Coping with Covid-19
 

I am not sure if this is the right forum for this but wondered if members might find it helpful to have a thread to share their experiences of coping with the Covid-19 pandemic and to support each other.

I am OK. I go out to do some food shopping every few days and stay home the rest of the time. Most people obey the rules. The most important one is never to come closer to anybody else than about 1.5 metres. When I get back home the first thing I do is to wash my hands carefully with soap and water.

I phoned my sister in NZ last week. She is fine and reassured me that as far as she can make out all of the other members of my whanau (kinship group/big family) are as well. That was good to hear.

Sure--why not?
 

This place is as good as any.

My tutoring and test prep work has dried up--it's not that I couldn't do online sessions, but since most exams my students prepare for are in limbo, there's no timeline and nothing to prepare for (yet).

But, fortunately, my wife (with her all important health insurance for us) can telecommute. My son tele-colleges. I tele-complain (and do the supermarket jaunts, dressed in my hazmat suit, mask, and gloves--COVID couture, as I like to say).

So far my family is still healthy, but we do know some people who have gotten hit--not severely, fortunately (yet).

I have been writing a number of commentaries in the NY Times--mostly about the need to have our researchers examine why some people seem to be so much more vulnerable to this than others, and what physiological characteristics they may share. Pre-existing conditions certainly play a part, but there are likely a HUGE number of asymptomatic people out there who would test positive for the virus--some med researchers have said it might be somewhere from a quarter to half of all infected people--and we have to find out how they remain asymptomatic, and if they are spreading virus to the extent that symptomatic people do, and if they have certain genetic profiles that enable this, and a whole host of other questions (including whether they might have antibodies useful to create a treatment).

Advice on how to wear a mask in the New York Times--"A Face Mask Primer" (April 8, 2020):

How NOT to Wear a Mask - The New York Times

I'm CALM as I know this shall all pass. I don't own a mask, nor gloves and I have no plans to get their vaccine, I have not gotten any vaccine in about 30 yrs or more and don't plan now., Here's some info on that proposed vaccine and this sure bothers me:

As pressure for coronavirus vaccine mounts, scientists debate risks of accelerated testing - Reuters

Immune system, immune system and NONE of the so called experts preach this one. They are clueless or whatever they are... I have not had any flu in decades but I do keep a strong immune system.

One source says this was one Bad ***** flu and it will probably come and go for years as most flues show up every fall.