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Covid-19 Update 05/10/2020
Covid-19 Update 04/26/2020
Covid-19 update 04/12/2020
Previous updates below!!!
There has been a new strain of the Coronavirus that came out of China. This new strain is being called the 2019 Novel Coronavirus or 2019-nCoV . There are currently 13,950 cases of the virus with 304 Deaths. Now that may not seem like much but I’ll help explain some things.
What is a Coronavirus?
Coronaviruses actually come from a big family. They usually cause respiratory issues like a cold or more sever cases such as pneumonia or bronchitis.
A lot of people worldwide have had a strain of the Coronavirus at some point in their lifetime, but not all strains are as bad as others. Most just have mild symptoms
The viruses can be found in Camel’s, Bat’s, cattle and other animals.
On rare occasions Coronaviruses can mutate and then be transmitted from animal to human. This is how the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) and Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) spread.
How did the new mutation start?
It is thought that the animal to human mutation started spreading from the Huanan Seafood Market
They are still trying to determine how it happened but what they do know is that the new mutation came from strains found in bat’s. But there weren’t any Bat’s sold at the Market, so they are trying to determine how exactly it made the jump.
What does the Novel Coronavirus do to the body?
The virus causes Respiratory issues like pneumonia. Also you can have a fever, cough and shortness of breath. More severe cases can cause kidney failure and death.
Does the U.S. have a patent on the Coronavirus?
There is a patent for a Coronavirus, but it is not the newest strain. The Patented strain is for the SARS virus.
There have been a lot of rumors going around about the US creating the virus because they have the patent for it, but that is just not the case.
How is the new virus spreading?
The virus is being spread through the usual methods.
- Close contact
- Air (coughing/sneezing)
- touching contaminated surfaces and then touching your mouth, nose or eye’s.
Although the number of cases here in the states are pretty low, it could still spread to a pandemic level, although I don’t think it will get that bad here.
Compared to the amount of Flu cases here in the states, you have a much higher chance currently to contract the flu and die than you do from the Novel Coronavirus. Obviously this can change in time so be sure to keep an eye out for further updates.
I know there have been major pandemics every hundred years or so and we are due for another one soon.
The spreading that is going on is currently less than the amount that the MERS or SARS, as far as cases go, but they also haven’t been able to test everyone. Simply because they are running out of the test’s.
How to lessen my chances of getting sick?
The most important thing to do is wash your hands with soap and hot water for at least 30 seconds. Be sure to scrub your fingernails with the rest of your hands.
Since I drive a truck and don’t always have access running water everywhere I go, I try to never open a door with my bare hands. I prefer to grab the handle with my jacket sleeve, or I’ll have my work gloves on, depending where I am at.
Another nasty surface to touch would be the fuel pump handles, I always wear gloves when fueling, but I also use paper towels to grab the handle and start fueling when I don’t have my gloves.
Be sure to avoid area’s where there are known sick people, this goes for any kind of sickness, not just the Coronavirus or the Flu. If you have to travel to area’s that are effected, be sure to wear a mask.
If you have a beard you will not be able to get a good enough seal on a mask, so it wouldn’t be as effective. Also with mask’s, if you do end up getting sick, you can reverse the mask helping to prevent the spread of an illness.
There are no current vaccines for the 2019 Novel Coronavirus so you want to take all the precautions that you can to prevent contracting the virus.
If you have to write a lot, be sure to bring your own pen to write with.
You need to stay well hydrated and make sure you are getting enough vitamins and minerals out of your diet to maintain a healthy immune system. Be sure to boost your vitamin C and D3 levels, also make sure you are getting plenty of B12 in your diet. It is always best to consult a Dr. before making any changes to your diet or supplement’s.
Should you be worried about the new virus?
I think you should keep an eye on thing’s but I don’t think this is anything to be terrified about. Compared to the Flu virus, just this flu season alone there has been over 10k people die and over 180K people hospitalized.
That is just here in the States, that isn’t worldwide. These numbers come from the CDC.
The flu has a vaccine for it, although the effectiveness of the flu vaccines are highly debated, there is no current vaccine for the Novel Coronavirus.
What are your thought’s on the virus?
Covid-19 update 03/08/2020
There has been a lot going on with the virus and the amount of people getting infected.
There are currently 417 confirmed cases of the Covid-19 here in the United States. At the same time yesterday there were only 260 cases. So within 24 hours it made a jump of 157 cases.
That doesn’t necessarily mean that the virus is spreading at a higher pace, what this means is that they are testing more people.
Currently there are 21 Death’s here in the states from the complication’s of the virus. There are still a number of folk’s in the hospital’s as well as self isolation (Quarantine). So far the majority of the deaths in the US have been from the elderly that have had other medical issues.
Here is the list of states that have either confirmed cases or presumptive positive cases.
- Washington
- Oregon
- California
- Nevada
- Arizona
- Colorado
- Texas
- Oklahoma
- Kansas
- Wisconsin
- Illinois
- Tennessee
- Georgia
- Florida
- North Carolina
- New York
- New Hampshire
- Massachusetts
- Rhode Island
- New Jersey
- Maryland
- Washington D.C.
- Indiana
- Missouri
- Utah
- Hawaii
- Nebraska
- Kentucky
- Minnesota
- South Carolina
So far there are a lot of folks worldwide that have already recovered from the virus. They aren’t currently positive if you will be immune from catching it a second time. Time will tell on that.
There are currently 2 strains. An “L” and an “S” Strain. There hasn’t been enough research yet to get a better understanding on which one is worse. There was a study of only 103 patient’s but that isn’t enough to get accurate data.
The government is stating that us normal citizen’s shouldn’t be buying up N95 mask’s or other mask’s. When I had first heard about this I thought it was odd, but I had read where they stated the micron size of the virus was .017 which is smaller than the .03 microns that the N95 mask can filter out. Meaning that they wouldn’t likely filter out the virus.
Since then I have looked deeper into this, I am not able to find any more claims of the size of the virus. But what I have found was that the Government now states that the general public doesn’t know how to properly use said face mask’s and it would do more harm than good. That they need the mask’s for those who are sick and the medical community to treat those who are sick.
My thought’s on this are that the government should have been better prepared for such a scenario. They claimed to have only had around 30 millions mask’s and that they needed at least 300 million.
I do understand about why they said most American’s would do more harm than good with wearing mask’s. I have worn mask’s for work in the past, sure you can just slip it on and go, but if you want it to be effective, you’ll need to fit test it.
You do not want to be improperly wearing a mask when it mean’s you could catch something biological.
Now when I have worn mask’s in the past, I didn’t wear one all day long. I would have to change them out a few time’s a shift. I wasn’t dealing with anything biological, but when taking the mask’s off you never really gave it a second thought.
So when the government states that most of the general public shouldn’t wear them because they can do more harm than good, I do understand that point.
There are certain measure’s to take when dealing with biological hazard’s that not very many people have the knowledge on. The way you take the mask off means everything when it comes to not contaminating yourself.
Also, you do not want to be wearing a mask for prolonged periods of time. I have had issues with breathing in the past, been told several thing’s allergies, asthma, pneumonia, and other stuff from the Doctors.
I would have a hell of a time breathing when I would wear a mask. I couldn’t wear it for longer than about 30 minutes to an hour without having to take it off and get some air. The masks will become harder and harder to breath through, especially when they are worn for extended periods of time.
Now If you know the proper way’s of wearing a mask and changing them out for biological hazards then It would more than likely benefit you. But if you don’t take the proper steps, you could in fact do more harm than good.
When we had moved there were some supplies that were left behind, quite simply ran out of room and time to pack. Mask’s were one of those item’s. I didn’t have very many on hand simply because I have used them in the past and I know that I just can’t wear them.
But if I knew then what I know now, I sure would have grabbed them. There is so much price gouging going on right now, I don’t really know if the prices for the mask’s will be as cheap as they were before all this had started. Hopefully the prices will go back to where they were, because It could sure be good to have some on hand; You just never really know.
Be sure to take extra steps with hygiene, wash your hands, don’t be touching your face, mouth, nose or eyes.
Use apps like Wal-Mart Grocery to do you grocery shopping, this will help lower your risk. In some area’s you can have the stuff delivered to your house, but I prefer to just pick it up outside the store.
Last I had checked the global death rate for the Flu was around 1% but the death rate for Covid-19 was around 3.4%.
I have a feeling that this will get worse here in the states, but I don’t think its going to be a killer virus for the general public. Those who have underlying issues or respiratory issues are the likely one’s to have major complications from the virus.
There are a lot of folk’s that have had the virus but didn’t get sick enough for the hospital.
Be sure to check with your local counties and state government’s as they are now able to test for the virus without having to go through the CDC which took time and they were strict on who could be tested. but by the end of the weekend there should be well over a million test kit’s sent out across the nation.
New cases are popping up every week in different areas it seems, it is just a matter of time until it is going to be in your neck of the woods.
Covid-19 update 03/22/2020
Listen to the podcast for the latest updates!
Covid-19 Update 03/29/2020
More and more cases are being confirmed here in the states as well as around the world.
There has been talks about considering a DNR order for those who have covid-19 and flatline. I don’t think it’ll come to this, but it has been talked about. Not here in the states though!
Be sure to do your best to not spread germs by washing your hands with soap and water or using hand sanitizer.
Remember that just because we get more cases, this doesn’t mean that the social distancing isn’t working, it just means that more people are able to get tested.
Also keep in mind that there are a lot more folk’s who have not be able to be tested, even though they show all the symptom’s.
You may consider taking you shoes off outside your house and either put them in a bag/box or put them up somewhere that way you don’t track germs into your house.
Be sure to check out the latest podcast below!
Covid-19 update 04/05/2020
So earlier this week the world wide case count surpassed 1 million cases. We here in the states have kept going up as well. We are still #1 as far as cases go.
Here are the current numbers as of 04/05/2020 17:00 EST
Ohio updates their stat’s at 14:00 EST daily. I have been keeping an eye on things in my area. currently no one is hospitalized in my county which is a good thing.
We have heard report’s of folk’s not being able to be tested because of the lack of test kit’s. This isn’t just a local issue. This is happening across the country.
There are still people going out and about even though they have tested positive for covid-19. This isn’t a good thing.
The way things are looking, there will be a lot of people out of work for a long time. The more that this spread’s then the longer they’ll have things shut down.
There are still some states that have not started a stay at home order locally or statewide. Each state has that choice. I understand the effect’s on the economy. I think we all do.
New York has been calling in help from across the states. They have been hit the hardest in the nation. Mainly NYC area, but they also have cases upstate.
What changes have I seen around me?
I don’t get out much at all except for work. The wife and the kid’s stay home unless its to pick up a load of groceries from the curbside pickup.
We still have restrictions on the amount of item’s we can purchase, but so far that hasn’t been an issue, we have been able to replace almost as much as we use.
I tried to get an appointment with the Dr this last week, but they won’t see anyone until May 17th. I can do the telemedicine which is what I’ll be doing. I’m not going because I think I’m sick with it. I just haven’t gotten set up with a Dr since I’ve moved up here.
They only seem to be doing immunization’s at the Dr’s office, at least the pediatricians office. They cancelled the routine check up’s a few weeks ago.
Although we have a “Safer at home” order in place, I still see folk’s out and about. I drove past the local walking park and there seemed to be a lot of people out there, they were however staying apart, except for the kid’s with their parent’s. It has been beautiful out this last week.
Ohio has suggested that folk’s start wearing mask’s when out and about, not necessarily N95 mask’s but they mentioned to just have your face covered up to help stop the spread.
There are some site’s where you can get those cloth mask’s, although I don’t think they will do much good, they would be better than nothing.
Me on the other hand I probably won’t wear one. I have a hard enough time breathing as it is. I don’t really interact with many people at all.
Most of my deliveries are drop and hook’s and I just sign the paperwork myself for most load’s.
There is one place I go to that they now have a phone that everyone has to use to call across the window. I DON’T LIKE THIS IDEA AT ALL!!!
I think they should allow us to call off our personal phone’s. There has been at least one case of a truck stop having to get cleaned by a hazmat crew after a driver tested positive.
They do offer cleaning supplies to clean the phone off with though. But I just don’t like taking that extra risk.
I have seen more and more folk’s wearing mask’s though. A few of our driver’s wear them, but I have seen a lot of people while I’m going down the road with mask’s on. I went to Indianapolis a few day’s ago, this was the first time that I’ve been there in a while. I noticed quite a few people wearing mask’s.
I for the last few week’s have been keeping hand sanitizer with me in my pack. I scrub everything down with wipes before I start my shift. We slip seat and I’m just not sure how well other’s are with hygiene or touching door handles and things.
I don’t need to be taking this back to the kid’s.
I have seen that Love’s truck stops have installed a Plexiglas barrier to help protect their worker’s at the check out.
Love’s has been having a worker get the fountain drink’s and hot dog’s for people. I don’t get those, still risky but the workers do change their gloves with each customer.
Stores have started limiting the amount of people in the store at one time. I know this has been going on in some area’s but here starting tomorrow, if I remember correctly, stores will only be allowing up to 50 customer’s in at one time and only allow one person per cart.
Single parent’s on the other hand are allowed to bring their kid’s. I feel that this is still risky and I do suggest using the grocery pick up app’s, but not every will do it.
We were having issues with people just going to the stores and walking around to get out of the house. This is why they decided to do this.
There will be a line to get into the store’s, somewhat like it is on Black Friday. They want you to maintain a 6′ distance from others in line and in the store.
We have had more grocery store worker’s test positive for Covid-19 as well as bus driver’s. We still have the pubic transit operating but they have slowed down a lot. They now only operate within a certain time frame.
Other than that not much has changed for me, I didn’t get out much before the “Stay at Home” order was in place so it doesn’t bother me much.
What really sucks is that the weather has been so nice, but they got the park’s closed down. I get it though.
Remember to wash your hands with soap and water, keep your distance and be mindful of the things that you come in contact with.