Greetings shut-in veterans. We find ourselves enjoying the blessings of good health (97.9) today. There are 1.2 billion Indians joining our group and the number of American is rising to over 150 million practicing social distancing. Here in Florida our dimwitted Governor pretends he's concerned but there is little effort to increase supplies and numbers of hospital beds and staff. Heck the beaches in my home county are open so that Covid-19 can play beach-blanket-bingo without governmental hinderances.
Local supermarkets are advertising special hours where seniors (such as myself) can shop safely and with less pressure. I took in two of those yesterday in my attempt to get my mother a few items which had run out. My first visit was to Publix (an upscale store). They close their stores at 8 pm every night and disinfect the premisses. The senior shopping began at 7:00 am. I arrive at 6:45 and observed a line which by opening time was very long. There was a Black Friday type rush as the doors opened. I stayed back until the line was gone and they entered the store. By then every cart was gone and the seniors were frantically filling the carts with mass quantities of items. I dashed around the store an saw that dairy, deli, produce and canned goods had been mostly restocked. Water and paper product shelves were bare. I grabbed a handful of the items on my mother's list and got out of there. My second visit was to Harvey's. There was no line at 8:00 am when they opened and roughly a dozen shoppers in the store at any given time. This is what I was led to expect would be the experience at the upscale store. Once again there was plenty of food available. Stop the panic buying!
After collecting the items on our list I took the items home and disinfected the packaging by wiping with disinfecting clothes. I then sterilized my mask, disinfected the car, clothing, and myself before taking them to my mother for her use. We are adopting a minimizing strategy for our grocery shopping. Our next visit to a grocery store is anticipated to be in two weeks minimum or three weeks if we stretch things. That means we will buy more per visit but have significantly fewer breaks in our ability to completely social distance.
Today we go back to our more normal distance schedule. I take care of the dogs in the morning and work on fighting the jungle. In the mid-afternoon I visit my mother and we share a meal together. I then return home and work on the house and writing projects.
And now... back to history.
A couple of days ago we looked at a pro-vacination article from the 1860s. Below is an article printed in the Leicester Chronicle and Leicester Mercury (that is the real name) on March 25, 1881. This article poo-poohs the benefits of inoculation in fighting smallpox. The article is good reading and food for thought as it relies upon a little statistical sleight-sleight-of-hand. Clearly there were more smallpox deaths even after more than 25 years of compulsory inoculation in England. However, the population of England grew significantly and the comparison of such totals assumes that the Compulsory Act was effective in inoculating the entire populace. It was not. Even if it were able to achieve total inoculation, studies already demonstrated that a single inoculation using the primitive methods of the time often was insufficient to achieve the desired protection. Ultimately the arguments against inoculation look ridiculous since the global inoculation programs effectively wiped out smallpox after decades.
Keep safe and be understanding of one another.
Local supermarkets are advertising special hours where seniors (such as myself) can shop safely and with less pressure. I took in two of those yesterday in my attempt to get my mother a few items which had run out. My first visit was to Publix (an upscale store). They close their stores at 8 pm every night and disinfect the premisses. The senior shopping began at 7:00 am. I arrive at 6:45 and observed a line which by opening time was very long. There was a Black Friday type rush as the doors opened. I stayed back until the line was gone and they entered the store. By then every cart was gone and the seniors were frantically filling the carts with mass quantities of items. I dashed around the store an saw that dairy, deli, produce and canned goods had been mostly restocked. Water and paper product shelves were bare. I grabbed a handful of the items on my mother's list and got out of there. My second visit was to Harvey's. There was no line at 8:00 am when they opened and roughly a dozen shoppers in the store at any given time. This is what I was led to expect would be the experience at the upscale store. Once again there was plenty of food available. Stop the panic buying!
After collecting the items on our list I took the items home and disinfected the packaging by wiping with disinfecting clothes. I then sterilized my mask, disinfected the car, clothing, and myself before taking them to my mother for her use. We are adopting a minimizing strategy for our grocery shopping. Our next visit to a grocery store is anticipated to be in two weeks minimum or three weeks if we stretch things. That means we will buy more per visit but have significantly fewer breaks in our ability to completely social distance.
Today we go back to our more normal distance schedule. I take care of the dogs in the morning and work on fighting the jungle. In the mid-afternoon I visit my mother and we share a meal together. I then return home and work on the house and writing projects.
And now... back to history.
A couple of days ago we looked at a pro-vacination article from the 1860s. Below is an article printed in the Leicester Chronicle and Leicester Mercury (that is the real name) on March 25, 1881. This article poo-poohs the benefits of inoculation in fighting smallpox. The article is good reading and food for thought as it relies upon a little statistical sleight-sleight-of-hand. Clearly there were more smallpox deaths even after more than 25 years of compulsory inoculation in England. However, the population of England grew significantly and the comparison of such totals assumes that the Compulsory Act was effective in inoculating the entire populace. It was not. Even if it were able to achieve total inoculation, studies already demonstrated that a single inoculation using the primitive methods of the time often was insufficient to achieve the desired protection. Ultimately the arguments against inoculation look ridiculous since the global inoculation programs effectively wiped out smallpox after decades.
Keep safe and be understanding of one another.
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