Tag: COVID-19

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First Flight, 2020

Missed air travel. First flight in 2020 to visit the Searchspring office in Denver.

Forgot all the rituals for getting through airport security and ended up leaving my belt at the airport. Oh well. Glad that I am taking flight again.

Missed seeing colleagues in person and having live debates in front of whiteboard. Joined Searchspring since May and finally seeing some of them in person for the first time.

Missed being able to interact with the world without feeling the world is closing in. Everyone is wearing mask, taking reasonable precautions, trying to function and live in a world shadowed by the pandemic.

The world is burning. Flying over Denver, all I see is the layer of haze from the smoke from Portland.

It’s really sad seeing the world like this. How did we ended up like this?

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Class Divide

The financial cost of lock down vs the potential cost of death. Why lower class workers are more eager to reopen while people earning higher wage are more willing to stay lock in. Also the difference in the type of work. Lower wager work are more likely to require physical presence while higher wage works are more likely to carry out remotely.

References:

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Fiction

Researchers found several mutated strains of 武漢病毒 (SARS-CoV-2) since the start of the epidemic. It appeared that the earlier strain in 武漢 infected only Caucasian. The outbreak in 武漢 started after the virus had mutated to infect Asian population. The epidemic spread to Europe before reaching the U.S. and became a global pandemic that raged across the world for months to come. It showed that how nature always finds a way. Even a virus can find a way to maximize its own survivor rate.

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Reopen

As the world is getting tired of shelter in place and pushing for reopening, what are the measures we should consider to put us on the path to recovery? All this attention with the number of confirmed case seems that we only care about the acceptable fatality rate. As if, it would all be fine as long as the fatality rate is low enough, not caring about the life already lost.

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Herd

Weird dream. Trying to create herd immunity on an island started with a single infected patient.

So, exactly what is herd immunity and how does it work. In summary, it means in a closed system, the majority of the inhabitants are immune from a sickness which prevented the sickness from spreading across the entire population. Here, majority means 90 to 95% of the total population.

The immunity are achieved by nature cause or vaccination. That is, without vaccinations, immunity can be result of anti-body from existing immune system or generated by host body after getting infected. In any case, the immunity may or may not be permanent, thus why certain vaccines need to be administered once every few years.

Referencese

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Low Density

Over the last few years, many companies are pushing for high density work space. Cubicles and offices have been torn down in favor of open floor plan. Large conference rooms were converted into smaller meeting rooms or just phone booths. As we reopen the work place after COVID-19, we are asking people to keep 2m (6ft) apart, which is complete opposite of such design. How will we do that? How about public transportation? Will society be encouraged to go back to driving, reversing the push for public transportation?

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A New Beginning

Watched I am legend again last night. Noticed there is an alternate ending of the movie. Did a little research and realized that the book actually has a complete different ending and Dr. Robert Neville is a very different character in the book. Added the book to my Audible library, will have to read it next time.

Last week recruiters started calling and setting up interviews. Opportunities that were put on hold before started to pick up again. Finally people begin to accept that this will go on for a while and we need to take the situation as is and move forward. Jut like any business opportunity, the early adaptors will win out and take the leave in the new order.

The society and way of life as we know now, or rather, before COVID-19, has ended. This is a new beginning.

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House Routine

Although we are all staying at home, under the same roof, yet we are all still following our own routines. Almost like we are in parallel universes, occupying the same space, but never intersect with each other. Except when we come together for dinner every night.

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From 1 to 10

How are you feeling today? Any one feeling the cabin fever? It is ever more important during this time to reach out to our family and friends to check in on them, see how they are doing. Listen to the subtle hints of stress or depression. Lean on each other (virtually).

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Hygienic Behavior

Interestingly, the top search results for hygienic behavior are all about bees. Perhaps, we can learn a thing or two from the bees.

Bees with the trait are able to detect, uncap, and remove infected pupae before they become infectious, slowing the spread of disease and the population growth of the mite.
https://beeinformed.org/2011/07/25/hygienic-behavior/

Hopefully in a few months, the results will all be about how we keep ourselves and the community clean and healthy; how we can stop the next pandemic on its track. Aside from washing hands and physical distancing, here are a few things I have heard and observed in the last few weeks since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Sanitize the grocery, deliveries, takeouts before putting away or bringing them into the house. While COVID-19 is not a foodborne virus, the COVID-19 virus can still remain active on the surface of the packaging for a few hours.

Take off the shoes before entering the house. This practice is common in Asian households. When I first came to the U.S. I was a bit shocked to see people wearing their street shoes straight into the house, especially one with carpets. Glad to see this is catching on during this time. Hopefully it will stick and become a culture norm.

Wear mask in public places. Since the SARS outbreak in 2003, it’s common practice to wear masks in public places in Taiwan, especially in crowed places like on the transit systems. People may have the misconception that the mask is there to protect yourself from sickness. In fact it is there to protect others from getting infected.