Corona Virus

One important task, during the next 2 or 3 months of quarantine, will be maintaining a proper diet. We need tasty dishes, using healthy ingredients, that will be available fresh - or can be purchased in quantity, then stored, during the quarantine. As quarantine continues, some foods may become hard to find in stores. Also, should one become a victim of the disease, easy to cook food will be necessary. One staple, that I depend upon when I get the seasonal flu, is white rice. Given enough vegetables to provide flavouring, white rice is economical, effective, and healthy. One of the side effects of the normal seasonal flu - which each of us will be praying that we have, as the CoronaVirus induced fever takes over - is depletion of food in the stomach. As the stomach empties, nausea develops - and nausea discourages eating, which increases the effect of the nausea. The worse the infection, the less you eat, the weaker you become - and the more susceptible to nausea. This is ...

I'm reading suggestions that the Corona Virus mess will be with us for 2 to 3 months. If you're able to self quarantine for the entire period , that would be great. My suspicion is that very few people will be able to stay in quarantine for 3 months, without venturing outside - or having food delivered - weekly. Personally, I decided that I will have pizza delivered, a couple time / month. OK, maybe I'm watching TV too much (but what else is there to do?). My thought is, you are going to have stuff in your home that came from outside - and you will have no idea how clean it is - occasionally. The pizza (or any other cooked food) has to be properly delivered, "contact free" - so hopefully there's no exposure, there. Any other food that you have delivered, or that you pick up when you warily venture outside like a groundhog watching for his shadow, you will look at with dread. Did the cashier cough, when you were in line - then touch the 6 pack? And ...

The best way to prevent getting Corona Virus is to never get any infectious particles on you. Bolt your doors - and stay at home . That's the public recommendation. Unfortunately, unless you have a large home with lots of freezer space , you won't have enough storage space for a 3 month stay at home. You're going to have to venture outside occasionally - if only to get some basic exercise. Or, you'll need a food delivery service. When you come back inside, the first thing to do is to strip, and put your possibly contaminated clothes in a secure bag, for proper washing. Next, take a long hot shower , using lots of cleanser, disinfectant, soap, and / or shampoo. Even with your clothes cleaned, and a long shower, you'll have another problem. Whether you buy your food when you venture outside, or have food delivered, what you buy will probably be touched by other people in the stores, before you (it) get out the door. I carry antibacterial wipes, and alco...

One of the most feared effects of CoronaVirus is not how nasty it is, how long symptoms take to develop, or how easy it is to catch from an infected person . The scary thing about Corona Virus is how likely it is to overwhelm our medical infrastructure. Hospitals in Italy have been overwhelmed for weeks . Hospitals in the UK - and in the USA - are not immune to this problem. There are not enough resources - beds, equipment, and personnel - to care for all possible victims of a pandemic, such as Corona Virus, at expected volumes. Click on the time graph below, that's based on current limited medical resources (the horizontal dashed black line - "Health care system capacity"). Compare the alternative spreads of the the disease - the tan curve ("Without Protective Measures"), and the blue curve ("With Protective Measures"). See how the blue curve stays below the black line? This represents the disease spreading slowly, and with medical resour...