Thank you for the tips/suggestions for those about to fly. My son is leaving Saturday to attend a friend's wedding in India and I am very worried about him being on a plane for so long as well as being in and out of airports and in crowds in India. I just passed your tips along to him via email (I can hear him saying, "worry wart mom!" from here).
I too checked Amazon for surgical face masks this morning and they are available for order but the earliest arrival would be next week (with priority shipping). I did stock my son up with anti-bacterial hand wipes though, and he his has antibiotics that his travel doctor provided just in case.
Is there a way to merge the two Wuhan threads?
Dang!
The latest breaking news is a student from ASU, the university my daughter attends , has the virus. They said the infected person is not in University housing. My daughter isn't either (so that is actually not comforting news) . This will be happening everywhere so we will be hearing more stories across the world and nation. But I must say, I wasn't expecting my daughter's University to be affected this soon. That was a bit shocking.
Dang.
I wonder what they will be doing in the wake of that info.
FWIW my intuition tells me this will not become a pandemic but it will get dangerously close. They will figure out a way to contain it.
ASU has finally updated their website. They (or the health department) will be notifying students who may have been in close contact with the infected individual. Sounds like the "fun" will be continuing for awhile. It has been been interesting talking with my anxiety prone daughter about the steps she needs not take to insure her health. I don't think she is TOO worried, but then again, she doesn't share her feelings with ease. If it was a face to face conversation I would have gotten a better take on how she is dealing with the news.
Hmmm. There's a lot going on in this thread that I feel the urge to address.
First, in general. The coming wave of health scares resulting from antibiotic-resistant strains and thawing permafrost/melting glaciers is likely to speed up our globalized culture's transition from mechanistic, Cartesian medical attitudes to the more holistic practices that have been on the margins for so long. So there's that upside, @michele-b.
Regarding the coronavirus: I've been on a news blackout since the New Year, and, unless something really explosive happens, I will probably continue with my blockade until the spring. So this is just my intuition speaking. The measures @jeanne-mayell suggested for travelers sound spot on, and you may want to consider wearing an anti-viral mask if you're often in crowds or live/work in institutional settings. For everyone else, though, the best thing you could probably do (right up there with washing your hands regularly with warm water and soap) is spend as much time as possible outdoors in fresh air. Better yet, get dirty. Take up gardening, do vigorous yard work, channel your inner 5-year-old and frolic in the woods. Drenching yourself in all of those microbes from the soil and volatile organic compounds exhaled by plants will act as a super-boost to your immune system. (If you really want to go hardcore, consider eating wild edibles as well ?.) Part of the reason why so many viral/autoimmune problems are flaring up right now in the human population is because we in the "modern" world have forgotten that we evolved in biotic cooperation with the palimpsest of living things that compose Gaia. The neurotically sterilized environments many of us associate with "health" are only one more manifestation of the mind virus of human separation from and control of nature.
Which leads me to my next point. Michele, I like the humor of your characterization of the American federal government. But there's not much to envy in China's centralized, top-down approach to problem-solving. Complex emergent systems, including human society, need flexibility and a diversity of inputs when responding to a crisis. That's how we get synergy and resiliency. The hyper-centralized Chinese Communist response to threats snuffs out the possibility of resilience and epitomizes the mentality of separation and control (which is also closely related to the mentality of war: "vanquish the enemy!") This sort of response to pandemics will only work in the short term. Eventually, the organic palimpsest that is Gaia will break through our myopic defenses and put us (back) in our place.
@sistermoon That 8 of Swords and your interpretation sound accurate. But it's not just autocratic governments that will use the coronavirus (or any sort of pandemic) as an excuse for solidifying power. Even established democratic governments tend to respond to natural calamities by clamping down on freedom and squelching the sort of organic, emergent solutions I mentioned above (Rebecca Solnit writes about this in A Paradise Built in Hell). That's because most of our governing institutions in the world right now, by their very nature, are centralized, hierarchical, and profoundly disconnected from the natural. The energy of the collective is going through an epochal shift, though, so I don't expect the 8 of Swords situation to last very long.
Thanks! I'm stuck at home with a dog who just had knee surgery but my daughter went to 4 CVS stores today and the last one she visited had two boxes left. She bought both boxes and gave one to my son to pack for his trip to India. She is in graduate school at a university that has a lot of students from China so she will use the other box, saving some of the masks for my husband and I. I'm very glad she was able to get some for my son before his trip!
I also gave my son a big bag of individually wrapped anti-bacterial wipes to take with him. But my daughter did me one better - in addition to the masks, she bought a pair of elbow length leather gloves for my son to take too.
I have to admit that one made me chuckle - I'm picturing my son at an Indian wedding decked out in leather gloves and a face mask. But, the thought was good. :)
CDC - NIOSH-Approved N95 Particulate Filtering Facepiece Respirators - 3M Suppliers List
https://www.cdc.gov/niosh/npptl/topics/respirators/disp_part/n95list1.html
Several government sites list the very specific N95 masks that are needed to keep viral particles from coming in as opposed to surgical masks worn in operating rooms whose primary purpose is to keep the doctors, nurses etc. own aerial bacteria and viruses etc. from getting to the patient not the other way around.
And according to government sites just being labeled N95 doesn't mean they've been tested or approved by CDC or other government agencies for the needed level of protection.
Thinking of you @lovendures and your daughter. Sending you both organically replenishing love and hugs and keeping everyone, everywhere in my heart?
We need to nourish and care not only for our own beings but all who are part of us as a daily practice of mind-body-and spirit now.
Obviously with something like this there hadn't been the needed research of any kind yet much enough testing kits produced for an epidemic much less a potential pandemic.
But all we can do is our best in finding products for ourselves or loved one who are high risk or in potentially exposed areas.
Anything is better than nothing and cleanliness of hands and keeping our hands away from our noses, mouths and eyes needs crucial mentioning. And this is the benefit of any mask or scarf or gloves in any setting even from cold or flu.
Humor is an essential part of attaining balance and healing. I practice it daily.
After reading your excellent comment about going out into nature and breathing it all of the wonderful healing and intrinsically immune protection microbes and lovely organic organisms we have around us, I told my husband I was going to go out today and roll in the dirt and mud that a trio of escaped pigs created when they dug up and totally destroyed our lawn.
The pigs have caused him no end of emotional distress for weeks and weeks as their owners neither fed them nor repaired broken fences--we ended up saving two of them via a rescue organization and farm animal sanctuary by walking right up to the "Do Not Trespass" junkyard/ drug house and kindly addressing our and the sweet pigs distress and getting permission to find them new homes.
Yes, believe it or not it worked when sheriffs and community agencies had failed the pigs and half a dozen upset neighbors for the past three years.
As someone who lays in grass or on rooftops frequently breathing in father sun and mother moon, my husband was afraid I might actually do it. Well except perhaps for the actual rolling around and getting back up again.
Love you ? and hope you are laughing. Goodness knows we need good times and a lot of laughter right now.