March
Updated: Jan 8, 2022
March 11
Now.. here's to the power of internet- a concise message by a scientist, which sums up the current virus, has gone viral, no pun intended, w/ great advice to stop more spread (Go Team USA!) - Feel free to SHARE this letter- Not too late! To REALLY beat the virus, everyone has their own part to follow protocol (and whatever else it takes to prevent the spread), no matter how small/ big! Plus, being informed is WAY better than not at all (or being ignorant, for lack of a better word)!
Visit the following link: What I think about COVID-19 this morning (google.com)
March 11
OK Facebookers! We are officially in a PANDEMIC (should have been called earlier)!
NOW is the time to muster all our individual efforts to stop the spread. May we (USA) as a nation set a good, if not, the best example of curbing the virus (unexpected yet seemingly rudimentary frontier in the new decade) for the World to follow. My Virus Tip #1: "Social distancing" as much as possible given your own circumstances (It sounds anti-social but it can indicate a concern to minimize risk to others)...Evidence suggests that virus CAN spread person-to-person even from a close-by asymptomatic person even if they do NOT cough or sneeze. Examples of tip application: Staying at LEAST 6 feet from anyone in an enclosed space, especially if with them for more than 10 minutes (if possible). Cancelling or else postponing "non-essential" meetings/parties with co-workers/clients/friends. Cancelling "non-essential" travel. Calling in sick if sick OR if someone in same house is sick. Working from home if possible. Avoiding public gatherings if possible. Wearing a mask if going out but feeling ill. Applying the above especially when dealing with immuno-compromised persons or those over 60. If you have to visit them, making sure they also have a mask to wear during the visit. Thanks for being considerate to others as well as yourself!
March 13
I'll now call my virus tips "Takeaways" (as I've gathered "lessons," if you will, from stories in multiple news articles covering various countries). My #2 Take-away: AWARENESS that this virus can spread through touching common PUBLIC/ popularly Used SURFACES/ OBJECTS (including doors, coins, elevator buttons, etc not to mention the floor!) and THEN touching one's face- specifically the nose, mouth, or eye (WITHOUT FIRST sanitizing one's hands)...or a more indirect form of a 'unintended' series of transfers from initial contact with an infected medium eventually to one's face (for example touching a contaminated door with a lid of a bottle, then drinking from the bottle). This type of INDIRECT transmission IS responsible for a large proportion of infection cases (unexplained). Focus in cases in various countries with outbreaks (especially in Korea and Italy) had been on tracing sources of those who had been initially infected (through direct human contact) but the MISSING LINK of UNKNOWN sources may just as well be infected public surfaces, which indirectly transmit the virus (per the above). I don't think there is universal public guidance for when one inevitably contacts a contaminated public surface/ object (individual approaches vary from using a tissue to open a main public door/ pushing an elevator button, to using bare hands then later washing hands or using HAND SANITIZER, to cleaning an object first with ALCOHOL/sanitary WIPES before touching/using ), but being aware of whether one's hands have been contaminated or not, enables one to assess (based on one's risk tolerance) to what extent and/or when one's hands/personal objects should be subsequently sanitized TO MINIMIZE EXPOSURE . With mindful practice, one can develop/ learn a unique hygienic routine (or HABIT) to deal more confidently with these various unavoidable encounters (NO SHAME given present norm). Thanks for raising SANITARY AWARENESS and HYGIENIC STANDARDS !
March 18
Across our nation, the unprecedented appearance of a complete and almost concurrent "shutdown" has been uniformly witnessed through ubiquitous closures of schools, universities, businesses, churches, bars, clubs, restaurants, cafes (eg. Starbucks), amusement parks (including Disney/Universal), resorts and casinos (including on the Las Vegas Strip), as well as widespread cancellations of airline flights, sport tournaments (eg. NBA), movie showings, theatres (including Broadway), SYMPHONIES (by a unified AFM !!), and suspensions of cruiseships and Hollywood/TV productions, among many others following suit. NEVER IN OUR LIFETIME has all societal life seemed to miraculously grind to a halt. However, I believe what has happened is the right and NECESSARY intervention to mitigate a further public health crisis due to the coronavirus, and this is a favorable testament to us and the world of how our whole nation is working TOGETHER at such a crucial time. Despite the economic impacts, the eventual results of all the closures/cancellations will be invaluably worth more than the short-term benefits of staying open for just one more day to one more week. BRAVISSIMO to ALL those who courageously made these TOUGH, sacrificial decisions... only time will tell how contributory these drastic measures will be towards effectively curbing the virus and very least flattening the curve. With all these set in place for the indefinite meantime, these actions cannot succeed to the fullest unless we follow-through as RESPONSiBLE and RESPECTFUL citizens with WISE and CAREFUL individual choices/protocols to minimize virus transmission as much as we each possibly can and to reflect a unified yet persistent purpose of optimistic COOPERATION (as if the virus will be defeated very soon) and goodwill - not only for the future preservation of our society as we knew it but also FOR THE WHOLE WORLD'S SAKE. GO TEAM USA!!
March 20
#STAYHOME, SAVE LIVES !
#STAYHOME TO STARVE & RID THE VIRUS!
March 24
How to Reduce Risk of Coronavirus Infection (continued). ESSENTIAL Take-away #2. STAY HYDRATED (preferably warm water, not cold) such as a sip of water every 10 minutes (Virus can thrive if throat is dry for more than 10 minutes). ESSENTIAL Take-away #3: DON'T TOUCH YOUR FACE, especially if less than 10 minutes after touching a public object/surface! If you have an itch on face, use a clean tissue, fabric or barrier (keep some handy), or else sanitize hands first. ESSENTIAL Take-away #4: GARGLE throat with SALT & warm water for several minutes especially after returning home from public areas (lowers germs stuck in throat).
March 26
OK, You all! No longer playing "nice"! This is an URGENT public service WARNING to US ALL (No exceptions!): STAY AT HOME! I REPEAT, STAY AT HOME ! IF YOU ARE OUTSIDE, GO HOME ASAP UNLESS YOU ARE DOING SOMETHING ESSENTIAL (pretty much ONLY Emergencies) or ELSE AT LEAST WEAR A FACE MASK! According to WHO, It took 67 days to get to 100,000 cases, 11 days to get to 200K cases, 4 days to get to 300K, 2 days to get to 400K, and 1 day to get to 500K (as of March 26)! Unless we ALL DO what we KNOW we should do, guess what the # of cases will be in less than ONE day??? WAKE UP everyone (btw I am sure we in the classical music world are stunned by the new health STATUS of our beloved ANNE-SOPHIE MUTTER) !!! This is definitely NOT time to PLAY OR HAVE FUN OUTSIDE! (Besides it sets a very bad example to others!) LET'S GET REALLY, REALLY, REALLY SERIOUS ABOUT THIS VIRUS! (Versus being complacent/ apathetic). This Critical situation is NOT A GAME, IT'S NOT AN EXPERIMENT or TRIAL ! There is NO 2ND CHANCES! Just ONE person can SIGNIFICANTLY change the permanent trajectory of this terrible VIRUS (verified by what happened to New York due to only ONE careless person in New Rochelle, Westchester County for example). YOU, yes YOU yourself, have the power to REVERSE the ALARMING rate of this PANDEMIC. Imagine what we can ALL do TOGETHER if we do our duty (Compare Taipei versus New York or South Korea vesus Spain). RIGHT NOW, TODAY, at THIS VERY HOUR or MINUTE, the Whole World is in still YOUR HANDS. While this is STILL so (before it is too late), CHOOSE to Be a "NON-ESSENTIAL" and STAY HOME, Everyone! IF you REALLY have do an ESSENTIAL errand, PLEASE do wear a mask (contrary to current public practice, but the habit in most Asian countries for a long time). Very least stay at least 6 feet from anyone ALWAYS, NO EXCEPTIONS!!! Only when this is ALL OVER, we can thank ourselves for an incredible job! PLEASE, PLEASE SHARE THIS MESSAGE with your friends (and feel free to HIT the LIKE button!)
March 29
CALL-TO-ATTENTION, Everyone of you !! (Not for my sake of course - for the GOOD of our troubled country & the rest of the world, really !): Here's a very easy-to-do POWER-OF-INTERNET/ SOCIAL MEDIA CORONAVIRAL RELAY CHALLENGE for everybody (besides it's FUN...this happens to coincide current "physical distancing" initiatives to curb spread of the virus WITHIN next several days):
HELP to raise awareness of this serious NEW VIRUS (& what it entails- Believe-it-or-not, many of your friends or theirs actually have still NOT really read up the info yet on how it is spread or recommended individual protocols- KNOWLEDGE IS POWER !!) to as many people as possible (at least on Facebk & including other countries!). For EVERYONE OF YOU, the quick CHALLENGE IS THIS:
Simply relay ASAP one/ two of the following #HASHTAGS below to (all) your friends on Facebk/Twitter or other social media. Then, they'd just SHARE your hashtags to their friends (who'd then share theirs with their friends, & so on...(so this CHALLENGE could go viral). Hopefully, with this motivation (via friends/social media) AND correct know-how (informed via google/internet) by each person of preventing spread, the cycle of this contagious VIRUS can be much more quickly broken! JUST SIMPLY do the following :
1) COPY / PASTE one or two of the below hashtags which you choose (each is 4 to 5-syllables). 2) Pick a background color (NEEDED to ENLARGE your text, so they stand out among all the newsfeed posts!) 3) COPY "Please SHARE this with your friends! With help of social media/ internet, let's BREAK the CORONAVIRUS' Cycle ASAP !" (Or to that effect)
That's it ! OPTIONAL: Please "LIKE" this post once you've done the above (then I know you participated ! ) In the end, your friends will thank YOU for helping to inform through this Relay-Race Challenge! READY, GET SET, GO TEAM!!
#CALLOUTTHEVIRUS #TWEETTHEVIRUS #CHATUPTHEVIRUS #TALKUPTHEVIRUS #DISCUSSTHEVIRUS #BRINGUPTHEVIRUS #EXPLAINTHEVIRUS #PUBLISHTHEVIRUS #MENTIONTHEVIRUS #SPEAKOUTTHEVIRUS #ASSESSTHEVIRUS #OBSERVETHEVIRUS #OUTWITTHEVIRUS #DETECTTHEVIRUS #STUDYTHEVIRUS #TEXTTHEVIRUS #READTHEVIRUS #KNOWTHEVIRUS #LEARNTHEVIRUS #TEACHTHEVIRUS #DEBATETHEVIRUS #SUMUPTHEVIRUS #RELATETHEVIRUS
#MEASURETHEVIRUS #DISCERNTHEVIRUS #WEIGHOUTTHEVIRUS #PERCEIVETHEVIRUS #MEASURETHEVIRUS #ADMITTHEVIRUS #CONFESSTHEVIRUS #DETECTTHEVIRUS #PERUSETHEVIRUS #GAUGETHEVIRUS #SINGOUTTHEVIRUS #EXPRESSTHEVIRUS #COMPARETHEVIRUS #RECALLTHEVIRUS
March 29
THREE Coronavirus TAKEAWAYS--- "Takeaway" #4: Be familiar (even better, know off-hand) with how long Covid-19 survives on various surfaces depending on material to routinely determine how to handle certain objects/surfaces (or avoid until virus is presumably "dead"). According to various articles, in room temperature/humidity, it survives in air droplets (not aerosols) for up to 3 hrs, copper for up to 4 hrs, cardboard (& possibly porous surfaces such as fabric) for up to 24 hrs, stainless steel or plastic for up to 72 hrs. Similar coronaviruses have survived on wood or glass for up to 4 days. Humidity and hotter temperatures are suspected to slow the spread of the virus, so a room humidifier may be a good thing for this purpose.
However, above info (or anything shared in my posts for that matter) should not replace any necessary precautions to prevent the virus infection.
Link: Coronavirus lives for hours in air particles and days on surfaces, new US study shows (cnbc.com)
March 31
NOT into sensationalism but concerned about what could really happen...cautionary article especially for those considering "choir" practice any time soon.
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