Comments on: Coronavirus Prevention Tips From a Non-Doctor and More Canon Used Gear Bargains https://www.birdsasart-blog.com/baa/2020/03/15/coronavirus-prevention-tips-from-a-non-doctor-and-more-canon-used-gear-bargains/ The blog of bird photographer Arthur Morris Fri, 07 Mar 2025 15:48:13 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.8.3 By: Arthur Morris/BIRDS AS ART https://www.birdsasart-blog.com/baa/2020/03/15/coronavirus-prevention-tips-from-a-non-doctor-and-more-canon-used-gear-bargains/comment-page-1/#comment-1781022 Wed, 18 Mar 2020 13:20:54 +0000 http://www.birdsasart-blog.com/?p=66515#comment-1781022 In reply to Adam.

Hi Adam,

A few things:

1- Are not droplets and aerosols the same thing? If not, what is the difference?

2- Isolation suits are obviously not practical for the populace.

3- Are you a doctor?

thanks with love, a

ps: how do you know all of this stuff?

]]> By: Adam https://www.birdsasart-blog.com/baa/2020/03/15/coronavirus-prevention-tips-from-a-non-doctor-and-more-canon-used-gear-bargains/comment-page-1/#comment-1781012 Wed, 18 Mar 2020 03:31:59 +0000 http://www.birdsasart-blog.com/?p=66515#comment-1781012 Hi Artie, sagely advice regarding preventing the acquisition of covid-19 which is largely spread by droplets rather than aerosols. The best things people can do, as you observed are wash their hands frequently, avoid touching eyes, ears, nose, or mouth (it enters mucous membranes), don’t eat raw, cold foods (cook/heat when possible), wash produce, and maintain social distance. Wearing masks provides no protection other than making it harder for the user to touch the nose or mouth as the droplets can land on your face, eyes, etc. and eventually enter the body. Real personal protection requires full body covering with a disposable suit, hair covering, goggles, face shield, gloves, and attention to donning and doffing the equipment. Better yet are isolation suits aka PAPR’s. Masks may reduce the risks for others when worn by people who are ill as they would reduce the number of droplets when one sneezes or coughs. Unfortunately there are no homeopathic remedies which have been proven effective including zinc, vitamin D, etc.

One of the things which makes this Covid-19 “novel” is that unlike other related Coronaviruses it has an expressed cleavage site called “Furin” which is seen on viruses such as HIV, Ebola, etc. Furin facilitates entry into human cells where it wreaks havoc. Additionally, this virus is directly cytotoxic meaning that it destroys cells and most of the complications are related to direct toxicity rather than the result of the body’s inflammatory response such as seen in influenza. Worse yet, is that even with medical support of the pulmonary complications, patients frequently die from the virus’ effect on the heart – myositis.

The true number of cases is probably 1000x higher in the US than what is being reported – were not testing everyone – and given a death toll of approximately 100 people and a more likely mortality rate between 0.5-1% (optimistically) it would suggest a minimum of 50-100k Americans infected and that will only accelerate in the coming days. A vaccine just started Phase I trials but that is at least 9mo- 1yr away. The retro viral drugs used in HIV have shown some promise though they have to be given early befor people are sick. That’s in a nutshell and I wish that I had better news.

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