhd]

HEPA filters are much more effective than N95 masks at removing viruses. You can purchase home air purification systems that recirculate the air thru HEPA filters. I have two of them running continuously at my parents house since they are now having caretakers in the house

Good move. Thanx for the info!

[madducks]

Another example: Shortly after the inception of the pandemic, stores started designating these one way aisles. It's never been clear to me how this in any way lowers the risk of infection. And nobody pays any attention to these rules anyway. Again, it's not so much we're overreacting as just we're doing stupid and ineffective things. Because the people in charge just dont know what they're doing so they're telling us the wrong things, things that are not protecting us, just making our lives more difficult.

The one-way traffic idea was implemented to prevent people from walking within six feet of each other with the assumption that everyone would be walking at the same speed and not passing each other. Stores soon realized that some people race through the store while others like the elderly take a lot longer to walk through an aisle. People passing each other while walking in the same direction is not much different (distance-wise) than people passing each other in opposite directions. So, now stores are going back to the two-way traffic in the aisles.

[nullnor]

if everyone had worn masks from the start the economy wouldn't have had to be shut down.

[nullnor]

it's a deathtrap. it's 30k feet in the air. they have fresh air? how can you get air from negative air pressure.

[nullnor]

the funniest story I ever read on airplane food. https://www.theguardian.com/lifeands...ch-i-bought-27

[nullnor]

[nullnor]

fear of disease is going to make us more susceptible to them.

[nullnor]

in pink floyd the wall, the boy becomes sick after saving a rat. and then the rat died but the boy survived. whatever the virus was it killed the pet rat but made the boy stronger. I am not sure our species can survive w/o that kind of interaction.

[The Feral Slasher]

it's a deathtrap. it's 30k feet in the air. they have fresh air? how can you get air from negative air pressure.

What is the air pressure in a jet engine/Turbofan ? I will give u a hint, it is much, much greater than inside the passenger cabin of an airplane

[rhd]

Another stats update as of 7:46 AM today. Last stats were from 10/19 at 7:46 AM, exactly 7 days ago. Mortality rate is figured using the current death total divided by the total cases from the update 3 weeks ago (10/5).

- 8,889,577 cases in the US, up from 8,388,013, an increase of 5.97% which is a much larger increase than last time (4.94%). At the current rate of increase, the US will have 10 mil. cases by about 11/10. The new cases for this period were 501,564 which gives a 7-day daily average of 71,652, way up from 56,440. A comparison w last period's new cases (395,081) gives a new cases increase rate of 1.270, much higher than that of the last update (1.110). The current test positivity rate is 6.17%, much higher than that of the last update (5.33%) and even farther above the WHO threshold figure of 5.0%. Currently, there are only 3 states that have R-naught below 1.0 a decrease from the 9 states last update, the lowest number since I started keeping this stat, so the overall US R-naught must be well above the recommended threshold of 1.0, and it appears to be going even higher. The values for the different states range from 0.91-1.30. Things are getting much worse.
- 230,510 deaths in the US, up from 224,732, an increase of 2.57% which is a larger increase than last time (2.29%). The new deaths for this period were 5,778 which gives a 7-day daily average of 825, up from 718. The mortality rate is 3.02% (230,510/7,637,066), slightly lower than last time (3.07% (224,732/7,321,465)). The mortality rate for the week's new deaths is 1.83% (5,778/315,601), higher than last time (1.59% (5,026/315,779)).
- 43,356,880 cases worldwide, up from 40,295,165, an increase of 7.60% which is a much larger increase than last time (6.70%). The new cases for this period were 3,061,715, which gives a 7-day daily average of 437,388, up from 361,279. A comparison w last period's new cases (2,528,955) gives a new cases increase rate of 1.211, which is higher than last time (1.074).
- 1,160,779 deaths worldwide, up from 1,119,757, an increase of 3.66% which is a larger increase than last time (3.43%). The new deaths for this period were 41,022 which gives a 7-day daily average of 5,860, up from 5,308. The mortality rate is 3.28% (1,160,779/35,410,679), slightly lower than last time (3.36% (1,119,757/33,316,224)). The mortality rate for the week's new deaths is 1.96% (41,022/2,094,455), higher than that of the previous period (1.79% (37,153/2,072,431)).

New case rate increases went up sharply for both the US and the world, as did the rate of increase of new cases for both. For the US, the R-naught seems to have gone up again, and the test positivity rate also went up sharply, continuing the recent bad trend.

Cases continue to surge in Brazil, Argentina, Colombia, Costa Rica, Mexico, Canada, Spain, France, United Kingdom, Netherlands, Belgium, Italy, Portugal, Switzerland, Austria, Poland, Czech Republic, Romania, Belarus, Russia, Ukraine, Armenia, Nepal, the Philippines, Indonesia, Myanmar, Iraq, Iran and Morocco. And new cases have surged recently in Germany, Ireland, Hungary, Sweden, Jordan and Azerbaijan. I might as well say that cases continue to surge in all of Europe instead of listing separate countries since practically no country seems to be doing well at this point. But case increases have dropped recently in India.