What pandemic safety precautions are you taking?

[EL_TIGRE_de_Tigre]

Really? Do just add more plastic trash. What is wrong with hand sanitizer?

The way I see it, hand sanitizer is good, plastic gloves are better. (I also carry a few individually wrapped wet wipes with me as well should they ever be needed.) Why are they better?

Simply because you never touch anything. Therefore there is no need to sanitize. My point of view ... it is an even better method not to come in contact with what we are trying to prevent. Why contact it, to remove it? Just don't contact it.

I am not in the frame of mind of reducing my waste as a person to as low as it can go. It's just not me.

I do recycle and I don't litter. I do care about the environment and the future condition of the planet for the next generations. But there are limits.

Besides, you would be amazed how well recycling goes on after that trash is collected. It is an amazing process. It's also a very dirty, underpaid job. I have a lot of respect for those who toil away in that industry.

 

[on the brink]

The way I see it, hand sanitizer is good, plastic gloves are better. (I also carry a few individually wrapped wet wipes with me as well should they ever be needed.) Why are they better?

I carry a stash of paper towels - inexpensive, easy to use, and biodegradable. Good for doors, plastic bag handles, and such.

 

[sergio]

We wear masks, work and study online, and leave the apartment once a week for grocery shopping ( fortunately now supermarket deliveries are normal so I went back to online shopping just so I do not set foot on any store ). We go out once or twice a week in our car to some park or area with little to no people to walk around and exercise a bit. Anything that comes from outside or every time we accidentally touch anything while outside we disinfect with gel alcohol. If we have to go into a pharmacy, etc we wear mask and glasses. It is important to protect your eyes.

At what point will you stop doing these things?

 

[EL_TIGRE_de_Tigre]

At what point will you stop doing these things?

That's a good question. I think the answer is when the all clear signal arrives.

ALL CLEAR SIGNAL is probably a vaccine and social distancing is needed no more.

 

[sergio]

That's a good question. I think the answer is when the all clear signal arrives.

ALL CLEAR SIGNAL is probably a vaccine and social distancing is needed no more.

A vaccine will not be a panacea. It may have an efficacy of no more than 50% and may not have a long life. Several vaccines may be needed for different strains.

 

[Alby]

Correct. Unless it is close to 100% effective, any vaccine will change very little. Most people are still living in denial about the reality we face. Almost nobody I know yet sees this.

 

[EL_TIGRE_de_Tigre]

A vaccine will not be a panacea. It may have an efficacy of no more than 50% and may not have a long life. Several vaccines may be needed for different strains.

I have no medical background and I wasn't pretending to have one. But what I meant by the arrival of a vaccine ... I assumed it would be highly effective. So without that, no time soon.

Truthfully, I really don't even care all that much anymore. (And the reason I don't care all that much anymore is that I have correctly concluded that there are 7BIL + people in my situation. I am not alone! This is not an individual punishment for me and me alone.) I have adjusted and become very solitary. All these limitations are cutting off part of my usual life, but they have opened up other parts of it. For example ...

I am saving some money because I don't do a lot of what I used to do given the whole social distancing thing. I don't eat out. So ... I have rediscovered my kitchen. I am cooking some amazing meals. Healthy and tasty! I am Improving my secondary language skills. With all this extra free time, I have been learning a lot of vocabulary and improving my accent, grammar etc ...

 

[Alby]

I agree. My life is much the same. The isolation has opened up all sort of new opportunities for people who live alone and are happy with their own company. I am one of those too.

And my attitude is much the same: most of us have had a dream run up til now compared to earlier generations, so we can hardly complain that this has come along on our watch.

But, many other people still can't believe that this has happened, can't see or take the opportunities that can in fact be found in isolation, and get through instead by imagining that a vaccine will soon come and solve everything. Good for them; they are entitled to their optimism and their way of dealing with it. Try as I might, I can't see it as working out so neatly.

 

[db887]

Vitamins: D= 40ng/mL, C= 22mg per pound

 

[sergio]

Correct. Unless it is close to 100% effective, any vaccine will change very little. Most people are still living in denial about the reality we face. Almost nobody I know yet sees this.

The global health authorities are not giving us a comprehensive picture of the crisis. If you read a lot you glean various facts such as that a vaccine may be only 50% effective, maybe a little more but not 100%, it may not have a long life, various vaccines may be needed, it will take a year or more to get a large number of people vaccinated, there could be adverse effects to a vaccine that is being rushed into production etc. To me this means that there is not going to be a day when everyone throws off the masks and goes back to normal. This could drag on for years.

There are some benefits to isolation as Trappist monks can attest however most of us need social contact. We don't have to return to bar hopping or discos but we need to be able to see friends and relatives without anxiety. We don't want to spend the rest of our lives behind a mask. We don't want to let people die alone, nor do we want to die alone.