Greening Up

The trees have sprung to life, no wonder it is called spring.  One day the beech leaf casings were fluttering down like snow then the next day the whole back yard's beech grove had greened out.

It's been a race against the black flies to get things planted.  I searched the house for hours for the yellow wax bean seeds I had saved.  Or thought I saved.  I had a bumper crop last year of beautiful long pods and had let some set.  The house ghost alone knows where I put them.

I found some crummy looking ones marked 2015 and planted them in a window box since I expect poor germination.  I think those are the ones I used last year and I had maybe 5 out of 25 or more seeds come up.  I ended up transplanting the 5 and babying them and got a ton of beans off 5 plants.  Plus all the seeds I can't find.

I am hoping I get a few to come up out of the last seeds and can repeat the process this year.

I was supposed to make a town run today, but nothing critical on the list and I think I can stretch it to next week.  It is absolutely gorgeous weather and I really don't want to waste one of the remaining days of my life in town worried about getting COVID.

The state has finally increased its testing capacity with a deal with IDEX.  We were told to expect cases to go up with better detection since they dropped the requirements to get a test.  But that's not stopping them from opening full steam ahead.  Restaurants and campgrounds have been added to the kk list, but our town office is still closed go figure.

I had a nice socially distant chat with a 90+ year old neighbor whose wife went into a nursing home right before this happened.  He hasn't been allowed to visit her in weeks.  They have been married 60 years.  It makes me so sad to see him suffering when people can get their hair done or sit in a restaurant. 

Update on my vaccine comment-I have since heard that the RNA is from part of the virus, not from people's immune response.  But then Stephen COlbert had a bit on last night that cows  being used to create vaccines. Usually his stuff is rooted in truth so now I will have to go look that up.  Stay tuned.

The Right Solution?

I have always had reservations about vaccines.  It must have started about 3rd or 4th grade when there was a public vaccination program through public schools.

We were all lined up like good little soldiers and "BAM!" hit with a multi needled gun in the left upper forearm.  Many people of my generation still bear the scar from that injection.

Now, the general premise of exposing someone to a killed version or a mild form of a virus to stimulate the bodies natural immune system if confronted with the virus in the future is a great one.  It's the other things that go along with it that worry me.

Like Thimerisol, a form of mercury that has been used as a preservative.  Or the load of contaminated vaccines that went out from some shady company a few years back. 

What is actually in that injection?

The push to create a vavvine for COVID 19 rapidly, (even given a nifty little code name), concerns me. I have read that one of the approaches is to take genetic material from people who have recovered, isolate the different immune responses, pick one which seems like the best, take a bit of the RNA and inject it to stimulate the body to replicate that particular immune response.

Immune responses are both good and bad.  The body identifies an invader and sends in the troops, overwhelming it.  But there are many health issues associated with immune responses.  For example, that is what causes allergies.  The body treats a substance as an alien invader and launches a response.  the result is sneezing and inflammation-accumulation of fluid from cells that are lysed, or literally exploded.

The greater the amounts of the invader, the larger the reaction.  So a lethal immune response can happen with larger exposure as well as a delayed response that allows the virus to replicate in massive quantities before the response kicks in.

People are individuals.  There are different blood types, as well as different medical histories which can include inherited as well as acquired traits. For example, I know someone who had an ancestor exposed to malaria and they have a blood condition which creates a negative reaction when exposed to sulfites.

Ideally a proper vaccine would be tailored to different types.  But that is not how it is addressed.  Massive broad testing is required to select the vaccine that will benefit the most people with the least negative effects and then it is put into production for everyone.

That is the road we are on.  The search for the cure, and then it will be distributed.

But is that really the best road?  What happens when the next virus comes along?  What happens when this one mutates beyond what the vaccine will target?

Don't we really need a worldwide cultural shift in behavior to stave off the current and future pandemics?

There are health reasons why we have sewage processing plants, cover our bottoms, wash our hands after using the bathroom.  But upper respiratory infections? 

We have been told during flu season "stay home if you are sick" and then don't offer sick pay for low wage earners.  We reward students for perfect attendance.

Walmart has been running an ad crowing about how they are open shorter hours to allow them to clean stores, showing them spraying carts and wiping the handles of cooler doors and registers conveyor belts.  Isn't this something they should always do?

I was happy when stores started putting out sani wipe dispensers near the carts and always wiped my cart off while having mixed feelings.  In the past, I was worried people with look at me as a germaphobe.  Yet I was also miffed that I had to clean the carts for the store.  Shouldn't the store be sanitizing the carts when they were brought in?  Turns out, yes, they should.

What about the negative association with burkas?  How some societies got on their high horses and harassed the wearers of same, even though it was a religious choice and even requirement.  Now some in  society refuse to wear face coverings, perhaps rooted in that face covering stigma.

IMO society, worldwide society, should adapt everyday healthy habits to protect public health, and not sit back on their laurels waiting on a cure. 

Hopefully a cure won't create more problems...