Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

There are a lot more evil idiots than evil geniuses.

Be a traveling stable for those who can’t find room at the inn.

He imagines himself as The Big Bad, Who Is Universally Feared… instead of The Big Jagoff, Who Is Universally Mocked.

Let’s delete this post and never speak of this again.

My right to basic bodily autonomy is not on the table. that’s the new deal.

“woke” is the new caravan.

They are lying in pursuit of an agenda.

Accused of treason; bitches about the ratings. I am in awe.

Republicans firmly believe having an abortion is a very personal, very private decision between a woman and J.D. Vance.

Trump’s legal defense is going to be a dumpster fire inside a clown car on a derailing train.

Sitting here in limbo waiting for the dice to roll

This really is a full service blog.

I’m sure you banged some questionable people yourself. We’re allowed to grow past that.

Republicans don’t lie to be believed, they lie to be repeated.

Elections aren’t won by handwringing, cowering, and/or bashing your own candidates.

The rest of the comments were smacking Boebert like she was a piñata.

You can’t attract Republican voters. You can only out organize them.

“The defense has a certain level of trust in defendant that the government does not.”

Ah, the different things are different argument.

We are builders in a constant struggle with destroyers. let’s win this.

“Why isn’t this Snickers bar only a nickel?”

If marriage is the equivalent of selling yourself into slavery, women with self respect should reject the offer.

It’s a new day. Light all those Biden polls of young people on fire and throw away the ashes.

It’s not hopeless, and we’re not helpless.

You are here: Home / Healthcare / COVID-19 / COVID-19 Coronavirus Update: Monday/Tuesday, May 11-12

COVID-19 Coronavirus Update: Monday/Tuesday, May 11-12

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… We found that very breathable fabrics are a good choice, like common t-shirt materials. They tend to have low droplet resistance, and their efficiency increases when used in a two-layer mask. The net breathability of the two layers is much higher than the medical masks, too. In fact, the breathability of cotton T-shirt fabrics remains higher than a medical mask, even with three layers. Homemade masks can be an effective tool for the public, together with testing and contact tracing, social distancing and other interventions to mitigate disease transmission…

… De Kai’s solution, along with his team, was to build a computer forecasting model they call the masksim simulator. This allowed them to create scenarios of populations like those in Japan (that generally wear masks) and others (that generally don’t), and to compare what happens to infection rates over time. Masksim takes sophisticated programming used by epidemiologists to track outbreaks and pathogens like COVID-19, Ebola, and SARS, and blended this with other models that are used in artificial intelligence to take into account the role of chance, in this case the randomness and unpredictability, of human behavior—for instance, when a person who is infected decides to go to a beach. De Kai’s team have also added some original programming that takes into account mask-specific criteria, such as how effective certain masks are at blocking the invisible micro-droplets of moisture that spray out of our mouths when we exhale or speak, or our noses when we sneeze, which scientists believe are significant vectors for spreading the coronavirus…


Reader Interactions

21Comments

  1. 1.

    Amir Khalid

    Malaysia’s daily numbers: 16 new cases, 13 from local infection and three from returning Malaysians. This is the lowest daily number since the movement control order took effect on March 18. Total 6,742 cases. 110 more patients recovered, total recovered 5,223 or 80.7% of all cases recorded. Of 1,410 active cases, 16 are in ICU of whom three are on ventilators. No new deaths, total 109 deaths; case fatality rate 2.04%

  2. 2.

    Mary G

    @Amir Khalid: These numbers make me happy for you and your country, but it just brings home how terrible America is at handling this. I did a google and by my admittedly lousy math, our population is 10.8 times as big as Malaysia’s, but we have 198.90 times as many cases.

    I saw this mask made from a sock on Twitter and ordered some new socks to make myself some:

    The simplest DIY mask yet – all you is a sock and a scissors pic.twitter.com/xYU0ZjHsSV
    — donal scannell (@donalscannell) May 11, 2020

    I hated the mask I got on Amazon, and the masks I ordered on Etsy still haven’t come, so I want something easy to try. If I make one and don’t like it any better, at least I’ll have some cute socks.

  3. 3.

    Mary G

    Good:

    Colorado Restaurant That Was Packed On Mother's Day Loses Its License Indefinitely | Colorado Public Radio https://t.co/BUdPRdMmgQ— Claude Taylor (@TrueFactsStated) May 11, 2020

    Some MAGAt opened up a bar/restaurant in my town too, which was packed. Have to see if they were shut down.

  7. 7.

    Amir Khalid

    @Mary G:

    What Malaysia is doing — what any country needs to do — is follow the WHO playbook as thoroughly as possible. We’ve been able to do that well, not just the medical authorities but Malaysian society as a whole observing the new social discipline.

  8. 8.

    terben

    From the Australian Dept of Health:

    As at 3:00pm on 12 May 2020, a total of 6,964 cases of COVID-19 have been reported in Australia, including 97 deaths and 6,229 have been reported as recovered from COVID-19.

    Over the past week, there has been an average of 18 new cases reported each day. Of the newly reported cases, the majority have been from Victoria.

    The overall proportion of cases under investigation in each state and territory is relatively low, indicating that public health actions, including case identification and contact tracing, is occurring in a timely manner.

    To date, over 877,500 tests have been conducted nationally. Of those tests conducted 0.8% have been positive.

  9. 9.

    arrieve

    I recommend t-shirt material for masks. It’s the most breathable and comfortable of the various ones I’ve tried. I’ve been sewing them by hand because I find it soothing; I wouldn’t win any prizes for my handiwork but the masks work. It probably takes me 2-3 hours per mask, but it’s not as though I have anywhere else to be.

  12. 12.

    Steeplejack

    @arrieve:

    Here’s a pretty good video on making a no-sew mask from a T-shirt with just a pair of scissors. I’ve positioned it at the start of the actual demonstration, which takes about three minutes.

    ETA: I got interested in this after reading here last week that a double thickness of T-shirt cloth is highly effective as a barrier.

  14. 14.

    Cameron

    I’m using a DIY mask I saw on YouTube, using a twice-folded bandanna with a coffee filter inserted in the middle (nose & mouth) and held on with rubber bands.  I have no idea how effective it is, but it’s better than nothing.

  15. 15.

    YY_Sima Qian

    I think Laurie Garrett is wrong about the recent Wuhan cases having long incubation period. The elderly man confirmed on May 9 had symptoms (fever ands chills) in mid-Mar. but self-medicated instead of going to a fever clinic, developed new symptoms in mid- Apr. (loss of appetite and exhaustion) and again did not go to the hospital. He was finally tested on May 6, after going to the hospital accompanied by community workers. The 5 cases reported on May 10 were all tested on May 4 – May 7, and were classified as asymptomatic, before being confirmed several days later. There is no data to support longer than expected incubation period. In fact, one of the cases went to the hospital to get a test on May 4, suffering from dizziness and exhaustion. She probably should have been declared confirmed as soon as she tested positive. Looking at the timeline, the case from May 9 was confirmed first, but did not test positive first. I suspect the local authorities were already aware of the cluster in the residential compound by May 6, and started a process to test all of the residents. 2 of the cases reported on May 10 were not identified from contact tracing, but from community survey that started from May 7.

    Looking at the nearly 1000 true asymptomatic cases found in Wuhan (and exported from Wuhan to elsewhere in China) since mid-Mar., I think they really represent a different kind of case, never developing symptoms and no evidence of infecting others. The cluster over the weekend is different, they were pre-symptomatic (or were already with very mild symptoms) when they were classified as asymptomatic. These cases are very contagious.

    I am rather dumbfounded by the supposed plan to test Wuhan’s entire population (10 – 20 million, depending if the authorities are referring to the urban area or metro Wuhan) within 10 days. I don’t think Wuhan or Hubei has the capacity to collect and process 1 – 2 million PCR tests a day. Maybe in all of China? Hubei had capacity for 85K PCRs per day back in mid-Apr., and can probably do 100K / day by now, just in state run labs and hospitals. Apparently Wuhan has also approved 12 3rd party private labs to process PCR tests, with 10 – 30K per day capacity each, but not yet utilized. Altogether may be 300K tests per day max capacity in the province to support this effort. Wuhan has also been testing 10s of thousands of people daily since the end of lock down on Apr. 8, so there could be 1 – 2 million people with recent test results already, that do not need to be tested again. So, if they test the 10 million in Wuhan’s urban area only, ignore the people who have been tested since the end of the lock down, utilize all of Hubei’s government and private lab capacity, as well as those of neighboring provinces, I can kind of see a path that is not completely unreasonable.

    In any case, right now it just a statement of intent by the municipal leadership, and it falls to the bureaucracy to figure out how to implement it. No start date, yet. Or, it could end like at the “100%, blanket, door to door” temperature checks in Feb., during the height of the outbreak, which was all thunder and little rain. We shall see.

  17. 17.

    karen marie

    I’ve been on something of a quest for a mask that’s not suffocating and easily replicable by me, without a sewing machine.  A friend had made me three masks – two just two layers of cotton fabric (with “I am a dog” printed all over them – yeah, no) and a third that are two layers of peptol-bismol pink fabric because I gently complained about the “I am a dog” thing) (yeah, no) – but they’re very hot, and I’m in Arizona where it’s already over 100 degrees (although yesterday wasn’t – yay!) and will continue to be until late September, if not October.  I was delighted to read the tweeted article about the best fabric option being tee-shirt material, because I’ve got a bunch of tee-shirts I hate, and I can use the guidance in this video to make no-sew masks!

     

    Thanks, kids!

  18. 18.

    karen marie

    @WaterGirl: I watched the sock video, and the problem is that the mask is only one layer of fabric, so any incoming moisture is going to get through more easily than two layers.  I’m going to stick with cutting up tee-shirts.

  19. 19.

    SteverinoCT

    @arrieve: I also have made several masks for myself and wife from Tshirts by hand, using the FTFNYT pattern. I have found that adding a wire for the bridge of the nose helps keep them on and seal better. I use the wire from a Chinese takeout box, because it’s very stiff but bendable. 3.5″ of wire and bend a loop on each end, slip between the hem stitches and tack in place using the loops, which also keep you from stabbing yourself.

  20. 20.

    Arclite

    @mrmoshpotato: “I hope Newsom pounds Musk into dust.”

    IIRC, the state said he could re-open, but county officials said he couldn’t yet. Maybe I have that wrong?

  21. 21.

    Arclite

    @karen marie: ” the mask is only one layer of fabric”

    Get thicker socks?

    Wear two at once, one slightly larger so it fits on the outside?

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