Category Archives: Loose Pollen

A surgical mask blocks about 80% of the viruses. A home-made mask blocks about 50%. And for children, a well-fitted homemade mask can outperform an ill-fitting surgical mask.

In order for a mask to filter particles out of the air going into your lungs, you must breathe in THROUGH the fabric. Researchers tested various household materials in single and double layers for effectiveness and breathability. They concluded that cotton fabric was the best overall choice for a DIY mask.

However, the tightness of cotton fabric varies. Pick your fabric(s) and use your best judgment about how many layers of what types. The video below uses two layers of quilting cotton, plus a third inner layer of cotton flannel. The instructions below call for 2 layers of woven cotton. Researchers who tested cotton tea towels found that one layer was best. Use your best judgment. You want filtration without suffocation.

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Why is it a bigger deal than the seasonal flu?

Seasonal flu is an all-human virus – i.e., its DNA/RNA chains are recognized by the human immune system. Plus, we have flu vaccines.

The Wuhan Coronavirus is a “novel” virus, meaning it was an animal virus that mutated and jumped to humans. Then within only two weeks, it mutated again so it could be transmitted not just from its original animal host to humans, but also from human to human.

So it’s a big deal because our immune systems don’t recognize the sequencing of the animal genes, we don’t have a vaccine (yet), and it’s thought to be about three times as contagious as the seasonal flu.

Also, it has mutated AGAIN, so that we now have two strains to deal with, strain S and strain L, which makes it twice as hard to develop a vaccine.

History has shown that fast and immediate closings of public places has helped in the past. This is really all we have available to us right now to fight this.

• CtH: I changed this a bit from the version posted by April Lennartson on Facebook, mostly just to shorten it for clarity.

• https://www.coronavirus.gov/

“Stay at home and save lives.”

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My parish has never done this before, but I am hoping they continue it after the quarantine is over.  This is my pastor, Father Daniel, who is from Colombia. His accent may take some getting used to, but he always has wise words.

I especially invite my non-Catholic readers to watch, if only to see for yourselves how rich with Scripture and prayer the Holy Mass is.

DEPRIVATION: “One thing every Catholic should agree about regarding the suspension of public Masses in multiple dioceses across the globe: we now will experience the deprivation that our brethren in the Middle East and China experience on a daily basis. Unite your sufferings with theirs, and PRAY!” —Matthew Balan

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LOVE THY NEIGHBOR: Christians fed and housed Jews when doing so could get them shot. Surely we can find ways to help each other now.

CHINESE CORONAVIRUS: I listened to Trump’s daily virus briefing yesterday. The reporters reminded me of little children, continually cycling back to whining about how Mean Orange Man says we is doing crappy job and hurtz us feelingz. I wanted to reach into the screen and smack them upside the head. “You’re in the WHITE HOUSE PRESS ROOM! Grow UP!”

Meanwhile, our excellent president let his team speak, which is something I continue to admire about him and have not forgotten Obama didn’t do. Two things he said that stuck with me are, “We’ll get through this” and “We can replace the money; we can’t replace the people.” Also, he praised the private sector for proactively contacting them with offers to switch manufacturing capacity to produce needed materials, like masks and respirators, and that the need to self-quarantine will last at least through the end of March.

New unemployment claims surged last week as people in non-critical jobs were laid off. We need to keep these people in mind and carefully avoid succumbing to “me first” isolationism, even as we practice self-quarantine and wonder how we’re going to pay bills without the usual pay checks.

In GOOD news, chloroquine – a common and inexpensive malaria drug – appears to be working well against the Chinese Coronavirus. Dr. Fauci said it’s still preliminary and we won’t know more until it’s used on a lot of people who have the virus. There are also a home test kit and a vaccine being moved through the FDA approval process.

• https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/weekly-jobless-claims-soar-to-281-000-as-coronavirus-hurts-employment
• https://www.zmescience.com/science/anti-malaria-covid-19-0523/

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TRUMP LEADS: The following is from a White House email – Defeating this virus will take a historic partnership between our public and private sectors.

• America and Canada will halt all non-essential travel across their border.
• The Defense Department is massively expanding medical resources, making 5 million respirator masks and 2,000 ventilators available for use.
• FEMA is now activated in every region of the country and at the highest level.
• Navy hospital ships are being deployed to impacted areas.
• The Department of Housing & Urban Development as well as Health & Human Services are suspending foreclosures and evictions until the end of April.
• President Trump held a phone meeting with 130 CEOs to hear directly what they need to respond to this crisis.

Together, America will prevail.

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Saint Corona: No joke! – There actually is a St. Corona. AND she is one of the patron saints of pandemics. AND her remains are in Northern Italy, the site of the first Covid 19 lockdown in EU.

• https://www.catholicpilgrimageph.com/its-true-theres-a-st-corona-and-she-is-the-patron-saint-of-pandemics/

TRUMP 2020: I am so often impressed by the genuine kindness of our president [3:49].

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COVID-19 SCIENCE: As the tweets suggest, there’s a lot of total crap being circulated about the Wuhan Coronavirus. The article linked below (h/t Bob) has the clearest, least politicized information I’ve seen.

In case you don’t go read the article and look at all the pretty graphs … he makes a good case for the likelihood that total U.S. deaths with this outbreak will be in the 3,000 range. By comparison, that’s about how many people die in auto accidents per month. And it’s half the number of babies who die in abortions per month.

• https://wattsupwiththat.com/2020/03/16/diamond-princess-mysteries/

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