Covid-19 pandemic

[ursus arctos]

https://twitter.com/cliffordlevy/status/1387481774033358855

[scratchmonkey]

Most folks around here are still wearing masks even while outside, I continue to do so even after being vaccinated because as noted above, it's no skin off my back and if it affords people some sense of mental ease, that's fine by me.

(As well as the fact that I do have mild cold-like symptoms, so wearing a mask seems like something we should all be considering doing more often in that situation.)

[Sporting]

Most folks around here are still wearing masks even while outside, I continue to do so even after being vaccinated because as noted above, it's no skin off my back and if it affords people some sense of mental ease, that's fine by me.

(As well as the fact that I do have mild cold-like symptoms, so wearing a mask seems like something we should all be considering doing more often in that situation.)

Wise post

[Patrick Thistle]

My youngest niece (who has just turned 3) has a cough and had a Covid test today. This is putting our family meet up at the weekend in doubt.as my sister and brother in law haven't been vaccinated yet.

[Uncle Ethan]

I hope this won't be twisted into being anti-mask. However, I find them extremely uncomfortable. I have used surgical ones, KN95s and a handmade fabric one. All of them become almost unbearable after an hour or so. Anyone found a comfortable option?

[Patrick Thistle]

The most comfortable one I've found is made from a stretchy material and has the straps cut out from the same piece of material. It's hard to explain but because it's all one piece and has some give in the material it rests differently on my face.

[Rogin the Armchair fan]

I got given one of those with the strip of metal along the top you can mould to your nose, when I went for my jab. It's much more comfortable than the one I had been wearing that was just elasticated.

[Evariste Euler Gauss]

I don't have any significant comfort issues with the mask as such, but I do find that my glasses steam up within about ten seconds of my putting any mask on. There are brilliant cloths which have some trace chemicals (detergent or similar I think) on them that you can wipe spectacles with in advance to stop them steaming up, and those cloths do seem almost magically effecdive. But as I am crap at remembering to take essential things out with me, I generally forget the cloth on supermarket trips and end up removing my glasses when my mask goes on on entering the building, and then doing my food shopping with a lot of squinting and memory work.

[hobbes]

I hope this won't be twisted into being anti-mask. However, I find them extremely uncomfortable. I have used surgical ones, KN95s and a handmade fabric one. All of them become almost unbearable after an hour or so. Anyone found a comfortable option?

They are a pain in the arse, totally. I find that I get much more out of breath with one on which I'm sure is psychosomatic. After a 45 minute shop, I can't wait to tear the bloody thing off when I get to the car.
The difference between you and people who are anti-mask is that you wear them anyway. That's admirable. There are a lot of people behaving like spoiled children over this.

[Patrick Thistle]

My youngest niece (who has just turned 3) has a cough and had a Covid test today. This is putting our family meet up at the weekend in doubt.as my sister and brother in law haven't been vaccinated yet.

Test was negative. She just had a cough. Hopefully that will have gone by the weekend and she won't be transmitting it to anyone.

[Balderdasha]

We reached 150 million cases of Covid-19 worldwide yesterday. The last ten million cases took 13 days, which I think is the fastest ten million cases so far.

[Balderdasha]

379,453 new cases in India yesterday, another new high, and accounting for nearly 43% of all new Covid-19 cases worldwide yesterday.

[The Awesome Berbaslug!!!]

I don't have any significant comfort issues with the mask as such, but I do find that my glasses steam up within about ten seconds of my putting any mask on. There are brilliant cloths which have some trace chemicals (detergent or similar I think) on them that you can wipe spectacles with in advance to stop them steaming up, and those cloths do seem almost magically effecdive. But as I am crap at remembering to take essential things out with me, I generally forget the cloth on supermarket trips and end up removing my glasses when my mask goes on on entering the building, and then doing my food shopping with a lot of squinting and memory work.

Yeah pretty much the same here word for word, except for the magic cloths which I was unaware of, and if I take off my glasses I'm liable to either break my ankle or crush a child or a little old lady. As for the remembering, it took me ages to get the hang of making sure that I have at least one mask stuffed in my pocket

[Balderdasha]

Turkey is preparing to enter its first full lockdown: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-56912668

[Uncle Ethan]

They are a pain in the arse, totally. I find that I get much more out of breath with one on which I'm sure is psychosomatic. After a 45 minute shop, I can't wait to tear the bloody thing off when I get to the car.
The difference between you and people who are anti-mask is that you wear them anyway. That's admirable. There are a lot of people behaving like spoiled children over this.

That's kind. However, given our comparatively stress-free experience I feel guilty whinging. Tips handy though, so thanks all.

[The Awesome Berbaslug!!!]

The difference between you and people who are anti-mask is that you wear them anyway. That's admirable. There are a lot of people behaving like spoiled children over this.

This.

[Patrick Thistle]

https://twitter.com/TheEconomist/status/1387822757749137416?s=19

[Discordant Resonance]

Re-opening schedule in Ireland:

May 10 - Hairdressers, intercounty travel, museums, libraries, religious services.
May 17 - Non-essential retail
June 2 - Hotels, B&B's
June 7 - Pubs and restaurants (outdoors only).

[ad hoc]

The long read by Arundhati Roy in today's Guardian suggests that loads of people are dying without being tested (and so are not attributed to Covid)

[ursus arctos]

That is a incontrovertible fact, and there is also heaps of evidence that states and local authorities are undercounting deaths

The Roy article is yet another chapter chronicling this disaster (and is particularly good on the BJP's sacrifice of the people of West Bengal in their quest to take control of the state)

[Balderdasha]

Brazil exceeded 400,000 confirmed deaths from Covid-19 today.

[Balderdasha]

Italy is the 8th country to exceed 4 million confirmed cases of Covid-19.

[ChrisJ]

The long read by Arundhati Roy in today's Guardian suggests that loads of people are dying without being tested (and so are not attributed to Covid)

She is always excellent and that article is heartbreaking. Deserves to be widely shared.
https://www.theguardian.com/news/202...id-catastrophe

[Sam]

Partly for some light relief (he's quite funny) and partly to learn some new things about an area in which I'm definitely a non-expert, I have over the last year started watching videos by medical YouTuber Rohin Francis, a British cardiologist who's been making videos about the heart and more general medical things for a long while and has, in my opinion, been very good at putting out informative and mythbusting videos on the pandemic while making clear where he's talking from a position of expertise (e.g. Covid's effect on the cardiovascular system, what the first wave did to hospital staff) and where he's a layperson who by virtue of his education is rather more informed about certain aspects than most of us (e.g. medical trials, statistics).

Today I watched his latest video, which is about what's going on in India – the country he was born in and where a lot of his family and all of his wife's family still live. It's really good on the reasons behind why what's happening is happening. He's also included a few links in the video description to places you can donate if you want to. (I can confirm that while these donation sites ask you to set a price in rupees, your card will be charged in your local currency (or possibly dollars if you're in a country whose currency isn't widely accepted internationally; I paid with my UK card and address, so was charged in pounds). One pound = about 100 rupees, if you want to donate but aren't sure how to budget.

Video here.

[Patrick Thistle]

Sweden