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[IR + Misc.] Covid-19 Discussion and Birna's C-19 Photo-Collage


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Editor's Note: With Birna's kind permission I have moved her excellent Covid-19 photo collage to UV/IR Experiences to use as a preface for a Covid-19 discussion topic. Birna and I think it would be good to have this because it is important to stay connected during this time of isolation. It's a pandemic so how can we not talk about it!? Your experiences and comments are welcomed here.

 

We know that you will refrain from any conspiracy theories, blame casting, name-calling, arguments and/or political rants. Also, referenced facts are good, but opinions should be labeled as such.

 

Stay calm. Stay isolated. Do what you can to help older neighbors. I hope and pray that all UVP members make it through the next year. Things *will* calm down eventually, but it is going to be an extraordinarily rough ride. Hang tough!



Stuck inside by Covid-19 quarantine, one gets sufficient time to ponder a lot. Of life, nature, and all their poignant ramifications. Perhaps too much time? Thinking can hurt, too.

 

It's eerily quiet outside and only occasionally a child or its parents can be spied moving around. The playground across the road is empty all through the day. The clamping down of virtually all sectors of our society has been highly effective, but will the measures alleviate further spread of the virus threat? Probably another week or two, or three, have to pass before such effects can be ascertained.

 

I put the old Fisheye 10mm f/5.6 OP on my modified Z6 and shot some depressing snapshots out the window. This is using the Z6 as an IR camera. Then back to the computer and read the latest Coronavirus statistics from the JHU Dashboard. On a per capita basis, Norway is in the very top tier to suffer from Covid-19 impact. Even more depressing.

 

E202003171810_corona_reality_by_OP10mmf5,6_Z6_and web.jpg

 

In the few hours since I initially made this image and posted it earlier today, more than 12.000 new cases have been reported world wide and the death toll has gone up by another 500 poor souls. This is war. Any hope of a victory belongs to the future.

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Andy Perrin
My understanding is that masks don't work well for healthy people from the general population to prevent them from getting sick, but they do work well with sick people to stop spread, and they also work with medical professionals who are in constant exposure to the sick. It is a matter of the way the statistics work out for the different situations.
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Yes, that is the standard line.

Then why do health workers wear them with goggles? To protect the patient? In some ways and cases, yes, but my feeling is that they are wearing them to protect themselves from the virus, as they should be,

but I don't believe masks don't protect regular people from the virus.

Here is a statistic for you: Most people catch the virus via breathing, sometimes via eyes.

Wash your hands, don't touch your face, stand 6 feet away if you can, but breathing it in is usually how you catch it.

So far I see almost no one wearing a mask, because they have been told the same thing you just said.

It is kinda fuzzy wuzzy, but personally, I don't buy it.

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As serious and emotional even as the Coronavirus make me feel, I still get a kick out of Birna's portrayal of that dashboard app page. Pulling the curtains aside, peering out at the world from isolation.

He he, the humor in that very much resembles much of my own feelings about all that.

Fear, emotions... something in a way that none of us has ever seen before.

In Birna's pic there is seriousness and humor at the same time.

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My understanding is that masks don't work well for healthy people from the general population to prevent them from getting sick, but they do work well with sick people to stop spread, and they also work with medical professionals who are in constant exposure to the sick. It is a matter of the way the statistics work out for the different situations.

That’s also what they said here in Italy. But they also added that everyone should wear them since everyone is potentially infected.
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Making art out of difficult circumstances! So cool!

 

Birna, may I have permission to download this? Someday when this is all over, your photo will be a powerful reminder of what we all went through.

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On a per capita basis, Norway is in the very top tier to suffer from Covid-19 impact. Even more depressing.

 

The number of confirmed cases is affected by how many tests done.

The relatively high number can instead be an indication that Norway is very efficient in testing and finding more of the infected cases.

If they can test much, hopefully the resources for care and treatment is good too.

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enricosavazzi

All fine for me & family here, but Sweden is bracing for ending up on a similar level as Italy in 2 to 4 weeks' time. Being retired since last year, I have much fewer physical social contacts than before. My wife, however, is head of the public libraries, which are still open to the public in spite of colleges and universities being recommended to close, and many companies encouraging employees to telecommute.

 

At least two of her employees are home with cold-like symptoms, but no tests for Covid-19 are carried out in these cases. The only official recommendation is to stay home until symptom-free, then stay home two more days.

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Making art out of difficult circumstances! So cool!

 

Birna, may I have permission to download this? Someday when this is all over, your photo will be a powerful reminder of what we all went through.

 

OK course. Just ask me for a healthy sized file instead of the puny one posted here :smile:

 

The number of confirmed cases is affected by how many tests done.

The relatively high number can instead be an indication that Norway is very efficient in testing and finding more of the infected cases.

If they can test much, hopefully the resources for care and treatment is good too.

 

They have tested around 20.000 persons and found around 1500 cases so far. The test capacity is to be at least doubled in a few days. There is no lack of funding for getting advanced lab testing equipment as several of the Government staff are quarantined and 2-3 of them, the Minister of Labour and his Advisers, actually are diagnosed with Covid-19.... Each to cover their own needs, I suppose.

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There is definitely some hope out there. The Fujifilm drug, Favipiravir from news reports seems to help you fight off the infection.

 

A Roche kit has been accepted to screen patient samples quickly, able to read around 4000.

 

Also a vaccine is in trials now, and might be generally available in a year.

 

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Stefano, nobody on UVP has the virus yet, thank heavens. But Norway and other countries, cities, counties are requesting that everyone remain in self-quarantine just as you are doing in Italy.

 

We saw here in the US on the evening news reports the video of the Italian air force "flying the colours" over the county to give everyone a bit of cheer and hope. Both my husband (he is Italian), and I got tears in our eyes. It was a magnificent sight. And there were videos of people out on the balconies singing to one another. Hang tough, Italy, you will get through this.


 

I have asked Birna if I can make this an official Covid-19 discussion topic so that we can have a place to talk about it. It is so important to stay connected during such a time. More later on this.

 


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Masks? Any kind of barrier between me and coronavirus is a good thing.

 

We have some construction N-95 masks to use left over from some sanding & painting project. You would laugh at me going to the grocery store all decked out in mask, nitrile gloves and with a packet of Clorox alcohol wipes tucked under my arm to wipe down the grocery cart handle. :lol: But we gotta do what can be done in the face of this. :unsure:

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Vaccine article:

https://www.kpwashingtonresearch.org/news-and-events/recent-news/news-2020/kaiser-permanente-launches-coronavirus-vaccine-study-seattle

 

There are also stories on CNN it looks like.

 

There seem to be a bunch of drugs that may be effective. But I can't talk about it. Ask your doctor or do a google search.

I am afraid for future drug shortages.

 

We have something going around my house. Not sure what it is, but we are not in high risk group. Just self quarantining to avoid effecting family.

 

You can PM me if any one wants to know how I feel about masks.

 

 

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I did see an interview on CNN about the first person to receive a test vaccine. Let's hope the vaccine efforts increase and are successful.

 

My SigOth is high risk. I probably am slightly higher risk because of age.

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I live in Lombardy, one of the most affected regions in Italy. The worst thing is that if someone gets the virus and must be put into intensive care (if they can find a bed for you, don't take that for granted), his relatives can not see him, and if he dies, he will be buried without a funeral. So you can not say "goodbye" to him, and you can not see him even after death. (him/her).

 

Weddings have been canceled (imagine couples who had planned them for months), as I said funerals are prohibited, so no mass, just a blessing in front of the church (if you are religious), and that's it. Doctors are working something like 12 hours straight, some of them fall asleep on the desk (you may have seen a photo of one of them), some of them cry, they can no longer handle this.

 

Retired doctors have been called back to service, people who had to graduate in medicin have been graduated earlier so that they can work, some famous people like Silvio Berlusconi, Laura Pausini and others have donated money (in some cases 10 milion €), and we still don't go to school and have lessons with Google Meet.

 

This year I have the "esame di Maturità", the final high school exam, and we still don't know if it will change (probably), and how.

 

The situation fell rapidly. 5-6 weeks ago it was completely different, wearing a mask and avoiding chinese reataurants were considered irrational behaviours (and they were), and everyone told us to keep calm, that the situation was basically not something to worry about. We only had a few tens of cases, now we have tens of thousands of them. Today there have been I think 450 deaths only in Italy. This is a nightmare. It must end, quickly.

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I live in Lombardy, one of the most affected regions in Italy. The worst thing is that if someone gets the virus and must be put into intensive care (if they can find a bed for you, don't take that for granted), his relatives can not see him, and if he dies, he will be buried without a funeral. So you can not say "goodbye" to him, and you can not see him even after death. (him/her).

 

Weddings have been canceled (imagine couples who had planned them for months), as I said funerals are prohibited, so no mass, just a blessing in front of the church (if you are religious), and that's it. Doctors are working something like 12 hours straight, some of them fall asleep on the desk (you may have seen a photo of one of them), some of them cry, they can no longer handle this.

 

Retired doctors have been called back to service, people who had to graduate in medicin have been graduated earlier so that they can work, some famous people like Silvio Berlusconi, Laura Pausini and others have donated money (in some cases 10 milion €), and we still don't go to school and have lessons with Google Meet.

 

This year I have the "esame di Maturità", the final high school exam, and we still don't know if it will change (probably), and how.

 

The situation fell rapidly. 5-6 weeks ago it was completely different, wearing a mask and avoiding chinese reataurants were considered irrational behaviours (and they were), and everyone told us to keep calm, that the situation was basically not something to worry about. We only had a few tens of cases, now we have tens of thousands of them. Today there have been I think 450 deaths only in Italy. This is a nightmare. It must end, quickly.

 

I cited two people. Edit my post if necessary.

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Fresh piece of news: schools closed up to may 2nd.

 

Edit: or, at least, this is a piece of news that circulated around. It should be a fake news, but the government will almost certainly posticipate the current date of april 3rd. The number of infected people is growing too much.

 

The government may take into consideration may 4th if the situation doesn't significantly improve (I hope it will, but only time will tell). An hypotesys is that schools will be opened this summer, to compensate for their closing in this period. At the moment nothing official, just ideas. This school year will be considered valid even with less than 200 days of actual school days.

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Stefano, this pandemic will end, but not quickly. Usually there is a year of upheaval and maybe another few months of bumpy roads. During this pandemic many of us will have the trajectory of our life interrupted. But know that recovery from a interrupted life is entirely possible with some effort and a little help from our family and friends. We do return to school, to work. Social events begin again. Yes, things might be changed or different, but that happens anyway even without a pandemic.

 

Well of course, that was easier to write than it is to actually do.

 

It’s terribly sad that we do not always get to say goodbye to a family member or friend who passes. But we can honor their memory and carry them forward in our hearts. And I’m sure there will eventually be memorial events in Italy (and elsewhere) for the victims once the pandemic begins to ebb.

*******

 

I’ve got memories of two previous flu pandemics, one in the late 60s and one in the 2000s. I caught the pandemic flu in 1968 and have never forgotten it. I was so weak I literally could not raise my head from the pillow. I had such a fever and aches that I literally could not stand to be touched for 2 days. Back then we did not have “instant news” online or on TV so I don’t recall that we knew this flu was spreading around the world. Having had that illness, I later was completely unable to understand why some people refused to get flu vaccines.

When the swine flu happened in the 2000s, there was ample warning and lots of info. Luckily I did not catch that one.

Those two pandemics pale in comparison to this current situation. I don’t recall any lockdowns or quarantines back then. Or any fear. Or hospital overloads.Or shortages of medical gear.

 

All we can do is take this a day at a time and not give in to fear. Stay out of crowds, have some faith that this will eventually end —— and wash your hands.

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