Why you need to stay home

Because this virus is fast.   It got around the world in a flash.
It's insidious because you can transmit it before or even without symptoms.

In the absence of testing, avoiding contact is our only choice.

But better tools are coming.  

• The existing test for active infection will be more widely available and faster.
• There will be an antibody test so we can know who has already had it, and that they are not at risk and can resume most activities.
• Those antibodies can be harvested and made into treatments for the critically ill.
•  Better treatments will be devised.   Data from hospitalizations will make it clear what helps and what doesn't.
• A vaccine may someday save us, but that's way off.

The critical thing right now is not to break the healthcare system altogether.   To slow the flow until we have enough ventilators, and then until we have more than oxygen to give people when they get sick.

Drink Tea Every Day

White tea is the young shoots of green tea.  Black tea is the old leaves of green tea.   They are the same, but white is the most bioactive.

I drink the Prince of Peace white tea, they carry it at my local asian grocery.  It's very soothing.

Online all over the place.

Green tea could hold the key to reducing antibiotic resistance

Reversal of LPS-induced immobility in mice by green tea polyphenols: possible COX-2 mechanism.
Reversal of LPS-induced central and peripheral hyperalgesia by green tea extract.
Green tea extract and catechin ameliorate chronic fatigue-induced oxidative stress in mice.
Green tea extract ameliorates endotoxin induced sickness behavior and liver damage in rats.
Green tea extract reverses the despair behaviour in reserpinised and diabetic mice.
Green tea extract improves running endurance in mice by stimulating lipid utilization during exercise.

Antibacterial, antiadherence, antiprotease, and anti-inflammatory activities of various tea extracts: potential benefits for periodontal diseases.
Green tea polyphenols enhance gingival keratinocyte integrity and protect against invasion by Porphyromonas gingivalis

Green tea ingredient may target protein to kill oral cancer cells

Notes from Isolation

Yeah, hey, guess what, the Writers decided to put a rattlesnake in my garage today.
I hate this shitshow.

Update:  Snake catchers now require "no-contact" phone ordering for the apocalypse. 
He said he was really busy today.  Didn't need to know that.
And our snake was his biggest of the year to date.   Yippee.

Here's an idea

How about everyone stop listening to that raging sociopath and just get together and charge him at the next press briefing.   There's got to be a narwhal tusk and a fire extinguisher around the White House somewhere...

This Week's Project

Find my sewing stuff and make face masks for an ER nurse I know.  Her husband is high risk.  They both need some for at home.

I have really good hepa vacuum bags, bleachable fabric, elastic and a machine...

We'll see how this turns out.

See the Vortex

People who have survived the coronavirus developed antibodies to it. That's how they got well.
And those antibodies can be used for treatment of others.
But since it's not patentable, Pharma isn't interested.

Medical company threatens to sue volunteers that 3D-printed valves for life-saving coronavirus treatments. The valve typically costs about $11,000 — the volunteers made them for about $1

Trump offers 'large sums' for exclusive access to coronavirus vaccine


Stay tuned for more examples of malicious indifference from the people who make money off your suffering...

Sheltering in Place

Well, I am feeling so much better, I guess this would be a good time to relearn web design and work on that website.

During my last bout of dementia, I scuttled all technology knowledge to remember biology.  My husband handled all electronic media.
I also forgot most of the things that happened during that 2 year period.
And ALL the dates of the events of my life.   I can figure out most of them by where they occurred, but I used to know all that stuff without thinking.

What a long strange trip it's been.
Might as well write about it.

Stay The Fuck Home

Maybe people wouldn't be binge drinking in the bars if they knew that alcohol causes epithelial permeability in the nose, mouth, intestines and lungs that allows the virus to go straight into your bloodstream.   

Rigorous Aftercare is Required

Keep it out of your lungs!!!

Japan is reporting its first case of a person becoming reinfected with the coronavirus after showing signs they had fully recovered,

Osaka’s prefectural government confirmed Wednesday a woman working as a tour bus guide tested positive for coronavirus for the second time after developing a sore throat and chest pain. The woman, who is said to be in her 40s, first tested positive in late January and was discharged from the hospital on Feb. 1 after showing signs of recovery. 
Reuters reports Health Minister Katsunobu Kato said the government would need to monitor the condition of others who were infected and later discharged as health experts investigate testing positive for COVID-19 after an initial recovery. 

As much remains unknown about the virus, cases of reinfection have health experts worried that the illness could remain dormant after an apparent recovery. 
“Once you have the infection, it could remain dormant with minimal symptoms,” Philip Tierno Jr., professor of microbiology and pathology at New York University, told Reuters. 
“And then you can get an exacerbation if it finds its way into the lungs,” he said. 

There have been a number of cases of reinfection in China, particularly in Wuhan province where the coronavirus outbreak originated in late December. 
There are more than 200 confirmed cases of the flu-like illness in Japan, excluding the 639 cases from the Diamond Princess cruise ship under quarantine in Yokohama. 
The country’s schools are being asked to close from March 2 until their upcoming spring break in an effort to contain the virus, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said Thursday. 
The outbreak has spread rapidly, infecting about 80,000 people worldwide and leaving nearly 2,800 dead, the majority of which have been in mainland China.

Grover Norquist Redux

Republicans have cut the government down to the size where we can all drown in our own lungs.

If there was a God

They would strike this man dead on live TV.

Okay this feels right

A killer pandemic.
The market in free fall.
And we're bombing Iran.
All on the same day.

This is what I expected Nov 9, 2016.  It made me writhe and moan at the time.

The panic subsided after about a year. But I knew this was coming. It's as bad as I figured.

You are a danger to yourself and others.

Dear Un-serious People-

Accountability is coming.

I strongly suggest you get your shit together.

Just Sayin

He looks sick to me.   But he does always have respiratory issues...

He appeared feverish this afternoon.  His neck and jaws look stiff.   And his voice was gravely.
His parotid glands look better though.   

--------------------

They cleaned him up for this evening talk (he almost got the makeup right), but couldn't hide all the pathology.

His maxillary sinuses are infected again.  His adenoids (on the sides of his nose) are wicked inflamed.
His frontal sinuses (behind eyebrows) are all swollen too.  Deep wrinkles between the brows.

That's surely why that right eye is drooping too.  That side is just worse.

For the Record

Mike Pence has so much botox in his face that it is impossible for him to look troubled or concerned about anything.   That's why he's Trump's perfect wingman.   He makes everything seem okay.

It's truly chilling how well it works on his target audience.

Oh Fuck

Anyone on Suvorexant needs to discontinue usage right now!

I know most of us have the opposite problem, but you might know someone...

Insomnia is a flippin' picnic compared to having suppressed orexin levels and a wicked lung infection at the same time.
Those people may never recover .

Shit shit shit.

Orexin deficiency changes the hypothalamic immune response
The hypothalmic response to endotoxic challenge in orexin deficient animals is to cease orexin production altogether.
 
Orexin-A Prevents Lipopolysaccharide-Induced Neuroinflammation at the Level of the Intestinal Barrier 
Low orexin levels allow endotoxin from your microbiome to leak through your intestine into the bloodstream),  which causes even more orexin dysfunction.  (!!!!!)


PEOPLE ON XYREM NEED TO BE REALLY CAREFUL.
It is antiseptic, but you don't want to get snotty and be unable to breathe and unable to wake up at the same time.    I've never taken it though, please use your best judgement.

Don't Do This

Pro Tip

Don't go out and weed your garden.   Especially here in the southwest.
The pollen here is like microscopic needles.  Trashes your epithelium even if you don't have allergies.

I did the small circle in my front yard yesterday and last night my face was totally puffy.
I've spent this morning hacking and then removing the mucous that my nose and lungs produced overnight to coat the irritating particles I breathed in.

Yeah, now is not a good time to burden your respiratory system.   You're going to need every bit of function you can muster.

Maybe the recovered kids can clean our yards for us in a few months.
Until then, I'm letting mine go wild.

Another good article

People ‘shed’ high levels of coronavirus, study finds, but most are likely not infectious after recovery begins

The researchers found very high levels of virus emitted from the throat of patients from the earliest point in their illness —when people are generally still going about their daily routines. Viral shedding dropped after day 5 in all but two of the patients, who had more serious illness. The two, who developed early signs of pneumonia, continued to shed high levels of virus from the throat until about day 10 or 11.
This pattern of virus shedding is a marked departure from what was seen with the SARS coronavirus, which ignited an outbreak in 2002-2003. With that disease, peak shedding of virus occurred later, when the virus had moved into the deep lungs.
...
 Osterholm said the data in the paper confirm what the spread of the disease has been signaling - “early and potentially highly efficient transmission of the virus occurs before clinical symptoms or in conjunction with the very first mild symptoms.”
...
The researchers monitored the viral shedding of nine people infected with the virus. In addition to tests looking for fragments of the virus’s RNA, they also tried to grow viruses from sputum, blood, urine, and stool samples taken from the patients. The latter type of testing -trying to grow viruses -is critical in the quest to determine how people infect one another and how long an infected person poses a risk to others.
Importantly, the scientists could not grow viruses from throat swabs or sputum specimens after day 8 of illness from people who had mild infections.
...
The German researchers found high levels of viral fragments in 13 stool samples from four patients in their study, but they were unable to grow virus from any of them...“
Virus could not be grown from blood or urine samples taken from the patients, the authors reported...

...adding that their findings suggest measures to try to stop spread of the virus should focus on respiratory tract transmission — protecting others from the coughs and sneezes of people infected with the virus.

It looks very much like you want to keep in in your nose and not let it make a home your lungs. 
Antibodies kick in at about day 8.

Just thinking

Ketamine is antiseptic and looks like it could be very useful for acute respiratory distress.

I hope somebody is testing that...

Just an observation

I deal with a number of construction professionals.

I have yet to see any of them (all men) refrain from shaking hands.

Impulse control problems are going to kill us all.

See the Vortex

Since they are trotting out Ben Carson as some kind of medical expert-

Let me just remind you that his teeth fell out in public.
Real ones. Not dentures.

Rotting gums could easily explain the obvious drastic mental deterioration since his glory days as a brain surgeon...

State of the Insanity

I do not have any money in the stock market. Learned that lesson in the tech crash.
I have a number of rental properties instead. I thought this would shield me from the irrational investor class.
Now the stock market is tanking again, and it looks like I will maybe lose five chronically ill tenants in short order instead.

That is horrifying.
I will spend this week delivering them some tea and broth and tissues and swabs and nicotine.


Fuck Trump and Fuck YOU for voting for him.

Good Video

How Coronavirus Kills
Loss of epithelial integrity in the lungs...

They have an update every day that I can mostly understand.

Just assume it's everywhere already and act accordingly.

Thought for the Day

I'm old enough to remember when Republicans were just trying to kill seniors by taking away their Medicare.

Unexpected benefits

I have spent the last number of years withdrawing from social contact because of my uncontrollable ticcing and shoulder pain.   I rarely talk to anyone anymore.
When I was called for jury duty I showed up downtown as required.   On the section where they asked my occupation, I wrote "Recluse".  They did not pick me.  Go figure.

Funny, now that I can wear a bra again, and refrain from blurting nonsense- I really shouldn't leave the house.

No problem.  I got this.

Good Article

COVID-19 Isn’t As Deadly As We Think
Unless you are old or sick.
 
Narcos will probably sleep though any mild symptoms and go septic if they aren't vigilant, though.
You need to clean up your act right away.  Literally.  Prevent secondary infections.

Here's my personal advice.

Same as it ever was

 Follow the Leaders- Isaac Cordal- Berlin 2011

I do find it interesting that this is the most susceptible population to the COVID-19 virus.
You would think they would be more proactive. 

But they probably can't.
A pharmacist says he has filled Alzheimer's prescriptions for members of Congress