Corona Virus, Elections, and Other Misery

These days I get my news from the New York Times, because they had a couple of good articles about a year ago, and they forced me to subscribe!  Actually---though they certainly are biased towards the liberal side, as Trump complains---most of their news is believable.

Today, I read an article in the Times that answers a lot of the questions I had concerning the Corona Virus (COVID-19, as it has come to be known since earlier this year).  I'll give you a few little tidbits that I found there, and a few of my own thoughts below.

Symptoms:  A dry cough, fever, shortness of breath (or trouble breathing), and fatigue.

How long can the virus survive on a clean surface?  This seemed to be an important piece of information.  It turns out that it could survive for up to 9 hours.  Bear in mind that a bacterium can't survive that long.  So this virus is a bigger threat than a bacterial infection.

If a person is suspected of being infected, how long can he/she continue to not show any symptoms?  Now, this is not clearly answered; they have given a presumptive answer; that is, what they guess based on experience with other viruses: two weeks.  So, if you think you were infected by someone who coughed on you on the bus, wait two weeks, and if you don't have a dry cough and fever, you're probably not infected.  Or if you were, you've shrugged it off; good for you.  (I could be wrong here, but this is what I understood.)

OK; now for some guesswork answers, or commonsense answers to commonsense questions.

How long does the infection last?  Depends on how healthy you are, and how weak your lungs, etc, are.  If you have asthma, or had it as a kid, you could struggle to beat the infection.  If you're older than 65, you'll probably have a tough time.

What treatment can we give, if we catch it?  Well, just like Flu (ordinary flu), you treat the symptoms.  Give antipyretics (fever-reducing treatments, e.g. Tylenol or Aspirin), cough suppressants (these make you cough fewer times, but bring up more phlegm when you do), and help with breathing, if you have problems (doctors must prescribe this, but inhalers, etc.)  My personal advice is to drink lots of fluids.  I find it difficult to drink plain water, but mildly flavored water is easier to drink.  This might be a tall order, but if you could bring yourself to take a warm shower, it usually helps clear your sinuses, and get your mucus flowing.  This is only if you don't have fever.

In preparation for possible infection, keep your house a little cleaner than usual, especially the kitchen.  Keep the counters wiped off.  If people are coughing, wipe off the counters several times a day.  (This is more a treatment for bacterial infections, really.)

If you get flu-like symptoms, just stay home.  Try and get your neighbors or friends to do your grocery shopping for you.  They should leave the supplies on your front porch, and any change.  If anyone tries to steal the food, threaten them with infection!

Now here's a guess.  I don't think it is the virus itself that kills people; I think that when a person is weakened by the virus, they're susceptible to bacterial infection.  (You probably know that there is bacteria that lives on your face and your nose, but they only begin to multiply rapidly if you get a cold, or something that weakens you.  If you didn't know, well, now you know!)  Once you get a bacterial infection (don't try to guess; this is the point at which you need to turn to professional help, e.g. call the hospital or your doctor), you would normally be prescribed an antibiotic.

Do not take prophylactic antibiotics.  (They've done this with beef cattle, and there have been terrible consequences, e.g. super-infections, etc.)

In conclusion, we are probably going to handle this virus a little better than China and Italy, and so on, but only if the epidemic professionals are allowed to do their thing.  If anyone tries to downplay the problem, and hold back the flow of needed information for fear that the stock market will react badly, well, all bets are off.

Elections
I'm beginning to realize that I was really hoping that we would finally elect a woman president.  Any one of Elizabeth Warren, Amy Klobuchar, and Kamala Harris, would have made a great president, as would have Tulsi Gabbard, who's young enough to run again sometime.  But it wasn't our preferences that ended with all the women dropping out of the race; it was the fears of our fellow-democrats that women could not (1) handle the job of being president, and (2) cope with the shenanigans of Trump and Fox News.  The same goes for electing a gay president, which should not be a consideration in this day and age, but . . . OK, I'm not going to talk too much about that, just to keep my equilibrium.  What they feared was fear itself, as someone said; so we're left with the same old guys to choose between.

Arguably Angela Merkel was a more level-headed, well-respected head of state than almost anyone in Britain, for instance.  The fact of the matter is that we have in the USA more poorly-educated, ignorant people than in those countries, though they certainly are catching up fast.  This century, and possibly those that follow, will be remembered as the time that idiots came out of the woodwork, to insist on destroying our democracies.  (Of course, to be fair, they believe that gay marriage is destroying democracy, which is one reason that Pete Buttigieg might have lost the election.)

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