The message forum is an ongoing dialogue between classmates. There are no items, topics, subtopics, etc.

Forums work when people participate - so don't be bashful! Click the "Post Message" button to add your entry to the forum.

James Hamilton, M. D.

Coronavirus

​​​​​​How does the world stop epidemics/pandemics? This is a question that has been asked - and answered - several times throughout history. Interestingly the answers ranged from the simple to the difficult.

Bubonic Plague finally ended by individuals self quarantining and improved personal and community hygiene. Smallpox was defeated by Jennings developing a vaccine from a related viral species, cowpox, which protected people from the variola (smallpox) virus. The incidence of many childhood diseases has been markedly decreased by vaccines. Tuberculosis had decreased due to public health standards but, once again, is becoming common among the homeless and immunocompromised population (a new vaccine is on the horizon). Altough AIDS related infections have decreased as a result of highly active anti-retroviral therapy (HAART) medication, HIV itself is still a major threat in certain popultions. An effective vaccine has eluded research despite many dollars and years. Preventive measures have been promoted. 

So here we are again confronted with a virus, COVID-19, which certainly has the potential to become a pandemic. Already it is epidemic in some areas. Person-to-person transmission has been established. A vaccine will, I am confident, be available but not for some time. Anti-viral medications that are currently available for other viruses have so far been ineffective for COVID-19. What is left at this point are personal and community health and simple hygiene actions. These are basically what we do to avoid the common cold. It is what we learned as children from our parents and teachers but what many people have ignored as they got older: hand washing, sneezing and coughing habits, clensing food preparation surfaces, etc.

Preparation on community, state, national and international levels is a good thing but should not induce a panic. The hospitals here in Colorado Springs, as I am sure is happening around the world, are conducting drills to deal with COVID-19 infected patients when and if they arrive. This is much like the mass casualty ("Mas-Cal") drills that hospital personnel have conducted on a regular basis for decades. Those usually do not cause panic and, in fact, should make us feel confident and good.

Many conferences and meetings, particularly those that bring together people from different states and countries, have been cancelled or are considering doing so. Cruises, flights and travel plans have been altered or cancelled also. Yes, some parts of life will be disrupted but is is better to take these precautions before the virus gains a greater presence.

Again, precaution, not panic, will help until an effective vaccine or treatment becomes available. 

Jim 

Michael McLeod

Never thought I'd say this but Haagen-Dasz  Belgian Chocolate, Vanilla & Blackberry Crispy Trio Layers is giving Graeter's Raspberry Chocolate Chip a run for its money.

David Mitchell

Janie,

You blew it!

They were saving our favorite beer name ("Pacifico") for the NEXT  Virus.

(and maybe after that,,,, "Sol" virus)

The virus was supposed to kill beer sales from Mexico, not people. The clever folks at Tsing Tao brewery thought it was a nifty marketing idea.  Whoops! 

p.s.

Tim, you hit on a huge problem about closing schools. Who watches all those grade-schoolers?

Timothy Lavelle

Clare,

Is the Hummer kid playing for Ohio State any relation? There can't be that many different Hummer clans in Ohiya.

Daniel Cody

Tim  Did you look at the kid  he' a Hummer!  he looks  like his uncle the reverend Larry as well as his father Ted

Mary Margaret Clark (Schultheis)

Tim:

https://www.buckeyextra.com/sports/20200227/ohio-statersquos-danny-hummer-refused-to-agree-to-life-without-basketball?fbclid=IwAR33hJOPZrWXvmnBjx3FBiadZzBDu_ktn2rBv4aY7JufLofL9j-tIZ6nMbo

Mary Clare Hummer (Bauer)

Thanks, everyone, for asking and for answering. I've been sitting on all this pride all season. But with pride being one of those great 7 deadly sins, I couldn't brag too much!!! Last night he got to meet all  OUR heroes from that great '60's championship Buckeye team--Nowell, Roberts, Lucas, Knight. He's had such great experiences. And I got to tag along for parts of the ride!!!

Clare

David Mitchell

Pretty cool story Clare. Thanks for posting it MM.

Michael McLeod

So cool, MC. Great story.

John Jackson

With St. Patrick’s Day approaching, I’ve decided to take a break from my usual political rants and turn to the subject of Irish music – if you’re interested, press on, and, if not, skip to the next post.  Disclaimer:  I’m an Irish impostor - only about a quarter Irish (my father’s mother’s people were from County Sligo) but for the past 30 years or so I’ve had this thing for Irish music. 

On the holy day itself, my wife and I are hosting a potluck dinner and then we will go with 40 friends to a small community theater (seats 150) in the nearby megalopolis of Hopewell, NJ  (population about 3 Mossyrocks) to see Karan Casey, an Irish singer from County Cork who lived for a few years in the U.S. and sang with Solas, an outstanding  band of other Irish émigrés based in Philadelphia.

There are several recurring themes in Irish music and one of them is “recruiting” - songs about English officers trying to lure/conscript/kidnap young Irish men into the British army to serve, at least in the Irish view, as cannon fodder for English foreign adventures.  The link below is to a song called “The King’s Shilling” – if you accepted it you were in the British Army, as the chorus makes clear:

Come laddies come, hear the cannons roar,

Take the King’s shilling and we’re off to war

This version was part of a wonderful multi-year series called “The Transatlantic Sessions” on RTE (Irish television) and Scottish BBC about the musical links between Irish, Scottish and Appalachian/bluegrass music.  I’m not sure where James Taylor fits into this scheme (the rules of who performs in the series are pretty fluid) but he sings with Karan on this song:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VDhfqy4S6hI

James Hamilton, M. D.

John, 

Nice song and music! It does have a little Appalachian flair what with the background strings. Somewhat reminiscent of your banjo days with the Flatt and Scruggs tunes you used to attempt back in the day😁! 

Jim 

Mary Margaret Clark (Schultheis)

Piggybacking on Jim's most recent medical post on COVID-19, I am sharing Bon Jonas' Facebook post from today.  Business Insider did an article about the doctor as his post had gone "viral"   Side note to Jim.....maybe you should consider getting a FB account then Business Insider could do a write-up on you! 

 

 

Abdu Sharkawy

March 5 at 9:45 PM · 

 

Frank Ganley

The corona virus maybe real or we are inflating its danger. 16000 have died to the flu so far this year, 5000 a month die from cancer. The death toll so far in usa under 100? Unwarranted fear. But of course it's Trumps fault e are in this predicament. Summer is almost here and this will join the long list of this is going to kill us all sicknesses, swine flu, bird flu et al. Relax, say a prayer for the suffering souls in purgatory and live your life

Lawrence Foster

Last month Peggy and I went to California for a one week visit for grandson Sam's #3 birthday and to play with him and 8 month old brother Robin.   I knew there would be some time when naps would occur so I took a mechanical pencil, a sketch book, (9 x 5.5 inches) a blending stump and 4 images I found on the web to make copies of.  I did two of them out there and then the last two I have done since we got back and have been recovering from colds.  (Not coronovirus - colds.)  I don't know who the original artist was but I liked his style and feel I did okay emulating him.  The only image that I recognize is the first one of the American side of Niagra Falls.

David Mitchell

My dear classmates,

It was at a very early age that we young men of OLP were concerned about our poor classmate John. He showed little hope of any kind of academic achievement or success in life. Had we (Tom Litzinger, Keith Groff, Kevin Ryan, Charlie Kaps, Mike del Bianco, Johnny Schaeufele, David Barbor, Tommy Swain, and I) not all prayed our Rosaries daily for his eventual survival, he might still be wandering in the darkeness.

He could even now, yet have discovered his first notes of Tom Clancy, or the Chieftians, or Mary Black. He might never have achieved this "Celtic Cure" -  this secret elixer that has saved his soul.

Just think, He might have gone through life without ever hearing that sweet sound of either the tin whistle or the Gallway fiddle - both requirements for inventing a machine the reads the thickness of the layer of silcone (to about a thousanth of an inch) on most tiny little micro chips made today.  (Oh, and gives out the "light refraction index" - but, of course, you all probably knew that! )

So as Barry Fitzgerald would say (In his Irish brogue) - "Glory Be ta God".

We owe it all to the power of prayer.  

Musha ringham dingham dah!, Wack foe the daddy oh, there's whiskey in the jar"  

John Jackson

100 points to Dave for his reference to “Musha ringham a durham da “ and PP&M’s “Gillgarry Mountain", one of the formative songs of my early years. 

And, Jim, after all our political sparring, I appreciate your graciousness when you refer to those “Flatt and Scruggs tunes you used to attempt back in the day”.  Were you not so kind, “botched” is the word that might have come to mind.

Michael McLeod

I also think we are overdoing this thing. My college has asked me to be ready to start teaching my class on line but I hope it doesn't come to that. It is a chance, though, to develop good overall habits about keeping ourselves healthy. My contribution will be to work on my Mr. Spock "live well and prosper" one hand salute in lieu of hugs and kisses.

My other personal experience apart from maybe learning to teach from home, which wouldn't be all that bad, is watching my significant other's daughter deal with the decompression and ptsd of having lived through the shutdown of the culture in China. Reflecting the larger picture, the supposed cure was worse than the disease from her point of view, as well. The CDC rep who visited with her once she got back home to Orlando was utterly cool about the whole thing  -- checked her out, asked a few questions, told her to take her own temp and record it for two weeks (which she has done religiously) and avoid crowds. In Beijing she said she could remember having her temperature taken a half dozen times or more when she left her building, (wouldn't let her out until they did a temp check) left her neighborhood, (temp check) had to wear an identification badge around her neck the whole way as she worked her way along mostly deserted streets through various blockades (temp check check check ) in order to get the stores that were still open for basic supplies (temp check at each store, most of which were sold out of what she needed anyway.)  Then temp check to get back into her apartment building.  Now she's back home in the usa and tomorrow she's free and clear as far as the cdc is concerned after a two week quasi quarentine. Oh and the crowds at Disney are unabated if that makes you feel any better. 

Michael McLeod

Ok sorry to blab over my own self-imposed limit but I had to share this.

He is a native New Yorker but lives down here now and I met him through Rollins, the school where I teach.

Then Donna and her husband were kind enough to squire him around Barcelona when he was there to make an appearance. 

Really a beautiful guy and a rarity as a poet. He could do stand-up and be just as successful. 

He was also poet laureate when 9/11 happened and read a poem about it to congress that drew tears.

When he talks about his childhood reading experience on this PBS interview that was just done recently, I guarantee you it will take you back.

In the scenes where he walks out onto the dock and you see buildings across the water, that's Rollins College. 

https://www.pbs.org/video/billy-collins-peoples-poet-4xr4tr/?fbclid=IwAR3jiaW8lK18uIiO71CfWypIPHHuaPs-gxWS-mt4hCGCpbwObcI9jUUnsRc

David Mitchell

Okay Mike,

Interesting piece on Mr. Collins.

But what, prey tell is the "Catholic Philopatrian Literary Insitute"

(p.s. I am one of those jerks who reads the credits after each movie)

Michael McLeod

I don't know. What do I look like, some kind of reporter? Billy's Catholic- raised, is all I know. Jesuits, I think he told me.

Now if only there was some device you could use to look it up yourself.

Michael Boulware

Every topic that confronts us in our country seems to be categorized into "for or against" by the political parties. I do not think the Coronovirus cares if you are a Republican or a Democrat. Italy is on lockdown, Universities like Ohio State and Princeton are doing classes online, and the CDC is telling us to avoid large groups. LET'S PAY ATTENTION. Wash your hands frequently, avoid hand shakes, cover your mouth when coughing or sneezing, don't touch your face and go to your mouth, be careful opening doors and touching hand rails.

This disease is a lot tougher on people over 60; guess what? We qualify.

Noone is blaming Trump for the origin of COVID-19. Please do not join him in his ho-hum attitude toward the Caronavirus. It is present and presents a threat.

Mary Margaret Clark (Schultheis)

Mike, regarding your comment about Trump's ho-hum attitude over the coronavirus situation.  I am wondering what more you would have him do to address the virus.  From what I have been reading, his administration has taken reasonable steps within their control to prevent its spread, beginning with placing a temporary ban on travel to and from China over 5 weeks ago https://www.politico.com/news/2020/01/31/trump-weighs-more-evacuations-of-americans-from-china-over-virus-109910 which was derided by many in the MSM as well as the WHO who reported that the ban was detrimental to the world's economy and creatiing undo panic.                https://twitter.com/YossiGestetner/status/1236535801074159617/photo/1

Some other takeaways:

U.S. Surgeon General, Samuel Adams stated in an interview with Jake Tapper 2 days ago that based on his experience on the task force and being in the Situation Room every day that the medical input is taken,  there are multiple doctors in the room and their voices are in no way, shape, or form suppressed.  He went on to state this:  “And so, we actually feel pretty good that some parts of the country have contained it, just like when you look at the flu", citing the lack of widespread deaths. “And when we look at the flu tracker, some parts of the country are having much more severe flu seasons. Some are having very mild flu seasons. The same thing for coronavirus.”

It also should be noted that the Obama administration had previously insisted on federal jurisdiction via FDA medical testing.  Trump, however, has recently instituted changes which now allow, throught the FDA, for the states to have the authority to conduct tests for COVID-19 in state labs. Dr. Robert Redfield, director of the CDC explained that federal government regulations had actually bottlenecked the process and slowed the ability of university and state labs to conduct these tests.  In fact, Secretary for Health Dr. Brett Giroir just confirmed in a Saturday email. "Testing capacity is ramping up substantially, with 1.5 million tests produced last week. 1.1 million have been shipped, and 400,000 are ready to ship – likely on Monday."

I would suggest that none of these actions are indicative of a ho hum attitude, but of substantive actions taken to address a fluid situation.  Perhaps some feel that certain actions should have happened more quickly, but I for one am grateful to not live in a nation such as China, where they have drones surveiling neighborhoods to report citizens who leave their homes without wearing their masks. 

We live in a globalized world where certain risks have to be assumed if we are to interract in the world as it is today.  We certainly cannot quarantine everyone in their homes in an effort to insure that no one ever comes in contact with COVID-19 or any other infectious disease.  We must assume personal responsiblity to act judiciously with regard to placing an heightened importance on all of the recommended precautions.  Trump may speak outrageously, but I judge a person and an administration more by their actions.

Michael McLeod

I'm not the Mike you're directing this towards, MM, so I'll restrict myself to a single point.I think many things Trump says on many fronts betray his ignorance and cold-hearted cunning. For me the most revealing comment he made about the current crisis is when he said he didn't want the passengers on the cruise ship to taken off the ship and be isolated and cared for on a military base on shore  "because it will hurt our numbers." 

I said I'd restrict myself to a single point and I will. But I could cite many, many examples of statements - which do indeed betray character - that Trump has made that betray his true and quite cold-hearted, manipulative, inherently deceitful self.  

And one last thing: On this, and other matters, one great rule of thumb if you are fact checking is to consult a source that has .org on its website. That means it is staffed by professionals in whatever area it is that you are researching, or fact-check organizations that have reputation and a stated purpose for being even-handed - as opposed to think tanks or other sources that are driven by opinion slants in either direction or monied interests.

You'll discover things are more complicated that you'd like them to be, but at least you're on the right track. 

Here, for example, on the CDC/Obama issue.

https://www.factcheck.org/2020/03/democrats-misleading-coronavirus-claims/

Michael Boulware

Mary Margaret, I stated that Trump was not responsible for the disease, but he did not listen to the advice given to him. His goal was to contain the COVID-19. He wanted to keep it out instead of preparing for its arrival. He has been criticized for doing that.

Trump constantly assured us that the Corona Virus was contained and he had it under control. He was wrong. The Corona Virus has been in Washington since mid-January. Flights to and from China were canceled January 31. Travel restrictions were placed on south Korea, Italy, and Iraq on February 27. Fedral funding for testing kits was reduced , we did not have enough of them and we still do not.

If feel that if he listened to the CDC he would have developed a better plan; he did not listen to their advice. That is why I feel the federal government could have done more to prepare for The Corona Virus.

John Jackson

Let me say first that part of me agrees with those who think the current reaction to coronavirus may be overblown – people always fear (and overreact to) new threats far more than the threats they’ve grown accustomed to.  Having said that, I am concerned that a number of scientists, including the Surgeon General just yesterday, are now saying that we’re moving from a policy of “containment” to “mitigation” and that suggests to me they have more or less  given up on trying to keep the general population from being exposed.  

Last year we had 34,000 deaths from the flu and presumably many (most?) of us were exposed to it, in varying degrees.  But the coronavirus mortality rate, while low compared to Ebola and SARS, is apparently 20 (or more) times higher than  for the flu.  So if the general population is exposed, doesn’t that mean we could be looking at many times more coronavirus deaths than from seasonal flu?

If we’ve done anything right to handle the coronavirus situation, it’s not been because of, but in spite of, Trump. As Mike’s example of his incredible comment about the cruise ship shows, in so many ways Trump has signaled to everyone in government that he wants this to go away because he thinks it affects his re-election chances.  And those signals have made the government’s response slower and more tentative than it should have been.

And Anthony Fauci and the experts at CDC and NIH are indeed speaking, but they’re tempering their remarks and always looking over their shoulder for Trump’s reaction, remembering all the people that Trump has canned who didn’t toe the line.  And although it makes me sick that Fauci (and other scientists who have spent their lifetimes studying this stuff) have to answer to Trump, I’m glad they’re living to fight another day because if they’re fired they will be replaced by the typical fawning and incompetent yes-men (and women) that Trump has increasingly chosen to staff the upper levels of the federal government.