Marvin Irving Blusteln

In trump world disenfectant is already in the punch.  And in math 45=0.

Janis Kliphardt (Emery)

"The crazy has now caught up to our public health institutions in the middle of a deadly pandemic. It's hard to think of a worse case scenario."  
-- Brett McGurk

Stewart Myrent

I thought it was time for another excerpt from Seymour Morris Jr.'s, "American History Revised:  200 Startling Facts that never made it into the textbooks" - from a sub-chapter titled "America in 1800", "It took six weeks to cross the Atlantic. Traveling from Boston to Washington by stagecoach took ten days, at fifteen to sixteen hours a day.  Shipping a ton of goods thirty miles inland cost as much as shipping it all the way to England.  America consisted of a lot of small towns.  Political argument and brawling was a major source of entertainment; language could become quite extreme.  In the election campaign (of 1800), Federalist newspapers predicted the election of Thomas Jefferson would cause the 'teaching of murder, robbery, rape, adultery and incest.'  Recent presidents have it easy.  The federal government was tiny: 293 people, including members of Congress and the Supreme Court.  The president had a salary of $25,000, but 'no house, nor carriage, nor servants, nor, indeed a single secretary.'  All expenses for protocol, office, travel, and other 'business-related' expenses had to come out of the president's personal pocket."  One more thing from the same sub-chapter, "Tuition at Harvard College in 1800 was sixteen dollars a year - a bargain compared with the more glamorous Princeton (then called the College of New Jersey), where tuition was one hundred dollars a year." 

Marvin Irving Blusteln

For Paul and all those who choose not speak out against truth deniers.

Alan A. Alop

Bravo Marvin!

To inject or not to inject. That is the question. 

Whether 'tis nobler to suffer the slings and arrows of coronavirus,

Or to take an arm, infuse the Clorox, and die.

To shuffle off this mortal coil. Away from the madness of this King.

Stewart Myrent

Marv, I was laughing my ass off viewing your interestingly & enticingly packaged Clorox Chewables - do you think it's too late to buy Clorox stock? And Alan, I applaud your efforts to raise the classiness of the Forum by injecting the words of the Bard into our Forum & discussion. Very nice!

Stewart Myrent

i just wanted to mention a very funny parody I just saw on Yahoo!  It's by comedian Randy Rainbow & it's a parody of "A Spoonful of Sugar" from "Mary Poppins" & it's called "A Spoonful of Clorox".  I could tell you how funny it is, but I think it's worth seeing once.  I do not know if it's available on YouTube.

Janis Kliphardt (Emery)

The coronavirus is a stress test.  
"Over the course of a lifetime, the effects of daily and hourly stressors accumulate.  
Ultimately, people who are unable to take time off of work when sick---or who don't have a comfortable and quiet home, or who lack access to good food and clean air---are likely to bear the burden of severe disease."

The coronavirus has turned the world upside down.  
It's not good to quarantine our feelings.  
In the midst of it all, laughter is good medicine.  
Thanks, guys.

Janis Kliphardt (Emery)

We know the DANGER signs of coronavirus spread.  
Remember there's a 2-week lag.

There are data points for re opening.  
We have to be smart about re opening. 
Testing still lags.

We must keep the infection rate down,
and be prepared to track and contact trace...

We must protect and respect frontline and essential workers.

We need to ramp up reliable testing and know where we can be tested.

We've changed reality, flattened the curve, saved lives by slowing the spread.
Let's be smart and stop the spread; we need to do better than plateau, we need infections to decline.

The coronavirus will dictate our timeline: our work's not done.

We're learning from the experience of coronavirus,
let's build better systems for the future.

Janis Kliphardt (Emery)

There are warning signs from around the world about re-opening too soon.

Testing is key to re-opening.

We must keep the infection rate down,
and be prepared to track and contact trace...

Why are we funding hotels, airlines, big corporations?

opening hair salons and barbershops, massage parlors and tattoo shops?

Frontline workers are surrendering the me for the we.

Let's extend the lockdown.

The crisis brings out the best and the worst in people.

If ever there was a moment to put partisan politics aside,

now is that moment.

Americans are good neighbors,

fund working Americans.

Stewart Myrent

Janis, I agree whole-heartedly with your stressing the need for more than "merely adequate" testing, as I've been seeing from every quarter, all sources saying that we need way more testing capacity AND just as importantly, the follow-up tracing, that you mentioned (as w/o follow-up tracing, the whole gain from testing goes out the window).  I saw Gov. Pritzker on TV the other day, & he was saying that IL had gotten all the way up to 10,000 tests a day (which was their primary goal).  When I did the calculation of how long it would take to give every IL citizen their first test (at 10,000 per day), it wound up it would take over 2 1/2 yrs. & even if they could ramp up to 20,000 tests per day, it would still take 15 or 16 mos.  I was originally going to post about a conversation I had with my brother today (it's his 68th b'day), but I'll save it for another time, as this whole testing thing is considerably more important.  In closing, I just want to say that, perversely, I am glad I lived long enough to see this, because, otherwise, I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have believed it.

Janis Kliphardt (Emery)

The word "quarantine" comes from the Italian word for forty, 
forty days was the medieval standard for public-health-related isolation.

As we try to see past our stay at home orders, 
to extend our network of social distancing, 
our questions will lead to more questions...

We are living in a time of cognitive dissonance.  
How will re-opening unfold in different parts of the country? the world?
Which of our daily habits will return as we once knew them,
and which will never be as before?  
The future won't look like the past,
the young will shape our habits and patterns in our new normal.

Testing and contact tracing are fundamental to getting coronavirus under control, otherwise we're flying blind as politicians lure us out these days.

Re-opening will take massive testing (and retesting) and contact tracing those people who test positive.  
People must be monitored with quick turnaround tests,
those who test positive must be quarantined for 14 days, and interviewed,
to proceed with contact tracing to warn contacts of exposure in order to halt chains of transmission.

Contacts are provided with education, information, and support to understand their risk, what they should do to separate themselves from others who were not exposed, monitor themselves for illness, and the possibility that they can spread the infection even if they themselves do not feel ill.

Contacts are encouraged to stay home and maintain social distance from others (at least 6 feet) until 14 days after their last exposure, in case they also become ill. They should monitor themselves by checking their temperature twice daily and watching for cough or shortness of breath. To the extent possible, public health staff should check in with contacts to make sure they are self-monitoring and have not developed symptoms.

Contacts who develop symptoms should promptly quarantine themselves and notify public health staff.

If the contact tests positive,

quarantine continues for 14 days,

and the interviewing and contact tracing progresses from there. 

We need a tracing army to contact people who were exposed to the coronavirus to treat the web of those infected with covid-19.

Janis Kliphardt (Emery)

We want simple answers, 
but the pandemic offers none.

The coronavirus not only invades bodies,
it exploits our biases.

Why is this a partisan issue?

In a pandemic, the strongest motivation must be a willingness to work as part of a whole,

to do our part to protect one another,

and frontline and essential workers put on extra duty if we spread the infection.

The coronavirus is spreading;
what the world looks like on the other side will come from our mutual effort.

Stewart Myrent

I just saw the John Oliver show for the 2nd time, which discusses two types of testing that needs to be done relative to the covid-19 pandemic. The first is diagnostic testing to determine if you have the covid-19 virus.  The second is antibody testing to determine if you've already had the virus & have developed antibodies to the disease.  They do not know for certain, if you have antibodies to covid-19, if that makes it impossible for you to get it again.  I do not know if, in the grand scheme of things, diagnostic testing is more important than antibody testing, or vice-versa, but I surely hope that they start moving their asses towards developing more widespread diagnostic testing, as I have seen that there have been estimates that we need to get to up to 5 million tests a day - we're not remotely close to anything near 5 million tests a day.  Yikes!

Janis Kliphardt (Emery)

Stewart, scientists are proposing tracking coronavirus in sewers to uncover the spread of the virus.  
Results from sewer studies could identify areas with high infection to give public health officials notice of the urgency for testing and contact tracing.

Janis Kliphardt (Emery)

Are we OK with the virus rebounding?
The coronavirus spreads like wildfire.  
Are we willing to balance choices we know will impact the world we live in?  
Are we willing to surrender the me for the we?  
We endured the pain of stay-at-home orders,
why not hang in to enjoy the gain of staying at home?

There is a cost to staying closed, there is also a cost to reopening too soon and too fast -
increasing personal contacts (without social distancing) promotes greater spread. 

It's NOT about you or me, it's about we.  
Crisis is the time to come together.  
As citizens we have a role to play: "Wear a mask!" 

Stewart Myrent

I saw in the last day or so, that the neighboring State of IN, is embarking on a slow procedure to re-open their state for businesses, in I believe 4 stages.  The 3rd stage, I believe scheduled for mid- to late-June allows for the opening of MOST businesses & the 4th & final stage (when the state will be totally open for business) is scheduled for (you guessed it!) the 4th of July.  I understand the symbolism of the 4th of July, here in America, but I am very concerned about that particular target date, as I'm thinking it might just upset, or reverse, any gains we've made against this particular virus by then.  I understand that people are getting antsy & are experiencing "cabin fever", but I'm also thinking if you can "suck it up" for another 2 mos. or so, we might have a chance of escaping this situation w/o having the total cases & deaths spiking up again.  We are (supposedly) the most advanced nation in the world.  How could we allow this to happen on our watch?  Other (smaller) nations have had much more success than we, in dealing wth this pandemic.  I'm guessing that since they're smaller nations, the pandemic must be easier to control.

Stewart Myrent

I forgot to mention in the previous post that another neighboring state to IL, the great State of MI, is experiencing something that would totally shock me if it happened here in IL.  Armed protesters (some supposedly with AR-15s - apparently, state law allows this) stormed the State Capitol building (none of them were wearing ANY masks) & were getting in the faces of the state troopers (who were there to maintain order). No violence occurred - because the protesters were there to persuade the State Legislature to override the governor's stay-at-home restrictions.  I heard later that if any of the protesters is covid-19 positive & infected any of the troopers, it could be considered an assault, because they really got in the troopers' faces.  I have to say, what's wrong with some people?  I was just curious if anyone else has any opinion on this subject.

Jack Edmund Bookwalter

Janis Kliphardt (Emery)

Today is National Nurses Day.

The Covid-19 pandemic is exhausting our nurses.

Let's show them love,

and the respect they deserve, 

for risking their lives

with our sincere gratitude,

manifested in doing all we can

to protect their lives and wellness

by social distancing, wearing masks,

and soap and water hand washing too.

These gifts - to stop the spread -

are the gifts our nurses tell us they most want.

David St. Pierre Bantz

Describing the "protests" inside the MI capitol by the pro-virus pro-death crowd as occuring with "no violence" is inaccurate. Images I saw had angry-looking folks shouting inches away into the faces of silent troopers, who brandished no weapons. It's good rifles were not fired but make no mistake: this is violence designed to intimidate and to intentionally injure or kill others by spread of cororonavirus and COVI-19. And as fall-out, a security guard at a store in MI who asked a customer to wear a mask was shot dead in response.

"Protest" signs at these events have included "Sacrafice the Weak" and "Arbeit Macht Frei." Violent militias with overt Nazi ideologies seeking a "race war" have been recruiting at these events. Sympathetic commentariats regularly shrug at an anticipated 100,000 excess U.S. deaths this year (more than military combat deaths in Korea, Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan over 50 years combined), insisting it's worth it to save busines profits.

As a verteran of some genuinely non-violent largely silent protests for civil rights and ending violence, I am offended by description of these sponsored terrorist events as non-violent protests.

Nancy Doyle (Sudlow)

Ronald I. Zager

I agree with what Nancy said.  It's good that at least one member of the NTHS-W class of '64 is still a wise-thinker and clear writer  Well two, actually...both Dave  and Nancy.  :-)

Nancy Doyle (Sudlow)

Janis Kliphardt (Emery)

The theme for National Nurses Week 2020 "Compassion/Expertise/Trust" which began yesterday on May 6th ends on May 12th, Florence Nightingale's birthday.

At the end of the 19th century, Florence Nightingale, dubbed the "Lady with the Lamp" because of her habit of making rounds at night, founded modern nursing. Thanks to her strict use of hand-washing and hygiene practices caring for wounded soldiers in the Crimean War, Florence and her helpers reduced the death rate from 42% to 2%, and ushered in nursing as we know it today.

Let's honor nurses everywhere, especially the incredible workers on the front lines of the coronavirus pandemic.

In honor of the 200th anniversary of Florence Nightingale's birth, W.H.O. has designated 2020 as the International Year of the Nurse in recognition of the dedication and commitment to their patients, and their profession, and the risks associated with nursing.