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Ending respiratory infections

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Re: Ending respiratory infections

#121

Post by ryandrake »

Krssst wrote: post #105
happyopossum wrote: post #6

> Healthy people spend roughly 15-25 days each year—about 5% of their lives—sick with respiratory infections like the common cold and influenza This seems completely unbelievable to me. Totally outside of my personal, professional, and family experience.

Being sick ~20 days per year was the norm for me before remote work (and using N95 masks after it ended). Some people are lucky, others are not. (well, "luck" actually encompasses many factors such as population density, presence/lack of children, mandatory office presence, proper infection countermeasures in public places (air filtering, aeration), and I assume sufficient sleep or not (the only time I did not get si…

Yea, Remote Work was a game changer for me. I used to get sick at about that rate, too when I worked in an office building, where I had to touch filthy germy doors all day walking from room to room, and were in constant close proximity to coworkers jammed together on shared desks.

Now that I'm isolated in my sterile home office and might go weeks without seeing someone outside of my family, I basically take no sick days.

Re: Ending respiratory infections

#122

Post by internet_points »

mixmastamyk wrote: post #120
internet_points wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah I took vitamin D all through my kids' nursery years, every morning, had strong belief in it. I still was sick all the time. That combination of not enough sleep (kids crying in the night etc.), work stress and insane amount of viruses from nursery is killer.

Not enough info, maybe bad brand or dosage. Maybe you have other immune issues. Not well known but there are people who simply can not absorb D thru the gut. A high school friend is one. Shouldn’t discourage the 90%+ who can benefit because of exceptions.

Alternatively, I might have been even more sick if I didn't take vitamin D!

Re: Ending respiratory infections

#123

Post by lazyasciiart »

andor wrote: post #101
padjo wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Came here to say the same thing. It's simple to clean all the water you consume, cleaning all the air you breathe is impossible unless you want to walk around like Bane. Bizarre that they don't mention this when comparing respiratory infections to waterborne infections.

But you’re not carrying around your own water treatment mechanism either (unless you’re out hiking). It is relatively easy to install air purifiers or UVC lights in offices, schools, grocery stores, etc. The problem is that people don’t care enough about air quality and the ROI isn’t clear. Increasing the ventilation rate in an overstuffed co-working space has cost implications for the operator, but it doesn’t increa…

The point is that if you don't install pipes, there's no water going into the house, and so pipes were created even before water was being treated, and it made an easy single point of control. Air is arriving everywhere from everywhere - there is no existing system that can be monitored and set to improve it without every house updating.

Re: Ending respiratory infections

#124

Post by lazyasciiart »

WalterBright wrote: post #51
riffraff wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But people are not voluntarily philanthropists. There's a reason we had to introduce work regulations so you don't have children working 13 hours shifts in coal mines. It's way better if my children study by themselves, but if left to their own devises they'll just watch cartoons all day. (Not advocating for belting kids, just saying there's a gap between utopia and reality)

> There's a reason we had to introduce work regulations so you don't have children working 13 hours shifts in coal mines. Coincidentally, the regulations appeared when it was no longer profitable to employ children. If you don't believe that, just imagine what jobs kids could do in your workplace. I can't think of any. Coal mining today is done with industrial machines.

The laws slightly pre-date todays offices.

Re: Ending respiratory infections

#125

Post by lazyasciiart »

taxicabjesus wrote: post #56
amatecha wrote: post #5

As someone who still masks (KN95) in all indoor settings where unmasked people are present, I am all for this. Very much looking forward to seeing where it leads.

What is it that motivates you to continue wearing a mask? I take note of people who are still masking, but I have compassion for their fear so I don't say anything.

You don't just assume they have more fragile health? People I know who mask have had cancer, long covid, lung issues, new babies in the house, ...

Re: Ending respiratory infections

#126

Post by red-iron-pine »

fragmede wrote: post #93
sarchertech wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Iran war is going to cost us at least $200 billion dollars and you’re over here complaining about NASA spending?

Iran? An immigrant might get free healthcare, or a trans person might not have a horrible day today. Have you ever considered that?

what about ism

Re: Ending respiratory infections

#127

Post by lazyasciiart »

teslabox wrote: post #52

It's important to build on solid foundations, rather than on faulty assumptions. My experience is the standard medical approach to lung problems is basically wrong. There was a submission ~6 years ago about using ethanol to sanitize people's lungs as a treatment for COVID-19. One of the comments shared a college story about how they were coerced into treating their sniffles with a spoon and vodka: https://news.ycombi…

You had a guy fill his lungs with ethanol and then drive away as a chauffeur.

Re: Ending respiratory infections

#128

Post by amatecha »

taxicabjesus wrote: post #56
amatecha wrote: post #5

As someone who still masks (KN95) in all indoor settings where unmasked people are present, I am all for this. Very much looking forward to seeing where it leads.

What is it that motivates you to continue wearing a mask? I take note of people who are still masking, but I have compassion for their fear so I don't say anything.

In a nutshell, not wanting to risk my entire future due to organ damage from repeated COVID infection (especially my brain of course, since I'm a programmer by trade and my livelihood and everything I've worked towards depends on my sharpness/etc.)... Family member died from a COVID infection. Another family member developed a heart arrhythmia immediately following "asymptomatic" COVID infection. Family friend's mom died from it. Coworker's sister disabled due to it, can no longer work, gets winded just walking to the kitchen. One of my favorite musicians called it quits completely because she went deaf in one ear from it. I could share anecdotes like these all day, it's not like a rare thing but shockingly common that people have serious issues from this.

Most of the time wearing a mask has no ill effect (particularly in stores or whatever), but it does get super old that it's an uphill battle with pretty much everyone everywhere, because for them everything is "back to normal". I don't care if I have to sit there in the restaurant and not eat anything while everyone else eats, but other people find it awkward and make constant comments about it -- or I just don't get invited to stuff too. (As an aside, it's frustrating that restaurants with outdoor patios often aren't much help, because apparently the trend is that outdoor patios have to be completely enclosed in plexiglass thus defeating the purpose of an outdoor patio) ...

It has been a pretty interesting 6 years, noting how people respond to the masking. I think people just think we're ill, pretty often. I've had a few people give a judgemental look, especially in Europe. No one has really said anything out loud, surprisingly.

What's especially surprising is just how inconsiderate people are -- going to work (or just being out in public) while blatantly sick, spreading their illness to others, never wearing a mask because apparently that's too hard or something. Too bad for anyone who's immune-compromised or lives with immune-compromised people, I guess. The pandemic has really opened my eyes to just how selfish people are, and it has been very disappointing to see. It has also highlighted the degree of consideration and thoughtfulness many people enact, which is super awesome to see!

Re: Ending respiratory infections

#129

Post by amatecha »

TylerE wrote: post #59
taxicabjesus wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What is it that motivates you to continue wearing a mask? I take note of people who are still masking, but I have compassion for their fear so I don't say anything.

Well, in my case it's because A: I have a gazillion underlying health issues and B: I haven't been "sick" since February of 2020, when I had a diagnosed type-B flu.

Yeah, it's crazy, I haven't had a transmissible illness since 2020. It has been pretty awesome for sure.
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