A new study reports that most Covid infections are spread by aerosols–in other words, by the awkward fact that we breathe, a process that leads us to trade both air and germs with those we love, not to mention those we don’t. Earlier studies measured how long the virus could survive on objects and speculated about that as a route of transmission, but this one didn’t find much evidence that transmission happens that way in the real world.
So the good news is that you can stop boiling the toilet paper when you bring it home from the store. Also that those masks really do make a difference–possibly to you, but definitely to the people around you. And that keeping your distance from other people is good protection.
But anytime you say, “The good news is,” you have to follow it with parallel bad news. So the bad news, if we’re to believe the rumor I heard yesterday, is that people are expecting Britain to go into another lockdown and already they’re panic buying. Because the country’s semi-officially in the second wave of the pandemic. Cases are doubling every week. The test and trace system that was supposed to let us control the spread is demented, broken, and–forgive the technical language here–completely fucked. The people who purport to govern the country say they want to avoid a lockdown, and the more they say it, the more inevitable it looks. So stock up on toilet paper. Also flour. And if you’re British, baked beans.
Everything else you can do without. Unless you have pet food. Stock up on pet food.
But forget rumor. Let’s go back to science and the study I was talking about. It also reports that Covid transmission is highest about a day before the symptoms show up, making complete nonsense of the idea that we should limit tests to people with symptoms.
No transmission has been documented after a patient’s had symptoms for a week. That doesn’t completely rule it out, but it does kind of point us in that direction.
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A new study of Covid and singing–more bad news; sorry, everyone–pretty much contradicts the last study of aerosols and singing that I told you about. That earlier one measured the aerosols and droplets sprayed into the air by individual singers and by individual speakers and reported that quiet singing doesn’t spread aerosols much more than quiet speaking does. Turn up the volume on either and you up the Covid spread.
But.
This latest study looked at a superspreader event involving one choir rehearsal that caused over fifty cases of Covid and two deaths. It broke down people’s interactions at the rehearsal, concluding that the combination of poor ventilation, many people, a long rehearsal, and body heat led to a buildup of aerosols that circulated with the air in the room.
No one was wearing masks. This was well before masks were recommended, and although I haven’t tried singing through one I have trouble imagining that it’d work well.
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A third study reports that most homemade masks work just fine, even when we sneeze. Emphasis on most. I still see the occasional online photo of or pattern for crocheted masks. What are people thinking? They might as well take chalk and draw a mask on their faces.
Or magic marker if they want a longer-lasting useless gesture.
Sorry about the lack of a link here. I cleverly linked it to this post. By the time I figured that out, I’d lost the actual article.
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One more study and then I’ll shut about about science and we can go back to the glorious and multicolored ignorance that marks public life these days. This one comes from Dublin, was presented at a conference involving many initials, and shows that about half the people who get ill with Covid have persistent fatigue ten weeks after they recover, even if they had mild cases. The fatigue hits women more often than men.
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A man coming back from traveling abroad was told to isolate himself for two weeks. Instead he went on a pub crawl with some friends. They hit a number of pubs, then two days later the returned traveler tested positive.
The area went from 12 cases per 100,000 to 212 cases per 100,000 in less than three weeks.
See? I told you we’d stop talking about science.
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Spain is developing a test that will allow people to test themselves and get a result in thirty minutes. It works like the gizmos that diabetics use to measure their blood sugar, meaning a person could use it and reuse it, and it gives no false positives.
Does it give any false negatives? Good question, and wasn’t I clever to ask it? I’m not sure. I could only find one reasonably up-to-date article on the thing and it didn’t say.
The test is called the Convat and it’s “very advanced” and “almost at a pre-commercial level,” whatever that means. It sounds good unless you slow down, at which point you notice how little you understand it.
It may be available to the public in December or January. Emphasis on may.
Now the fine print: They’re talking about the public in Spain. The project manager, Laura Lechuga, talked about the importance of having Spanish technology, since what’s available in one country may not become available in another. In other words, this is Spain trying to make sure they can handle their problems, not ours.
Sorry to tease you with that. We really need to all be in this together, but at the moment we don’t seem to be.
I’m trying frantically to figure out where NL is. I know your blog is about Greek food (a small moment of appreciation here). But I’m not sure where you yourself are.
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Nl is short of The Netherlands :)
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Thanks. I didn’t even get the initials right.
Sigh.
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No worries. Have a good day :)
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Here in the US the anti-mask brigade is living proof of the concerted effort by the powers that be to replace any notion of the ‘common good’ with nationalistic fervor and a love of private property. Fortunately, the extremists of the lot are a minority.
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What scares me is how aggressive a minority they are. It’s bizarre how they’ve taken not just nationalism and private property but individual rights and turned them into their rights but not anyone else’s.
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Yes, it’s so discouraging.
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I’ll see you and raise you one: I’m downright scared.
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The rumours about the pub crawl person in Bolton – a borough which neighbours mine – have been circulating for weeks, but Bolton council confirmed them yesterday. I hope he/she is pleased with themselves. Several people are in hospital, and some cafes and pubs may never reopen after having to close again. And there are so many stories, in different parts of the country, about house parties, or about pubs which aren’t bothering with social distancing. I feel sorry for the authorities – what chance have they got with idiots like that around?
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I don’t know whether to blame the idiots or Dominic Cummings. Or possibly both.
Can we go with both?
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People are responsible for their own actions. I’m fed up of everyone blaming Dominic Cummings – just because one person was irresponsible doesn’t mean that everyone else has to be. I very much doubt that the Bolton Super Spreader gave Dominic Cummings a second thought: he just wanted to go out with his mates.
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That’s all true, but I do think the whole thing began falling apart when he so blatantly broke the rules he helped write for the rest of the country and then not only wasn’t fired but was defended. I think it changed the tone around lockdown. These things have a way of filtering into a culture, and I think that whole event did, affecting people who wouldn’t necessarily name it as a reason for their actions. It said to the country, We’re not serious about this.
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I’m assuming it was a bloke, anyway! I suppose it could possibly have been a woman who went out on the lash with her mates. But I doubt it …
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The article may have said, but if so I don’t remember and it’s 9 pm, I’m not in a mood to go chasing it. I’m willing to admit, though, that idiots come in both flavors.
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I think I’m going to carry on disinfecting the groceries, assuming I can still get them, for a while. I also operate a quarantine system for items that we don’t need immediately.
I see there are now large fines for people who don’t self-isolate. We could have done with that six months ago.
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We could’ve done a lot of things. Lot not opened up to foreign holidays. Like put up enough money to make it possible for low-paid people to stay home from work when they’re told to quarantine. Like made sure that people who were supposed to stay home really do. Like replaced this government with one that has some minimal competence. Oops, sorry, that came from a different list. I get confused sometimes. I need a cup of tea. Care to join me?
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I’m on the cider now, otherwise I would. I wonder what people will write when this is just history.
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We’re–or at least I’m–so deep in the minutiae that it’s hard to imagine someone writing about this from a distance, getting an overview. All I can imagine, though, is historians, shaking their heads, trying to make sense of us.
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I also still quarantine my newly purchased groceries for 3-4 days. I wipe down those that go in the fridge. What can it hurt? Directives have turned on a dime.
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It can’t hurt at all, but this isn’t about directives but what scientists are, little by little, figuring out. It’s all being patched together as they go, so yes, it’s tentative. I expect I’ll keep wiping down everything wipable as well.
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It’s hard enough trying to follow the science. Once you run it through a few politicians and a 24-hour news cycle, it might as well have been written by Dr. Seuss. I guess the good news is I was rejected when I attempted to join the Junior Choir. Scarred me for life. I never tried again.
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They just might’ve saved your life. As for the science, though, I’d prefer Dr. Seuss. By comparison, he was fact-checked and reliable. If he said it was a Who, it was a Who.
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“I meant what I said and I said what I meant. An elephant’s faithful one-hundred percent!”
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See? He said that and i don’t know about you but I’ve never been lied to by and elephant.
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Me neither.
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crocheted masks? goodness gracious, great balls of fire – you rattled my brains on that one
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I know. What are these people thinking?
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I’ll stock up patience. That alone will do.
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A wise choice.
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Yeast. Don’t forget to buy yeast. I STILL cannot find it locally.
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Really? That settled down here relatively quickly. Have you tried making a sourdough starter?
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What is with people and panic buying? There’s so much toilet paper now that you could boil it and serve it as an English side dish. Hopefully this time, the stores limit quantities immediately so that shortages don’t happen again the way they did in April.
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To make it a workable British side dish, after you boil it, you have to coat it with oil and roast it.
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It’s interesting that the anti-maskers are usually anti-vaxxers, too. They must be getting their information from the same Questionable source.
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It’s getting Qrazy out there, isn’t it?
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I see they’re talking about the Rule of Six might be lifted just for Christmas Day.
I think it must be that actually eating brussel sprouts might give immunity (just giving your Google rating for brussel sprouts mentions a bit of a lift. You’re welcome.)
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Lifting restrictions for Christmas Day? Talk about the gift that keeps on giving.
Funny you should mention brussels sprouts as a Covid preventative, though, because I was just doing some research on quinine and malaria. We’ll just drop brussels sprouts in to replace quinine and we’ll have lots of b.s.
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I’d probably need quinine and malaria to make me eat a brussels sprout.
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I’ll work on the recipe between now and Christmas. For one day we can all get together–only you won’t want to.
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Well, maybe no Brussels sprouts, but lechuga (as in Laura Lechuga) means “lettuce.”
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I know. After some wrestling with what passes for my better judgment, I decided not to make any jokes about it.
It helped that they weren’t funny.
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Ellen, I hope the second wave doesn’t hit the US. I’ve been using too many paper towels thinking there will be plenty to buy. Oh, Oh, and what about toilet paper? Sorry, if you are going back to short supply of goods in the UK. Haven’t we all had enough of this virus. Let’s move on the the flu. At least there’s a vaccine. Have a happy rest of the week. Hope all is well. 📚 Christine
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I was in the supermarket today and didn’t see any evidence of panic buying. Maybe what we’re seeing it panic tweeting. Panic rumor-mongering.
But for the US to have a second wave, the first one has to die down a bit.
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I think the US has one big wave going. And it will roll right into our flu season. Panic tweeting—rumors most likely. Stock up anyway. I’ve done that forever even before COVID. Don’t ask me why. 🤨Must be security based. 🤔
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We are grateful that you mentioned pet food. We would also like to thank you for saying to stock up. The last time, humans hoarded it. Humans need to learn to share better. Purrs Snoops and Kommando Kitty
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I’m glad you approve. Humans can be thoughtless creatures unless properly instructed by their cats.
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