CC0 by Skitterphoto on Pexels

​Natural sunlight rapidly inactivates SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus on surfaces

Coronavirus​https://www.scientificanimations.com /
CC BY-SA (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)

Abstract
Oxford Academic - The Journal of Infectious Diseases

​Previous studies have demonstrated that SARS-CoV-2 is stable on surfaces for extended periods under indoor conditions. In the present study, simulated sunlight rapidly inactivated SARS-CoV-2 suspended in either simulated saliva or culture media and dried on stainless steel coupons. Ninety percent of infectious virus was inactivated every 6.8 minutes in simulated saliva and every 14.3 minutes in culture media when exposed to simulated sunlight representative of the summer solstice at 40oN latitude at sea level on a clear day. Significant inactivation also occurred, albeit at a slower rate, under lower simulated sunlight levels. The present study provides the first evidence that sunlight may rapidly inactivate SARS-CoV-2 on surfaces, suggesting that persistence, and subsequently exposure risk, may vary significantly between indoor and outdoor environments. Additionally, these data indicate that natural sunlight may be effective as a disinfectant for contaminated non-porous materials.

Over and over we've been told "to stay home" but increasingly, it is being shown that this virus tends to spread faster and easier indoor than outdoor.
So 'stay at home' should be replaced with 'stay outdoors in the sunshine', of course with the caution to use sunscreen and keep your distance from others as viruses can still spread from coughs and sneezes.

Photo by Porapak Apichodilok from Pexels

​Additional Information

Simulated sunlight kills SARS CoV-2 on surfaces in 7 to 14 minutes

Researchers led by Shanna Ratnesar-Shumate from the National Biodefense Analysis and Countermeasures Center, Operated by BNBI for the US Department of Homeland Security, have found that simulated sunlight could effectively kill severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) that is responsible for the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic. The study titled, “Simulated Sunlight Rapidly Inactivates SARS-CoV-2 on Surfaces,” was published in the latest issue of the Journal of Infectious Diseases.

Again I apologize to my English Readers - most of the source material and critique thereof is from German sources. You might want to use Google Translate (I have it installed on my laptop to automatically translate other languages). 

Etwas über Rosa Elefanten und wie gefährlich diese sein könnten wenn man keine Maßnahmen ergreift:

Am Ende meiner Litanei komme ich etwas vom Thema ab und behandle die Kleinwalsertal Affaire. Doch irgendwie sind diese Sachen doch verbunden.  Auch hier handelt es sich um Elefanten: die Auflage des Mindestabstands wurde kürzlich von Seiten der Regierung in Österreich als "Babyelefant" bezeichnet. 

Was bedeutet das? Hier geht es zum Ernst der Sache:

Glaube an Verschwörungstheorien :
Von bösen Mächten wunderbar geborgen
Es handelt sich hier um ein Essay von Anselm Neft in ZEIT ONLINE:

Über das Coronavirus zirkulieren sogenannte Verschwörungstheorien. Manche Menschen glauben an sie. Und als Glauben lässt sich das Phänomen auch am ehesten analysieren.

WEITERLESEN und danach meine Einschätzung davon:

​Ein kreisförmiges Argument, über drei Seiten, ohne zu definieren, was eine Verschwörungstheorie eigentlich ist, außer dass es alles sein muss, was gegen das verstößt, was der Autor selbst glaubt.

Die Verknüpfung mit Artikeln in diesem Essay die selbst auf ähnliche Weise verfasst wurden, ohne wissenschaftliche Beweise zu zitieren, bestätigt nur, was offensichtlich ist, dass es sich um ein Zirkelargument handelt.

Die Definition eines kreisförmigen Arguments ist Zirkulares Denken (lateinisch: circulus in probando, "Kreis beim Beweisen"; auch als zirkuläre Logik bekannt) ist ein logischer Irrtum, bei dem der Denker mit dem beginnt, womit er zu enden versucht. Die Komponenten eines Zirkelarguments sind häufig logisch gültig, denn wenn die Prämissen wahr sind, muss die Schlussfolgerung wahr sein.

Angenommen dies wäre eine akademische Abhandlung so wäre diese mit nicht genügend zu beurteilen.

Wenn ich zum Beispiel über Verschwörungstheorien spreche, dann nenne ich konkrete Beispiele, wie dieses hier:

Sitzungsprotokoll der "Taskforce Corona"
über zu wenig Angst in der Bevölkerung
der Standard, 27. April 2020

In einer Sitzung im März wurde Ö1 zufolge darüber gesprochen, mit der Angst der Bevölkerung zu spielen. Es soll sich um einen "Gedankenaustausch" gehandelt haben.

Beispiele von wilden Verschwörungstheorien gibt es genug, doch diese sind von Seiten der Regierung und den Medien geschürt nachdem das alte Angstmacher Protokoll aufgedeckt wurde. Jetzt wird verzweifelt was Neues gesucht damit man sagen kann: es ist Alles viel schlimmer als bisher geglaubt, Nur Bill Gates kann uns retten.

Nur, dass die selber nicht daran glauben und in den öffentlichen Aussendungen ein Kasperltheater vorführen, das beweist eben das Video vom Kleinwalsertal.

Kleinwalsertal:
Reaktionen auf den Kurzbesuch ohne Mindestabstand

Monatelang predigte der Kanzler Social Distancing - und dann diese Rudelbildung bei seiner ersten Reise nach 10 Wochen. Das Netz quillt über mit bissigen Kommentaren zum Kurz-Fauxpas.

Bad in der Menge anstatt Abstand: Kurz-Besuch im Kleinwalsertal schlägt weiter Wellen.

Eine lustige Einlage über die Kleinwalsertal Affaire vom FALTER

In dieser Folge deckt Berti Blockwardts Rechtsbeistand, Dr. jur. Josef Staißbeyn, Unglaubliches auf: Der Mann, der im Kleinwalsertal alle Regeln von An- und Abstand missachtet hat, kann unmöglich Sebastian Kurz gewesen sein. Dr. jur. Staißbeyn hat auch Indizien auf Urheber und Hintermänner: Jetzt braucht die Republik schnelles, entschlossenes Handeln!

Teile davon habe ich schon vorher in meinem Blogger veröffentlicht:
Über die Irrtümer eines zirkulären Arguments

Previously I blogged about that ​STRESS WEAKENS THE IMMUNE SYSTEM, avoiding stress and maintaining a healthy  circadian rhythm to increase resilience to fight COVID-19. Today's theme is closely related, again, I like to emphasize that isolation increases stress, and by itself is also damaging your immune system. 
In these strange times where laws and regulations are in place to shut people in, in order to "protect" against the dreaded Corona Virus it is especially important for us to realize what detrimental effect this misguided policy can have on particularly the elderly that it is supposed to protect. 

The following essay from 4 years ago, re-blogged from THE CONVERSATION drives the point home:

November 11, 2016 
Frank T. McAndrew
Cornelia H. Dudley Professor of Psychology, Knox College

​Humans are hardwired to interact with others, especially during times of stress. On the other hand, when we go through a trying ordeal alone, a lack of emotional support and comradeship can increase our anxiety and hinder our ability to cope.

This message is forcefully driven home in the newly released thriller “Shut In.” Naomi Watts plays a widowed child psychologist who lives in isolation in rural New England with her son, who is comatose and bedridden as the result of an automobile accident. Snowed in and withdrawn from the outside world, Watts’ character descends into a desperate existence. It soon becomes difficult for her to distinguish the phantasms of her imagination from the reality of the creepy goings-on in her apparently haunted house.

​“Shut In,” of course, isn’t the first movie to use isolation as a vehicle for madness. The characters played by Jack Nicholson in “The Shining” and Tom Hanks in “Castaway” found themselves in similar predicaments. Although movies like “Shut In” are fictional, the toll on the protagonist’s psyche from being so alone for so long is based on the science of social isolation.

The importance of human connection

Yes, other people can be irritating. But they are also our greatest source of comfort, and an impressive amount of psychological research underscores the importance of human contact.

Rejection by others psychologically wounds us more deeply than almost anything else, and research by neuroscientists reveals that ostracism can lead to feeling actual physical pain. Other studies confirm that loneliness isn’t good for anyone’s health. It increases levels of stress hormones in the body while leading to poor sleep, a compromised immune system and, in the elderly, cognitive decline. The damage that solitary confinement inflicts on the mental health of prison inmates has also been well-documented.

Alone in an unchanging environment, the sensory information available to us and the ways in which we process it can change in unpredictable ways. For example, we normally spend most of our time attending to and processing external stimuli from the physical world around us. However, monotonous stimulation from our surroundings may cause us to turn our attention inward – within ourselves – which most of us have much less experience handling.

This can lead to a profoundly altered state of consciousness. We may begin to question what’s going on in our surroundings; Is that creaking sound upstairs just an old house pushing back against the wind, or is it something more sinister? This ambivalence leaves us frozen in place, wallowing in unease, especially if we’re alone. When we’re uncertain, the first thing we usually do is to look to the reactions of others to figure out what is going on. Without others with whom to share information and reactions, ambiguity becomes very hard to resolve. When this happens, our mind may quickly race to the darkest possible conclusions.

Unpleasant things can also happen when small groups of people experience isolation together. Much of what we know about this phenomenon has been gathered from observing the experiences of volunteers at research stations in Antarctica, especially during the “wintering-over” period.

​The extreme temperatures, long periods of darkness, alien landscapes and severely reduced sensory input created a perfect natural laboratory for studying the effects of isolation and confinement. The volunteers experienced changes in appetite and sleep patterns. Some stopped being able to accurately track the passage of time and lost the ability to concentrate. The boredom from being around the same people, with limited sources of entertainment, ended up causing a lot of stress. Everyone else’s mannerisms became a grating, annoying and inescapable source of torment.

Seeing ghosts

​But perhaps the strangest thing that can happen to someone in isolation is the experience of the “sensed presence,” or the feeling that another person or even a supernatural being is with us.

Sensed presences usually appear in environments with static physical and social stimulation – in other words, when you’re by yourself in a quiet, remote place, just like Naomi Watts’ character in “Shut In.” Low temperature and high levels of stress are also common ingredients.

​Some of the most compelling descriptions of sensed presences come from lone sailors, mountain climbers and arctic explorers who have experienced hallucinations and out-of-body experiences. In one amazing 1895 incident, Joshua Slocum, the first person to circumnavigate the globe in a sailboat singlehandedly, said he saw and spoke with the pilot of Christopher Columbus’ ship “The Pinta.” Slocum claimed that the pilot steered his boat through heavy weather as he lay ill with food poisoning.

The vividness of a presence can range from a vague feeling of being watched to seeing a seemingly real person. It could be a god, a spirit, an ancestor or a personal acquaintance. A famous example occurred in 1933, when British explorer Frank Smythe attempted to climb Mt. Everest alone. He became so convinced that someone else was accompanying him on his climb that he even offered a piece of cake to his invisible climbing partner.

​Possible explanations for a sensed presence include the the movement of boats (if sailing solo) and atmospheric or geomagnetic activity. Stress, lack of oxygen, monotonous stimulation or a buildup of hormones can trigger changes in brain chemistry that induce altered states of consciousness. There’s actually exciting new evidence from a research group led by neuroscientist Olaf Blanke demonstrating that stimulating specific brain regions can trick people into feeling the “presence” of a ghostly apparition.

Although sensed presences are most frequently reported by people in weird or dangerous places, it’s not unreasonable to assume that such experiences can happen in more mundane surroundings. For example, people who have lost a loved one may shut themselves off from the outside world and rarely leave their homes. The loneliness and isolation, coupled with high levels of stress and unchanging sensory stimulation, might very well produce the same biological conditions that could trigger a “visit” from the recently departed. Studies indicate that almost half of widowed elderly Americans will report having hallucinations of their dead spouse. These experiences seem to be a healthy coping mechanism and a normal part of grieving.

What might all of this say about the way we’re hardwired?

It’s clear that meaningful connection to other people is as essential to health as the air we breathe. Given that prolonged periods of social isolation can crack even the hardiest of individuals, perhaps in the absence of actual human contact our brains may manufacture social experiences – a last-ditch attempt to preserve our sanity.

The larger part of this blog is in German - again, apologies to my English Readers. The written part you can translate with Google Translate. The most recent video however is in German only. I am also embedding a English video, but that is a month old.

the most recent video from May 9th 2020

Prof. Hendrik Streeck zählt zu den führenden Virologen des Landes und hat nun gemeinsam mit seinem Bonner Forscherteam die vielbeachtete Heinsberg-Studie vorgelegt. Der Kreis Heinsberg in Nordrhein-Westfalen wurde nach einer Karnevalssitzung zu einer Art Hotspot für das neuartige Coronavirus SARS-CoV-2, hier breitete sich das Virus besonders frühzeitig und massenhaft aus. Streeck und seine Kollegen befragten eine große Zahl von Einwohnern, nahmen Proben und analysierten diese.

So konnten sie u.a. Symptome einer Infektion mit SARS-CoV-2 und die Sterblichkeitsrate ermitteln. Der Studie zufolge liegt die Infektionssterblichkeitsrate in Gangelt bei 0,37 Prozent, die Dunkelziffer der Infizierten ist gut 5-fach höher als die der offiziell Gemeldeten. Für ganz Deutschland schätzen die Forscher die Gesamtzahl der Infizierten auf etwa 1,8 Millionen.

Welche Schlüsse aus den Studienergebnissen gezogen werden, hängt von vielen Faktoren ab, die über eine rein wissenschaftliche Betrachtung hinausgehen“, so Hendrik Streeck, Direktor des Instituts für Virologie am Universitätsklinikum Bonn. „Die Bewertung der Erkenntnisse und die Schlussfolgerungen für konkrete Entscheidungen obliegen der Gesellschaft und der Politik.“

In der Sendung "phoenix persönlich" spricht Alfred Schier mit dem Virologen Hendrik Streeck über die Ergebnisse der Heinsberg-Studie, die Folgerungen, die sich daraus ergeben und über das Bild der Virologen in der Gesellschaft.

Category Coronavirus on MEDMIX

Corona-Pandemie:
Ergebnisse der Heinsberg-Studie von Professor Dr. Streeck et al.

​Ergebnisse der Heinsberg-Studie von Professor Dr. Streeck: 10-mal größere Dunkelziffer
„Mit unseren Daten kann nun zum ersten Mal sehr gut geschätzt werden, wie viele Menschen nach einem Ausbruchsereignis infiziert wurden. In unserer Studie waren das 15 Prozent für die Gemeinde Gangelt. Mit der Gesamtzahl aller Infizierter kann die Infektionssterblichkeit (IFR) bestimmt werden. Sie liegt für SARS-CoV-2 für den Ausbruch in der Gemeinde Gangelt bei 0,37 Prozent“, erklärt Studienleiter Professor Dr. Hendrik Streeck, Direktor des Instituts für Virologie am Universitätsklinikum Bonn, die Ergebnisse der Heinsberg-Studie.

The official Heinsberg Study is written in English and submitted for peer-review
​▼

Infection fatality rate of SARS-CoV-2 infection in a German
community with a super-spreading event

Abstract
The world faces an unprecedented SARS-CoV2 pandemic where many critical factors still remain unknown. The case fatality rates (CFR) reported in the context of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic substantially differ between countries. For SARS-CoV-2 infection with its broad clinical spectrum from asymptomatic to severe disease courses, the infection fatality rate (IFR) is the more reliable parameter to predict the consequences of the pandemic. Here we combined virus RT-PCR testing and assessment for SARS-CoV2 antibodies to determine the total number of individuals with SARS-CoV-2 infections in a given population. 

A preliminary report of the Heinsberg Study is discussed in this interview on CNBC - April 9th 2020

Professor Hendrick Streeck, University of Bonn director of the Institute of Virology and Institute for HIV Research, joins 'Closing Bell' to discuss the university's antibody study and what it means for the coronavirus pandemic.
The world is reeling from the coronavirus pandemic, and some countries are reeling more than others.
But Germany seems to be taking the epidemic in its stride with a high number of cases but a low number of deaths, thanks to a number of factors.
In Europe, while Italy and Spain are the worst hit countries with over 100,000 cases each, as of Friday, Germany has recorded 84,794 confirmed cases but has witnessed just 1,107 deaths, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.
The low mortality rate in Germany, at just over 1%, is far below its neighboring European countries, and this has been put down to Germany’s decision to implement widespread testing of people suspected of having the virus, as opposed to Italy or the U.K.’s decision to only test symptomatic cases.
Karl Lauterbach, a professor of health economics and epidemiology at the University of Cologne, and a politician in the Social Democratic Party (SPD) of Germany, told CNBC that Germany’s less severe experience of the pandemic so far was down to a handful of factors.
“I think so far we’ve been lucky because we were hit by the wave of new infections later than many other European countries, for example Italy, Spain and France,” he told CNBC Thursday.

Photo by Anna Shvets from Pexels

Biologist Clemens Arvay elaborately explains the risks of genetic vaccines such as DNA- and RNA-vaccines. He warns of shortened admission procedures as they were recommended by Bill Gates and some experts. Beyond the specific risks are autoimmune diseases and an increased cancer risk.

The video was originally uploaded in German on May 3rd, he has now dubbed it in English and posted on May 10th. Thus, this important information is available to a much wider audience.

If you go to the original videos on YouTube, you will find a lot of documentation in the respective descriptions.
For best viewing, go to full screen.  

Some corroborating evidence I selected here:

Don’t rush to deploy COVID-19 vaccines and drugs without sufficient safety guarantees
We must urgently develop measures to tackle the new coronavirus
​ — but safety always comes first, says Shibo Jiang.

Shibo Jiang is a professor of virology at the School of Basic Medical Sciences, Fudan University, Shanghai, China,
​and at the New York Blood Center, New York, USA.

Quote:
Around the world, I am seeing efforts to support ‘quick-fix’ programmes aimed at developing vaccines and therapeutics against COVID-19. Groups in the United States and China are already planning to test vaccines in healthy human volunteers. Make no mistake, it’s essential that we work as hard and fast as possible to develop drugs and vaccines that are widely available across the world. But it is important not to cut corners.

Vaccines for measles, mumps, rubella, polio, smallpox and influenza have a long history of safe use and were developed in line with requirements of regulatory agencies.

I have worked to develop vaccines and treatments for coronaviruses since 2003, when the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) outbreak happened. In my view, standard protocols are essential for safeguarding health. Before allowing use of a COVID-19 vaccine in humans, regulators should evaluate safety with a range of virus strains and in more than one animal model. They should also demand strong preclinical evidence that the experimental vaccines prevent infection, even though that will probably mean waiting weeks or even months for the models to become available.

Preclinical and clinical safety studies on DNA vaccines
Journal Human Vaccines Volume 2, 2006 - Issue 2

​Abstract
DNA vaccines are based on the transfer of genetic material, encoding an antigen, to the cells of the vaccine recipient. Despite high expectations of DNA vaccines as a result of promising preclinical data their clinical utility remains unproven. However, much data is gathered in preclinical and clinical studies about the safety of DNA vaccines. Here we review current knowledge about the safety of DNA vaccines. Safety concerns of DNA vaccines relate to genetic, immunologic, toxic, and environmental effects. In this review we provide an overview of findings related to the safety of DNA vaccines, obtained so far. We conclude that the potential risks of DNA vaccines are minimal. However, their safety issues may differ case-by-case, and they should be treated accordingly.

On a more personal note:
There were discussions on Facebook about the subject of vaccines, lock-downs and possible second and third waves  of COVID-19. I just want to pick out one, followed by my answer.

Yes by all means be free to assemble, hug who ever, go to crowded restaurants and pubs, be 'normal'. Let's wait to see how the second wave and then the third finds you.

My answer:

​ I haven't been hit by any "wave" at any time before, and I lived through several pandemics without hardly noticing. What makes this one different - other than it is milder than those stupid scaremongering forecasts (i.e. where I live, they talked about 100.000 deaths - reality is a bit over 600 last stand).
What do you know about SARS? Where is it now, how many "waves" of it since 2003 - just for an example. Pandemics such as these run their course in due time. By the time they have a vaccine (if ever - i.e. there never was one found for SARS*) it will have run its course and the vaccine irrelevant to go on the trash heap - but if it mutates, then the vaccines will be useless anyway, the same as many of the flu vaccines were useless, and some, like the swine flu, were even dangerous. But Pharma will have made billions in profit.
The way it is going now (with exceptions of a few bad pockets that are cited as scare stories) the curves are flattening, so in order to keep up the pharma propaganda, there has to be the specter of new waves projected, and as some say, much worse than the original - because without fear (which by itself lowers your immune system) they cannot exert the type of desired control to turn people into obedient robots.
Lets just drink the Cool-Aid.

To illustrate my point (and the reference made to the  100.000 deaths claim) - I live in Austria, and you can check the current official situation right here, on the Dashboard COVID-19 and there are tabs to check fatality rates and hospitalization. To this I might want to also mention that no more than 10% of intensive care unit beds in Austria are currently actually in use by patients. 
​So any claim that we can never return to normal unless there is a vaccine and everyone is vaccinated, is 
irresponsible scaremongering. The fact hat such comes from the chancellor of Austria is however alarming.
​To speculate what is behind all this, I leave to others - and you, dear reader: what does your common sense tell you?   

* Footnote about SARS:
As of 2020, there is no cure or protective vaccine for SARS that has been shown to be both safe and effective in humans. According to research papers published in 2005 and 2006, the identification and development of novel vaccines and medicines to treat SARS was a priority for governments and public health agencies around the world. In early 2004, an early clinical trial on volunteers was planned. A major researcher´s 2016 request, however, demonstrated that no field-ready SARS vaccine had been completed because likely market-driven priorities had ended funding. ............ Wikipedia - SARS Treatment

It is not the flu - they say
well, yeah, but it is a strain of SARS
so what about SARS?

SARS Revisited - AMA Journal of Ethics
April 2006

Quote:
By 2004, SARS cases had slowed just as mysteriously as they had started in Guandong province of southern China 2 years earlier, in December of 2002. Yet the legacy of unanswered questions the pathogen left behind should keep scientists, public health officials, epidemiologists, and ethicists occupied for a long time to come. Why, exactly, should we revive discussion if it is no longer a pressing threat? After all, the SARS death toll is relatively low with 812 deaths worldwide. What’s more, the looming H5N1 avian flu virus is currently front page news. Even so, the SARS epidemic should not be filed away without appreciation of the lessons it taught.
Although short-lived, SARS forced us to face the unpleasant reality of global pandemics and to address the ethico-legal dilemmas that result from hasty public health measures.

Bold and underlined what I find the most relevant to our situation today!

gratuitous click-bait - it just takes you to my home page.
Don't forget, I am first and foremost a artist.

Photo by Daria Sannikova from Pexels

COVID-19, or the virus that causes it, SARS-CoV-2
is dominating the News

Facebook posts and discussions today:

My friend Sabina Nore posted this (among several posts I shared):

We are witnessing what Stanley Milgram has already shown in his experiment on obedience to authority.
Examining the justifications provided by the Nazis at the Nuremberg War Criminal trials, he didn't believe that they just executed orders, so he basically did a study to show that they were lying. He wanted to show that a conscientious person wouldn't commit atrocities just because they are told to do so by an authority.
Unfortunately, he proved the opposite. (Oops.)
He has scientifically proven that people are sheep who will do almost anything as long as someone seen as an authority tells them to do so.
Justifications for atrocities are then easily found, as long as the authority wills it so.
Exceptions are extremely rare.

It was a poignant observation that sort of fits with a post of mine where I quoted Thoreau:

Civil Disobedience

​The mass of men serve the state thus, not as men mainly, but as machines, with their bodies. They are the standing army, and the militia, jailors, constables, possee comitatus, etc. In most cases there is no free exercise whatever of the judgment or of the moral sense; but they put themselves on a level with wood and earth and stones; and wooden men can perhaps be manufactured that will serve the purpose as well. Such command no more respect than men of straw or a lump of dirt. They have the same sort of worth only as horses and dogs. Yet such as these even are commonly esteemed good citizens. Others--as most legislators, politicians, lawyers, ministers, and officeholders--serve the state chiefly with their heads; and, as they rarely make any moral distinctions, they are as likely to serve the Devil, without intending it, as God. A very few, as heroes, patriots, martyrs, reformers in the great sense, and men, serve the state with their consciences also, and so necessarily resist it for the most part; and they are commonly treated as enemies by it.*
*From "Civil Disobedience" by Henry David Thoreau.

Harlan Ellison, a brillant SF writer I valued very much, used Thoreau's quote from
​ "Civil Disobedience" to begin his story
"Repent, Harlequin!" Said the Ticktockman

The story is a satirical look at a dystopian future in which time is strictly regulated and everyone must do everything according to an extremely precise time schedule. In this future, being late is not merely an inconvenience, but a crime. The crime carries a hefty penalty in that a proportionate amount of time is "revoked" from one's life. The ultimate consequence is to run out of time and be "turned off". This is done by the Master Timekeeper, or "Ticktockman", who utilizes a device called a "cardioplate" to stop a person's heart once his time has run out. .................Wikipedia

He had become a personality, something they had filtered out of the system many decades ago. But there it was, and there he was, a very definitely imposing personality. In certain circles--middle-class circles--it was thought disgusting. Vulgar ostentation. Anarchistic. Shameful.

In others, there was only sniggering, those strata where thought is subjugated to form and ritual, niceties, proprieties. But down below, ah, down below, where the people always needed their saints and sinners, their bread and circuses, their heroes and villains, he was considered a Bolivar; a Napoleon; a Robin Hood; a Dick Bong (Ace of Aces); a Jesus; a Jomo Kenyatta.

And at the top--where, like socially attuned Shipwreck Kellys, every tremor and vibration threatens to dislodge the wealthy, powerful and titled from their flagpoles--he was considered a menace; a heretic; a rebel; a disgrace; a peril. He was known down the line, to the very heartmeat core, but the important reactions were high above and far below. At the very top, at the very bottom.

So his file was turned over, along with his time-card and his cardioplate, to the office of the Ticktockman.

One of my posts on Facebook today:

​YES, I AM IN A NASTY MOOD (so shoot me):

Since I don't get out much lately, having been in self-imposed quarantine since middle of March, I spend much more time on line, perusing social websites, blockchain sites, You Tube, newspaper readers comments etc. The conclusion I came to from all this exposure is, that it saddens and also frightens me that a large percentage of them (in my estimate over 90% - present company excluded) are certifiable idiots. But the worse of it is yet to come: they procreate!

The other thing is: they are, at least in so called "democratic" systems, eligible voters! .... and also, save for a few restrictions, eligible to stand for office and being voted in by said majority!

So is it any wonder what we experiencing now?

This here was shared on Facebook quite often, also by myself:

The Hong Kong flu (also known as 1968 flu pandemic) was a flu pandemic whose outbreak in 1968 and 1969 killed an estimated one million people all over the world. It was caused by an H3N2 strain of the influenza A virus, descended from H2N2 through antigenic shift, a genetic process in which genes from multiple subtypes reassorted to form a new virus.
WIKIPEDIA

This meme was re-posted by my friend Sabina, with this text:
​ 
True story! Check it.
Love & freedom or fear & caution?
What do you choose?
Choose NOW!

I then replied to her:
you have been fact-checked by REUTERS - and your post is true!!!!!

True claim: Woodstock took place in the middle of a pandemic
​Social media users have been sharing an image online that claims the popular music festival Woodstock, which took place in August 1969, happened in the middle of a pandemic. This claim is correct.​

I commented further:  this was my first year in Canada - I would have wanted to go, but had just then started my job with Canadian Pacific so could not go without losing my job. 
 I never even thought of it being a pandemic - went right over my head - I do remember SARS 2003 though, we were handed a photocopied paper at work telling us to wash our hands. That was the extend of it! So come to think of it, Swine Flu later on in 2009 (that year I traveled extensively also), I should have died 3 times over already! .......  maybe I did die, and what is happening right now are just the flashes in my brain or a quantum shift into a alternate universe where the definitions of stupidity are turned upside down ...... I then attached a link to the story by Harlan Ellison I shared above. 

MORE ABOUT WOODSTOCK 69:
Woodstock Occurred in the Middle of a Pandemic

MY THOUGHT ABOUT VACCINATIONS
It is not responsible to say that we cannot go back to "normality" until there is a vaccine!
To develop a safe vaccine takes years of clinical trials!

Here is a video by
Austrian Biologist Clemens Arvay

One of the sources mentioned in the notes of this video is the following:
Jiang S. (2020),
Don´t rush to deploy COVID-19 vaccines and drugs without sufficient safety guarantees
in: Nature, 16.03.2020

​Around the world, I am seeing efforts to support ‘quick-fix’ programmes aimed at developing vaccines and therapeutics against COVID-19. Groups in the United States and China are already planning to test vaccines in healthy human volunteers. Make no mistake, it’s essential that we work as hard and fast as possible to develop drugs and vaccines that are widely available across the world. But it is important not to cut corners.

Of interest to my Canadian, but also my American Friends - but be forewarned, this is a very detailed research paper that, if you followed the links and citations, would likely keep you occupied for weeks:

OCLA Report 2020-1: Criticism of Government Response to COVID-19 in Canada
there is a link on that page where you can download the full report.

​Vintage Elevator Photo by Evidently Cochran  - Creative Commons License

​Frequent elevator riders would attest to that on crowded elevators, more often than not, there is always someone who silently farts. People usually pretend not to notice, but from the corner of their eyes would scan around if they could make out the culprit. Who on here has that typical guilty look?

​In these days of corona fear, we should not be on a crowded elevator, but forget about that for a moment and indeed, if your office is on the 45th floor, you can hardly be expected to take the stairs. So yes, you happen to be on a packed elevator, hoping that just this time, you will be safe. Of course everyone is wearing a mask, after all, we are responsible citizen that take the well-being of our fellow elevator riders to heart.

​The masks we wear, as everyone should know, do not protect ourselves, but the other people. You may feel it redundant, since you have no symptoms; you are not coughing, you have no difficulty breathing (though it is harder with the mask on), no fever, no chest pains - in short, you feel fine. You could possibly not be infected. But hold on: by now you should know that there are many, many people that carry the virus (experts say) that are asymptomatic. These are the dreaded "dark figures", and this is the reason you and I are compelled by law to wear a mask.

Now a word about another symptom that you might be infected after all. 
​
It has been reported that a loss of smell and taste is one of the symptoms. 

Loss of smell and taste validated as COVID-19 symptoms in patients with high recovery rate.
Study suggests clinicians should include sensory impairment as standard screening measure

Now back to the elevator.
​In past, you had noticed, more often than not, that someone had farted. But now, of late you never smell anything! It cannot be because of the mask - the ones we wear have gaps on the sides, they do not fit as tightly as the protective N95 type masks medical professionals are wearing. If someone farts, you should smell it. But you don't! 

Beware my friend - this is a sign, even in the absence of any other symptoms, that you could be infected!  Get yourself tested!

​Only problem is, if you ask for a test and telling them that you could not smell farts on the elevator, they won't test you, but just laugh at you. So now you have to live with the uncertainty and fear of being possibly infected. 

Another study shows that panic and fear lowers your immune system. 

Our planet is in fear. But while we are seeing global messages daily to protect our physical health such as washing our hands, social distancing, etc., we are being given very little in terms of our mental/emotional health.  The panic surrounding the coronavirus is sweeping our world, and while I am not minimizing the seriousness of the virus, the panic itself is making us all more susceptible to its potential spread.  You need emotional tools and practices to keep your immune system healthy to combat the disease, just as you need physical practices, such as washing your hands, to prevent its spread.  ............................ READ MORE - PSYCHOLOGY TODAY

So now the only sensible solution would be if you locked yourself in your home and never came out - they say this COVID-19 will be with us for the foreseeable future. So no end in sight unless Bill Gates saves the wold. 

But you could take the easy way out, take one last ride with the elevator to the 45th floor and ...........

............................ stay up there and enjoy the view!

The basic first draft of this was posted as a Note on Facebook

​About Face Masks and the dangers of wearing them because they could cause a condition called Hypoxia -
first of, the clinical explanation what it is:

Hypoxia and hypoxemia facts

Hypoxia is a condition or state in which the supply of oxygen is insufficient for normal life functions.
Symptoms of hypoxia and/or hypoxemia may be acute or chronic and vary in intensity from mild to severe. Common acute symptoms are: shortness of breath, rapid breathing, and a fast heart rate.
Severe symptoms include: The inability to communicate, Confusion, Possible coma or death.

................................................... READ MORE

Mona Lisa with Mask - Photo by cottonbro from Pexels

Next, this is what I had written about in comments before
(in German, I am now attempting to translate to English):

Please note because of masks - and ESPECIALLY the FFP-2 masks (or also N-95): first, there are different versions, basically either with or without a valve. The masks with valve protect you, but not others, precisely because you exhale through the valve.
​
The masks without a valve, but also to a certain extent the surgical masks, have one major disadvantage, namely rebreathing of CO² - and this can lead to shortness of breath. If the oxygen content of your breathing air is less than the minimum value of 19.5%, then you are in an endangered zone - a zone in which the canary in the coal mine  drops off his perch and this indicates that you should quickly be getting out into the fresh air! If you get short of breath, get a headache and chest pressure, it does not mean that you are infected with COVID-19, but it means that you are suffering from a lack of oxygen, which in the case of   only one percentage point below the lower limit can lead to dizziness, fainting and even death!

Here is the background, in a few words,
from a document that you find the link on the bottom of the quote:

In a doctoral thesis from the Technical University of Munich in 2005, examining the effects of wearing, among other things,  simple protective masks. The conclusion is terrifying.
Immediately after putting on a normal thin surgical mask, you breathe in much more exhaled CO2. The effects are so strong that the doctoral student was only allowed to test the subjects over a period of 30 minutes so as not to damage them.
This leads to tiredness, faster breathing, irregular heartbeat, poor concentration, poorer fine motor skills.

(Note: this Paper is in German)
https://mediatum.ub.tum.de/doc/602557/602557.pdf

This was also published as a note on Facebook

Additional Resources

Preliminary report on surgical mask induced deoxygenation during major surgery
Surgeons in the operating room frequently experience physical discomfort, fatigue, and possibly even deterioration of surgical judgment and performance.

The Physiological Impact of N95 Masks on Medical Staff
Wearing N95 masks results in hypooxygenemia and hypercapnia which reduce working efficiency and the ability to make correct decision.​

Headaches and the N95 face-mask amongst healthcare providers
​Healthcare providers may develop headaches following the use of the N95 face-mask. Shorter duration of face-mask wear may reduce the frequency and severity of these headaches.

Häggström, Mikael (2014). "Medical gallery of Mikael Häggström 2014".

With apologies to my English Readers, here is a important source from the German Ärzteblatt. You might be able to read it if you have Google Translate installed.

Nicht für jeden ist das Tragen einer Maske unbedenklich
Dr. Edwin Böhlke,  Geschäftsführender Oberarzt an der Klinik für Strahlentherapie und Radioonkologie des Universitätsklinikum Düsseldorf erklärt um was es hier geht.​

 Nicht für jeden Menschen ist das Tragen einer Maske unbedenklich. Das gilt für alle Patienten mit einer symptomatischen und instabilen Angina pec­toris und einer symptomatischen chronisch-obstruktiven Lungenerkrankung (COPD) beziehungsweise einge­schränkter Lungenfunktion.
Bei starker körperlicher Anstrengung besteht bei ihnen die Gefahr der Hyperkapnie. Kann das Kohlendioxid (CO2) aufgrund des erhöhten Luftwiderstands in der Maske nicht richtig abgeatmet werden, könnte es sich im Blut anreichern und den pH-Wert im Blut senken. Der erhöhte CO2-Partialdruck würde dann zu einer respiratorischer Azidose führen.

Following my writing, I happened to find a video from a scuba instructor on YouTube that speaks about Hypoxia and the dangers of drowning because of it caused by wearing cheap and inadequate masks. In conversation with a friend who was also a experienced diver, he confirmed that this danger is common knowledge among scuba divers:

The Death Mask

Full Face Snorkel Masks like this one are causing snorkeler deaths. Time to try one out...
Snorkel Bob's, Hawaii's leading snorkel retailer refuses to sell them. Tour operator Hawaii Ocean Project won't allow their guests to use them, even if you bring your own. 

​Just to be clear: first they passed out because of Oxygen deprivation caused by Hypoxia, then drowned face down floating in the water.

Getting back to PPE Face Masks:

If you see someone on the street, wearing a face mask and staggering around, don't assume they are drunk! They need help to properly breathe again!

IMPORTANT UPDATE (May 9th 2020)

Event though it was already available at the time I posted this blog, I neglected to include the new law for easing restrictions in Austria, put in force on April 30, 2020.  What follows is the link to the actual official text, and a relevant excerpt about Face Masks (in German . last sentence I translate to English):

COVID-19-Lockerungsverordnung – COVID-19-LV

​Öffentliche Orte
§ 1
(3) Im Massenbeförderungsmittel ist gegenüber Personen, die nicht im gemeinsamen Haushalt leben, ein Abstand von mindestens einem Meter einzuhalten und eine den Mund- und Nasenbereich abdeckende mechanische Schutzvorrichtung zu tragen. Ist auf Grund der Anzahl der Fahrgäste sowie beim Ein- und Aussteigen die Einhaltung des Abstands von mindestens einem Meter nicht möglich, kann davon ausnahmsweise abgewichen werden.

Ausnahmen
§ 11. (1) Diese Verordnung gilt nicht für
(3) Das Tragen von einer den Mund- und Nasenbereich abdeckenden mechanischen Schutzvorrichtung gilt nicht für Kinder bis zum vollendeten 6. Lebensjahr und für Personen, denen aus gesundheitlichen Gründen das Tragen der Vorrichtung nicht zugemutet werden kann.

This is the important part about Face Masks - in English:
The wearing of a mechanical protective device covering the mouth and nose area does not apply to children up to the age of 6 and to persons who cannot be expected to wear the device for health reasons.