Wear a Mask

When you wear a mask, you are protecting me. When you don’t wear a mask, you are threatening my life.

My reaction to people who do not wear a mask.

When a non-mask wearer approaches me, I will fight to keep them away. I’m ninety in October. I don’t go looking for a fight and as my sensei taught me, “run if you can. When can’t run fight to the death.” He meant to consider the consequences before you choose to fight.

When you approach me without a mask you are threatening my life. I will ask you to keep your distance and to wear a mask. When you refuse, I will leave the room. When I cannot leave, I will fight. I have had to do it once when a Trump supporter got in my face and shouted about my being a stupid old man who didn’t know anything about this fake pandemic.

A 90-year-old person should not have to fight for his life. When I wear a mask, I am both protecting you and respecting you. I expect you to treat me the same way.

Your choices

When you work for someone who refuses to create a safe work environment, you have to choose between quitting and potentially dying. For many people, that is not a choice. They have to work to put food on the table and keep a roof over their families’ heads.

The faster you create an income that doesn’t depend on your working for someone else the quicker you can develop a lifestyle where you can protect your self and your loved ones.

Our future

“Social Distancing” makes networking difficult. We are going to have to develop new safer ways to interact with both friends and strangers. How are our kids going to learn social skills if they cannot play with their friends?

Our schools are super spreaders. We are going to have to make big changes in our school system in order to make our schools safe. We need to air-condition our classrooms with systems that include HEPA filters capable of removing viruses from the air. We are going to have to have smaller classes where social distancing can be maintained. Of course, we are going to have to insist on everyone wearing a mask. We are going to have to incorporate virtual learning into our education system.

Making our educational system safe will be expensive. Poor school districts are not going to be able to make the needed changes without major funding from our state and federal governments.

It is clear, As of the end of Augustm only Vermont has the contact traving in place to reklatively safely open their schools.

Here is what we know:

1. Social Distancing. Do It.
2. Airflow. Change air in a small room at least five times per day. Filter the air with HEPA filters.
3. Face masks. Wear them whenever you are inside or in groups of people.
4. Expectorant. Stay out of the spray of a cough, sneeze, singing, or loud talking.
5. COVID-19 is a deadly disease that must be taken seriously.
6. There is a lot of BS being circulated by people who should know better.
7. The best source of information I know can be found at https://covidactnow.com
8. Our knowledge of the virus is growing rapidly.
9. Organ damage among survivors can be permanently debilitating.

What we suspect

1. Survivor Immunity is thought to be a few months.
2. A good 4-5 layer cloth mask can catch 90% of outgoing virus and up to 70% of the incoming virus.
3. Probability of infection equals the density of virus times the time you are exposed.
4. Our immune system can handle light exposure to COVID-19.
5. The only way we can get COVID-19 under control is through strong Presidental Leadership and planning. Mr. Trump has a good plan prepared by George H.W. Bush. Mr. Trump has refused to implement it.
6. It may not be possible to develop a vaccine.
7. Serum developed from the blood of survivors may be an effective treatment.
8. Vaccine research may not succeed. T-Cell research offers more prospects of long term immunity.

Getting control of COVID-19

I started this blog post with my reaction to people who don’t wear a mask. Without federal leadership, we each have to do what we can to protect ourselves and each other. In Hawaii, each person who gets COVID-19 will infect 1.2 other people that means that Hawaii is in a critical situation.

We will only get control of this pandemic if everyone does their part. Hawaii has 80 contact tracers. We need 250 and will need more as the pandemic worsens. We need more testing and we need testing that gives answers in 15 minutes, not a week.

Above all, we need Federal leadership. Not some idiot who doesn’t believe in science and promotes quack cures and conspiracy theories.