Saturday, February 29, 2020

HIking and Covid-19

Greetings!  Long time, no write.  The news is just sucking the marrow out of my bones.  There has been hiking.  Hiking is good, there have been no fellow humans in sight.  It's kind of weird, we're wondering where they all are.  I finally figured out how to use the panorama setting on Jim's phone.  This time I did not cut the tops off of the mountains.  It's sort of a distorted image, not sure I'm a fan of the format.


Yesterday we hiked late, we spent a fair amount of time on the phone with Charles Schwab trying to determine why they had locked our account due to not being able to identify me.  They actually could not pin point the problem and after asking me the four questions they can pull from public records they restored us to full access.  The investment guy keeps telling us to stay the course, and we keep wondering just how bad things are going to get.


This was today, it was just a gorgeous day.  White puffy clouds and warm temperatures.  Monday it's going to rain.


See the bites taken out of the prickly pear?  Javelinas did that.  It's hard to believe they can munch on the spines.


There was a sunset, as well.


At the 2/28 rally in South Carolina, the president went on record as saying Covid-19 is a hoax perpetrated by the Democrat (sic) party.  He  followed up with the equally baseless statement that the stock market was tanking because the markets didn't like any of the candidates in the Democrat (sic) party. I can't stand it.  Today, he announced the first US death due to Covid-19.  He then followed up with the statement that most people will survive, they'll just have to go through some stuff.  I still can't stand it.  Dr. Fauci (head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases) was on stage with him, why wasn't he speaking?

The first US death came today in Washington state.  He was a 50ish man, with underlying health issues.  That was bad enough, worse is that several patients at a long term health care facility have tested positive, as have some people who work there.  Now what?  One hundred fourteen nurses at another hospital (different state) are now quarantined because they cared for a sick person that turned out to be positive for the virus.  Things are not starting off well.  The Seattle area Costco stores are running out of everything, people are buying everything there is to buy.
 
It is unfortunate that the team put together to confront the Ebola virus by Obama was disbanded by John Bolton in May 2018. Fifteen years of putting processes and procedures to efficiently run a pandemic response were flushed because it was an Obama sponsored project. Now, the wheel is having to be reinvented, and yes I do blame the president for this. That action was stupid. His personnel decisions have been based on who is loyal to him, and not on expertise. The head of HHS, was president of Lily, a major pharmaceutical company. The head of CDC has long ties to groups who believe AIDS was "God's judgment" against homosexuals, spread in an America weakened by single-parent households and loss of family values.  Having Mike Pence, science denier, who famously declared that smoking did not cause cancer because not everybody who smoked got cancer as the Covid-19 team leader makes little to no sense to me.   I could go on, but I'll stop there. The thus poor response to Covid-19 can be traced to not having qualified, experienced people in place and that problem starts at the top.

Yesterday, we tried to buy hand sanitizer at Target.  That was futile.  The hoarding has already begun.  I keep thinking we should stock up, but can't really figure out what I should be buying.  Pasta maybe?

This is the view from a Seattle area Costco.


So remember, wash your hands frequently and quit touching your face!

13 comments:

  1. What should you buy? Cans of chicken soup come to mind, hand sanitizer maybe, but bar soap will do better. I'm glad I went to Fred's and not Costco.

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  2. I think we need to get the Coronavirus into perspective, because when compared to a flu epidemic the death rate is low. In the UK a flu outbreak can kill up to 10,000 and in the last big epidemic 13000 died. Many people can have the corona virus and not be aware of it and the vast majority recover. Yes , we need to look after those that are vulnerable but lets not panic, and the best prevention apparently is washing hands and disposing of used tissues.

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  3. Toilet paper is high on my list of necessities. Also, you can make your own hand sanitizer if you want. Google is a good source. I personally think good old soap and water works really good. I think stores are going to run out of supplies because of panic rather than the virus. And Trump has no idea what he's talking about as per usual.

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  4. What Dave said. It seems to affect people with low immunity. If that was me, I'd stay indoors as long as possible, which I guess is why people are stocking up. Looks like Seattle residents are stocking up on paper towels and potato chips. I'm with you, pasta would be good. Lasts forever without a fridge.

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  5. beautiful scenery.

    Trump's only concern is himself and getting reelected so he won't have to face all those criminal charges when he is kicked out and he thinks the stock market is the only indicator of a good economy (which is bullshit as only a small percentage of Americans benefit from the stock market, meanwhile 40% of Americans need more than one job just to get by) and that the good economy is essential to him getting reelected, hence his concern and focus on the stock market. as for people getting sick and dying he doesn't give a rat's ass. he thinks he can gaslight Americans and the virus just like he has on everything else. problem is, the virus won't respond to his gaslighting, it will just go on making people sick and people will die, people will stay home and supply lines will break down. he keeps trying to downplay it but it has the same death rate as the flu pandemic in 1918 that killed millions.

    and don't bother with hand sanitizer. plain old soap works much better.

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  6. Trump is an idiot. That's all I have to say!

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  7. Once again you have wrapped up all my thoughts in one succinct bundle. I agree with Steve whole heartedly. Keep on hiking!

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  8. Wow! Wash your hands, soap is fine. Trump is definitely one of the dumbest people on the planet.

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  9. Soap and water. Warm water is nice, but if we run out of it, cold is just as good. Maybe we do need Biden. He can ask Barak what to do, and maybe to put it back together again. You know, special envoy to the president. I never thought it could get this bad.

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  10. The panic is just crazy to me. WAY overblown. Wash your hands, use hand sanitizer, don't go to China, and RELAX! It's not a hoax, but it's not much worse than a bad flu year, fergoshsakes. I am just over all this. The only good thing that might come from all this madness is that it may hurt Trump in November, but so much can happen between now and then, I count on nothing.

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  11. I’m glad to read your “ramblings”, Allison. I suppose the saying “ misery loves company” is true. Love your photos, too! I’m living south of Tucson for the winter so would be happy to see an occasional location listed. Hang in there!

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  12. Thank you for this cogent post on COVID 19. It's all absurd, isn't it? And the truth is, the numbers are low because no one's really testing for it, at least not until a person is in serious respiratory distress and has already had prolonged encounters with many other people. So many people are walking around with this thing, oblivious. We are all on our own. Thank you for that lovely sunset.

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  13. I try very hard to not listen to trump. It just aggravates me!

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