Day 18 since I was injected with the J&J vaccine.
MIT Study challenges the 6-foot social distancing rule…
I knew it. Social distancing is bullshit. An excellent study from MIT just dropped and the researchers Bazant and Bush concluded “one is no safer from airborne pathogens at 60 feet than 6 feet” in indoor spaces.
Guidelines enforcing indoor occupancy caps are also crap. The authors of the study state that 20 people gathered inside for one minute is okay, but not over the course of several hours. And I love the final piece of their conclusions: “Opening windows or installing new fans to keep the air moving could also be just as effective or more effective than spending large amounts of money on a new filtration system.” All you need to do is crack a window, people!
How about everyone also wear those mini-portable fans around their neck? You know the ones I’m talking about…Disneyland sells them on Main Street to the fat, sweaty tourists in danger of having a heat stroke. They’re those tiny portable fans that hang around your neck and blow cold air [sometimes it’s just hot air] in your face. My family uses them all the time, especially when we’re traveling…we could wear these every day...you know, like an accessory?…maybe Fendi and Marc Jacobs will start producing them…If you wear a ‘mini-fan’ AND a mask, you’ll never get sick! You’re unstoppable!
Based on Bazant and Bush’s findings, masking is truly the only thing that will protect you from contracting Covid. Oh…and opening windows and doors while your ceiling fans are going full-blast.
I was pondering the utility of social distancing months ago, in particular when I stood in line at WalMart to return a bathing suit and wondered, aloud in a blog post, what is the efficacy of maintaining a 6-ft bubble when I will inhabit this person’s space and her disgusting “respiratory plume” [that’s what the scientists call it now] in a matter of seconds, once the line advances? Similar to standing behind a customer in a grocery store who is waiting to purchase their food items. Because I never forgot the church choir superspreader event…cue the magical wand sound effect to symbolize going back in time 13 months ago…
Everyone remembers the church choir superspreader at the start of the pandemic…The church choir met for practice and a few people came to…what? sit and listen to rehearsal? Why were there people even sitting around? I digress. Members of the congregation used a squirt of hand sanitizer before they entered the church [like that matters – it’s f—king airborne], and people social distanced from each other in chairs around the room while the choir’s combined “respiratory plume” floated through the space like Agent Orange or tear gas.
After this 2-hour event, more than half the people inside the church contracted Covid-19, even those followers who were sitting at the far corners of the church, and two members of the ‘flock’ died. This superspreader event happened early in the pandemic [March 2020] and when it did, I never entered another retail establishment again.
Okay…maybe that last sentence was absolutist, but for the next 12 months, until March 2021, I don’t think I entered a retail establishment more than 20 times. It never made sense to me that, at least in California, schools and churches were on lock down while Kohls and Home Goods were open and ready for business. I never forgot the superspreader church choir event…AND I never forgot “two hair stylists walk into a bar…”…sorry, wrong narrative…the second incident involves two hair stylists, both infected with Covid-19 but who needed the money more than they needed to protect their fellow Americans, showed up to work, masked the entire day, and worked an 8 hour shift. Between the two of them, they saw numerous clients and not all of the clients were masked. Nobody got sick.
These two incidents have probably shaped my behavior for the rest of my life. They received mere ‘seconds’ of media coverage when they happened, in the then Trump/hyper-accelerated news cycle, but I wrote about them, thought about them, and never forgot them.
To this day, I will not enter an indoor space. Ok – this sounds absolutist again. I enter indoor spaces, BUT very rarely. When I go on my “Prosecco-in-a-can” ‘beer’ run to Whole Foods once a month, I go 20 minutes before closing to avoid being contaminated by disgusting people who are breathing on me. After the pandemic hit, I never went clothes shopping again. Several months ago, I walked around the mall with B. once…quickly. I. absolutely. will. not. eat. indoors. at. a restaurant. I will never watch a movie in a theater again. In fact, all of my extra-curricular activities were converted to outdoor activities, like biking, hiking, going to botanical gardens, walking my dog, gardening, going to the beach…did I do that shit before Covid-19? No. But I do it now…As an American, watching my country succumb to Covid-19 and my fellow Americans perish, I have been completely traumatized…I only truly feel safe outdoors and this will probably be for the rest of my life.
See, I don’t believe any of it…we’re on the mend, we’ve beat Covid, the vaccines are working…none of it. Look at India. In the middle of the biggest surge of the pandemic with 200,000 people dead this month and scientists believing Modi is actually low-balling the death data. Nobody knows how long the vaccines will be effective or if they’ll work against the new variants that keep popping up. At the end of the day, there are only three things that truly work against this virus: 1) masking; 2) circulating the air as much as possible when indoors; and 3) being outside. That’s it.
On the heels of this study comes a CDC proclamation: The CDC now says you don’t have to mask outside, IF you’re vaccinated. Rochelle [Walensky, M.D.] goes onto tell us that virtually no Covid-19 transmissions have ever happened outside [what a surprise] and almost all superspreader events occurred indoors. If that’s the case, shouldn’t ALL Americans ‘disrobe’ and unmask when they’re outside? Why are only vaccinated people allowed to take their mask off? The answer is obvious – the CDC is trying to manipulate the masses to get vaccinated by issuing false guidelines that only vaccinated people are allowed to remove their masks in a outdoor setting safely. In reality, nobody needs to mask when they are outdoors – the risk is almost non-existent - and most of the population stopped masking outside a long time ago.
In fact, prior to Rochelle’s announcement, there had been a growing movement among doctors and scientists that it is safe for everyone to…let’s see…pass an unmasked jogger who is breathing heavily and spewing his “respiratory plume” as he runs past you…or unmask while riding a bike or lying out at the beach…and/or you don’t need to quickly cover your face if you pass another hiker coming towards you…The Covid-19 aerosol droplets are so small, they are easily disbursed by the slightest of breezes. It’s almost impossible to catch it outside. For anyone. Vaccinated or UNvaccinated.
More lies from the CDC. I stopped listening to this agency a year ago.
The stupidest CDC guideline…if your party is SMALL and all members are vaccinated, you can hang out like in the Before Times. If your party is LARGE and all members are vaccinated, you must mask and social distance. Why? No explanation has been provided. What is the definition of “SMALL vs. LARGE”? And if everyone is vaccinated, per the CDC, why does it matter how large the party is? The CDC is too cagey to definitively answer these questions, leaving it to social scientists to remind us that “10 people is considered a small gathering.” Oh, like social distancing 6 feet is generally considered effective? [see my comments on the above study – it’s not]. I ask, again, who came up with the number 10? I can’t find it.
4/26/21. Monday
10:00 – 12:00- I’m up and I need to knock out these last two papers. Still at 98.5 pounds, even after that massive meal I ate last night. Downstairs to say good morning to the dog and rub her tummy. We go outside and she does her business, then back inside for pieces of chicken and coffee. I go upstairs.
I have Question 3, from Group #2, for two students left to grade. By far, they are the worst writers – neither of them double-spaced – and it took TWO hours to grade one prompt, the papers were that bad.
11:30 – L. oversleeps and misses the vaccine appt. that N.’s Mom, K., made for her last night, from the back seat of our car. She reschedules for tomorrow and goes back to bed.
-I forgot to post the course content for this week’s module last night for College No. 2 so I run downstairs and do it now.
12:00-1:00 – I have my leftover pork chop and read a Money Diary and Aftermath.
1:00-2:00 – I check class content for my 2:30 class and see a problem with the last lecture. Previously, I embedded a podcast in that lecture, but I’m no longer featuring it. I need L. to splice the lecture. Luckily, she’s awake. She cuts the podcast from the lecture and then airdrops the new-and-improved lecture into four Canvas shells, at Colleges No. 1 and 2.
We talk about L.’s classes, the art studio, her life…etc, while she helps me with this task.
2:00-2:30 – I take a last look at the Discussion Board and class content for today. Then, I prepare an Announcement and attach it to the Home Page, reminding students that next week is the Final.
-I talk to B. briefly about a possible day/weekend trip we might take.
2:30 – 5:30 – Class begins. The students are listening to a 1 hr-15 minute lecture, followed by a documentary, and the Video Quiz.
-As the students listen to lecture, I scan the graded papers from Specialty Class 1A in preparation for my 6:00 class, because I’ll be returning them. This takes some time.
-I post the link to the documentary, then send an email blast to everyone, reminding them that the Final is next week.
-I dump the class content from the 2:30 class into the Thursday 6:00 class and prepare the Discussion Board for Core Class #2.
5:15-5:45 – I take the dog for a walk.
-I put the link to the Video Quiz on a timer and it posts automatically while I’m walking the dog.
5:45-6:00 – Specialty Class 1A runs in 15 minutes. I check class content then post the Discussion Board. The students have a 30-minute lecture, followed by two video clips, and a lengthy documentary. The Video Quiz is at the end of class, per usual.
6:00-9:00-Class begins. I post the grades from the students’ papers to the online gradebook, then return the papers via email [I scanned them a few hours ago] as class unfolds.
-I post the link to the documentary.
-I send an email blast, reminding the students that the Final is next week. Then, I create an Announcement and attach it to the Home Page.
-As the documentary unfolds, I have a few minutes for personal admin. I order a few books from my library and update my Ipad Calendar. Then, I pull the pin and prepare a class request to teach Summer 2022 Asynchronous classes at College No. 1 – we’ll see what happens. College No. 2 instructs me to submit yet another “Textbook Requisition” form, but this time to the “Bookstore”, not to my department. Done.
Next week is “Teacher Appreciation Week” and College No. 2 is providing a free lunch for every teacher from an Italian restaurant. All I have to do is place my order, then pick up my sack lunch at College No. 2’s drive-thru next week. This is such a nice gesture – I place my order.
-Specialty Class 1A students are still watching the documentary so I use this time to take attendance for my three classes at College No. 2 based on whether or not students completed their homework from last week’s Module. I send personalized emails – using their actual names – to the students who failed to complete the assignments and inform them that not only did they receive 0s on their assignments, they were marked absent.
-I post the link to the Video Quiz.
-7:00-8:00 - I run to Whole Foods for my monthly prosecco-in-a-can order. The store is virtually empty - everyone is still masking.
-Continue with attendance at College No. 2. Students have two weeks to decide whether or not they want to drop with a W – I go through the gradebooks for my three classes at College No. 2 and send personalized emails to all the D and F students, informing them that there are only 6 weeks left in the semester and they might want to think about withdrawing from the class – otherwise, I have to give them the grade that they earned. I try to make the emails pleasant…I’m being evaluated this semester and my “mentor”, a Hispanic male who is performing my evaluation [it is unclear what subject he teaches so why he’s qualified to evaluate me is unknown], advised me that he will start ‘trolling’ my classes in two days. Great.
9:00-10:00-Class is over. I hang around for the students in case they have questions, then take attendance for today’s classes. After attendance, I send emails to those students who did not sign in on the Discussion Board, informing them that they were marked absent and received a 0 on the Video Quiz.
I get some pushback – “I forgot to sign in but I did the work” – No. You’ve been signing in on the Discussion Board for 16 weeks. Today/tonight, you chose to ‘gaf’ the class and come in at the last 30 minutes so you could take the video quiz. I reply the way I always do – this is a “SYNCHRONOUS” class, which means you have to attend between the hours of 2:30-5:30 OR 6:00-9:00. It is not enough to show up the last 30 minutes and take a Video Quiz – you must attend class for the 3-hour duration. None of the students who complained bother to respond.
10:00-11:00 – Still working on personalized emails for the D and F students at College No. 2, encouraging them to drop with a “W.”
I finish with that project and then check emails at College No. 2 – nothing of consequence.
My work day ends.
11:00-11:30 – Kitchen duty and I have approximately 10 potato chips with carmelized onion dip. Although this tastes amazing, I’m curious if/how this small carb-intake will affect my weight tomorrow. I prepare my coffee.
11:30-12:30 – I read a Money Diary, then complete the Insanity – Fitness Test. This is used to check my progress and I’m supposed to perform it every 2 weeks, but it’s been a month since my last Fitness Test. I expected to see much improvement, but am disappointed. Here are the results:
3/26 4/26
Switch kicks 82 92
Squats 44 58
Knee blasts 90 80!!!
Power jumps 15 20
Globe circuits 5 6
Suicides 10 11
Push-up jacks 9 10
Low Obliques 0 30
*0 on Low Obliques last Fitness Test because I was too exhausted and made no attempt.
12:30-1:30 – Recover. I have champagne and work on blog posts.
1:30-2:30 – Night time routine. I listen to What a Day and lay my clothes out for tomorrow.
Bed.