trump Virus

I live in a state that shows no officially confirmed cases on the Corona virus. Want to know why? Because they're not testing for the virus here.

trump is on television telling people it's not as bad as the flu (a lie) and that they should go to work even if they have it (lie) and that everyone who wants to get tested can get tested (lie).

About ten days ago, I heard from a supervisor that a patient was in quarantine after coming into the main hospital's ER with suspected Corona virus. (The virus is airborne--information that is not being disseminated, so people think that handwashing is going to save them--so the patient was put in a negative pressure room.) David took his mother to a concert last Sunday and, by chance, happened to overhear a someone with knowledge of the quarantined patient talking to others. According to this person, the patient in quarantine had recently traveled to Italy, where the outbreak of Corona virus has been raging out of control, and had contact with someone who tested positive. There is no doubt that this patient is positive, but because they have not been tested, the state shows no confirmed cases.

There is a patient at my smaller, more isolated hospital with what I believe are symptoms of the virus. The patient was not tested for the Corona virus and was not quarantined. There continues to be no confirmed cases in my state. If it is true that the patient has the virus (and I won't know because again, no tests have been done), then I have also been exposed. I'm limiting the amount of exposure I have to others right now, not just for others' safety, but for my own. If the patient is not positive, but I pick up the virus somewhere in the community, then I can bring it to work with me. The patients are more likely to get it from someone like me who can leave and come back than they are likely to get it from each other.

People in America are doubting, because of the artificially low numbers of confirmed cases and because of trump's assertion that it's a "hoax" and that testing is being done, that the virus is not as virulent and as wide-spread as they've heard. This is how people die.

(Wonder where trump learned this trick from? Look at Russia. They don't have any real confirmed cases, either. I wonder why. Do you think they're testing there?)

Here's some news: An Australian doctor contracted the virus while on a trip to America. Two Canadians tested positive after a trip to Colorado and  Washington, D.C. A man who has tested positive for the virus went to a conservative rally and shook hands with all the republican politicians who have been going on the news to echo trump's words that it's a "hoax" and that we are not in danger. Those politicians recently announced that they are "self-quarantining" themselves--at our expense, at taxpayer's expense--because they've been exposed to the virus. Why would you quarantine yourself over a "hoax" I wonder.
 
It's here. We're spreading it to others and we know is because those people who can get tested (politicians and those who are connected enough to get a test or those who are returning to their home countries where testing is available and being done) are coming back positive.

trump ripped away $700,000,000 from the CDC budget and dismantled the epidemic response team that President Obama put in place when SARS and MERS and Ebola were killing people. Do you feel safer under trump? What do you think Hillary would have done? (Were you stupid enough to be deterred from voting for her because her name rhymed with "Killary"?) If you voted for trump, I hope you drown to death in your own phlegm. Though not really, because being on a ventilator is horrible. And dying on a ventilator (if you will be able to get a ventilator by the time you are at that point and hospitals are overwhelmed with Corona virus patients in respiratory failure) is a horrible way to die. But trump voters need to own that they put this buffoon in office.

Fucking idiots, to a one.

Am I Paranoid or Just Careful?

Am I paranoid? Or am I just being careful? In my age range, the virus is killing about 1.4% of the people who get it. If you have a preexisting condition, it can increase your chance of dying of the virus by 60% or more. If you are elderly with comorbidities, your chances of dying are far, far worse than if you are young. (These are statistics from the World Health Organization, compiled from information in China and other countries with a more robust response to the virus spread than we have here.)

When I come home from work, I take everything out of my pockets and wipe each thing down with sanitizing wipes. I strip off my scrubs on the patio and put them in a bag and tie up the bag (then wash the scrubs on a sanitizing wash cycle). I spray the bottom of my shoes with a disinfecting/sanitizing spray and I leave them outside. I wipe the outside of my lunch bag with sanitizing wipes. When Dave and I bring groceries from the store, I wipe the packaging down with sanitizing wipes before I put them away. I wash my hands all night while I'm at work and when I come home.  (I did this throughout clinicals in school, when I was mainly working on med-surge floors or in the ICU or ER, but working in psych with physically healthy children has perhaps made me lax.)

At home, we have hand sanitizer and sanitizing wipes and disinfectant spray. Not a (hoarder's) lot, but some. (When I run out, I'll use alcohol wipes then alcohol in spray bottles.) We have three boxes of nitrile gloves from Costco. (We always have gloves around because we use them at the studio and to clean at home since most cleaning stuff gives me hives.) I have N95 masks--ten of them, found by Dave at a hardware store--that we can wear if it comes to that. (We already had a few masks on hand from when Saba was sick and when I was having horrible allergies during pollen season a few years ago.)  FYI: Masks are being rationed at the hospital and one doctor told me that all the hand sanitizer dispensers that he encounters have recently been empty.

Dave and I have enough food and medication in the casita to outlast a two week quarantine. We don't have water, but we can filter water by two different methods.

The techs at work laugh at me. They're young, most of them.

How am I ? My lymph nodes are slightly swollen and my temp is 98.0. Not a fever, but not my usual temp either. Could be allergies. Could be something else. My immune system is engaged with fighting something, feels like. I think we can all agree on that.

Am I paranoid or am I just being careful?

I've been drinking. I don't drink. Or I do, but very, very occasionally, like once a year or twice at most. But I've been drinking for the past week or so, nearly every day. Drunk to me is a half bottle of wine and I've had that. Tonight I haven't, but there is a bottle of prosecco in the refrigerator calling my name.

I don't drink because my father was a drunk (and worse) and my younger brother, uncle, and mother have all been addicted to other substances, so there's a genetic component to it, and I've always told myself that being a drunk or being an addict of any sort wasn't going to happen to me.

I guess we'll find out.