Face Masks
 

FOR THOSE WHO SEW ...

Just downloaded a PDF pattern from here and will make a few face masks with some remnants and scraps of material I have. More patterns are found at the FreeSewing.org website.




FOR THOSE WHO DO NOT SEW ...

___________________
Make a mask with paper towels

___________________
Make a mask with an old T-Shirt

I'm listening to the live broadcast of this morning's covid-19 update from NY-Gov Cuomo. Apparently he can't even get ventilator's due to the circus-effect created by the current WH occupants. So incredibly alarming and sad. And I guess his brother Chris Cuomo (CNN) has been exposed and possibly their mother. Very concerning and increasingly alarming, as each day goes by.

I think Gov Cuomo is shouldering this crisis like a decorated Field Marshall.

It's an understatement to say this is heartbreaking, but it that and more.

Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall once said, and I quote:

I believe that NY-State's Governor Andrew Cuomo is the example Thurgood Marshall is referencing.

Conversely, it's definitely not the person sitting in the WH.

Governor Cuomo is the exemplary example of the leadership people need during times of crisis. It gives me reason to believe that under his exemplary leadership that other state-wide leaders will model his leadership and help steer our country to safety.

Sending positive thoughts and good JuJu to every reader and member in our community. :rrose:

Thanks Orema!!
 

Thank you for sharing this with us!!

I like the t-shirt idea I'm going to create a few for my next grocery shopping outing.

My pleasure, PlatinumPearl.

WHO and CDC are reexamining their guidelines on wearing masks. Also, Dr. Scott Gottlieb, the former commissioner of the FDA, said in an interview on Sunday that the C.D.C. should put out designs for cloth masks for the public. “The value of the mask isn’t necessarily to protect you from getting sick, although it may offer some protection,” he told CBS News. “It’s to protect you from other people. So when someone who’s infected is wearing a mask, they’re much less likely to transmit infection.” (https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/31/h...ronavirus.html)

Whatever is decided, I don't think it's harmful for the average person (i.e., not a healthcare provider) wearing a mask. And the more masks we make at home, the less we take from the people working on the frontlines.

~~
Not surprising, that those with power & money get to skirt the rules even during a pandemic!

I must admit when I first read this, I thought it was pretty pessimistic! After reading several articles lately about price gouging, ministers defying social distancing, etc etc I believe I'm in the same space as JD, well except for the "not gonna be alive much longer"! I don't plan on going anytime soon!

I think you're right, we're fucked. This is how 100,000-200,000 Americans are going to die. Many others will show symptoms and be sick. And many others, who are a big part of the problem, will be asymptomatic carriers.

I live in a fairly urban area where people are _mostly_ sticking to the guidelines - not all, for sure. But in the rural area where my sister and mom live, there's such an entitled attitude of "America's a free country, you can't tell me what to do!" When did we stop teaching kids that with great freedom comes great responsibility?

I don't know what to do about it except try not to panic too much, and keep washing my hands and using sanitizer.

People who don't listen
 

How true - this = on a smaller level (we have less population) = has happened here in Canada as well. Premiers here have gotten angry with their citizens in their news TV briefs about how people are ignoring stay-at-home (at the time) requests), but now have had to institute orders (backed up by criminal fines/penalties).

For example, even though people knew about the pandemic, 99 of the 135 people who had been diagnosed with COVID-19 in St. John's, Newfoundland contracted COVID-19 out of attending wakes at Caul’s Funeral Home, March 15-17.

Unfortunately, this has all turned quite ugly, because:

"The fallout for family and friends who attended the wakes and funerals, including the more than 150 who reportedly packed into a chapel at Caul’s to say goodbye to Ms. Fleming, has been swift and, at times, ugly. They say they’re getting death threats, online harassment and have become scapegoats in a province where little more than two weeks ago there were no cases of COVID-19."

That is unbelievable. I mean, obviously I believe you, but how can so many people be so stupid.

I've noticed here the past few days that there has been more traffic on the roads than there was last week. I do still need to go to work 5-6 days/week so I'm out for that/grocery shopping for us and my parents. But at least in the market now people seem to be respecting the 6' rule.

My mom is making hundreds of masks. She made them for every staff still reporting to work and every woman who lives in our housing program and when she's done with that she's going to start making them for the homeless shelter a couple miles away.

I finally got someone to stand in for me today so I could work from home for a day. It's such a relief to check out a bit. The stress is pulsing in the air the longer this goes on. Residents are cooped up. They live in little tiny rooms with just a bed and a closet. They are bickering and staff is getting more and more stressed and some are getting stabby with their words. I had to halt a co-worker who was mean girl talking to me on Monday. Absolutely no tolerance for that.

Hope everyone is staying healthy~

And they're surprised now that they've got COVID-19. I really think the general public is not getting the message that they can carry the disease even if they don't show symptoms of being sick. My sister's family is supposedly sheltering in place and doing all the right things, _except_ my niece and her fiancé went to visit his grandmother the other day. I don't think he would risk his grandmother's life on purpose, I think he just doesn't get it.

I also think a large proportion of the population is purposely ignoring the directives, because (1) an attitude of entitlement ('you can't tell me what to do!') (2) they don't believe there's really a crisis and that the whole thing is a hoax made up by the media.

More information needs to get out to the public from _doctors_ and _health professionals_, not just from politicians, and not just "wash your hands and stay home." It won't solve the problem, but it might make it better.

Weighing in on the Asymptomatic piece of the Covid-19 crisis
 

I think the Asymptomatic piece is critical to absorb and fully wrap ones proverbial arms around, and here's how I took action for myself, over the past two years before the Covid-19 crisis erupted across the globe.

Three years ago, after nearly dying in a work related accident which left me in critical health status, which I'm still climbing out from, I needed something to keep me busy at home, while being home bound. So I joined, for a few rounds, in our community arts & crafting group, and one of the really good ideas nursing professionals gave to me (including my mother, who sat in our nursing consults) was that to protect my health and the health of others, was to painstakingly use gloves and find a way to seal all my crafting projects that I would send to the Craft Round Wrangler.

I got a lot of feedback about why I taped up and sealed all my projects, but that is the measure of safety I had to take and still take, to not only protect my own health but the health of others.

There are critical transmission contact points we rarely even think about, in our day to day activities. Surfaces we touch. The air we breath. And if by chance we've been sneezing or coughing into the air directly in proximity to us, no matter where that is, then air borne viruses can often survive in the air and on contact surfaces we (the general we) sometimes take for granted that might not be infected by viral-droplets which caused us to sneeze or cough or even in simpler terms, when we talk.

I seriously hope that one of the outcomes to this particular viral crisis is that people become much more aware of not only hygiene practices but taking into account that the surfaces in our immediate proximity or wherever we might be conducting our lives in day-to-day affairs, will realize how important it is to consider not only our own health but the health of others we are in proximity too.

My mom is sending me something by special delivery via FedEX and it's due to arrive tomorrow, but our area FedEx driver had something to deliver to a resident in our building and it literally made me feel so much better to see them wearing PPE and gloves.

Thanks for letting me share a bit about how I've been dealing with safeguarding my own health, since I was hurt on the job three years ago and how I have been incorporating health conscious practices to not only safeguard my own health, but to limit transmission contact points of interest in my day to day life.

:bunchflowers: :vigil: :candle: :candle: :candle:

I was on an all staff Zoom meeting today. First most of us were muted and cameras off. But then one staff asked a question and she came on camera- in her bed, sleep cap on, got unmuted, and we heard her coughing up a lung.

I just worked with her last night.

I called her supervisor to see what's up.

She was tested this morning and we are waiting for results. She has fever, chills, cough, etc. At least because she is essential staff serving a vulnerable population she was able to get tested quickly.

We mostly keep a six foot rule at work but there are things like... we share bathrooms, we share a kitchen, not thinking- we pass each other forms. I don't know if she wore gloves while sorting mail. The list goes on.

I still have to report to work as usual tomorrow and until we get any test results that tell us otherwise.

Kemp finally issued a shelter in place for Georgia today. A full 2 weeks after the bulk of the infections started.

We are at 4748 cases so far.

I'm actually watching a documentary, over on YouTube, which was filmed by Lisa Laden, narrated by S. Epatha Merkerson, and features Dr. Anthony Fauci.

It originally aired on PBS, back in 2010. Dr. Fauci looks the same as he did in press conferences aired today. It is a documentary about the Influenza pandemic of 1918, shortly after WW1, which claimed over 50 million lives.

Lisa Laden interviews survivors of that era in time, as well as scientists. It's quite informative. Check out the masks worn back then (they look like the cotton homemade masks people are making right now).

Here's the link, for anyone interested in watching it (it's about an hour long):

We Heard The Bells: The Influenza of 1918.

The Georgia Governor, Brian Kemp, just admitted that he has only just now learned that the COVID-19 virus can be transmitted asymptomatically.

I find that hard to believe. I actually think that when this type of claim is made, especially when it's made by someone seated with some sort of executive authority, it's basically (to me) a ploy to distract from the truth of factually communicated evidence by those on the front lines of this devastating crisis. Same for that person of executive authority in Florida.

It's not hard to find out who has your best interest at heart. It is upsetting to watch this go down publicly. Thank heavens for Governor Cuomo. Kemp is not even in the same league as Gov. Cuomo.

I actually worry now that the crisis our nation faces with Covid-19 will leap the proverbial train tracks and be used as a tool to upend the Presidential Election, come November.


<<<<<<~~ super concerned and worried for everyone.

Checkpoints restricting travel between provinces in Canada
 

Provinces have instituted checkpoints between their borders. So, anyone wanting to do some traveling for any personal reason will most likely be turned back.

"The COVID-19 pandemic brings the unusual presence of police and government checkpoints to several of Canada’s inter-provincial borders, adding to restrictions on movement in a bid to slow the spread of the deadly novel coronavirus.

"The Quebec government placed new restrictions to limit movement into the province Wednesday, including police controlling travel between Ottawa and Gatineau, separating the two sides of Canada’s unified National Capital Region.

"Manitoba has had checkpoints running on all of its highways linking with Ontario and Saskatchewan since Friday, and Nova Scotia was an early adopter of travel checkpoints into the province.

"In Quebec, new police checkpoints were put in place for traffic between the province and Ontario, between Quebec and New Brunswick, and between Quebec and Newfoundland and Labrador."

https://nationalpost.com/news/covid-...ween-provinces

An official pandemic pastime. :)