I was a computer programmer my entire adult life. I've retired from that. Since last year, I've been working for a non-emergency medical transportation company (*), driving a wheel-chair van. Most of the people I transport(ed) are on dialysis, quite a few (whether or not on dialysis) are in nursing homes.
I was beginning to worry back in early March, both for my own safely, but even moreso for our clients. Back in those days, it was being reported that one might be infected and spreading spreading the virus for as much as two weeks before showing any symptoms oneself. My great fear wasn't that I'd catch it, but that I'd catch it and spread it without knowing I had it.
I had scheduled to be sure I wasn't working on Saturday, March 14; planning to go visit my family in Indiana. My sister called the afternoon of the 13th to suggest I delay the trip, in case I couldn't get gas for the return trip -- panic-buying hadn't yet hit my area in Ohio, and the various governments in the US had not yet announced that they were going to destroy the economy, but she suspected that that was on the way.
Then, that night, I woke up sick. So, I didn't go to work for the next week and a half. I was scheduled to work on Wednesday, March 25 -- one trip only (but the guy cancelled as I was on my way to get him): in that week and a half that I'd been home mildly sick, everything had crashed, and just about the only trips my company was still making were for dialysis.
Since there wasn't enough work for all the drivers, and since I can get by without the income from that job, I told them to give preference to drivers who need the income. So, for the next couple of weeks, they called me every day with the message that I wasn't scheduled to work the next day. Then, a couple of weeks ago, they shut down operations entirely ... until July 1 (or even later).
So, I haven't worked, or earned any money, since March 13. And, while I can get by without that income -- at any rate, until the economy collapses and destroys my IRAs -- I *had* budgeted for it, including that I'd not even need to touch the IRAs, but rather let them grow.
I don't *know* that I've already had the Kung Flu (if I did, for me it presented as a very mild flu) -- for, despite that they seemingly have a levy request at every (**) election (**'), the local Board of Health (as also the State Board) was utterly useless. The bureaucrats didn't even extend their hours ... which were already shorter than people with real jobs work.
(*) I could easily be earning 2 or even 3 times what they pay me were I to un-retire.
(**) At any rate, seemingly every off-election, preferably the primary. The only time a levy request is on the ballot during a general election is if it has previously failed to pass.
(**') Either: "This is not a new levy, so renew it!" or, "This new levy will cost the average homeowner only $.35 a day, so pass it!"
Friday, April 24, 2020
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You're a good man, Ilion.
My county, with a population of @125K, is currently reporting 3 deaths from the Chinese Commie Flu. So, on the assumption that that number isn't inflated, can you see how terrified I am?
The county is reporting 186 "confirmed cases". I interpret that to mean that only 186 persons, of an unknown number who have contracted the virus, had symptoms severe enough that they sought medical intervention.
Can you see how terrified we all must be?
google search
From the local newspaper (it still exists?) on March 3, 2020 --
==MANSFIELD - In January alone, there were 530 cases of influenza documented in Richland County with 20 cases where people were hospitalized for the flu.
Reid Richmond, spokesman at Richland Public Health, said there were four deaths in January related to influenza or pneunomia in Richland County, according to statistics provided to the health department.==
Did you notice that? In the single month of January, there were 4 deaths reported in this county as being due to the flu.
Meanwhile, in the nearly five months of this year, there are a total of 3 deaths being reported in this county as being due to the Commie Crud.
Did you notice that? In the single month of January, there were 530 documented cases of the flu in county.
Meanwhile, in the nearly five months of this year, there are a total of 186 documented cases of the Commie Crud.
No one lives in terror of the flu.
News Journal
I've seen reports such as this for several days --
PJ Media: Vaccine Development Threatened as COVID-19 Infections Decline
=="...
President Trump announced Operation Warp Speed, which is aimed at expediting the development and approval of an effective vaccine. This includes upending the traditional production of them. Top vaccine candidates will be manufactured in advance of demonstrating effectiveness so they will be available more quickly.
...
The Oxford vaccine is one of these candidates and AstraZeneca has struck a deal to produce the vaccine in advance of the conclusion of the human trial. This effort has been backed by $1 billion in U.S. taxpayer money. The goal is to produce 300 million doses by November of 2020.
However, Oxford researchers are now warning of an obstacle in the trial process. As new cases of COVID-19 are declining, they worry the data will not meet the hurdles to prove effectiveness. They are now placing the odds of a successful trial at 50%.
... "==
Think about all this --
==Top vaccine candidates will be manufactured in advance of demonstrating effectiveness so they will be available more quickly.==
1) That is a waste of resources, which are finite ... even the pocket of the American tax-payer is not bottomless;
2) However, IF the virus is as infectious and as deadly as we are constantly being told it is, the waste of resources is more than compensated by the saved lives;
HOWEVER:
== As new cases of COVID-19 are declining, [researchers] worry the data [from testing the various possible vaccines] will not meet the hurdles to prove effectiveness.==
CLEARLY, the virus is *NOT* as infectious nor as deadly as we are constantly being told it is.
"US Covid-19 Deaths per 100K as of 2020/05/25"
The red (i.e. > 100/100,000) of CT, NJ, NY, along with the higher numbers for MA and RI, is due to NYC.
Understand that that "> 100/100,000" is less than "200/200,000", else "> 200" would be the top range-band.
So, even in the worst-hit locales -- and ignoring the known facts that they both *actively* enforced policies which caused unnecessary deaths and also intentionally inflated the count of deaths -- fewer than 2 people of 1000 died of the Wuhan virus. And for most of the country, it's no more than a tenth of that.
"US Covid-19 Deaths per 100K as of 2020/05/25"
Image: https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EZBX4ssXsAEUlZO?format=jpg
I worked (three minutes shy of) 6 hours today ... transporting *one* patient -- 2.5 hours to pick her up and get her to the appointment, 1 hour waiting while she was at the appointment, 2.5 hours taking her home and then driving back to the garage.
Three points --
1) The is Your Tax Dollars At Work -- rather than schedule her appointment at one of their locations local to her residence, the medical conglomerate sent her to one of their outposts three or four counties away from home.
And what do they care? It's not like the wasted expense comes out of *their* bottom line. Either: she will be paying the wasted time and resources; or, as is the case in this case, she will be paying the wasted time and "the government" (i.e. *your* taxes) will be paying the wasted resources.
2) This happens *all* the time.
3) When I was getting her back into the wheel-chair van, she told me that the personnel in the doctor's office had told her to remove the 'face-bra' she was wearing (as per the "rules" we have to follow during transportation), as it is giving her no benefit, and is, in fact, causing her active harm.
3a) Exactly right.
Yesterday, I went to take a woman to an appointment two counties away. When she answered her door, she told me that the appointment had been cancelled (and the office called me to tell me that as I was talking to her).
Now, get this -- she told me that the appointment was to have a Covid-1984 test done.
Think about this. Think about all the wasted time, effort and resources to transport this woman at least an hour each way ... just to take a swab.
Ohio's Idiot-in-Chief held another Covid-1984 News Conference, and all "the media" seem to be lamenting his failure to demand that all Ohioans wear face-diapers at all times --
From my point of view: "Sure, he's an idiot/RINO, but at least he hasn't gone full-on idiot, yet"
From the leftists' point of view: "Sure, he's an idiot/DNIN, but dammit! why hasn't he gone full-on idiot yet?"
DNIN - Democrat, Not In Name
or, would DEIN (Democrat Except In Name) be better?
'Ohio is sliding': DeWine urges action, mandates none in coronavirus address
================
Ohio has an estimated population of 11.7 million. Assuming an average life-span of 80 years, one expects a population of that size to result in 146,250 deaths (from all causes) per year.
Ohio's "official" Covid-1984 totals are currently 3,075 deaths / 69,311 "confirmed" cases -- and how many of those deaths can *honestly* be counted as deaths *from* the Chinese Bat-soup Flu, rather than deaths *with* the Commie Crud, is anyone's guess.
Now, IF those 3,075 deaths were *honestly* all deaths due to the Wuhan flu, and IF those deaths were strictly speaking an *increase* over the average yearly death-toll in Ohio, they would represent a 2% increase.
As recently as June 5, 2020, the Columbus Dispatch reported:
=="Deaths in Ohio spiked in April, just a few weeks after the coronavirus was first detected throughout the state. Despite COVID-19, Ohio’s total number of deaths is up by just 1.2% for the year so far."==
In the article is a graph of the recorded deaths in Ohio for the months of January-May 2020 compared to a 5-year average of deaths in Ohio for the months of January-May.
My quick analysis --
Jan -- 607 fewer deaths (2020 total: 11,096)
Feb -- 189 more deaths (2020 total: 10.183)
Mar -- 104 more deaths (2020 total: 10,916)
Apr -- 973 more deaths (2020 total: 11,155)
May -- 21 more deaths (2020 total: 9,921)
SO -- YTD in Ohio, compared to the 5-year average, there has been a total increase in deaths of 680, from a total of 53,271 deaths; which (as stated in the article) works out to 1.2% more deaths compared to the 5-year average.
But, when you consider that in just the month of January there were 607 *fewer* deaths in Ohio, 680 more YTD looks suspiciously like "statistical noise".
Ohio deaths shot up by 9.5% in April; total 2020 numbers remain near normal levels so far
Ohio's Idiot-in-Chief has decreed that face-diapers are mandatory in my county, Richland County, population @125K.
According to the Richland Public Health board -- and granting the dubious assumption that they haven't over-egged the pudding (as we know is being done elsewhere) -- in Richland County, *OVER THE PAST 4.5 MONTHS* there are:
- 376 "confirmed cases" of the Chinaman's Cough, with
- 56 hospitalizations, and
- 6 deaths.
One may recall that I have previously linked to a March 3, 2020 article in the local paper reporting on the county's official numbers for the common flu FOR JUST THE MONTH OF JANUARY, according to which, there were:
- 530 "documented cases" of the flu, with
- 20 hospitalizations, and
- 4 deaths.
Allow me to emphasize, again, that the numbers for the common flu were for ONE MONTH only as compared to the numbers for the Chinese Bat-soup flu being for FOUR AND A HALF MONTHS..
CORONAVIRUS DATA by Richland Public Health | Jul 13, 2020
Fact: Hospitals are *known* hot-spots for the acquisition and transmission of communicable diseases.
Fact: Doctors and nurses and other staff are *so* determined to limit the transmission of communicable diseases that, for decades now, they have routinely worn face-diapers, latex gloves, body-baggies, and booties -- which they change/replace after each interaction with patients and other sick persons -- during their entire shifts.
Oh, wait! That last "fact" isn't actually a fact.
In fact, the only time medical staff routinely go to that extreme is in the operating theater, when they have the body of a sick and/or immuno-compromised person *opened up* and they are doing the best they can to limit the introduction of *external* bacteria into the person's *internal* systems.
But, yeah. You go right on believing that a face-diaper which can't even keep dust out of your nasal passages is going to keep *viruses* out.
============
I passed a man today whose tee-shirt bore the slogan, 'I make my own safe space' with a silhouette of an AR-15.
And he was wearing a face-diaper.
Could a person be any more self-unaware, even trying?
If "health experts" *really* believe that the wearing of face-diapers as a matter of course is so effective in stopping the spread of *viruses* (when experience teaches that they can't even stop the spread of *dust*), then why haven't the doctors and nurses and other hospital (*) staff been wearing them constantly for lo these many decades?
If those who seek to rule us *really* believe that the wearing of face-diapers as a matter of course is so effective in stopping the spread of *viruses*, then why are they not demanding answers from the hospitals and doctors for their decades-long *refusal* to enforce such a simple and inexpensive "health" measure?
IF THERE IS an ambulance-chaser reading this, why are you not filing massive class-action lawsuits against the entire "medical profession" for their decades-long *studied refusal* to enforce such a simple and inexpensive "health" measure?
(*) as is well known, *hospitals* are the single-most significant source for the acquisition and transmission of life-threatening infections.
As I was out today, chipping away at digging up a section of my sewer line (*), I recalled that Richland County contains a large Ohio state prison. I would just bet that the "upsurge" of Covid-1984 cases being used as the excuse to try to force the entire county to wear face-diapers is due to testing of the prison population ... you know, people who are *already* segregated from the rest of the county's population.
(*) It's about 15', on a steep slope, needing to dig about 4' deep; with a dead tree stump to one side of the trench I must dig and a very live tree to the other. So: roots, roots, roots. I could get it done by a drain/septic company for @ $4000, but I have so many other things I need to spend that money on.
Ohio's idiot RINO Guber decreed earlier today that starting at 6:00 pm tomorrow, everyone in Ohio must wear face-diapers.
That's how important wearing face-diapers is, that's how effective they are -- not that we should wear them right now, but that we can put off wearing them for a day-and-a-half after they are decreed to be essential and effective -- despite that the packaging clearly states that they are not. The effective effect is, apparently, retroactive.
I don't know, maybe Guber DeWine was feeling like the odd man out, what with the Democratic Gubers of Michigan, Pennsylvania, Kentucky. and (skipping over Indiana) Illinois all getting their inner-tyrant freak on.
The author of this piece live in Wayne County, Ohio ... the county seat of which is @30 miles from Mansfield.
They Keep Moving the COVID-19 Goalposts: Will the Next Step Be Masks to Protect From the Flu and the Common Cold?
==Meanwhile, in Wayne County, where I’m blessed to live, it doesn’t feel like we’re in grave danger—and the numbers bear that out:
[graphic from Ohio Dept. of Health for Wayne County]
That’s 55 total hospitalizations since the pandemic began. Last week there were two COVID hospitalizations recorded and no deaths. This despite the fact that nearly everything in the county reopened in mid-May and very few people are wearing masks. To date, we’ve had a grand total of 398 cases of COVID-19 and 59 deaths (most of them in nursing homes) out of a population of 117,710. Yet DeWine’s draconian new OMG-hair-on-fire statewide mask order is being forced on us here ... ==
Wayne County is reporting about that same number of *total* hospitalizations due to Covid-1984 as Richland County, but significantly more deaths. Though, again, that's over 4-5 months, *and* it's mostly deaths of very the vulnerable people who were not properly protected from the virus.
I may have mentioned a time or two that in my retirement (from a lifetime as a computer programmer), for the past year now, I've been driving a wheelchair van, taking elderly and/or disabled people to their medical appointments.
Well, that's going to end soon.
Yesterday, the company -- no doubt trying to protect the company's viability by staying ahead of the damned bureaucrats -- required that we sign a form that we will self-quarantine for two weeks should we travel out of state (*).
Well, I'm not going to sign it: I'm tired of this game/lie the bureaucrats and politicians are playing. I'm sick of this lie.
(*) Echoing the absurd order of our Fool in Columbus. But think about this --
If the bureaucrats of Ohio *really* believed this bullshit, then they'd demand that *all* semi-truck drivers ... you know, the people delivering food and fuel and other necessities to the people of Ohio and to other States ... entering the State must quarantine at the border before they are allowed to transit the State, much less make a delivery in-state.
And why stop the quarantine bullshit at the State border? Why not take into account that some counties have been more affected than others? Why not quarantine anyone attempting to leave Cleveland? Why not build a wall around Columbus ... er, I mean, "Flavor City", to keep their craziness confined to themselves?
And the mask-shaming "Why are you so selfish that you won't take the simple action of wearing a [face-diaper], which *just might* save one life, somewhere, sometime, theoretically?" hypocrites won't object in the least to this ban on what is *widely* known to be an effective treatment.
Coronavirus: What’s Next for Ohio? Ohio bans hydroxychloroquine in treatment of COVID-19
Meanwhile --
==AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - The Dutch government on Wednesday said it will not advise the public to wear [face-diapers] to slow the spread of coronavirus, asserting that their effectiveness has not been proven.==
Dutch government will not advise public to wear masks - minister
Also, meanwhile --
==He [Fauci] noted that goggles and eye or face shields are "not universally recommended" at this time, "but if you really want to be complete, you should probably use it if you can."==
In the not too distant future, he's going to "recommend" that we all be issued mandatory -- on pain of violent death at the hands of agents of the state -- ankle-monitors reporting to a national data-base to track our movements and to ensure that we don't leave our houses for unapproved activities, such as attending church services.
Dr. Fauci: Wear goggles or eye shields to prevent spread of COVID-19; flu vaccine a must
And again meanwhile --
Image of Fauci and guest *not* wearing face-diapers
Recall --
==[2020/04/16] "If you're willing to take a risk—and you know, everybody has their own tolerance for risks—you could figure out if you want to meet somebody. And it depends on the level of the interaction that you want to have."==
Yet, *somehow* Karen's superstitious belief that wearing a face-diaper (which she/he constantly touches, adjust, removes) will protect her (or him) trumps *my* rationality on the matter and my "tolerance for risks".
Dr. Fauci Says You Can Meet a Tinder Date 'If You're Willing to Take a Risk'
The way that the face-diaper fetishists carry on, you'd think that we *rational* people were engaging in the epidemiological equivalent of drunk-driving. Now, IF those face-diaper fetish-cloths actually did protect anyone's health (*), THEN the worst we could be accused of is driving without a seatbelt, or riding a motorcycle without a helmet.
So, in effect, the face-diaper fetishists' shrieking is equivalent to the absurd assertion that *someone else* not wearing a seatbelt, or riding without a helmet, will cause *them* to have a fatal collision.
(*) as contrasted to reality, where at *best* they offer no protection at all, and in fact may damage one's health.
Repurposing Drugs in Oncology (ReDO)—chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine as anti-cancer agents
Below is a link to a short video of a doctor explaining that one of the "studies" the leftists like to trumpet as "proving" that HCQ is ineffective against the Chinese Communist Party coronavirus *actually* indicates that the drug protects non-cancerous cells from the virus, while leaving cancerous cells exposed to it.
Considering that the article linked above is from three years ago, one suspects that the "researchers" who "proved" that HCQ is ineffective against the Chinese Communist Party coronavirus *intentionally* chose a cancerous cell-line as one of the cell-lines used in their "study".
https://gab.com/system/media_attachments/files/057/537/557/original/642c543ae8f949dd.mp4
Fascistbook does not want anyone to see the following, as it "violates" their dishonest "community standards" --
==============
ALL INFORMATION from our federal government about the current pandemic is worthless and false until the following six questions are entirely and plainly answered by an attending physician - NOT Dr. FauXi who patents viruses for profit.
1. Hydroxychloroquine is cheap, safe, plentiful and at least 91% successful in curing COVID-19 when taken early in the disease process. Why is the federal government discouraging its use, thereby directly contributing to the avoidable deaths of tens of thousands of Americans?
2. Why did the FDA direct doctors to prescribe hydroxychloroquine only for hospitalized patients, by which time the drug's effectiveness is reduced, increasing the probability of death by delay?
3. Why has Dr. Fauci not been removed from the Coronavirus Task Force for conflict of interest since he and his pharmaceutical partners stand to make huge profits from any expensive COVID-19 vaccine developed later, while they earn nothing from cheap hydroxychloroquine cure available right now?
4. How was Dr. Fauci allowed to direct $3.7 million of American taxpayer money to conduct illegal virus research at the Chinese government's bioweapons laboratory in Wuhan, from which this virus may have escaped?
5. Communist China sickened the world, and now, with Dr. Fauci's full involvement, he will try to sell us the cure for the disease it caused. How is this not rewarding criminal behavior?
6. Since sound science and accurate data are essential for combating any pandemic, why have Dr. Birx and the federal government (CDC) directed doctors to classify the cause of death on the death certificate to grossly inflate the COVID-19 death rate even if they only "assume" COVID-19; while other primary causes of death exist?
==============
Heh. There is some irony - our lives are almost backwards. ;)
My first job (during college) was driving a wheelchair van myself. And now I work in databases, IT, and some programming myself.
We'll have to trade stories sometimes of the job. (Once when I was picking up a charge from a place, some of the other old ladies there vocally wished for me to be giving them a ride as well. I joked that it was the first time in my life I had any girls fighting over me.)
One time in the autumn of 2019, I was sent to get a woman from a nursing home in Ashland County, about 20 miles away, and bring her back to the Mansfield hospital. When I got there, they were still a bit disorganized following a medical emergency (the ambulances hadn't yet let when I got there).
Once I got inside, I saw a woman in a wheelchair who looked like she was prepared to be taken. I asked her if she was Mrs So-and-So, she said yes. I went to the desk to get any paperwork and to confirm my understanding that the woman I was there for was already waiting for me (oftentimes, these nursing homes didn't even start getting the person ready until the driver was there), and they indicated that she was sitting over there by the door.
I loaded my client into the van, bundled her up (as it was chilly, and she was already complaining of being cold), and left. It soon became apparent that she had dementia -- she alternated between wanting to be taken back, worrying about where I was taking her, complaining of being too cold (and too hot, if I recall) ... and making quite lascivious comments to me.
Turns out, she was *not* the client I was supposed to transport.
My last job in IT was "working in databases".
The first time I drove for this one couple (the wife was in a chair, but the husband was himself somewhat frail), while taking them home, the wife realized that she hadn't brought the house key. It was late afternoon, soon to be dark, and chilly. She couldn't reach a friend or relative who could help them ... and, if I recall correctly, our office had already closed.
But, then she recalled that she had earlier noticed that the window in a spare bedroom wasn't latched, and that her husband hadn't yet latched it.
So, I ended up doing a B&E through that window and going around to open the front door. Very much against "the rules", no doubt.
lol Ah yes, I think we all may have a "bending" the rules story or two to be told far away from the ears of management.
I never will forget the time when I had just loaded this poor woman who seemed extremely frail and as I was anchoring her chair down into the van, I hear a sharp, sudden breath. I look up and she has her eyes closed sitting very VERY still in the chair.
Panic and concern began to creep up on me as I thought this lady had just died on me!
Then she took another breath and opened her eyes. But that was the longest 3 seconds of my life.
That was one of my fears. That and that I would eventually have a passenger who projectile vomited in the van (which I'd then have to clean up). Thankfully, neither happened to any of my passengers. A couple of them were sent home with me after a poor (and even non-existent) job of cleaning them after they had "soiled" themselves.
In my first IT job after college (working for a city government), we had two "mainframes".
The *old* one, the one on which the city's computing work was *actually* done, had four tape drives, a card reader, a card punch, a line printer and some minuscule amount of memory. On the front of the CPU-box were banks of lights and toggle-switches, with which one could "read" the contents of memory-locations ... and change the contents. Many was the time that, on the fly, I had to alter machine-level instructions so as to skip sections of code and/or change elements of data being processed.
Every day, the computer operators would run jobs to create various data-tapes on the *old* computer, then run jobs on the "new" computer (it wasn't that new) to use those tapes to update the databases so that in the utility office it would *look* like the the computing work was being done on that computer.
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