blogcutter

So the latest I've heard is that the Coronavirus is not easily spread via surfaces. Then there's the business of whether it dislikes heat. The weather is getting warmer just as we're starting to see numbers trend upwards again, although I guess they're still down from the beginning, when we were still trying to "flatten the curve". And what about it affecting our senses of taste and smell? That's another detail I haven't seen much about just lately.

There seem to be a lot of academics and other commentators sneering about how readily the gullible public will believe in myths and conspiracy theories, when the reality seems to be that even the experts don't really know. To be sure, they could no doubt hypothesize more intelligently than the great unwashed like me (sorry, bad example - I've been washing my hands and the rest of me quite assiduously lately - but you know what I mean). And I'll also concede that they might have a better chance at sorting fact from fiction than most lay-people. On the other hand, surely they want us on side when fighting the virus effectively depends on everyone's co-operation and collaboration. Some folks take the rather patronizing view that to accomplish that, the "messaging" should be dumbed down as much as possible. You know, the zero-tolerance approach to any deviation from or even questioning of The Rules. Luckily there seems to be a gradual trend away from that as things start to open up.

It would be great if we could identify non-symptomatic people with the disease (or people who were carriers) just by getting them to sniff a jar of peanut butter. Is that just another wacky idea? You be the judge:

https://nationalpost.com/news/canada/heroes-of-the-pandemic-a-canadian-professor-has-a-peanut-butter-sniff-test-to-combat-covid-19

To me it seems that we could take a huge step forward if we knew which people who got the virus were apt to suffer severely from it (or maybe even die) as opposed to those who could safely be exposed to it and not develop symptoms - or pass the disease on to others. I don't know if there are realistic and ethical ways to do that, though.

We already know that the elderly, especially those in long-term care, are the most vulnerable. And probably anyone with a compromised immune system. But beyond that, how much is really known?