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Lawrence Foster

Dave Mitchell   -  I strongly agree with your assessment of Frankl's book.  It is an excellent one that I read a while ago.  You may have motivated me to go back and pick it up again.  First I have to finish Frank Herbert's  Dune which I first read a bit over 40 years ago.     

David Mitchell

I was only foolin' you Larry. I still haven't learrned to read.

(I had to have Keith Groff and John Jackson do all my homework)

Mary Margaret Clark (Schultheis)

#howtostopthevirus

 https://medium.com/@re_53711/a-simple-plan-for-rapidly-ending-the-coronavirus-pandemic-e7060e1ff9df

https://www.newsweek.com/coronavirus-mass-testing-experiment-italian-town-covid-19-outbreak-1493183

Mary Margaret Clark (Schultheis)

I happened to be reading something today that correlates directly to a statistic quoted in post #7047, and so I am sharing the article as it may provide information as to why the U.S, has, according to the OECD, " only slightly more than half as many hospital beds per capita compared to the European Union (2.9 beds per 1000 people for us compared to the EU average of 5.6).

https://thefederalist.com/2020/03/30/its-not-the-federal-governments-fault-new-york-doesnt-have-more-ventilators-its-andrew-cuomos/?fbclid=IwAR2BvA5pVq0GOshPpVYN8gX8TzrQxB_ZBROYESxB77mUsrrem3KxrG7HtrM

Michael McLeod

That Dr. on Fox is dead-on. Nothing new but touching to see all the emotion. Wash your hands as often as possible and don't touch your face. Of course developing that habit is easier said than done over the course of a day. Also wipe down doorknobs and surfaces where the virus can linger for hours. Avoid crowds. Staying six feet apart minimizes the chance that you catch it from a sneeze.Part of the reason Italy is so hard hit is because families live together closely in multiple generations, grandparents, parents, children. So they're exposed to multiple ways of contracting the virus.

That's taking care of your body. I'm working on a story about places on line to go to for that human touch from artists - visual, musical, and otherwise.

I'll post when it's done but this is my favorite so far. Makes me smile. Good spirits and beautiful voices near and afar. If it's the only thing alien archeologists dig up from the ruins when the human race is long gone, that'd be fine with me.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ph1GU1qQ1zQ

David Mitchell

I just walked into my local Lowe's hardware and experienced Yankee Inginuity at it's most simplified level. 

First, I was met at the door by a young man with a bottle of hand sanitzer lotion. I held out my hands, he sprayed it into my palm, and I rubbed it all over, then entered the store. Nobody gets by without a shot of lotion.

Duh!  A random case of common sense! 

Then, at the cashier, they have erected a simple form of "sneeze shield". It's a simple light metal framework extending vertically up from the counter, holding a clear plastic "window" blocking about 20 inches high by 30 inches wide between cashier and customer. It leaves space for you underneath to hand cash or slide your card into the machine.

Voilla!  

How simple, but effective is that?

Recalling that old phrase - "Neccessity is the mother of invention."

We're seeing some interesting news items about companies re-tooling to convert to more essential products to help with the virus, Companies converting to the manufacture of masks, Ford and GM switching over to the making of respirators.  I especially love the idea of a makeup or perfume company (can't recall who?) converting to hand sanitizer. 

And ome of this re-tooling is happening almost overnight.

It's going to be interesting to see how all this - the good and the bad - will affect our future thinking. Not just in Medicine and health care planning, but in many areas of manufacture, and logistics. 

David Mitchell

Mike, 

Great idea!

Saw that first "Playing for Change" some years back and still love seeing some of the newere variations.

You shuold just post the video directly to the form.

John Jackson

MM, the argument that government (Certificate of Need) regulations prevent hospitals from adding beds comes straight from the right-wing playbook.  Instead I would argue that there is a much simpler explanation - this is a perfectly predictable outcome for our totally profit-driven health care system - no profits are made from unfilled beds (which tend not to be needed except in medical emergencies like this one). 

Having said that, it’s a real quandary - should we burden our already ridiculously expensive health care system (or even an efficient and lower cost U.S. system, if, like the rest of the developed world, we had one) with excess capacity that is only needed for once-in-a-century (we hope) pandemics? I certainly don’t have an answer.

Michael McLeod

Dave: you are right. i shuold. 

James Hamilton, M. D.

"Logic clearly dictates that the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few." 

- Spock

"Or the one." 

​​​​- Kirk

Spock ​​​would have made a good public health doctor.

If ​​​​​​only such decisions were that easy for those who take care of individual patients.

These are extremely difficult times. It would be nice to have an endless stockpile of ventilators. But we don't. Like in WWII, American industry has changed factories to make different products, not just vents. What medical equipment will be needed for the next pandemic? What if it is not a respiratory epidemic? Maybe something that requires renal dialysis or extrcorporial circulation (heart-lung machines) or Left Ventricular Assist Devices? Are those who want to channel money into other projects willing to buy supplies for a not-yet-disease outbreak? A nation​​​​ can't prepare for everthing that the microbial world can throw at it. Sometimes it has to respond. And that is what we are currently doing and, I might add, quite quickly. We should all take pride in that fact, regardless of our political leanings. 

Some final thoughts:

I am not against some degree of stockpiling. I do believe state governors should control this as they should be aware of their state's needs. Since these epidemics/pandemics do not happen that frequently, stockpiling expensive machinery presents some problems of it's own. Technology advances. What is "standard of care" today will be different in 10-50 years if not sooner. What if, during the polio epidemics of the 40's and 50's, we had stockpiled iron lung machines? They would essentially have been useless for this pandemic. If we spend billions or more for the "modern ventilators" will they be useful for the Respiratory Virus X epidemic we may have in 2040? How often do we want to pay for "upgrades" of our stockpiles?

Jim 

David Mitchell

Sounds like plenty of blame to throw around in all directions.

Why isn't the White House (that's our country's leadership, right?) coordinating a plan to allocate all this needed equipment on some fair, basis, instead of leavng it to the states and various agencies to have to compete for the equipment?

But then, ya gotta hand it to good old Jerry Nadler, Dem Congresman from New York. He's only asking for a mere $4 Billion dollars,,,,,,,, for New York's Museums.

Museums !

Bonnie Jonas (Jonas-Boggioni)

Jim, you reminded me of the time right before graduation in Phx of our tour of the basement to view the last iron lung machine St. Joe had...in 1970!  They had some of us get in it to see what it was like!  TERRIBLE!

Joseph D. McCarthy

First a little humor.

Now that that is over.  How about all the classmates, including Dave's lurkers and the invisible ones we haven't heard from posting a SHORT message that tells the rest of the class that you and your family are doing well.

To Start off, My wife and I are in day 2,700 of the stay in place.  Zombies have left the area.  On the Other hand, the Mill Valley Howler;s have spread to other areas of Marin County.  It started with neighbors in Mill Valley each nite at 8:00 P.M. going outside and HOWLING at the sky.  It is spreading quicker than the Virus.

Joe

David Mitchell

In these challenging days of uncharted territory, we all seek something certain to cling to.

I myself have found refuge in Joe's classic posts. 

I'm left "howwww-ling" at your "produce" joke.

You just made my day! 

Lawrence Foster

Here are two of six images I just posted on my blog page ( https://landoflarry.com/  )    These two are based on photos taken by Mary Ann (Nolan) Thomas when she and her husband visited Africa a few years back.  Mary Ann if you still have them could you post them either here or over on the User Forum, please?  I think others might enjoy them because they were so beautiful. 

https://landoflarry.com/

Mary Margaret Clark (Schultheis)

 your artistry Larry.  I remember getting a D in art in grade school.....a grade I could not argue with because it was very evident, even to me as a child, that drawing a "stick figure" was the extent of my artistic expression!

James Hamilton, M. D.

I see a saw with a serene scene of sailing on the sea. What an interesting medium for your art, Larry,

NICE!

Jim 

Michael McLeod

I love an edgy artist, Larry.

David Mitchell

On the contrary!

I think this new phase of Larry's art could be "devisive". 

Larry,

Have you thought of trying to use a frying pan, or an oven? I bet you could cook up some really interesting ideas. But then again, they might only be half baked.

(seriously - this is very clever and imaginative stuff. Well Done! )

Mark Schweickart

Jumpin' Jehoshaphat, Jimbo, judging from your judicious rejoinder to Larry's just posted pics, I'd say your alliteration and assonance, as always, allows us to appreciate your awesomely artful use of the tricks of the poetical pursuits. Are you sure you are seriously just one of the so-called science sort? I sense a writer within, ready to report for reassignment, to realize a long repressed reason to reimagine oneself with a new recurring reality -- a reality we see struggling to stretch forth, in forceful strides, as when you say things here on the Forum such as, "I see a saw with a serene scene of sailing on the sea." These words describe not only Larry's whimsically Fosterized sawblades, but also the poeticized soul residing sympathetically somehow within your science-forward exterior so seemingly in command. Respond not, dear poet exposed, we know well what must be your attitude.  Like Whitman, my man, you will also contend, with less-than-humble certitude -- what else but,  "I contain multitudes."

David Mitchell

This just in...........

Mark just gnawed through his leash last night and they still don't know he's gotten outside the fences.

John Maxwell

James Hamilton, M. D.

Mark, You have discovered and exposed my hidden desire to dump my science oriented life and be a writer! For all these decades my writing has been limited to patient records and is totally DULL!! An example:

  "MSGT (Ret) X is a 72 yo wm c CAD, AODM and COPD who's CC is ⬆️ing DOE.  PMHx is sig for a PTCA in 2007 for SP/MI. PSurgHX Appi in 1984. Meds are unchgd from last note. ROS neg x PND and new LUTS." Etc., etc.

Now, do you see why I like to use alliteration? 😁

On a more serious note, you, as a songwriter, might consider a tribute to all the heroes out there who are risking their lives by  just doing their jobs during this pandemic. Those emergency and first responders, health care personnel, grocery store workers, truck driver and delivery services, etc. The country group, Alabama, did a song years ago praising everyday workers who "send it on down the line". This would be a good starting point to get your creative juices flowing.

Just a thought.. 

Jim 

Thomas McKeon

Just some words of wisdom to make you

Heard a Dr. on TV saying in this time of Coronavirus staying at home we should focus on inner peace. To achieve this we should always finish things we start and we all could use more calm in our lives. I looked through my house to find things i'd started and hadn't finished, so I finished off a bottle of Merlot, a bottle of Chardonnay, a bodle of Baileys, a butle of wum, tha mainder of Valiumun srciptuns, an a box a chocletz. Yu haf no idr how feckin fablus I feel rite now. Sned this to all who need inner piss. An telum u luvum. And two hash yer wands, stafe day avrybobby!!!

Timothy Lavelle

Hey, Is falling out of your chair while playing a Xbox video game considered a sports injury?

After this is over I am going to go through a whole day without washing my hands!