That's a good point. The ones who designed the bathrooms did not put enough sinks installed compared to ratio of toilet stalls and urinals. Perhaps they thought hand washing pre corona was not that important.
I think offices are in a sticky situation because you have people sitting for 8 to 10 hours together in very close proximity to each other. I think about 23 of the 35 of us on one floor got sick in the first 2 weeks of December.
Certainly our actions have contributed to lowering the numbers and there is no doubt that politicians will take credit. But I don’t think the general population will see it that way. They will see it as things were no where near as bad as people claimed and will not take it as seriously going forward or the next time. The same way people act after they prepare for what is portrayed by the media and officials as a massive and devastating hurricane that later weakens or turns at the last minute. Only in this case the public response to this crisis helped turn the “hurricane.”
My institution (large academic center) has decreased admissions substantially. My wife and I think this is a result of the lack of teaching happening currently (all students sent home, most residents repurposed to general floors to fight COVID). Makes me wonder how much money we waste on education and whether or not some patients truly need admission..
blogmickey.com
You're applying what you are finding about general filtration and applying it to N95 masks. Doesn't work like that.
My point wasn't that the masks don't help, its that for most people they don't help any more than just putting a bandana over your mouth and nose.
N95 Respirators, Surgical Masks, Face Masks, & Barrier Face Coverings
N95 respirators, surgical masks, face masks, and barrier face coverings offer different levels of protection for the wearer from particles.www.fda.gov
An N95 respirator is a respiratory protective device designed to achieve a very close facial fit and very efficient filtration of airborne particles.
The 'N95' designation means that when subjected to careful testing, the respirator blocks at least 95 percent of very small (0.3 micron) test particles. If properly fitted, the filtration capabilities of N95 respirators exceed those of face masks. However, even a properly fitted N95 respirator does not completely eliminate the risk of illness or death.
I'm sure there is some contribution but I'm not so sure that the actions taken have contributed as much to lowering the numbers as we'd be led to believe. I'm basing this comment by looking at Italy. They instituted the national lockdown March 10th. They still had more new cases yesterday (over a month later) than on March 13th. I'm not convinced that the curve would have been that much different without the measures. Yes, the actions have done SOMETHING but I'm not convinced the doomsday scenarios would have occurred without the measures being taken.
If it isn't a fluke and the trend continues it would indicate that my theory that we are actually on a different part of the curve than we think would be given credence. Basically, I think that the curve we see in Florida is a subset of the actual curve and is essentially being drawn by daily test capacity. The drop won't be seen until the actual number of cases drops below the capacity to test on a daily basis. I have made this crude and exaggerated image to illustrate. Basically, the real shape of the curve isn't observable until the green line intersects the black line.
When I watch the local Orlando news there is a sense that the cases are flattening in our area. It’s been like that for a few days. We’re cautiously optimistic that this is the case. Testing has also been ramped up in the area with more testing stations, more tests at each station and allowing more without strict guidelines to be tested. We’ll see what happens day by day. I’m originally from Wisconsin, too. My daughter still lives there in Waukesha county and my husband is currently working at a Milwaukee hospital. So I hear what’s happening there daily. Keep safe.
