COVID-19 Will Touch Every Single One Of You (Update)
Message From The NASA Administrator: Prioritize Your Health & Safety, NASA
“The health and safety of the NASA workforce is our top priority as we navigate the coronavirus (COVID-19) situation. For that reason, I want to re-emphasize a point I raised during our March 25 town hall – any employee who is reporting to work on-site but does not feel comfortable continuing to do so should not be afraid to raise that concern with his or her supervisor. Alternate work arrangements will be made without reprisal.”
Keith’s note: My next door neighbor who has often been a surrogate mother to me after I lost mine is in the hospital with COVID-19. The mother of one of my close friends is also in the hospital with COVID-19. And I just learned this morning that a friend’s father died from COVID-19 yesterday. To everyone reading these words: this will happen to someone you know – someone you care about. Perhaps even you. Do what Jim says to do and we’ll all get beyond this.
Keith’s update: My elderly neighbor is now home after 1 week and a half in the hospital with COVID-19. My friend Scott’s family is not doing well. It would be wise to heed his advice.
Both of my wonderful, beautiful parents are now hospitalized for #COVID-19 pneumonia, most likely because of needing to get to multiple medical appointments beforehand. Now isn't the time to throttle back on physical distancing! Profound thanks to the healers on the front lines. pic.twitter.com/JMSIbzSGhW
— Scott Parazynski (@AstroDocScott) April 11, 2020
Keith, My thoughts and prayers go out to you and their families with the hope that both of them fully recover. The mother of one of my students is also hospitalized with it.
Keith, I hope its OK to post this here.
It is hard to believe it is only 100 days since the first news story on the CORVID-19 virus was published in the South China Morning Post, a respected English language Hong Kong newspaper known for its excellent coverage of China news. It is amazing how the world has been turned upside down in such a short time period since that first brief story appeared.
For those interested here is the link to the very first article on it, with the hopeful predictions it wouldn’t be as bad as SARS…
https://www.scmp.com/news/c…
Hong Kong takes emergency measures as mystery ‘pneumonia’ infects dozens in China’s Wuhan city
•Most patients worked at a seafood market and health workers are still trying to identify virus responsible
•City authorities tell hospitals to report any more cases of the illness, which is described as being ‘of unknown origin’
Mandy Zuo, Lilian Cheng, Alice Yan and Cannix Yau,
Published: 2:35pm, 31 Dec, 2019
I hope everyone is looking after themselves as best they can. My Wife has a cousin in the UK who has just passed away from this horrible virus. My thoughts go out to everyone affected. Kia Kaha, from New Zealand.
My Condolences to her and her family.?
Very sorry to hear this.
One of my high school teammates has lost his mother, his brother, and his sister to COVID. I worry daily for my mother, who still lives in lower Manhattan.
Some hoax.
I am so sorry to hear this. Be safe and I hope your mother remains safe and healthy.
Meanwhile, the President of the United States of America is retweeting #FireFauci..
While giving all the sympathy for the people suffering from or dying from COVID-19, I think it is also worth offering sympathy to others. The shutdowns and stay-at-home orders mean many people are out of a job. Those people are mostly in poorly paid occupations, and are living on a month-to-month, if not shift-to-shift, basis. I care very much for the people infected by this virus. But I also care very much for the people who won’t be able to pay their rent or by food.
The virus does not care if you have a job or what you do. It simply spreads between humans. The more the humans interact the more it spreads. Period. Absent a vaccine or proven treatment the only way to limit the spread of the virus is isolation. Period. If people in dire economic straights are in precarious financial positions imagine what it will be like if they get sick or pass this on to someone in their family. If you have an actual solution to limit the spread of the virus then post it. Sympathy has nothing to do with how this virus works. Period. If you allow people to spread you increase the number of people who are able to spread the disease further and in crease the number of people who need hospitalization. Unless you halt the increase in rate of spreading you eventually exceed the carrying capacity of the hospital system and the deaths explode since there is no longer an ability to deal with all of them. Period. Again this has nothing to do with anyone’s economic situation. The virus spreads because that is what it does. It is a molecular machine that exists to copy itself. You cannot reason with it. It does not reason. It simply spreads.