Tag: wash your hands

Last Minute Lunch Post

My lunch break is ending. I had Chef Boyardee Beef Raviolis and I rode the exercise bike for six minutes and I can practically taste your jealousy.

Ugh.

I’m not keeping track of Covid-19 infection statistics anymore. I accidentally deleted my spreadsheets. Did I mention that in a previous post? I think so. I was messing with the file system on my iPad and who knew the iPad directly accessed Google Drive? I didn’t. I do now. Oops.

Anyway, I saw this tweet this morning:

https://twitter.com/bpolitics/status/1478249944930787331

I think I saw the US have a million new cases over a four day period, maybe three days, but I never saw a million cases in a day. I went to the Johns Hopkins site and poked around and sure enough there were 1.083 million cases reported on January 3rd.

These days many people (including your humble narrator) are testing at home. Is this a case of home tests taken over New Years weekend being saved up and reported to their primary care physicians all at once? Is that million cases actually from three days and not one? Does it matter?

No. No, it does not matter.

Covid-19 infections in the US are spiking like they never have before. It’s probably mostly omicron, but delta is surely still part of it too. What is it about all of these new infections that make Americans think it’s all over? I don’t get it. We locked down the entire nation for so much less than what we’re seeing today. It doesn’t matter if omicron is generally milder than delta. Even with the milder symptoms omicron is supposed to have, we still have so many more infections that hospitals will still be overrun and masses of Americans are going to die. Who cares if the death rate for omicron is down if the infection rate is so much drastically worse? You still end up with more dead people due to omicron. It’s math people. It doesn’t lie.

Shit. I wasn’t planning on writing a lunch break post that depressed the hell out of myself but here we are.

Okay, back to work, depression boy.

Oh, Good

Check out what the Commonwealth of Massachusetts just announced in an article titled:

Massachusetts Department of Public Health releases updated face covering advisory

BOSTON — Today, the Department of Public Health (DPH) released updated guidance regarding the use of face coverings and cloth masks by individuals who are fully vaccinated for COVID-19. 

This week, the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released updated guidance that continues to state that individuals who are fully vaccinated may, as a general matter, resume many of the activities that they engaged in prior to the pandemic without wearing a mask or staying 6 feet apart, except where otherwise required by federal, state, or local laws, rules or regulations.  In response to the recent spread of the Delta variant, however, the CDC’s updated guidance does recommend that even fully vaccinated persons wear masks or face coverings when indoors if other risk factors are present.

In light of the information provided by the CDC, and in order to maximize protection of vulnerable individuals from the Delta variant, the Department of Public Health released updated guidance today that recommends that a fully vaccinated person wear a mask or face covering when indoors (and not in your own home) if you have a weakened immune system, or if you are at increased risk for severe disease because of your age or an underlying medical condition, or if someone in your household has a weakened immune system, is at increased risk for severe disease, or is unvaccinated. 

All people in Massachusetts (regardless of vaccination status) are required to continue wearing face coverings in certain settings, including transportation and health care facilities. Please see www.mass.gov/maskrules for a complete list of venues where face coverings remain mandatory as of May 29, 2021.

See the full DPH guidance.

https://www.mass.gov/news/massachusetts-department-of-public-health-releases-updated-face-covering-advisory

Allow me to take a moment to respond. Here is my prepared statement….

To all of the people refusing to take the vaccine, I say this:

FUCK YOU.

Covid-19 Case Counts

I’m still updating my Covid-19 spreadsheets every day. Infection and death counts every day for both the United States and Massachusetts.

Today is day #316.

I really want to stop. I really do. I just can’t bring myself to do it. It’s devastating to watch the US go from 21 million cases to 22 million cases in four days. It’s heartbreaking to see the 375,000 deaths creep closer and closer to 380,000.

Still… I can’t stop. I feel like I owe it to the people who are sick. It’s stupid, but I do sort of feel that way. I owe it to the people who’ve died. It’s literally the least I can do.

Wear a damn mask and wash your damn hands.

Disgusting Covid-19 Milestones

My state and my country both hit really horrible milestones today in their Covid-19 numbers. We should be proud of ourselves, and by proud I mean furious and horrified and completely devastated.

In my count of confirmed and probable Covid-19 cases, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts topped 150,000 today.

While the people of Massachusetts were getting sicker and sicker, the people of the United States hit a little bit of a death milestone. 225,000 deaths. Hooray. Let’s have another trump rally to celebrate.

I am so tired of this. Stop being assholes and wear the friggin mask.

Brain Droppings

Random stuff coming……….

I am very pleased that I was able to cast my ballot in the presidential election early and safely. My state and my city have seriously come through for me in these unhealthy, uncertain times. I am proud of what we the people have accomplished in this regard and I am proud that as an American I was able to have my opinion heard.

However…

The downside of voting early is that November 3rd, election day, is kinda irrelevant to me now. Maybe not irrelevant, but more like unimportant. At least until the returns start coming in. I go on social media and have a thousand people asking thousands of other people, what are your voting plans, or how are you going to vote, or are you excited to vote, or everyone get out the vote, etc, etc, and my response is… been there, done that. I took election day off, just in case. I should have taken the day after so I could stay up all night watching returns. On second thought, that would probably be a bad idea. I tend to get a little… animated when fascism is taking over my country and I don’t want to put any added stress on my ticker, or wake up the neighbors, or anything like that.

Basically though… I’m done, there isn’t much excitement about the process left.

Counting today, there are nine days left in October. At the start of the month I decided I wasn’t going to do an album in a month. A few days ago I changed my mind. I’ve got 10 songs in the pipeline. They are all short. They are all weird. They are all simple things based around little poly-rhythmic tricks, or guitarmonies. I haven’t written any lyrics or melodies yet. None of the songs will be instrumentals, but they will all be mostly instrumentals. There aren’t going to be any hooks. Vocal tracks will be short and simple and lyrics will probably just be a line or two. The point of it all is to hear a guitar playing in 4/4 in your left ear, and a guitar playing almost the same thing in 7/8 in your right ear, and how they occasionally line up with each other. Or, songs where the “melody” is just three guitars with tons of fuzz playing in harmony.

In other words, October Music is Robbie’s “I’ve been listening to King Crimson” month.

I still can’t believe that Massachusetts had 1,000 new Covid-19 cases yesterday. The last time we’d had 1,000 cases was in May. All of the progress we made has been flushed down the toilet. How are we as a society capable of landing a space ship on an asteroid 300 million kilometers away and bring it home with a sample of asteroid rocks, but not able to stay in our houses so we don’t get sick. Why are we incapable of just wearing friggin masks and washing our friggin hands?

I thought I was going to have more this morning, but I’m letting myself get distracted. In closing, let me paraphrase my favorite line from this week’s episode of Archer.

I’m your rampage sherpa.

Talk to you all later. Happy Friday.

Massachusetts is Screwing Up, Bad

I started keeping a Covid-19 stats spreadsheet back in March. I never dreamed it would still be going without an end in sight on the last day of September, but here we are. I keep one with just Massachusetts numbers and one for the entire United States.

We all know the US numbers are so bad they are evil. Literally evil. Unimaginably evil. Massachusetts was really bad too in the beginning, but after a while we straightened things out. For a while there our numbers were among the best in the country.

Not anymore.

We have had over 400 new Covid-19 cases for each of the last eight days. Today we had 532 new cases and 33 new deaths. Oh yeah, and the Governor is talking about further opening up of some sections of the state. This is absurd.

We should be better than this. Get your shit together, Mass.

Maskless

I left the house today! WOOHOO! Suck it, Coronavirus!

I went to my parents house today for something that was not an emergency. What a nice feeling that was, let me tell you. They are having a bit of an issue with vines and invasive plant over growth. They are kinda taking over. I took a trusty, heavy duty hedge clipper over there and went at it. They can now get through the front door without anything pulling any Little Shop of Horror shit on them.

The downside. Thorns. I didn’t realize it. They didn’t realize it. Some of those vines had the biggest, ugliest, razor sharpiest thorns I’ve ever seen. My father chucked a pair of heavy gloves out the door for me, which helped, but I half expected my second favorite Bruins t-shirt was going to go home in rags. Luckily I avoided that.

I stayed until my back pain convinced me that it was time to go. I got to talk to my parents through the door for a few minutes. Mom had a bad day yesterday, pain wise. Today seems a little better. She’s definitely a little more together cognitively, which is great. She had blood work yesterday, and a nurse visit the day before (I think?) and a chemo treatment this coming Monday. It’s not going to get easier for a long time.

On the way home I had to do something that I hadn’t done in months. I had to put gas in the Mazda. I’ve written about it before, but I haven’t put gas in that car since early March. Five months. If there’s a plus side to lock down, it’s the huge reduction in carbon emissions coming from our family. I’ve now put gas into each car once since the lock down started.

Unfortunately, the visit to the gas station was a clear demonstration of why our country has gone to shit. There were four customers. Me, a driver on the island next to mine, and a couple on a motor cycle on the next island over. There was also a youngish guy putting air in his tires. Of the five people, there was one mask. Mine. I had latex gloves on too. The rest of the group? Nothing. My skin didn’t touch anything that isn’t a part of the bubble we live in. Inside the car? Yes. Outside the car? No. I kept waiting for some smart ass nazi-friendly remark from one of the other customers. It never came. Good. Screw them.

My Flickr photo-a-day thing is up to day 343 today. Just a few more weeks to go. I tried to take a picture out the car window while stopped at a stop light. There’s a farm on the State Hospital grounds (technically I don’t think it’s on the grounds anymore, I think the land changed hands? Something like that? It used to be State Hospital property, but who knows, whatever) and I tried to get a picture of some corn.

That was my second attempt. The first attempt also caught the control box for the traffic signal. I didn’t want that though, so I took another.

When I got home I noticed the image on the box. I thought it was a reflection of one of the State Hospital buildings, but the angle is all wrong. I zoomed in and saw it’s a painting! How cool is that? A little cropping and now this photo 343/365:

343/365

Happy Spring, at Last

Winter is dead, long live the spring.

And while we’re at it, hows about you go and choke on a big bag of dicks, winter.  You prick.

The forecast for the first day or spring is temps in the mid 60’s and a 74% chance of rain.  Pretty much the text book spring day.

California is telling the entire state to shelter in place (assuming the headline I read this morning is correct, of course).  New York is in a worse state than California and they have said they will not do the same (assuming the stories I read yesterday are correct, of course).  We haven’t heard anything along those lines from Massachusetts and New Hampshire yet.  No one I know is sick… yet.  Statistically speaking it’s just a matter of time.  As of yesterday’s state health department update there are 328 confirmed cases in Massachusetts.  The expectation is that there are probably more like 6,000.  At least that’s what they said yesterday.  The CDC count has the United States over 10,000.  I have to guess the real number is also much higher.

There is nothing we can do about it beyond the meager steps we are taking now.  We’re staying home, we’re avoiding contact as much as we can.  We’re trying to avoid going stir crazy.  Last night Jen and I got in the car and drove around.  We didn’t go anywhere.  We took the highway north a couple of exists and then took the backroads back.  It was nice to get out.

I am feeling disconnected from everyone outside of the house.  I sent some emails and texts and facebook messages yesterday.  I just want to make sure everyone is still out there.  They are.  All is well.

Just hang in there, people, and don’t forget to wash your damn hands.

Happy Birthday Dear COVID

Are you worried about COVID-19?

Am I worried about COVID-19?  Yes and no.  Do I want to get sick?  No.  Am I expecting to get sick?  No.  Will the world end if I do get sick?  No.  Am I worried about my family getting sick?  Yes.  No.  I mean, if it happens it happens.  We’ll take care of each other just like we would if one of us caught the flu.  At this point it’s spreading fast enough that it’s just a matter of time before someone you know gets it.  That is not the same as saying everyone you know will get it.  There are about 6.9 million of us here in Massachusetts.  We ain’t all getting it.

The CDC has a good website with lots of up to date information.  Unfortunately they are a Federal agency and that means they are subject to the fascist ball of orange goo.  Cheeto has actually put his lap dog Mike Pence in charge of the response so expect prayer groups to be the official US policy.

I’m going to get my information from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, thank you very much.  Yes, I know that the Massachusetts Department of Public Health is getting it’s information from the CDC but give me a break, okay?  We’ve had to suffer through almost four years of that fascist prick and I don’t think I can take anymore, so I am a full-on States Rights Masshole.  Deal with it.

Anyway, this is what my beloved state has to say as far as prevention:

Prevention

Many of the things you do to help prevent colds and the flu can help protect you against other respiratory viruses, including COVID-19:

  • Wash your hands often with soap and warm water for at least 20 seconds.

  • Avoid touching your eyes, nose and mouth.

  • Clean things that are frequently touched (like doorknobs and countertops) with household cleaning spray or wipes.

  • Cover your mouth when you cough or sneeze. Use a tissue or your inner elbow, not your hands.

  • Stay home if you are sick and avoid close contact with others.

The same page has a section on treatment but I’m not going to share that.  Suffice to say there is no specific treatment.  Stay home and do all the things you do when you have the flu.

There is a good page giving various statistics within the state so far.  It gets updated every day at 4:00 PM (next update is about two hours and fifteen minutes from now) so any numbers I share are from 4:00 PM yesterday.

Currently Massachusetts has one confirmed case (a UMass Boston student who went on a trip to Wuhan) and 27 presumptive positive cases.  I’m interested in checking back at 4:00 to see how much that has changed.

There have been 719 quarantines in Massachusetts.  249 people are currently under quarantine, and 470 have already completed it.  When I read the news earlier I was under the impression that there were 719 current instances in the state.  Again, I am curious to know how that grows today.

719 quarantines… sounds like a lot, doesn’t it?  What if I told you there were more than 6.9 million people in Massachusetts?  Does it still sound like a lot?  Nope.  Wuhan Province (is province the right word?) in China has about 100,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19.  Sounds like a huge number.  There are more than 11 million people in Wuhan.  Does it still sound like a lot?

Note: In the 10 minutes or so since I pasted the prevention suggestions into this document I have come to realize that I CONSTANTLY touch my face.  My mouth, my nose, my eyes… CONSTANTLY.  Oh good.  I’ve also coughed a few times, but that’s mostly because I ate a piece of granola and it went down the wrong pipe.  The people sitting around me in the office don’t know that though.  Please don’t come at me with pitch forks or any shit like that.

The suggestion states that we should wash our hands for 20 seconds.  The memory mnemonic for that is to sing happy birthday twice.  Earlier today I was washing my hands and I was singing happy birthday and I used the following lyrics:

Happy Birthday to you,
Happy Birthday to you,
Happy Birthday dear COVID,
Happy Birthday to you.

I guess what I am trying to say with all of this is that no, I’m not worried.  Even if I was worried, I wouldn’t panic.  It’s okay to be nervous, just keep your head and wash your hands.

Again, Wash Your Damn Hands.

Hang in their folks.  At it’s worst this isn’t going to end civilization.  It isn’t the Zombie Apocalypse.

Speaking of which, in last night’s The Walking Dead (no spoilers!) the Whisperers behaved in a way that felt, to me at least, to be wildly out of character.  They were using pretty complex tools, which seems like something a cult based on behaving like animals wouldn’t really be down with.  I can’t remember if they did anything like that in the comic.  I know they used blades when they fought, but I can’t recall anything more complicated than that.

In closing: Wash your hands.