A TIME FOR STRAIGHT TALK

 The odds are not with me.  

As a rare blood courier, like with E.M.T.'s 

Policemen, & Firemen --

I walk through emergency rooms where

the ill are hacking and sneezing trillions

of germ into the air.

Besides, I am not in a good age bracket.

Government spokesmen have their own agendas and many are ill-informed or out of the loop of current data.

Take the US Secretary of Health and Human Services, Alex Azar,who told host George Stephanopoulos 

that asymptomatic spread is "not the major driver" of the spread of the new coronavirus. 

 But it appears that a Massachusetts coronavirus cluster with at least 82 cases was started by people who were not yet showing symptoms, 

and more than half a dozen studies have shown that people without symptoms are causing substantial amounts of infection. 

 Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota. 

said, 

"It's "absolutely clear" that asymptomatic infection surely can fuel a pandemic like this in a way that's going to make it very difficult to control." 

Check this out from this Saturday's New Orleans celebration for St. Patrick's Day

 Bourbon Street crowded amid coronavirus order on big crowds

How many of these partiers were infected and came 

back to Lake Charles or other Louisiana home towns?

Then, there were crowds at airports yesterday

Bill Gates, yes, that Bill Gates who said despite scoffers that people would one day buy water in plastic bottles, said

"There is also strong evidence that this can be transmitted by people who are just mildly ill or even presymptomatic. 

That means COVID-19 will be much harder to contain than the Middle East respiratory syndrome or severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), 

which were spread much less efficiently and only by symptomatic people."

 "Asymptomatic and mildly symptomatic transmission are a major factor in transmission for Covid-19," said Dr. William Schaffner,

 a professor at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine and longtime adviser to the CDC. 

"They're going to be the drivers of spread in the community." 

Wear a mask, people.  I know. I know.  

But do you really believe 

Hospitals and Health Departments

go to Home Depot for masks?

They have Direct Access to distributors for that.

Wearing a face mask is certainly not an iron-clad guarantee that you won’t get sick:

Viruses can also transmit through the eyes and tiny viral particles, known as aerosols, can penetrate masks. 

Wear glasses and wash your face along with your hands.

However, masks are effective at capturing droplets, which is a main transmission route of coronavirus, 

and some studies have estimated a roughly five-fold protection versus no barrier alone. 

For a former Outbreak Investigator for the CDC on this facet, 

go to 14:30 and then for further data from a toxicologist on this &

why he wears a mask in public settings, go to 16:19

 

 

Think of it as wearing a seat belt:

You don't expect to get into an accident.

You simply are preparing for the 

consequences in case you get into one.

"You do you" as they say.

When I received my two minors in Microbiology

and Infectious Diseases --

I studied hard to get A's.

Now, I am again studying hard --

but this time

to put the odds as much in my favor as I can. 

Do what you think best.

Stay Well, my friends.