The U.S. Has Flattened the Curve. Next Up Is 'Squashing' It

“Has it been fifteen days yet?”

Soon. Real soon now.

I think we will get to fifteen days as soon as we are all getting around in driverless cars programmed to say “I’m sorry Dave, I’m afraid I can’t do that” when you ask it to take you to the grocery store.

The author writes "Then, in Act Three, the curve flattens (yellow again), with approximately the same number of new infections reported every day. This is the phase that, early on, all of us were hoping for: the celebrated “flattening of the curve.”"

That is an incredibly wrong and ignorant statement that clearly demonstrates he doesn't know what he is writing about.

"Flatten the curve" was NOT (and never was) about getting to the point at the top of the curve (where it is almost flat) and we have the same number of new infections every day. It is about changing the shape of the curve and extending it out in time to reduce the possible overload on health care systems. How could we be this far into this pandemic and somebody does not grasp that simple concept? Especially a somewhat technical guy who writes computer programs to automate the generation of pandemic metrics and graphs!

Masks for everyone is how we squash it.

Too many essential employees and too many shoppers for essential items aren’t wearing them, so it’s still spreading.

Masks are essentially useless. Most aren't fine enough to actually filter out the viral particles, and people don't even wear them correctly - plenty of people cover mouth but not nose, wear it under their chin, have a beard so there's no seal, continue wearing it for longer than it's good for, then wear it multiple days. They don't follow decon procedures AT ALL - do YOU even know the proper way to remove PPE without spreading contamination? Hint, no touching keys or cell or other while out, getting in/out of your car, etc etc. A lot of people wearing "masks" just have a bandanna wrapped around their face. Sure, it'll protect you from dust and wind, but that's completely useless for medical issues. Many people just have cloth and rubber bands, a tshirt, etc.
Hell, I even saw one lady wearing a full respirator, but I'd bet dollars to donuts she hadn't changed out her canisters since she bought it.

Not to mention the health issues with long-term wearing of a mask - as it gets damp from breath, it tends to collect more particles from the air like dust, pollens, or other freefloating bacteria/viri. They restrict your oxygen intake, as breaths are harder to pull in, plus you're breathing in half of your just-exhaled CO2. There's a poster on here who actually had a near-medical emergency due to low oxygen levels from his mask.
Not to mention masks are crazy uncomfortable and rebreathing your air isn't pleasant anyway.

They do need to cover their noses instead of letting them slip down, but the purpose of everyone wearing a mask isn’t to prevent them from inhaling something. It’s to catch particles produced by their own coughing. Surgical masks don’t form seals either - they’re for protecting patients against surgical infections in patients and only protect staff against large droplets.

I have some 3M N95 masks I got for gardening (to not inhale fungus when turning compost). But I discovered since that they definitely aren’t medical grade. There’s a one-way valve which means coughed out material will come right out the front.

“This Isn’t the First,,,?

Is to me.”

Easy to forget, but protocol remains in effect at medical treatment facilities.

I’ve lived through a number of them

SARS, MERS, various flu viruses. Polio...

To me polio was the scariest. We used to bring money to school and it was collected on Fridays for the March of Dimes, films were shown of kids and adults in iron lungs... there was awareness. My oldest cousin remembers the first polio vaccine, and the sugar cube, and the small pox scars that boomers carry on their shoulders. The list goes on...

I wish you had faith as well. I don’t know how people function without it. If I can ever answer any questions or share any of my story with you I am a PM away and I mean that sincerely. You don’t have to check your brain at the door to be a christian. I wish blessing on you as you seek answers

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