Saturday, May 23, 2020

Fear of not social distancing

As I am sure others may have noticed, I get the impression that, at least as far as supermarkets are concerned, a lot of shoppers are no longer taking social distancing all that seriously.

I am finding that I now get the feeling, when people push past close to me with no obvious concern, that I am passing through the invisible cloud of their exhaled breath, containing God knows what.   The whole of a busy supermarket now feels like it could be an invisible viral soup.

Of course, what I should be doing is wearing a facemask to help counter this feeling of helplessness in the face of my fellow careless humans.  But I took a punt and didn't put one on today, and regretted it.

I wonder how many other people have developed this mild form of germophobia...

    

12 comments:

GMB said...

This is all because you have no capacity in science. You don't know how to prepare. So you are not prepared. So you are vulnerable to the bioweapon.

GMB said...

The whole point of a bioweapons attack is that its a terrorist attack, since its indiscriminate. The terrorists MUST have the antidote. So the terrorists have to hoard the antidote and find ways to deny the antidote to others. Now since the antidote isn't just exclusively one thing, it would take a multi-sentence explanation to fully nail everything down. But supposing you are a dumb leftist? I've got to boil it down into terrorist and bioweapon antidote. In the hope that some dim understanding may pierce through.

Not Trampis said...

In Eastwood it is somewhat comical. Except for one great fruit and Vege store there is no ensuring of social distancing. Thus we have the irony of people wearing masks and being in a queue where people are less than 1.5 feet away.

John said...

When you are in the supermarket do you disinfect the baskets and trolleys you are using because they aren't. Do you wear gloves because so many surfaces are being touched by people? Why aren't there signs telling people not to pick up items to inspect, to only pick up items they intend to buy? Do you know if the air conditioning is ventilating and\or how much air is recycled through the building? Is the 1.5 m specification for still air or moving air?

Steve said...

John, I have been avoiding using baskets or trolley completely. If I am shopping just for a smallish amount of items (as I often am) I just use the reusable grocery bags I have brought in with me to carry stuff inside the supermarket too.

I know that the numbers of new infections are very low, and most people presumably are factoring that in. But the rules introduced for COVID-19 have left a residual heightened sensitivity to hygiene issues (for me, at least) that isn't going away rapidly as it seems to in most other people. I am not sure if I am unusual in this respect - although I think not, as I have heard co-workers complaining about the same thing.

John said...

John, I have been avoiding using baskets or trolley completely. If I am shopping just for a smallish amount of items (as I often am) I just use the reusable grocery bags I have brought in with me to carry stuff inside the supermarket too.

Smart. Steve I was being in part flippant to highlight how the social distancing while necessary is a rather limited strategy because there are many potential sources of infection that have not been considered.

The infection rate is now very low. Conservatives like to complain about this and cite it as evidence of a massive over-reaction to the problem. Tell Brazilians that ... .

hygiene issues (for me, at least) that isn't going away rapidly as it seems to in most other people.

Unintended consequences is usually used in the pejorative sense, here we see a good example. Same behavior change happened with the water restrictions, people still kept being water conscious when the dams were full. I wish more people would consider the benefits of efficiency of use for most things because when we add it all up that can be a lot of saving. I think that is also happening, not so much in my generation but I wouldn't be surprised if Millennials are more thoughtful about that.



GMB said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
GMB said...

Vernon knows what is going on here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eljyWrbGTlk

Steve said...

Too much swearing, Graeme.

Thanks for the nude sunbathing recommendation, though. I'll explain how it was some guy on the internet who recommended it to me personally.

Steve said...

I'll explain to my family, I meant to say in the last comment.

GMB said...

I was putting the extra f-words in for comic effect. Look you can't play silly-buggers here. You've got to follow and spread my prescriptions. I have the experience on the ground here. I have an active patient. I'm doing the research ... yes its basically just having videos on in the background many hours a day. But I have gone back and looked at some 2005 papers and this HCQ business is completely politicised.

HCQ makes my patient sad. It gives her lower back pain. Makes her anxious. Makes her eyes a bit funny. So we go with one sixth to one half advertised protocols. Meaning that we will do anything to keep her from getting breathing problems and going into hypoxia. At the moment its a bit of a see-saw. But we can reliably restore her breathing with HCQ..... But I emphasise the need to stay ahead on every other nutrient necessary to fight viruses. We worry about blood micro-clots. She's got two kids massaging her all the time. We could not be more careful. But if we are too careful with the HCQ and the virus takes back over her lungs, then the reality is that if we are right up on the nutrients, we are now both confident that the HCQ can drive it out of her lungs and restore the breathing.

I think this see-saw may go on maybe another couple of weeks at the most. I think its a good thing to force her body to do a lot of the heavy lifting. We are constrained by poverty. But we are now confident we can win this one. But if you aren't high enough in vitamin D, and supposing they won't give you HCQ early, they won't feed you high zinc foods like oysters. They won't give you enough vitamin C or if you don't want HCQ better still a hi-dose vitamin C intravenous drip ..... If you have trouble breathing and you cannot get the help you need. .... Thats it, you are gone. Game over.

Anonymous said...

Bird, you idiot. You need to stop what you're doing immediately. You don't have a "patient", you have a potential victim on your hands and if she dies, you could end up with a murder rap. Stop now!