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GoneOffShore

GoneOffShore's Journal
GoneOffShore's Journal
April 8, 2020

Has anyone looked at the air traffic worldwide today?


https://planefinder.net/

Look at the difference between the number of flights over the US and over Europe.

Note that a lot of planes in the air over Europe are either FEDEX, UPS, DHL, and private with a few major carriers. Then look at flights over the US.

I think the US is fucked.
April 5, 2020

Found on Facebook from someone in the UK with a Masters in Disease Control

Some translation may be in order -
'spoons is Wetherspoons - a chain of cheap ass pubs run by a right wing Brexit shithead who kept the pubs open until the last possible moment.



Jane Raison

Yesterday at 00:46 ·

As someone with a Masters in disease control, you can only imagine the sheer hell on earth that Facebook is for me at the moment.

From Chantelle who has impressively made the leap from bath bomb retailer to consultant virologist in a matter of weeks and can tell you exactly why the government and their experts are wrong, to Bob who claims to have secret intel from a secret government group on the secret programme of secret treatment measures that the government are definitely bringing in at 3pm next Thursday, only it’s a secret, but he’s posting it on Facebook so he feels like 007, to Steve who thinks it’s all a load of bollocks and if he wants to wander round town he bloody well can and why the fuck is ‘spoons shut cos his granddad didn’t fight the Nazis for him to be told to stay inside even if PornHub premium is now free for a week.

I tried as hard as I could in my studies and in my work in disease control to avoid viruses like the plague (see what I did there?) because they are absolute bastards. Bacteria are so much easier to control and parasites are positively dreamy. Viruses are utter bastards (did I mention that?) because you can do almost fuck all to them. To deal with viruses you have to deal with the viral vector instead. That’s the weak point for a virus. Its vector. Only in this case the vector is humans, bloody stupid, arsehole humans like Chantelle, Bob and Steve. Viral control is about psychology more than it’s about medicine and that’s what’s scary about it. Giving everyone a pill is easy, getting everyone to listen and change their behaviour is a fucking nightmare.

The virus is just chugging along being a virus, it’s living its best life #livelaughcough. You can’t ignore it out of existence, scaremonger it away or become magically immune by gargling with vinegar, donning a decorating mask or sticking a live frog up your arse and swanning round town like an immortal dickhead. You have to actually do what you’re being told to do. YOU.

YOU. You can stop it. Do what you’re told. Stay the fuck inside. Stop thinking you’re an expert, stop thinking you know best, stop thinking you’re a rebel, stop trying to be a special little cupcake. Be a sheeple. Do what you’ve been asked to do. This is NOT your time to shine sweet cheeks, this isn’t your opportunity to over throw the system and save mankind. It’s your opportunity to sit tight, watch Netflix and save mankind.

The virus does not give a shit about you. You’re just a stepping stone, a host, a nameless, faceless breeding ground and launchpad. All it gives a shit about is reproducing and finding new hosts. Don’t let it. Break the chain. Shut the hell up. Stop spreading fake news, fear and gossip. Let the experts be the experts and do what they tell you because all the googling, all the conspiracy theories, all the spoilt princess routines and all the voodoo bullshit in the world is not going to help you one little bit. This is not about YOUR ego, it’s about OUR survival. So act for the good of us all and do what you’re being asked to do.

Stay inside, protect the NHS, save lives.
April 1, 2020

Viral Load and flattening the curve from the UK

Forwarded to me from a nurse who is working on the 'front lines'


This is from my friend very high up in NHS
Look at this ..
This is important!

Might explain why some get COV19 mildly and recover fast whereas some Drs and nurses treating it in hospital die of it:
I didn't write this, another Doctor did:

Why do we need to shut places where people group?
VIRAL LOAD
There will be a lot about this. Why is it important?

With this virus, the amount of virus in your blood at first infection directly relates to the severity of the illness you will suffer. This isn’t unusual - HIV management is all about reducing viral load to keep people alive longer. BUT it’s very important in COVID-19.
So if you are in, say, a pub or religious building or entertainment venue with 200 people and a large number don’t have symptoms but are shedding, you are breathing in lots of droplets per minute and absorbing a high load of the virus. In a crowded space. They become ill over the next 48 hours. You then three days later wonder why you can’t breathe and end up in hospital. You’d decided because you were young and healthy it wasn’t going to be a problem.

Wrong.

Fortunately but unfortunately because the elderly are isolating quite well, the initial UK data suggests that all age groups above 20 are almost equally represented in ITUs in England. Most of the cases are in London but the wave is moving outwards.
This means that being under 60 and fit and well doesn’t seem to be as protective as we thought.
Why?
Viral load.

This may be skewed simply by the fact that too many Londoners didn’t do as asked and congregated in large groups in confined spaces and got a large initial viral load. They then went home and infected their wider families. Which is why, as London is overwhelmed, we need to shut everything down to save the rest of the UK. We are a week at most behind London.

Our sympathies go out to the families affected in London and the critical care teams battling right now to save as many as they can.
If I sit with one person and catch this virus, I get a small viral load. My immune system will start to fight it and by the time the virus starts replicating, I’m ready to kill it.

No medicines will help this process meaningfully hence there is no “cure” for this virus. All we can do is support you with a ventilator and hope your immune system can catch up fast enough.
If I sit in the same room with six people, all shedding I get six times the initial dose. The rise in viral load is faster than my immune system can cope with and it is overrun. I then become critically ill and need me (or an ITU/HDU specialist) to fix it instead of just being at home and being ok in the end.

THIS BIT IS IMPORTANT:

If you are a large family group, remember that by being ill and in the same room, you will make each other ill or “more ill”. If you get sick, isolate just yourself to one room and stay there. Don’t all sit in one room coughing. You will increase the viral load for all of you, reducing your survival rate.
A family of six people may produce double the droplets of a family of three in the same space. Maths is important.
If one of you is symptomatic, assume you are all shedding and make sure you keep some space.
Parents are getting it from their kids because no one is going to stop comforting their child (nor should they) so the parent gets a big hit as well as the child. I don’t think that can be helped.

REMEMBER: THINK ABOUT VIRAL LOAD

It could save your life or your child’s.

Britain, it’s up to you now. We are preparing for the worst but we are hoping for the best from you. Please help us to help you. Stay home and take this seriously now before we need the army on the streets to remind you. Yes I’m serious.
#flattenthecurve #stayathome


March 30, 2020

Lightroom or Bridge?

I've got over 30k files and have been using Bridge for years. I'm drowning in files and need to find a way to organize them.

March 27, 2020

Question about PSA's in the US regarding Covid-19

So, here in France all the main stations are frequently running announcements about precautions to take to prevent the spread of Covid-19.

What's happening in the US?

Are all the main networks and cable channels in the US running things about social distancing, hand-washing, not going out?

March 25, 2020

The Apocalypse Now Spotify playlist

A good friend in Philadelphia has put together a playlist.

I think you'll all enjoy it!

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4CL7fFeTcpvHyxfuwbpFbG?si=VH8WDCJfQkekZU6vy-V8qQ

March 24, 2020

And now Mrs GoS is worried about pmurT cancelling the election.

Anything I say is not making a difference.

March 16, 2020

Words to ponder - things to do

From a Facebook friend:


And the people stayed home. And read books and listened, and rested and exercised, and made art and played games, and learned new ways of being and were still.
And listened more deeply. Some meditated, some prayed, some danced. Some met their shadows. And the people began to think differently. And the people healed. And, in the absence of people living in ignorant, dangerous, mindless and heartless ways the earth began to heal. And when the danger passed, and the people joined together again, they grieved their losses, and made new choices, and dreamed new images, and created new ways to live and heal the earth fully, as they had been healed.
-Kitty O'Meara

Profile Information

Name: Sam
Gender: Male
Hometown: Philadelphia, PA
Current location: Aix-en-Provence
Member since: 2002
Number of posts: 17,339

About GoneOffShore

Moved to France in September of 2018 after buying our apartment in 2017 after the debacle of the election. We're glad to be here, but we continue to be involved with what's happening in the US.
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