Let Them Eat Cake
28/03/20 07:20
The beaches closed here in town last night at midnight. Not that it matters to me since I rarely go to the beach but all the same I can't recall ever having seen this happen before. The beaches were ordered closed for a month as part of a larger effort by the state to stem the tide of the raging Coronavirus. It was not a Shelter in Place order so I'll be getting out on my daily bicycle rides and enjoying the scenery along the way including scenery of the now closed and still pristine beaches.
The whole social distancing issue comes into play of course and the beaches attract large numbers of people this time of year (Spring) including dog walkers and ocean gawkers who mill about without concerning themselves with who or who not might be in close proximity to them.
I suspect that people have been a little more circumspect as of late on the issue of proximity not knowing how virulent the virus is or how easily it spreads. And then there are the choke points along the beach where people come and go from the parking lots.
I'm guessing that the people who will no longer be able to go to the beach will now be driving up and down Ocean Boulevard to see the beach even though walking on the beach is verboten. That will make for a busier Ocean Boulevard which is always a pain in the ass if you are on a bicycle making your way up and down the roadway. There was so much traffic yesterday that I took the backroads home after the first leg of my trip.
I wasn't worried so much about getting hit by a car but I was a little concerned about people passing by with their car windows open and maybe spitting, coughing, or hacking this that or the other thing out the window while I was astride them. I know. I know. You can't make this stuff up. But I'm a sensitive guy and I couldn't wait to elude the craziness of main street for the bucolic and hilly backroads of town before getting back home.
There was a story in the papers this morning about an elderly local couple who were resting comfortably at home and recovering nicely from the flu (coronavirus.) It occurred to me that they probably had access to Hydroxychloroquine in order to facilitate their recovery but that was, perhaps conveniently, not mentioned in the article.
This is the highly touted drug that has shown considerable promise in battling the coronavirus scourge and has been approved by the FDA for compassionate and off label use.
It is also thought to be effective as a prophylactic against contracting the virus and is probably used widely but quietly by the medical professionals fighting on the front lines of this disease. Whether or not you or I have access to this drug if and when the time comes is another story. This may well be one of those "who you know" deals where not knowing someone can kill you.
It would be perhaps irresponsible by the newspapers to highlight a drug that is available and effective but maybe in short supply and creating demand that cannot in the short term at least be satisfied. There may be other interested parties who want stories like this suppressed in order to save what limited quantities of the medication they do have for the protected classes in the community. Maybe you've heard the expression, "let them eat cake."
Class warfare aside, I'd like to know why this drug has not been used more widely and why even one more life has to be lost if it is half as effective as it is said to be. Both China and Italy have lost thousands of patients in this pandemic. If this drug has been around forever and a day and probably more available in China than here in the US then why have they not used it on the front lines in their battle against this scourge? What the fuck? What are they not telling us?
I have to laugh when I think of all the New Yorkers fleeing the city of New York like rats fleeing a sinking ship. These well-to-do pariahs make their way to their summer homes in upstate New York and other places where this virulent flu has yet to appear in any appreciable way.
The clerks in the stores and shops in these faraway places, not accustomed to seeing these familiar faces so early in the season, more than likely cast an uneasy glance their way knowing that they may well be asymptomatic carriers of the virus.
The local constabulary is waiting for them. Waiting to enforce the recommendations of the CDC and, with any luck, minimizing the community spread aspect of this deadly disease by making sure that these well heeled visitors obey the rules and stay put for prescribed 14 day period.
Once their symptoms begin to manifest themselves, and they will, they will show up in local emergency rooms and hospital wards absorbing what they can well ahead of any and all available services that would otherwise accrue to the benefit of the year-round residents.
Their chances of survival are significantly enhanced in a clinical setting where ICU's are not even close to capacity as yet and where ventilators are in steady supply for those in need. These are niceties not afforded to the mainstream New Yorker who is left behind in a city gone silent, who has likely lost his or her job, who lives in an overcrowded and subsidized flat in an East Side high rise in one of the city's four boroughs, and who now face an uncertain future.
These war torn and forlorn residents are looking down the barrel at an eighty percent infection rate or higher and an average 20 days on a ventilator before dying a miserable death from infection or, worse yet, a full and complete pulmonary collapse. The government has built a number of mobile hospitals in and around the four boroughs to accommodate the overflow of patients that are expected to show up as the disease peaks over the next couple of weeks.
Here in New Hampshire cases are on the increase and exponentially so. There have been three deaths to date putting the mortality rate at 1% give or take. I'm reading that the hospitalization rate is roughly 15% which doesn't seem too bad until you consider that the supply of hospital beds will quickly exceed demand as the infection rate increases.
The number of reported cases in my county alone now exceeds 100. It's only a matter of time before I or one or more of my family members cross paths with one of these "vectors of transmission." That's a euphemism of sorts for "rats."
We have a longtime friend and acquaintance who works at a local hospital as a pathologist. I told Nancy that we need to get an e-mail to her sooner rather than later wishing her and her family all the best during these difficult times. We don't know that she will be pressed into service on the floor and taken out of the relative comfort and safety of her laboratory but we think it's likely if things get really bad.
Hospitals coast to coast are clamoring for not only additional masks and gowns and all associated PPE's but any and all medical professionals retired and otherwise who might be willing to join the ranks of their brethren on the front lines of this pandemic. Good luck with that.
And now Trump has issued guidance that we as a nation will keep our current status for another month just to be safe. If we as a nation find ourselves on the downside of that flattening curve a month from now when we open our doors for business that would be preferable to going back to "normal" too soon.
Evan has been staying with us for the past couple of days. He's not articulated any particular fears one way or another when it comes to this pandemic but maybe the fact that he's wanting to stay on for a bit should tell us something.
We have been encouraging him to stay longer so we'll see what happens. We've taken rides around town the last couple of days just to get out of the house and I think Evan has enjoyed those as well. There is very little traffic and driving in and around Portsmouth has been more reminiscent of taking an early morning drive on a Sunday than anything else.
I picked up a couple of loaves of Scali bread for Mrs G yesterday in my trip to the store in Hampton. I don't know for a fact that it is THE Scali bread that Mrs G had in mind since she mentioned Market Basket when making the request. But Scali bread is Scali bread. Right?
I was hoping Nancy would pick up the ball and run with it when her mother put in the request but she was decidedly skittish about going into the stores at all so did not man-up in any appreciable way. But we'll plan to drop the bread along with a couple of bottles of wine and some candy nips over at Riverwood later today for pick-up by her mom.
I think we will be allowed to drive to the entrance of her building and someone will come out to the car to take the items from us. We will not be allowed to get out of the car and that is one of many precautions being taken these days in order to protect the residents of Riverwoods. I've said it before but I think it bears repeating. I don't think Nancy will be able to see her mom for maybe months to come and then some if this pandemic doesn't show signs of petering out one way or another.
Mrs G has been quite clear about matters. She said that if we think it's bad now just wait until they get their first case of the coronavirus on premises. I'm guessing that she and her fellow travelers would be confined to quarters for the foreseeable future without access to the many features that make her independent living facility so attractive.
I suppose it's a small price to pay in order to stay safe in this viral environment we live in these days. And if you have your Scali bread, your bottles of wine, and your candy nips, what else do you need? What else indeed.
The whole social distancing issue comes into play of course and the beaches attract large numbers of people this time of year (Spring) including dog walkers and ocean gawkers who mill about without concerning themselves with who or who not might be in close proximity to them.
I suspect that people have been a little more circumspect as of late on the issue of proximity not knowing how virulent the virus is or how easily it spreads. And then there are the choke points along the beach where people come and go from the parking lots.
I'm guessing that the people who will no longer be able to go to the beach will now be driving up and down Ocean Boulevard to see the beach even though walking on the beach is verboten. That will make for a busier Ocean Boulevard which is always a pain in the ass if you are on a bicycle making your way up and down the roadway. There was so much traffic yesterday that I took the backroads home after the first leg of my trip.
I wasn't worried so much about getting hit by a car but I was a little concerned about people passing by with their car windows open and maybe spitting, coughing, or hacking this that or the other thing out the window while I was astride them. I know. I know. You can't make this stuff up. But I'm a sensitive guy and I couldn't wait to elude the craziness of main street for the bucolic and hilly backroads of town before getting back home.
There was a story in the papers this morning about an elderly local couple who were resting comfortably at home and recovering nicely from the flu (coronavirus.) It occurred to me that they probably had access to Hydroxychloroquine in order to facilitate their recovery but that was, perhaps conveniently, not mentioned in the article.
This is the highly touted drug that has shown considerable promise in battling the coronavirus scourge and has been approved by the FDA for compassionate and off label use.
It is also thought to be effective as a prophylactic against contracting the virus and is probably used widely but quietly by the medical professionals fighting on the front lines of this disease. Whether or not you or I have access to this drug if and when the time comes is another story. This may well be one of those "who you know" deals where not knowing someone can kill you.
It would be perhaps irresponsible by the newspapers to highlight a drug that is available and effective but maybe in short supply and creating demand that cannot in the short term at least be satisfied. There may be other interested parties who want stories like this suppressed in order to save what limited quantities of the medication they do have for the protected classes in the community. Maybe you've heard the expression, "let them eat cake."
Class warfare aside, I'd like to know why this drug has not been used more widely and why even one more life has to be lost if it is half as effective as it is said to be. Both China and Italy have lost thousands of patients in this pandemic. If this drug has been around forever and a day and probably more available in China than here in the US then why have they not used it on the front lines in their battle against this scourge? What the fuck? What are they not telling us?
I have to laugh when I think of all the New Yorkers fleeing the city of New York like rats fleeing a sinking ship. These well-to-do pariahs make their way to their summer homes in upstate New York and other places where this virulent flu has yet to appear in any appreciable way.
The clerks in the stores and shops in these faraway places, not accustomed to seeing these familiar faces so early in the season, more than likely cast an uneasy glance their way knowing that they may well be asymptomatic carriers of the virus.
The local constabulary is waiting for them. Waiting to enforce the recommendations of the CDC and, with any luck, minimizing the community spread aspect of this deadly disease by making sure that these well heeled visitors obey the rules and stay put for prescribed 14 day period.
Once their symptoms begin to manifest themselves, and they will, they will show up in local emergency rooms and hospital wards absorbing what they can well ahead of any and all available services that would otherwise accrue to the benefit of the year-round residents.
Their chances of survival are significantly enhanced in a clinical setting where ICU's are not even close to capacity as yet and where ventilators are in steady supply for those in need. These are niceties not afforded to the mainstream New Yorker who is left behind in a city gone silent, who has likely lost his or her job, who lives in an overcrowded and subsidized flat in an East Side high rise in one of the city's four boroughs, and who now face an uncertain future.
These war torn and forlorn residents are looking down the barrel at an eighty percent infection rate or higher and an average 20 days on a ventilator before dying a miserable death from infection or, worse yet, a full and complete pulmonary collapse. The government has built a number of mobile hospitals in and around the four boroughs to accommodate the overflow of patients that are expected to show up as the disease peaks over the next couple of weeks.
Here in New Hampshire cases are on the increase and exponentially so. There have been three deaths to date putting the mortality rate at 1% give or take. I'm reading that the hospitalization rate is roughly 15% which doesn't seem too bad until you consider that the supply of hospital beds will quickly exceed demand as the infection rate increases.
The number of reported cases in my county alone now exceeds 100. It's only a matter of time before I or one or more of my family members cross paths with one of these "vectors of transmission." That's a euphemism of sorts for "rats."
We have a longtime friend and acquaintance who works at a local hospital as a pathologist. I told Nancy that we need to get an e-mail to her sooner rather than later wishing her and her family all the best during these difficult times. We don't know that she will be pressed into service on the floor and taken out of the relative comfort and safety of her laboratory but we think it's likely if things get really bad.
Hospitals coast to coast are clamoring for not only additional masks and gowns and all associated PPE's but any and all medical professionals retired and otherwise who might be willing to join the ranks of their brethren on the front lines of this pandemic. Good luck with that.
And now Trump has issued guidance that we as a nation will keep our current status for another month just to be safe. If we as a nation find ourselves on the downside of that flattening curve a month from now when we open our doors for business that would be preferable to going back to "normal" too soon.
Evan has been staying with us for the past couple of days. He's not articulated any particular fears one way or another when it comes to this pandemic but maybe the fact that he's wanting to stay on for a bit should tell us something.
We have been encouraging him to stay longer so we'll see what happens. We've taken rides around town the last couple of days just to get out of the house and I think Evan has enjoyed those as well. There is very little traffic and driving in and around Portsmouth has been more reminiscent of taking an early morning drive on a Sunday than anything else.
I picked up a couple of loaves of Scali bread for Mrs G yesterday in my trip to the store in Hampton. I don't know for a fact that it is THE Scali bread that Mrs G had in mind since she mentioned Market Basket when making the request. But Scali bread is Scali bread. Right?
I was hoping Nancy would pick up the ball and run with it when her mother put in the request but she was decidedly skittish about going into the stores at all so did not man-up in any appreciable way. But we'll plan to drop the bread along with a couple of bottles of wine and some candy nips over at Riverwood later today for pick-up by her mom.
I think we will be allowed to drive to the entrance of her building and someone will come out to the car to take the items from us. We will not be allowed to get out of the car and that is one of many precautions being taken these days in order to protect the residents of Riverwoods. I've said it before but I think it bears repeating. I don't think Nancy will be able to see her mom for maybe months to come and then some if this pandemic doesn't show signs of petering out one way or another.
Mrs G has been quite clear about matters. She said that if we think it's bad now just wait until they get their first case of the coronavirus on premises. I'm guessing that she and her fellow travelers would be confined to quarters for the foreseeable future without access to the many features that make her independent living facility so attractive.
I suppose it's a small price to pay in order to stay safe in this viral environment we live in these days. And if you have your Scali bread, your bottles of wine, and your candy nips, what else do you need? What else indeed.