Life in the Age of Corona
A Daily Diary
Friday, April 24th, 2020
Certifiably Crazy
Recent research suggests the virus might have begun spreading outside of China as early as mid December, but certainly as of January. As a result today is completely pre-occupied with virus news.
It has now been established that there were Corona induced death in Washington State already in early February. Also, the virus was most likely brought to New York from Europe.
This now has me thinking back and I actually to my emails to identify the exact dates. What if? On January 29th, 2020 I left work early in and severe pain took myself to the emergency room at Sibley Hospital, seeing that of course neither my GP nor my orthopedic surgeon could be reached after 2pm. After an hour and a half I was given pain killers and told to see my orthopedic surgeon the next day, which I did on January the 30th, 2020. Rather than a pinched nerve, he diagnosed rotator cuff tendonitis and gave me a cortisone shot. 3 days later I had no sense of taste, which I attributed to the Cortison shot. I even researched if it was one of the know side effects (it was not). However, starting January 22nd I had started to develop what I considered a very unpleasant cold. Because we had plans, I took plenty of flu meds and felt okay, so we set off for Jackson. I had a terribly sore throat later in the day and for the next four or so, so much so that I could hardly swallow and ran off to buy Strepsils. I am pretty sure I ran a temperature, though I never checked, because being sick was totally not convenient seeing it was skikido weekend and I was intent on going out onto the slopes of Jackson Hole (and did) and practice Aikido three days running (and I did), though I did end class on Saturday early feeling very much under the weather.
All in all mz "cold" lasted about a week, apart from this very annoying, but strangely dry cough, that lingered for quite a while after and coincided with the loss of taste. Sound familiar? And with the latest news, I wonder: What if it was a bout of COVID-19?
In hindsight, I feel so selfish and terribly bad. How many people might I have harmed? The only saving grace: no one who was there seems to have subsequently been ill, at least that I know of.
I guess there is only one way to find out, and that is to take an antibody test. Seems the local nurse practitioner offers these. Seeing the NIH where I volunteered to be part of an antibody study has never gotten back to me, I think I will have it done. At least I will have clarity, not that it in anyway makes me feel better about the people I might have put in danger. The remaining mystery will be, if I did contract it, where the hell did I?
The global total count today is 2.66 million. The death toll in the USA has surpassed 50k. and the seven day rolling average increase for the USA seems stable at ~30k. The USA now accounts for over one third of all death globally. At least numbers in New York are continuing to decrease, showing that the stringent measures enforced work. Both EM and I are rather fed up with this sequestered life, nonethelesss, I much rather do this once for an extended period of time than repeating this exercise every few months. So let’s please all #stayhome, suck it up.
Sadly, sponsored protests against #stayhome orders continue.
The only ray of hope comes from China where scientists have tested a vaccine on macaques.The initial results look promising.
If anyone needed proof that the leader of the USA is a certified idiot, here it is. Inject disinfectant as cure for Corona? Seriously? Seems these statements were based on advice provided by a peddler of chlorine dioxide. “Genesis II – a Florida-based outfit that claims to be a church but which in fact is the largest producer and distributor of chlorine dioxide bleach as a “miracle cure” in the US. He brands the chemical as MMS, “miracle mineral solution”, and claims fraudulently that it can cure 99% of all illnesses including cancer, malaria, HIV/Aids as well as autism.”
Please dear America, on November 3rd can you for the sake of humanity elect someone, anyone, with brains?
Comments
28.04.2020 19:54
Mark Hughes
That Guardian article on MMS is very interesting. Surprised I have not seen elsewhere.