Coronavirus and homemade tools

[f800]

This is an incorrect procedure for storage. In the operating room, we have to re use our N 95 mask. It is kept in a light paper bag to help the air borne droplets desiccate . Specifically instructed not to keep in a plastic bag ( this sealed container would have the same effect). Anesthesia personnel are at high risk when instrumenting the airway at the induction and emergence of surgery

[Saltfever]

I'm getting tired of the hysteria, misinformation & lack of basic math surrounding the actual threat .
. . . Yes, I'm aware that there's going to be a Bell Curve . . .

One issue it’s not a bell curve (which is a measure of standard deviation). It is an exponential curve. I won’t belabor this point but if you are still interested after reading below you can go here for an explanation of the current problem.

We have many people with preexisting conditions and when attacked by the flu some will have to go to the hospital for ventilators. Ventilators will save many. The Corona virus attacks differently. It hits the respiratory system in perfectly healthy people but most severely in our healthy older population. Normally, with managed medical care and ventilators, they would survive a pneumonia infection. With no ventilators they risk dying. That is the part you are missing. We have a finite supply of ventilators. The shape of the curve dictates whether our medical resources can meet the demand. A picture is worth . . . so look at the picture. We have no vaccine and a finite medical capacity. Accept that the red line is our supply of ventilators. Those above the line will die. Those below will survive. Your bell curve is medically manageable the other isn’t.




I tried to enlarge the pic but couldn't. Again, I tried to delete redundant pics. Sorry, it can't be done. I'll look for a forum tutorial.

[FEM2008]

I'm getting tired of the hysteria, misinformation & lack of basic math surrounding the actual threat of Covid-19, so I did some rudimentary calculations today based on current data for the U.S. to put this in realistic perspective:

Please check out this article that explains the differences between Covd-19 and the Flu https://www.livescience.com/new-coro...-with-flu.html -It comes down to the percentage of people requiring hospitalizations and critical care. It appears to be an order of magnitude higher. Hospitalization length is very long, which is already overwhelming most regions. The death rate seems to be much higher among confirmed cases (the death rate in overwhelmed areas is hovering at about 10-12% of confirmed cases). So at the current projections, this will end up much deadlier than the seasonal flu.

The flu is most infections after day 3 or 4 of exhibiting symptoms. Covid-19 is infectious up to 12 days before exhibiting any symptoms, so it makes it much harder to control. It concentrates highly in the upper airways making easier to shed the virus and infect others. It's a stealth weapon!

The flu fades predictably as the weather warms up. Covid 19 is spreading in countries which do not currently have the flu season and there are no signs of fading.

So what is wrong in trying to eliminate a new threat from becoming a permanent part of our lives? Even if ends being only as deadly as the flu, that doubles the number of dying people.

Cheers.

[Jon]

Thanks guys. I'm handling a copy-pasted version of this just-the-flu position here. I'm deeply familiar with how shaky this position is, for various different reasons (which I'm happy to see our guys already know), and I also understand how WND is subtly quoting the NEJM article out of context.

It's OK to include some brief discussion here to address people's concerns as to why this really is serious, but I'll make sure this thread stays on track. We have a great discussion here with relevant and helpful homemade tools and ideas, and if it strays too far, I can just move some posts into another thread where people can discuss a just-the-flu position to their hearts' content.

The numbers are worsening so rapidly now that the best move seems to be to show people the data, then wait a few days for it to get even worse, then check in with them again. I remember when Wuhan first went on lockdown, and I convinced myself that it was just the flu. Part of "we're all in this together" is that we all go through the same cycle of disbelief when we encounter information on the virus.

[old kodger]

Jon, I appreciate your concerns here and your efforts to rationalize the discussion on HMT, but if my comprehension of the situation in China, is correct, it's all done and dusted. Where the "western world" economies are all around minus 24/26%, China's is positive 3%, got to be more going on here than covid19.

[hemmjo]

.....Where the "western world" economies are all around minus 24/26%, China's is positive 3%, got to be more going on here than covid19.

There are VERY SCARY statistics, way more disconcerting than the Virus itself!!!

[f800]

That is incorrect. Due to shortages, we have to reuse our N 95 in the operating room. Anesthesia personnel are at high risk for infection due to instrumenting the airway at the beginnings by and the end of the case. It is recommended that the N95 mask be stored in a light paper bag to help dessicate the virus. Plastic bag is contraindicated and the plastic box functions the same way.

[IAMSatisfied]

Everyone should read this book: Linus Pauling's book

(1977). Vitamin C, the Common Cold and the Flu. W.H. Freeman. ISBN 978-0-7167-0360-0

Widely available but not cheap try the library

You can download a free PDF of that book here: https://ia803008.us.archive.org/18/i...%20Pauling.pdf

Lifestyle & dietary changes as homemade tools...

As the old adage goes, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. With that in mind, it's prudent to fortify one's immune system to be as robust as practical. Several ways one can do this are:

1) eat lots of fresh greens and veggies & shun all junk food. Get plenty of exercise, drink plenty of R.O. filtered water (1/2 oz. per lb. of body weight per day) and fresh air.

2) Added, refined sugars, maple syrup, honey, etc. ALL diminish or neutralize the immune system and reduces white blood cell count. Avoid these.

3) High dose Vitamin C, as Pauling suggests in the above linked book, is very helpful.

4) Cold water therapy/cold showers/polar bear swims all significantly boost (~ double) the whit blood cell count (~ double), which are your body's "border patrol" that apprehends and "eats" foreign invaders. The more of these good guys you have on duty, the fewer invaders get through the border.

Of course, there are other things one can do to boost immunity, but this is a good start.

[Jon]

Pauling's advocacy of mega-doses of vitamin C has been widely discredited, as has his concept of Orthomolecular medicine.

Advocating treatments such as this - which our best data tell us are very close to or equal to placebo in almost all situations - is harmful to people, because, even if the treatments have no effect, promoting them convinces people to prevent or delay the application of evidence-based treatment. This is especially true for Pauling's proposal to treat cancer with mega-dosing of vitamins. If you're interested in the complexities of the placebo effect, Harvard's Program in Placebo Studies is a good place to start.

There is a really narrow possible benefit of vitamin C supplementation, mostly for athletes, and there is some evidence that it may shorten the duration of colds for some people. And, of course, vitamin C supplementation can help people who are vitamin C deficient anyway (like all vitamins).

There is one study that intravenous vitamin C might help lower death rate in sepsis victims, and another study that vitamin C might help patients with sepsis and ARDS. There is no evidence that vitamin C will help prevent covid infection, and mega-dosing vitamin C can actually increase the risk of kidney stones.

Individual testimonials as to the value of mega-dosing vitamins may have correlated with positive effects for those individuals, and those individuals may be honestly sharing their personal experiences in a good-faith effort to help others. However, those effects do not present themselves when tested in larger populations, which strongly suggests - no surprise - that correlation is not causation.

Health improvements that laypeople attribute to practices such as vitamin mega-dosing are more likely caused by other activities that those people practice because they are more attentive to their health than average people. For example, someone may eat well, exercise daily, and mega-dose on vitamin C, and that person may attribute his improved health to vitamin C, when really he is healthy because he's participating in universally agreed-upon good health practices.

Some resources:

-Cochrane Review: Vitamin C for preventing and treating the common cold
-NEJM: Failure of High-Dose Vitamin C (Ascorbic Acid) Therapy to Benefit Patients with Advanced Cancer — A Controlled Trial
-NEJM: High-Dose Vitamin C versus Placebo in the Treatment of Patients with Advanced Cancer Who Have Had No Prior Chemotherapy — A Randomized Double-Blind Comparison
-Harvard Medical School Coronavirus Resource Center

The New England Journal of Medicine, Harvard Medical School, and Cochrane Reviews are our most credible sources of medical information.

This Quackwatch article on Pauling is also good: The Dark Side of Linus Pauling's Legacy

This site, and especially this thread, isn't the place to push pseudo-medical treatments like vitamin mega-dosing, or low-quality news sources like WND. If someone wants to mention medically questionable advice once, fine. However, repeatedly pushing it isn't acceptable. Stop doing it, or I'll ban you.

----

Now, back to homemade tools. I like this 3D-printed hands-free door opening system. By Matthew Davis. 0:38 video:

This DIY mask with replaceable breathing filters is a very early prototype, but it's extremely creative, very low-buck, and has a lot of idea value.

Fullsize image: https://diqn32j8nouaz.cloudfront.net...s_fullsize.jpg






Finally, some humor. Hat tip to mklotz for this page of coronavirus jokes. I especially like this photo for its sad-but-true quality:



And, no day would be complete without some toilet paper jokes. Here we have a good comic:



And a GIF of a corona-alchemist turning paper into gold:

[FEM2008]

Jon, I appreciate your concerns here and your efforts to rationalize the discussion on HMT, but if my comprehension of the situation in China, is correct, it's all done and dusted. Where the "western world" economies are all around minus 24/26%, China's is positive 3%, got to be more going on here than covid19.

During the 1918 pandemic, cities and states that took the most aggressive measures and sacrificed the most were the ones that bounced back the quickest and had the best economic boom. The number of confirmed cases in the US is increasing by over 20k every day (as of yesterday) and doubling every few days, while China has had fewer than a 1000 cases almost all week. They are in the recovery while the rest of the world is still out of control. Other countries that took hard measures early are beginning to see their economy improve as well.
It seems we failed to learn from our own history.