Pandemic update

RantWoman was doing great! RantWoman went virtually all day without mention of the pandemic. The newspaper website has new counts for King County and the 5:00 news also had updates: numbers are increasing but some schools have dropped off the list because of ruling out the offending strain.

RantWoman was enjoying going DAYS without mention of swine flu on the bus. This is especially the case because mention on the bus can be predicted to have some hysterical angle, in this case, someone described as both wearing a mask and rubber gloves and getting hyper because someone had coughed on her backpack, basically a daily occurrence in some parts.

Silly RantWoman to think she was in the clear!

Tonight's email when RantWoman arrived home included an item from one of the team at the Friendly Neighborhood Center for Extreme Computing. The email forced RantWoman to think about a whole computer lab full of shared keyboards, shared microphones, shared headsets, and assorted other equipment we will want to be sanitizing without damaging the equipment. RantWoman further felt obliged to point out to responsible people that, yes, the Friendly Neighborhood Center... is in the same neighborhood as one of the closed schools. Joy, joy, joy!

Exude calm. Give people the option. Follow a minimum recommended protocol as much as possible. Encourage people to stay home when sick... It falls to RantWoman probably to summon her own clarity and focus and make concise recommendation to responsible people. Oh the thrills of responsibility.

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Little Sister was positively giddy last time RantWoman saw her. Little sister has a new diagnosis she can now look up in Google and collect points in concord between her experience and the web. More importantly, although Little Sister insisted on pouring Rantwoman's ice water, she laughed when RantWoman offered to use a napkin to pick up the handle of the water pitcher. RantWoman made a point of washing her hands thoroughly when using the restroom, and most importantly, the Rant Sisters just gave up and hugged though one SUPPOSES that hugging close on the shoulder where one does most of one's coughing is not preferable. Sigh.

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RantWoman has been digesting the bits of news about maybe not being able to test everyone because of the cost of the tests. RantWoman finds herself wondering whether the test could be made cheaper in the general case without knowing beforehand what the at-risk strains would be. RantWoman also finds herself wondering whether a similar template antibody test could be created. The idea of that: A virus that gets a high percentage of people really sick is a different problem from one that gets everyone a little bit sick, gets a few people really sick, and might leave a lot of antibodies among the people who get a little bit sick. RantWoman realizes she is wandering a little past her depth about the topic, but she will file the question as interesting after she deals with disinfecting matters at the Friendly Neighborhood Center....