{"id":22680,"date":"2020-02-26T06:59:48","date_gmt":"2020-02-26T14:59:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.heuermontage.com\/?p=22680"},"modified":"2020-02-26T06:59:55","modified_gmt":"2020-02-26T14:59:55","slug":"disease-prevention","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.heuermontage.com\/?p=22680","title":{"rendered":"Disease Prevention"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

So this bug passed, leaving me tired, but essentially functioning again. Today’s blog will be more stream of consciousness musings than anything else, however, with my brain still trying to iron out the fever wrinkles. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Garden variety flu (accompanied by garden variety birds, yes, I need the cheer, but promise there will be non-avian photos in the future…) led to thoughts about Covid 19 – since all of a sudden the world has started to react.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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If you are a regular reader you will remember that I wrote about it already over a month<\/a> ago. Since then we have learned a lot of things; my own information comes in large part from the ministry of health in Germany, which has been placing ads on FaceBook and other social media for a week now urging people to go to their website to learn about prevention and treatment options. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Contrast this with our own government: with so many lies destroying its credibility, how would I trust them for advice? With its cutback of health resources, how can it functionally combat a potential pandemic now that it is arriving? How can we rely on an administration that has the most stunningly incompetent appointees in memory? How can its focus on the stock market instead of the virus not make us all nervous about the efficacy of potential plans? Is secrecy part of the deal? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Oregon, for example has currently 254 people<\/a> monitored for an outbreak of the virus, but I have not seen public notices to alert people to come in for monitoring if circumstances suggest. In many states testing equipment to verify the presence of the virus is not available in sufficient numbers. (Nor are essential preventative gear for help personell should we see a real onslaught all of a sudden.) We cannot verify the exact lethality of the virus, since the way who is counted as sick or even verified as sick changes so often. It is certainly higher than the flu. It starts with vage symptoms, often a bit of nausea and fatigue, then fever and cough. Most people will recover, but for some the dangerous part sets in after about a week of having the milder symptoms. Males over 60, with preexisting conditions like high blood pressure and diabetes, are particularly at risk. People can infect others before they themselves show obvious symptoms. The virus survives on surfaces (doorknobs, tables) depending on who you believe, from 1 to up to 9 days. (Cannot verify.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Here is an informative pamphle<\/a>t that helps us to take control of what can be controlled (and includes links to what the CDC<\/a> has suggested for business owners last week.) The suggestions for private citizens in a nutshell:<\/p>\n\n\n\n