Fear and Loathing, a Rat Flu Odyssey
Quote:
Originally Posted by
old goat
Surgical masks all used to be cloth. I don't know what kind of cloth was used. They were before my time (although I did work with cloth gowns and drapes. A lot of surgeons use their own surgical caps although they tend to be disgusting, unlike in the old days when the hospital supplied them and washed them every day.
I was reading (April 6 New Yorker) that the Chinese (always the Chinese) invented vaccination for smallpox a thousand years ago, long before Jenner. They used live small pox virus obtained from the pustules of small pox sufferers. Professional vaccinators knew how to tell which pustules had just the right amount of virus to cause a mild case of the disease--enough to elicit an immune response but not enough to kill the recipient or cause disfigurement.
Assuming that the severity of Covid 19 is dose-dependent, maybe we need to stop washing our groceries but still should avoid close prolonged contact with unmasked people, so that we self vaccinate with low doses of the virus.
WARNING: Do not actually try this. It is a wildly speculative, unproven hypothesis and the product of a fading mind.
Dr. Mukherjee discusses the issue of dose dependence in Covid 19 in the article.
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2...side-a-patient
My depression era dad had smallpox as a kid. Among pretty much everything else communicable as well except polio. He wasn’t a sickly kid per se or he’d probably been deaded then and there. I remember he just mentioned it in passing one day when we were talking about anti vaxxers or something and I just figured he mis-spoke and had meant the chicken pox. When I circled back w him the next day to clarify he said, don’t you think I know the i know the goddamn difference between smallpox and chicken pox? (He could not fathom the anti vaxxers movement). I guess he had genes good enough to survive it even though he grew up in a hillbilly church that believed doctors went gods will and should be shunned (they spoke in tongues at church literally had started their little sect themselves) Not sure how he broke free from that brand of crazy anti science religious nutfarm, but luckily he did. Anyway, I had no idea small pox was still a thing that affected anyone I knew until then.
Fear and Loathing, a Rat Flu Odyssey
Quote:
Originally Posted by
hutash
The main reason all that money is spent is because that is what people want.
Gone (or mostly so) are the days of "Today is a good day to die" as seen in "Little Big Man". People want and demand care to the nth degree pretty much regardless of outcome. Of course we can always create death panels to decide who gets what care. Conservatives love that shit.
This is true even when unintentional it seems. The documentary version of “Being Mortal” by Gupta(might have been a frontline episode on PBS, but also a book)does a great job at how almost everyone overestimated how much quality time was still available to them and forgoing their “good day to die”(on of my favorite lines and movies ever). The doc is worth checking out for perspective especially if caring for elders or loved ones that are gravely ill
Fear and Loathing, a Rat Flu Odyssey
If/when we hit 100k dead, will the GOP narrative finally shift from “it’s just the flu” to “hmm, maybe we should warn our people”?
