mcsb4

The fact that it was invented in Russia doesn't mean that this sample was Russian made. Every decent chemist can produce that stuff. We were also shown powerpoint slides of Saddams truck-mounted labs of WMD - they just didn't exist. The second mission was to "win hearts and minds". Result: 1,000,000 people dead. Women, old people, children and toddlers included. Just watch collateral damage again. Do it 100,000 times and you know what happened in Iraq. Plus a dash of abuse and torture of prisoners of war in the Abu Ghraib prison. There are plenty of things I doubt when I hear about them.

Well, the US is since WWII meddling with elections in other countries. And not only that but actively toppling foreign governments. The few millions some Russians may have spent on ads are a drop in the sea compared to the billions and billions that PACs and SuperPACs have spent.

Anecdotelly, in Europe the countries worst hit by the virus have the most strict confinement: Italy, Spain and France.

Makes you wonder if there is a correlation to Vitamin D insufficiency due to lack of sun light.

I had a smartphone that at some point started to randomly create touch events. Kind of like if you put it in your pocket while the screen is unlocked.

I don't remember any physical light switch that ever switch on or off by itself.

In an aircraft flying through turbulences I'd feel a lot more comfortable knowing that all switches are pyhsical. Try to use your smartphone while jogging...

As I wrote:

Bacteriophage MS2 - 23nm :

Surgical mask 89.52% filtering

Tea towel one layer 72.46% filtering

-> Thus still ~70% filtering of 23nm particles for the one layered towel. They didn't put the number for a two layered towel in there, I wonder if it did beat the surgical mask.

Did you read the NPR article? The very first chart shows that there is a big difference between the various countries. The logarithmic scale allows for much better visualisation than the almost nonsensical charts on the John Hopkins statistics page. The circles are also a completely inadequate visualisation. I.e. much better would be coloring countries by incident rate per 100.000 inhabitants.

They do a good job collecting all the data but a seriously bad job visualising them.

Many people don't know they are infected and also there is not enough testing capability in many countries. For example Heidi Klum tired to get tested after catching a cold and it took her several days to be accepted for a test. Now she is not exactly your average Joe and would be willing to shell out a few 1000 dollars to get tested.

Unless that situation changes, masks are a good alternative. And yes, only if everybody wears them.

Again another article that doesn't even mention the use of masks and hand sanitizer.

The cost of the epidemic now goes into the trillions, self-made cotton masks are cheap compared to the economic damage. They can be disinfected in boiling water and if everybody uses them they will help to stop the spreading of the virus.

In all the countries mentioned in the article people wear masks when in public, often just against pollution (i.e. Thailand).

The moment we open our mouth we spread germs, even more so when we speak. And when we touch our nose or mouth, we have them on our hands.

Thus entering a supermarket without a mask and without first disinfecting the hands should be forbidden.

Social distancing is one thing, stopping the virus at the source is another and seemingly very effective measure.

The biggest challenge is to overcome the mental block of decades of onetime use masks that have to be disposed in incinerators and be produced by ISO 9001 certified medical factories.

During world war 2 it was normal to use reusable cotton masks. They just need to be put into boiling water for a few minutes to kill sars-cov-2 at 100%.

You should try to get into touch with C. Drosten from Charité hospital Berlin. He recently stated in an interview that self-made masks could have a certain value, so he is not totally averse to this concept and Spahn [1] will listen to him.

China has been promoting it, now czech republic is doing it. If Germany also starts promoting it, that will help immensely.

The same goes for the hand sanitizer, any +70% alcohol/ethanol will do. No need to be from a factory with medical certifications.

I am in France, there is a total lock down here but police still wears no masks and so does nobody else. Super markets have no hand sanitizer at the entrance so the virus will continue to spread.

Masks cost nothing compared to the economic damage of the shut down.

[1] German minister of health

Edit: For those downvoting me, I'd sincerely be interested to hear your arguments.