On twitter someone (sorry, I've lost the reference) put up photos of their Yuzu-costume-inspired mask probably really really not practical but oddly cheering. I think it would be a nice isolation hobby lovely for fans - if they or could get had the materials - to do (most of the men would be easy, grab the nearest black fabric and go for it).
As I said, masks are rare here but I would happily buy some for the Korean costumes - okay, probably not use them, just to keep.
My wife just crocheted a novelty mask that looks like Yoda. The outside is purely decorative... yarn isn't an effective barrier... but it has a real mask insert, or it goes over a mask, or something like that. I don't rightly remember because it's not something I was terribly interested in, other than it amused her to do it.
If "masking" becomes a new social norm, I suspect someone is going to come up with functional "fashion" masks sooner or later so the "haves" can strut their stuff in a $500 Gucci mask.
My grandfather and great uncle got the Spanish flu. Both survived, but nearly died and were sick for months. My grandma did not get it, despite taking care of my grandad.
So yes, some people just did not catch it, and must have had natural immunities.
I will second that about the masks!!!
One thing I learned new about mask that I was not taught in training in the state patrol was that the N95-N100s (at least) are shipped with an electro static charge to help catch things. It decreases over time so there are expiraiton dates, but there are two other ways masks catch things....
In times like these, where quality "User protecting" masks are very hard to get, I take off a mask after getting into my car and sanitizing my hands, and stick the mask in a zip lock bag for 10 days before re-using it. Not many people in the store at 10 am.
Thank-you for your service.
Yes, We use N95 respirator masks for patients under/with droplet precautions along with gowns and gloves. We too put our masks in zip lock baggies with our names on them and have to be fitted once a year
ie: We put a hood on and an aerosol is sprayed inside while we do different activities( bending,walking,talking) if at anytime we can taste the aerosol then we know our mask is not fitted properly.
If they don't fit you it defeats the purpose.
By some miracle, Australia may have got away with this. Our number of new cases each day is slowly decreasing.
Let's play Australia Apocalypse Bingo!:
January: devastating bushfires (with bonus super-destructive hail for some parts!)
February: devastating floods
March: the plague
April: locusts
May: ???
Let's not get Biblical about this one! Death of the firstborn is on that list somewhere, and I'd rather not lose my sister and my niece.
In addition, half of the patients on mechanical ventilation were extubated within 10.3 days on average. The remaining patients demonstrated progressive improvement without any hemorrhagic complications or deaths.
The fact that this is a retrospective study without a control arm does not yet allow us to definitively conclude that heparin in tailored doses should be systematically employed in all COVID19 patients", caution study authors.
"Nonetheless, our findings in this early group of patients certainly provide food for thought and perhaps a rationale to justify using a readily available and well-known drug such as heparin to ameliorate the dim prognosis of such sick patients while we await the more solid data on this subject that could be provided by a prospective controlled study", they conclude.
https://www.news-medical.net/news/2...py-improves-hypoxia-in-COVID-19-patients.aspx
This sounds promising from Brazil.
Heparin is given routinely in hospitals if you have any tendency to have blood clots, say after strokes.
Doctors in this study have compared 27 COVID hospital patients who were admitted to the respiratory unit while coincidentally on heparin to COVID patients who weren't on heparin.
Of the 27, over half never went on a vent and were released home in 7.3 days from admission to the respiratory unit.
This hospital was also administering other drugs, but with the same protocols to both groups.
However, in NYC, 80% -90% of intubated COVID patients die.
https://www.businessinsider.com/cor...ors-try-reduce-use-new-york-death-rate-2020-4
https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2020/04/22/coronavirus-ventilators-survival/
That clearly was not happening for that Brazilian hospital.
It sounds like doctors are getting a better handle on how this virus works in the body. Knowing how it works is the most important step to defining more successful therapies.
I appreciated the CDC's update of Covid-19 symptoms to include ::checks notes:: more common cold symptoms. This fall is going to be FUN.
Anyway, saw the Blue Angels fly over today from my apartment so that was kind of cool.