Two of our scientists from Tulane University are studying coronavirus. We have a primate center north of New Orleans that will do this.
Tulane University in new Orleans has a primate center north of New Orleans in Covington, Louisiana.
They are going to inject and infect the primates with the virus to study it. These two doctors (scientists) were asked to do this study and they agreed to study how this virus will spread among the primates. They will also work on treatments for the virus.
These viruses are so worrisome. My husband’s company has been effected by the situation because manufacturing is in China. Thank God my husband traveled to China before the virus outbreak and all the protesters as well.
A long time ago some of the primates escaped from Tulane. Some were recovered in people’s backyards. Some were never recovered.
I have always been very OCD about hand washing. I think that came from my mom, grandma, aunts and the nuns at my school. It’s just how I am.
I can’t imagine people not washing their hands. Gross! I am a bit of a germ freak.
I remember years ago a restaurant in our area closing because a kitchen worker had hepatitis and cut themselves and did not wash their hands and bandage it properly. A customer died from the blood that contaminated the food. So sad.
How OCD are you with hand washing?
I met a lovely lady not long ago, in her nineties, whose father had been a surgeon in the Great War; and she learned her hand-washing technique from him (no latex gloves for him, let alone nifty silicon ones). She told me that once she had been in the ladies' room at a restaurant and noticed that the woman standing next to her about to dry her own hands was watching her. The woman stopped, returned to the basin, and washed her hands over again.
I do use hand gels too but I am not a fan of them. A stout nail brush, soap, water and clean towels or paper towels, please.
But also - you have to be a bit practical and accept that your hands are still going to be covered in microorganisms. We do not (we could not) live in a sterile environment. If you get to the point where you're trying to open doors with your elbows you've probably gone too far.
I agree. I don’t like sanitizers on a regular basis either because from what I have read and heard, they aren’t as good as soap and warm water. I think doctors should wash up to their elbows like in the old days.
Okay, between you and countrymouse I will attempt to hold a bathroom door, not sure that I can push the toilet handle without a tissue though.
You know, they do say people's coffee tables are more disgusting than anything else in their house. They tend to come home and prop their feet on them. I do take my shoes off though!
I think hand sanitizers tend to kill the beneficial bacteria and also cause bacteria on your skin to get out of balance. We are covered in beneficial bacteria but they keep each other in line. Let one get out of balance and you have problems. One of the reasons you can get a yeast infection (and thrush) when you take antibiotics. Ok so that is yeast but it is there all the time. The "good" stuff keeps it in balance and you have problems when the "good" stuff gets wiped out. We need the yeast too, though! Same with Staph. We have that already but when it's out of whack, you can get an issue. In other words, it takes a microbiome to keep us healthy!
I just would hate having an infected monkey in my back yard!
I thought the hand wipes available in grocery stores were an excellent way to protect oneself against whatever a former user might have left. Some shoppers make me vvery uncomfortable, especially the ones who handle packages of raw meat, even if the packages are run through on a conveyor belt and automatically wrapped.
Wondering about the rapid spread of the Coronavirus, I've often wondered if the issue of hand sanitizers destroying good bacteria has contributed to masses of people with less immune resistance.
Or perhaps it's also b/c so many people today don't interact with nature, but instead spend more time playing with tech devices and don't build up resistance just by being stronger.
There's no question that this is a frightening situation.
I too am a big hand washer. I also use plenty of hand sanitizer. While alcohol hand sanitizers aren't as good as washing, they are better than nothing.
GA, it's not hand sanitizers destroying good bacteria contributing to people with less immune resistance. It's showering destroying the good bacteria. It's becoming increasingly clear, this everyday showering that's become the fad in the last few decades is bad for you not good. I posted a link to a study concerning the diversity of the body's microbiome in the various how often to bathe threads.
As for bathroom flushing, my favorite bathroom for that of all time was at a bus stop in Japan. It was a complete no touch bathroom. Well other than the seat if that's your thing. But the robot toilet cleaned that seat first for you. The robotic toilet also raised the lid, washed your private parts, dried you and flushed. The sink automatically turned on the water, automatically dispensed soap and automatically dried your hands. Now all this smart toilet cleaning your private parts is not all good. It's possible to be too clean. You need a good microbiome down there. There is a syndrome in Japan that people are too clean. The solution is to layoff the bidet for a while.
Never never would I open doors with my elbows!
But my husband does, as he opens the doors for me. Lol.
Wow! What a bathroom! Is that common in Japan? Talk about automated! That’s fantastic designing. My husband is an engineer. He’s in upper management now but I remember his days designing for the ‘smart home.’
See, I know what you are saying about bacteria but I have been programmed to be a ‘germ freak’ since a young child. Habits are hard to break.
I’m a germ freak too. I will only use public restrooms if I absolutely have to & will flush the toilet with my foot. If I can’t push the door with my arm, I will use a paper towel to open it.
Now with the Corona Virus I’m so afraid to touch the shopping cart........ I pull the sleeves of my jacket down to grab it to push it into the store where the disinfectant wipes are.
But even with all that, I just got some kind of bug since my husband & son aren’t are germaphobic as me!
Phew, that was a senior moment...
YES!!! Why can’t everyplace do automatic flush toilets? We have some but older places don’t have them. Perfect solution.
Ever see those videos where a toilet flushes and the spray particles hit toothbrushes? Gross!!! My toothbrush is far away from the toilet! Hahaha 😂
My husband and daughters aren’t as bad either but they know if they help me cook they better wash their hands!
Oh, and don’t even think about tasting and putting the spoon back in! Yuck! Use a separate dish for serving.
Don’t eat out of the fridge and expect me to eat behind you!!! I can’t do it. I will starve first. If I ever caught anyone drinking out of a bottle or carton in the fridge I would freak!
I will try the kicking then toilet thing. I have used my sleeve too to protect myself. Hahaha.
Feel better, Jada 💗
During peak flu periods, I clean the condiment bottles in many restaurants; there's a big difference between the previous customers handling the condiment bottles and the restaurant staff handling the plates and food.
To control my asthma while traveling I took lots of immune suppressing medications. I caught a couple of colds and the flu once during all the travel.
Me too! I have severe allergies and asthma. I have been hospitalized for my asthma. Yeah, I always feel that everything has to be clean. I get why you do too. Thanks for responding.
https://youtu.be/CtfqUtW_8AA
https://www.wakingtimes.com/2020/02/18/the-coronavirus-5g-connection-and-coverup/
I recall when cell phones were still fairly new, before they literally became as basic to some people as shoes, that there was concern about the battery in the cell phone being so close to the brain. I haven't read much about that lately, but to me it's an unresolved issue, so I use ear buds just to be on the safe side.
If a 5G network really is a causal factor, I would anticipate a lot of resistance and denial from the tech industry. I'm interested to see how this plays out.
Thanks for sharing this.
Never mind political aspects: consider the quality of most journalists' and reporters' grasp of basic scientific concepts. Hopeless! Plus, they have to write interesting headlines.
There is no conspiracy: we are all human animals, equally targets for the virus, and nobody wants anybody to be deceived into catching a potentially lethal infection. But there is an awful lot of uninformed noise out there, so take sensible advice from people who know what they're talking about.
Atul Gawande recounts this in his book 'The Checklist Manifesto' - aid workers supplied villagers with antiseptic soap hoping to reduce the rate of fecal-oral transmission. The results were beyond their most optimistic estimates, and they were delighted. But what they found was that it wasn't their special soap that made the big difference; it was the message about washing hands in general. The villagers were mostly using their own soap (probably grotty old bars of it, with murky grey cracks and squashed ends, if one or two of my clients are anything to go by) and that worked just fine!
We get training (VERY basic) in infection control and we're supplied with gloves, aprons, shoe covers and masks. The shoe covers are useless - they're slippery, which is a serious drawback when you're supporting frail people with poor mobility. I carry indoor shoes with me, and I've recently taken to cleaning them between visits with disinfectant wipes (sorry, Greta Thunberg). The masks are intended for the rare occasions when there's a serious risk such as active TB to consider (and anyway I've seen the masks, and they're about as much use as a chocolate teapot; and anyway we don't - yet - get training in putting them on properly, for which routine we anyway don't have time; thank goodness there's been only one TB case and that wasn't active).
The gloves help prevent us tracking infection from one household to another; but as for individuals' care - hmmmm. You wear your gloves, like a good little worker. Your client can't reach to take her slippers off, and her legs aren't strong enough to kick them off, so you use 'minimal physical support' and whip them off for her. What price your lovely sterile gloves now, then, eh? Have you SEEN this lady's bathroom floor?
I suppose every little helps and I wouldn't dream of breaking our rules, but if this is supposed to be a serious Infection Control strategy... well.
I don't know what will happen when Covid-19 arrives. The choice for our clients isn't between a definitely healthy worker and a possibly infected worker. It's often between us and nobody. I will of course follow instructions.
Shoes are filthy! Thanks for bringing that up! Hahaha 😂
Look at other countries that remove their shoes in their homes. You’re so smart. 😊.
Ear buds are very popular. I don’t use them but have thought about it.
Talking about filthy things. Phones are dirty too. I remember hearing a doctor saying that people bring their phones into the bathroom and they are super contaminated. Ewwww...gross, huh?
Remote controls too.
What about planes? Do you think they are loaded with germs? Also, who do you think is most vulnerable to germs, the elderly or young children?
What about pacifiers with children? I see kids drop them and moms give them back to kids without washing them first!
Here's a perfect example. Our training includes Food Safety, from which we learn that we NEVER use the same sink for hand washing and food prep. Right? Of course right! Every single person on our team is taught that if they didn't know it anyway. The very same team daily assists people who can't use their bathrooms (for various reasons) to wash at their kitchen sinks. Does every household have separate plastic basins, at least? No of course they don't - they've just got back from hospital, they have bigger things to worry about.
Of course planes are loaded with germs. It's a contained environment. Anything anybody breathes out in the course of several hours is going to be breathed in by everyone else at some point. The estimated range of the diameter of a bacterium is between 1 and 10 micrometers. With viruses, 20 to 400 nanometers. There is no air filter that can capture those.
Containment and quarantine will slow transmission and are worth doing in proportion. But Covid-19 is out of the bag and we'd better be practical about it. Today's headline over here is that some poor chap in Haslemere went to his GP not feeling very well, was tested, and is now in an isolation unit in London. He hadn't travelled abroad and didn't know anyone who had, so the public health people are understandably alarmed about him. They are trying to trace his contacts now.
Haslemere is a typical commuter-belt town about twenty? miles from London. My bet is that this man's daily commute joins up with train routes from Heathrow Airport into London, and he was standing next to someone who'd got off a plane where he'd sat next to someone who had a connecting flight from somewhere etc etc etc.
Well, this man and probably thirty others that morning alone. So what are they going to do? - quarantine London? Close Heathrow? They could - but flights from Heathrow in the last two weeks have already gone where..?
Oh great - ten a.m. news: the GP the Haslemere man saw is "showing symptoms."
The statistics for this virus show (so far) an unusual pattern of deaths. Normally it would be U-shaped: very young and very old at highest risk, less so in the middle. With this one, risk increases with age: babies appear to be almost invulnerable, risk increases steadily with age and is highest among the over 80s.
Here we are: fatality rates among confirmed cases in China as at Feb 11 2020 -
Age in years
0-9 0%
10-19 0.2%
20-29 0.2%
30-39 0.2%
40-49 0.4%
50-59 1.3%
60-69 3.6%
70-79 8%
>80 14.8%
Thanks, those statistics are fascinating to me. Yeah, I can see how planes are a risk. I guess cruise ships and trains are too. Also, anywhere with large congregations of people.
Our church has asked us not to shake hands or exchange hugs during times that the flu has been going around. I think about prisons and of course hospitals.
Why do we hear about infections happening in the hospitals? Aren’t they supposed to be a sterile environment?
Operating theatres and isolation suites do better. There are lamina flow rooms, too, where even the air going in is ultra-filtered. But the human workers, not to mention the patient, although they go through various cleaning and sterilisation routines (more reasons to read The Checklist Manifesto!) are not wearing sealed suits; and they breathe and they sweat.
My ex's colleague threw aside a learned paper on some marvellous new pre-colonoscopy technique with a snort of contempt, and declared: "the only way to sterilise the 'uman gut is to tekk it out an' BOIL it!" People are teeming with microorganisms, they're supposed to be.
The special difficulty of 'health care related infections' (hospitals felt the term 'hospital acquired infection' was accusatory and unfair!) arises from proximity and concentration. If you took twenty sick people and shut them in an ordinary house with no infection control measures at all, just imagine! So it isn't that hospitals are doing a bad job, it's that the aim of zero cross-infection is extremely difficult to accomplish.