Category: Health

Conflicted

Business, Health

I read this news piece

Airlines Face Loss of Up to $30 Billion in Revenues in Wake of Coronavirus

….and I find myself torn between two emotions:

and

In the first place, I hate all airlines without regard to race, class, religion, nationality or gender.  [25,000 reasons omitted for brevity]

Secondly (according to the article), most of the losses are supposed to befall the Chinese airlines, but considering that they’re owned engines, wings and tails by the loathsome Commie Chinese government, who cares?

Of course, people are going to think that this disruption will mean lower fares and/or less-crowded flights for the rest of us… [pause for scornful laughter] …but the airlines will simply cancel most of their flights, cram the remaining planes to the brim and then (you heard it here first) raise their fares to make up for lost revenue.  You see, international  travel may feel an impact, especially for those fools who inexplicably visit China all the time, but most U.S. airlines get the bulk of their revenue from domestic flights (i.e. corporate passengers who are largely immune to fare increases anyway).  (And you can ignore bullshit articles like this one — I tested the claims, and couldn’t find ONE.)

I know that in a Black Swan scenario, the people most likely to be hurt are people like myself, but at the same time there’s something awfully appealing about watching corporations getting shafted by random events, kinda like what they do to us on a daily basis…

Great Moments In Bad Timing

Bad News, Business, Health, Marketing / Advertising

Given how the Corona virus thing has completely knocked the pleasure-cruise industry off the shelf, one would think that this is a bad time to launch a new one, yes?

Step forward Sir Richard of Branson:

On the bright side, every dollar this Left tool drops into nonsense like this is one less dollar for the dozens of Lefty causes his company supports.

Even before the emergence of passenger liners as floating pox-palaces, you wouldn’t have got me on one of them at gunpoint.  Now… uh huh.  Hot needles, meet scrotum.

Staying At Home

Health, SHTF

It’s not often I get ahead of the rest of the noooz, but I think we covered this ground pretty well last week.

What to Buy For Home Emergency Kits if You’re Quarantined in The Coronavirus Outbreak

  • You should have a 14-day supply of food for everyone in your household. Focus on dry and canned goods that are easy to prepare.
  • Keep at least one gallon of water per day for each person – and pet – in your home, the American Red Cross recommends.  (Not sure about that;  if you’re staying in place, then you only ever need about a liter/quart of drinking water per day per person.)
  • Make sure you have hygienic products like antibacterial soap, hand sanitizer, toilet paper, tissues, feminine care products, and diapers.
  • If possible, get a 30-day supply of your prescription medications.  (We talked about this one.)
  • Maintain a first aid kit with supplies to treat common injuries.
  • Take note of other medical supplies you might need, such as contact lenses or hearing aid batteries. And make sure you have over-the-counter medicines like pain relievers and cough and cold medicines.
  • You may want to get copies of your health records.  (Should be easy under ObamaCare, right?)
  • Don’t forget about your mental health.

The last one is what worries me the most.  What keeps me sane is regular trips to the range, which would be impossible if I was doing my best Typhoid Mary impression requiring home incarceration.  But for some reason, most municipalities — including mine — seem to have a problem with people shooting .22s at squirrels, rabbits and coyotes in the yard, or similar.  Even air guns are frowned upon (which makes me feel batter about having donated mine to the Son&Heir’s old club, the Shooting Stars).  And don’t say the word “Airsoft” to me:  I tried it once, and it sucked, no substitute at all for real shooting, damn it.

Keeping sane when cooped up isn’t easy, especially when most of the TV fare on Netflix/Prime/Hulu etc. all suck large donkey dicks.

At least I have my books…

Unhealthy Associations

Funny Stuff, Health

Here’s yet another reason why running can be bad for your health, and that of others as well:

The Italian super-spreader at the heart of Europe’s coronavirus crisis infected his pregnant wife, two doctors, an elderly woman who died from the illness and at least nine others when medics failed to test him.
The 38-year-old man, known only as Mattia, went to hospital in Codogno, northern Italy, three times with flu-like symptoms before doctors finally screened and diagnosed him with the killer virus.
He was prescribed anti-flu medication and sent home to infect countless others because medics presumed he couldn’t have the illness as he had not been to China.
The marathon runner first complained of feeling unwell on February 14 and was not diagnosed until February 20, six days later, when he developed pneumonia.
When he was rushed to hospital, and told he had developed pneumonia, his wife recalled that he may have been in contact with a friend from China.

Oops.

I guess this means that you shouldn’t associate with people from China…or with Italian marathon runners either, for that matter.  Seems like commonsense to me.

Hunkering Down

Health, SHTF

Here’s a SHTF scenario I hadn’t thought of before:  in-home quarantine because of the corona virus thing.  And not being prepared means this, and this nonsense:

Britons strip shop shelves of canned food and even bottled WATER amid growing fears people will be forced to spend weeks in isolation if coronavirus epidemic hits.

I’m pretty sure that New Wife and I could do three weeks’ isolation in a pinch, although Week 3 would be mighty boring fare (oatmeal, canned foods etc.).  But I think I’ll haul out Ye Olde Grabbe-And-Goe Bagge tomorrow, just to check on emergency supplies like face masks and hand wipes.

Do ye the same, O My Readers.

Afterthought:  while I have quite a lot of bottled water on hand, I also have a swimming pool not ten steps from the apartment.  The problem with pool water, of course, is the chlorine and such.  Does anyone have any ideas on filtering the taste out of it?

Triage

Gummint, Health

The next time some Lefty asshole starts yammering on about the glories of nationalized medical care (a.k.a. “single payer” and all the other little euphemisms they use to conceal what the system actually is) like Britain’s NHS, you have my full permission to kick them in the crotch.

Why (other than my normal bloodthirstiness) would I suggest something so extreme?  Try this little admission:

[NHS ]Doctors have admitted that the most vulnerable patients could be denied critical care in a severe coronavirus outbreak, as they also warned that the UK is dangerously unequipped to deal with a pandemic. Under protocol dubbed ‘Three Wise Men’, senior medics at hospitals would need to decipher which patients to give care such as ventilators and beds to, with a focus on saving those most likely to recover.
…
The England-based medics told the publication that the already struggling health service would ‘crumble’ under the weight of a large outbreak, one lamenting that their hospital even struggled to contain this winter’s seasonal spate of flu and colds.

Make no mistake about it:  even in normal times, medical care is rationed when administered by the State — not just in Britain, but everywhere such a system exists — so when there’s a massive event like a pandemic (or even an epidemic in a single location), the system simply collapses and people die en masse.

Wear combat boots.