May 15, 2020
Fried Day
I am fried, it is Friday and I have a few things to share, but, perhaps not very coherently.
First, make sure you are not a victim of Unemployment Benefits fraud. An amazing number of doctors and employees I work with have had fraudulent claims opened in their names, probably since March. This apparently is a nationwide event. I think I am spared, because I had a L&I (workman’s compensation) claim a few years ago when some Formalin splashed in my eye during a procedure. Ouch! We did the claim to protect myself, and I recovered fully, but had to make an account with the state that I had forgotten about. It appears that protected me, since I already had an account. This is pretty important to check on in your state, because if you are working now, you may not know this fraud has happened yet. Yowza.
Second, cats! A study shows that cats can give SARS-CoV-2 to each other, which can put you at risk. We don’t really know what it means yet, and if they can give it to you. And I love cats, and they especially love Jamie, and come up to say hi when we walk in the neighborhood.
Third, testing is still problematic, especially the rapid SARS-CoV-2 test that the White House is using. It does matter when the testing is done and can take a few days to turn positive but still with a high rate of false negatives. Actually an amazing number of false negatives.
Fourth, Vitamin D might help prevent serious illness, so get some sun or take some Vitamin D3. That may be one reason obese people have more problems with COVID-19 is because they often have very low Vitamin D levels.
But my biggest concern is disinformation that is swirling around and picking up speed, especially when it comes to vaccines. This stuff will be hard to combat. We need to educate ourselves now about this stuff. Disinformation and propaganda are rife right now, our social media and our real media are not the best at sorting out the truth. Lots of money is supporting these campaigns to distort the truth and divide us. That is the goal, divided we fail, plus we hurt each other and ourselves. How we might fight back against these efforts is challenging. Here is a one way that might work. We will be continually challenged with alternate “facts” and theories. Be careful of your sources.
When you start to doubt, you can go back and read my blog from the beginning and remember where we started from. Besides the dark money flowing in, a big reason these conspiracy theories are successful, is that we did flatten the curve and slowed transmission down, making some believe we overreacted. We need to remember this! Sheltering in place saved thousands of lives, wearing masks can save that many more.
And don’t forget to wash your hands, and be kind.
And finally, my caveat is that this is my experience and my opinions, which are subject to change as more information is available, and not related to the organization I work for. Thanks for reading.
https://disinformationindex.org
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/13/technology/coronavirus-vaccine-disinformation.html
https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMc2013400?query=pfw&jwd=000000571428&jspc=GP
https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/daily-life-coping/animals.html
https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2020/05/13/abbott-test-hailed-by-president-trump-has-been-dogged-by-accuracy-questions/
https://www.acpjournals.org/doi/10.7326/M20-1495
https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/930152?src=soc_fb_200515_mscpmrk_us_single_covid_hdle&fbclid=IwAR3G-Qgs0c7m1pMmTHhukPKEDaBtPex2eQxgeaj0p0O9WCyt68JrfISx3No