On 2020-04-17 10:33 p.m., jmcquown wrote:
> All I can say is thank you to the retired medical personnel for going
> back to work at this time. A lot of medical personnel are
> apparently coming out of retirement in many countries to try to help
> out their communities. Kudos to all of them for putting their lives
> on the line. It's a very humanitarian thing to do. I hope they'll
> all be able to get the equipment (masks, gloves, respirators) they
> need.
At least doctors and nurses are well paid. The highest fatality rates
from Covid19 have been in the retirement homes and long term care homes
that tend to be staffed by low paid mostly immigrants. They get a little
more than minimum wage and no benefits because they are part time. In
order to make a living wage they have to work 2-3 jobs, usually in
similar facilities, so they are passing the virus back and forth to the
various homes where they work. Things were so bad in one home in Quebec
that the staff bailed and abandoned their charges. NOw the government is
scrambling to find people to go in and deal with the mess.
>
As for the rest of us, we all have to shop for food but we don't all
> have to go at the same time. Don't need to stand around talking in
> parking lots, either. Get what you need and go home. Wash your
> hands before and after shopping. Wash the produce. Wear a mask when
> you go out. Figure out how to make a mask if you don't have one.
> Plenty of videos online if you don't have a sewing machine.
My sister in law made some masks for us, and a friend is getting some
for us that her SiL is making. That woman is cranking out something like
250 a day. My son also brought us some masks, gloves and hand sanitizer
from work. The friend who is getting us the masks also picked up a
750ml bottle of sanitizer that was made by a local craft distillery.
They are a new distillery and switched their production to use their
alcohol for sanitizer. That effort and good will was worth a million
dollars in advertising. No one knew who they were two months ago.
>
> At any rate, I appreciate these retired medical professionals who are
> stepping up at this time. I never in my lifetime thought I'd live
> through a pandemic. The last one I read about (other than a little
> bit about Ebola) was the Spanish Flu pandemic back in 1918. Back
> then they thought it was bacterial. They hadn't yet discovered
> virii...
>
Curiously, I had been reading a novel about an out of control virus. I
just wasn't getting into it because it more like a medical text than a
novel. I started into a more interesting book. Now I can't return this
to the library because it has been closed for a month.