Please, with sugar on top, Wear a Mask

     Since the beginning of the pandemic I wanted to write about the way people go about wearing their mask. I came across a post on mastodon where a hotelier put out an ad with the heading "You are free to wear the mask or not at our establishment". To start with majority of we humans, have lost the art of empathetic thought. We either are in our own theoretical world or are so practical that we forgot the fellow human beings are also humans. The other humans just dwindle out from our thought. We have forgotten to value the other people's ideals. We have become self-centric. Now, the problem with this selfish attitude is it is not boding well in the present pandemic. In fact this facet is exposed to the highest.

    We have nay-Sayers for each and every issue in the world. Thought the ISS is beaming pictures of the earth 24 hours a day, we have nay-Sayers saying that the earth is flat. This number is not negligible and this number is highest in the richer nations with better education and information availability. Let us start with the farmer. Everything starts from the energy source, so let us start from here. The farmer is doing things which is natural and suddenly decides he is going to harvest his crop, pluck the fruit. He will not wash his hands. why? why not? He is free to do it. He thinks that all the micro organisms are good for the living beings. For him harmful and beneficial germs are the same. He does not know of any damage to anybody eating his food. Come on, How many have died of this? He would say that he did not eat it the proper way(You are not holding the iphone properly). It next goes to the storage. Here again, few operators are very particular about cleaning, while others are not and consider that this level of cleanliness is not required. They dont clean the containers, they dont wash their hands at all. Why, why not, they are free to do so arent they? You cannot find out whether all the operators of the stores are germ free while handling. This boils down to the operators only. And definitely in that crowd there will be nay-Sayers. 

    Now, the product goes to the processing industry, they have not cleaned their machinery since they started the facility. Why? They are bribing the testing crew. So what, they can clean the facility based on logic. Yes, they can, but they have their own logic. They see that nobody has reported sick because of their facility. If at all some die, what does it matter, it is a very small count. Now, let us come to the restaurant. Here again, the cleaners decide that they will clean, when they think that the containers have to be cleaned. Not before every time a dish is prepared. Why, why not? Let us come to the last level in this journey. 

    The customer. He walks in. He has not cleaned his hands, his shoes are dirty. He comes in and digs in all the while assuming that the entire chain of people responsible for him to have that meal have maintained utmost cleanliness. Why did he come to this particular place. He thought they are clean. Later he may fall sick. But he will not be able to attribute it to the food he had in the restaurant. Why, because he is not thinking about cleanliness and he is thinking that others will take care of it. He is thinking that the human hands have got magical cells which kill all the bad agents. So, what he does is crosses his hands on his shirt and thinks that they are clean. He thinks that food is clean by default. He thinks he fell ill, because for him falling ill is like sun rising and setting. routine.

    This pandemic is different. It has taken this nay-saying to a new level. There are theories stating that the virus beating capability is embedded in humans. Yes sir. It may be. But the capability of this immune system is varying from person to person. So, by experience if you have decided that you are the one blessed with such an immune system, We the weaker ones request you to please allow us a chance to survive this pandemic. Please, with sugar on top, wear a mask. You are saving many lives including yours. 

    There are no studies which prove that wearing a mask will reduce the oxygen intake. The human body knows how to increase the oxygen intake. It will make you breathe harder and breathe in longer. It will make you yawn. Wear a mask. For any infection to occur, the payload of the attacking micro-organism is a very important factor. Wear a mask to ensure that the payload of viruses you are breathing out is muted by the mask. This will give the lesser mortals an opportunity to survive that contact. You are a nay-Sayer and dont want to take a vaccine. All right, as we have discussed you are free to do so, until you are free to to do that. 

    But, no, you have to wear a mask. No, not any mask, a proper one. It should mute the amount of virus emanating from your breath. You never know, it might also limit the amount of virus payload you breathe in and might keep it just below the threshold limit of your immune system. It is a win-win situation. Use re-usable masks. Our planet is already full of these masks. Let us reduce the burden on our planet. Let us live to clean this planet and bring it back to its good old days. Let us give our children what we cherished. Let us not just talk about the good old days. Let us survive and re-create the same for our children.

Let us all, live. Wear a Mask, A proper one.

My rants on the sars-cov-2 pandemic

Disclaimer: The words below are "my" rants. I am not a Doctor, chemist or a  Biologist. I am an Engineer. So, there may be mistakes. Do your homework like I have done mine. I dont vouch for authenticity of the matter in the links provided.

     Plenty has been written about the birth and spread of Covid 19. Plenty more than any other pandemic the earth has ever seen. There are already books on the origins and the spread of the virus. They also speak of the spineless governments of the world. The pandemic has had its share of false news and conspiracy theories ranging from 

1. The virus was already existing 

2. It is the same as the normal cold virus 

3. Pharma companies along with the governments have blown it out of proportion

4. Pharma companies wanted to move the people away from usual way of administering medicines to RNA/DNA medicines 

5. Some other businessmen wanted to reduce the population of the world 

6. Pharma industry was not getting enough grants from the governments of the world to shift medicines to RNA/DNA based and ....... 

https://www.livescience.com/common-cold-coronaviruses-t-cells-covid-19-immunity.html 

    The above link tries to explain why the sars-cov-2 virus does not impact certain people. It also talks about our immune system and how it gets trained by one variant of a similar virus and can produce the necessary actions required to nullify the effects of the virus. So, what about a human who has not contacted any related virus. Well, as per the link, that particular person is at risk. If that is so, Americans normally had a vaccine every year for the influenza virus and yet they are one of the most affected countries in terms of percentage of death and infections. First thing is the influenza and the covid virus are of a different class. The antibodies developed for the influenza virus will not(may not) help in fighting the covid 19 variant. 

https://www.britannica.com/story/what-is-the-difference-between-influenza-and-covid-19u 

There, lets us stop the discussion regarding the similarities between them. What about the class of corona virus, were they already existing? Yes. As per the link below 

https://www.healthline.com/health/coronavirus-types

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/2021/01/covid-19-will-likely-be-with-us-forever-heres-how-well-live-with-it/

     There have been two well known and documented class of "corona" virus. When we talk about corona virus, we are talking about a class of virus, with a spiked protein cover around the viral payload. These two instances have been contained by isolation and quarantine. These were not spread by asymptomatic humans. If we already know about the corona virus and we contained the previous two, how did we end up in a global pandemic. 

    This can be attributed to the carelessness of the governments of the world. The governments governed by the corporations decided that the aviation industry cannot be stopped. They decided that, the best way to cover this up is to remain silent. May be in many other cases, it might have worked. However, it did not work out in this case. When all the nationalist/jingoist mindsets have been satisfied, the news was allowed into the open. 

    By now SARS-CoV-2, the virus which causes covid 19 was taken everywhere across the globe. The main attribute for this wide spread is that the asymptomatic people were the major spreaders. This aspect of this variant, is what makes it stand apart in the corona series. The damage by the viral load are very similar and attack the respiratory system, the most, with other aspects being discovered as we move ahead in time. If the virus spread was isolated at origin, like the previous two cases, we could have stopped the spread and this blog post wouldn't have existed. 

    Time is a *^%^h. This would be one more instance of a corona virus isolated in a particular geographic place and affect a few 100 people. It is very difficult to gauge the importance of an individual in this business minded planet. It is like this planet has been outsourced and business has to run at any cost, even if the last human is erased. It is like the next batch of humans are toiling somewhere else in a similar manner and all the business will shift to the next planet after the end of the last human on this planet. 

    The lockdowns, or worldwide isolation and quarantine appeared like an eye wash and half hearted, last resort plan. People were moving and the virus was already taken to all the countries across the globe. This isolation and quarantine works only if applied on a scale taken up on the previous known variants of the corona virus. Lockdowns are "face savers" for the politicians and the businessmen. There is no scientific/economical backing for a global lockdown except a political/business perspective. 

    Now, let us come to the treatment. I dont know why the medical companies gave up on treatment and focused only on a vaccine. I dont know the logic/economical aspect of this decision and we dont have a treatment as of date. But, vaccines have been cleared and have been administered to lakhs based on studies on thousands in a very short time. Majority of the vaccines are like proof of concept and highly advanced science of gene editing and precise chemistry of RNA. Reading about the RNA/DNA vaccines, is like reading a fantasy book. It reads like science fiction. If we can do this much for producing a vaccine, how difficult is to use the same technology to do something bad. Dont get me started by denying this. We are not far away, wherein, DNA/RNA jabs with blueprints of all the known viruses will be injected into the human body. It is like an attack dictionary on Missile warning systems. The approach for these vaccines is to generate antibodies for the spike protein. Now, this approach can fail once there is a change in this, in a drastic way. Yes the virus can mutate in many ways. What if, the spike mutates?

    The medical industry took this route by telling that the traditional way of making a vaccine by killing the virus and then injecting this into the human body is time consuming. This is totally %#^*^t. We already have vaccines made from this method and also cleared for use. The major advantage with this approach is we are giving a hint to our immune system about nearly all the properties of this virus. So, this would generate antibodies for many of the chemical combinations present in the virus. 

    The RNA/DNA methodology of making medicines is a great method for big pharma for getting a tight grip on the medicines. This will nearly kill the generics industry. Two recently cleared DNA/RNA vaccines make a statement that the DNA/RNA in the human cells are not touched. Can a normal human, know whether this is true? If DNA/RNA is the methodology of administering medicines, then, governments need to wakeup and ensure that enough competition is fostered and all the developments are available in public domain. It is not wrong, even if the governments start investing in state owned research facilities and upgrade them to the same capabilities as big pharma. In this way we can ensure that there is a lot of testing and availability of these advances are available to the common man. 

    The most interesting take from this pandemic is the polarization of people across the world. The main reason is that big pharma is not good at explaining the cause and the effect. It is like explaining light to the last animal in evolution which had not felt light around it. Our belief systems, our blind beliefs, our limited education, our limited brain usage, our limitation as a human being, has showcased beautifully. It is very interesting to listen to all the conclusions and the reason for these conclusions regarding the pandemic. No two individuals in the same home share the same idea about the pandemic. Many people are convinced that Europeans and Americans are dying of Covid 19 because their immune system is not as strong as their Asian counterpart. This class is forgetting that it originated in Asia and the highest number of deaths happened in Asia. This would have made Russel peters so angry that he would have to change the portion of his standup comedy where he talks about an instance of him landing at Mumbai Airport for the first time and welcomed with smell of shit. 

    We have politicians feeling for the dead, at the least. No corporation has stopped working or repented for any death of their workers. The politicians feel for the dead but are not ready to consider universal healthcare as an option. What is the use of feeling for the dead, when you did not feel for the living? This is the same in all businesses. The plentiful Human resource at its disposal make the business not at all concerned about the people dead with a known reason. People die every minute for a plenty of reasons, but when they die for a reason which the whole world knows may happen is what makes the death more sick. In fact majority of the work available in the world is broken to such an extent that you just have to plugin a new human to do that job. This is what is making the corporations not to take any serious thought towards the pandemic. 

    The medical profession is also at its most liberal best. Any complication can be labelled a "covid 19" case. Stop, dont draw your daggers, this statement was for medical practitioners who have done it or on planning to do it. How am I making this statement so confidently. Well, nobody is allowed to see or touch the patient. He is packed completely and burnt without any second opinion. So, what I am telling is it is very much possible, has been done and can be done. 

    There is one more issue regarding non believers. They are so pissed off by the care taken by the people who believe that there is a virus. Like the non believers who throw the caution to the wind, there is a population who believe that yes, we have a pandemic at hand. Of course there is another population which is exactly in between. They wear their mask below the chin. Never was their hands. These people will wear the mask when they hear some bad news regarding people whom they knew. It will be momentary, maybe for a few days. These people are not bothered about the complete believers or complete non-believers. The problem is with the non-believers. They will make fun of the middlemen and the complete believers alike. The believers will not make fun of the non-believers but are worried that this group will get them affected. They believers are angry on the other two groups. 

    The reason for the hue and cry created by the spread of sars-cov-2 is that, the human body might not detect it as a virus and fight it with enough fervor similar to a virus database it maintains. As time passed we got to know that a major portion of humanity had this virus in their immune database. However, one more issue which caused such widespread attention and lockdown is the fact that asymptomatic people were spreading it. And the virus once in the air, lived a very long time. All this information led to the situation we are today. 

    The good news is that, contrary to initial belief, the human body did fight the virus and many people did develop immunity. Now, the vaccines are here to help people with lesser immunity by adding the info of this virus into their database. This is the reason, I am of the opinion that recipients of the vaccine should be checked for antibodies and the situation of the immune system for this virus before vaccinating them. If they have already developed sufficient amount of immunity, it is of no use to vaccinate them. And we dont know what would be the result of such an action. But, nowhere this is being tested. In fact, every person to be vaccinated should be checked thoroughly for his medical history and compare it with the side effects of the vaccine. Based on satisfactory study and heuristics, the person should be suggested for vaccination. 

 

    Proteins are made of amino acids. And the "some" amino acids on the spike of sars-cov-2 virus are similar to the ones found on the placenta. In fact "some" of these amino acids can be found in other proteins in the human body. A vaccine based on this protein might induce antibodies against the protein with "some" similar amino acids. There is no proof for this. Hence there is no proof to stat that a similarly designed vaccine will induce antibodies attacking the placenta and in turn render woman infertile. There is no proof for this. 

    The human genome is made of DNA. The mRNA vaccine is not supposed to enter the nucleous of the cell. The DNA based vaccines which put the DNA of the spike protein into the cell are not supposed to interfere with the Human DNA. The chances of the vaccine altering the DNA is nearly nil. We dont know what will be the result of that small chance and we dont have any proof if it might happen at all. 

     Whatever be the truth, The wearing of re-usable masks have man advantages. During your commute you are going to filter out at least some of the dust. It will protect your face from the cold breeze. And of course, you are going to be protected from other viruses floating in the air. The other aspect we are practicing is what is difficult to maintain and that is physical distancing. But it is also has many advantages. This will avoid crowded meetings and only the required personnel will be called. This will require plenty of advance planning and to the point discussions. And please kindly use re-usable masks. The planet is already strained to the max with the plastic piling up. 

People, what is wrong with you and your masks

There is something really wrong with majority of the people in the world. Yes, it is a matter of discussion whether the social distancing rules and wearing a mask is going to help in a pandemic. Yes, there will be arguments on both sides. But, the mask wearing side has always won. Now, there are many classifications on the attitudes of people wearing masks. Let us for a moment forget about the age old classifications based on caste/creed/color and what not and concentrate on masks. Oh...I heard you. What a waste of time. We could have continued our discussion on traditional classifications. You are interested more in it. You feel that is more colorful. You feel that is more relevant. You feel ..... OK, I understand. Shall we now get back to the masks...

Lot many people are still considering the present pandemic a conspiracy theory. I have always maintained neural ground and will not take any particular sides until it is so clear that there really are no sides. I have seen educated people talk non-sense. Let us leave the mask for a moment and come to the next item important, Oximeter. There are very clear instructions as to when you require an oximeter. Let us assume you have decided to home quarantine after testing positive or the doctor has advised home quarantine based on your past health. Now, two instruments needed will be a thermometer and the oximeter. In a six person home an oximeter might be a good buy. But the requirement is very clear. You should have an oximeter with you if you are showing any symptoms of the pandemic at hand. Will the oximeter save your life? No. It will tell you if your health in home quarantine is deteriorating and you should consult the hospital immediately. So, one person decides not to buy the oximeter not because he understood why it is required. He doesnt want to buy, because it is a conspiracy theory by the capitalist companies. By the way he is wearing a mask. Thank the force for that.

Let us come back to the masks. What is wrong with people. The mask is not a handkerchief. It is not be touched every milli-second. Let me see the different ways the masks are touched and handled by the public
1. Majority wear it because the government is levying fines for people not doing so.
2. Many are wearing substandard thin cotton masks, while we are talking about N95.
3. Many are wearing it at their chin.
4. Many are wearing it so loose that all the air going in and coming out might be full of the virus.
5. If they want to pull the mask down, they do so by holding it exactly in the middle an pulling it below their chin.
6. They again hold exactly the middle portion to pull it back.
7. They dont cover the nose and it is at the mouth level.
8. They are not washing it every day(if washable).

Am I an expert in recommending masks? No. I am only logical at it. So, what is the best mask?

1. An N95 mask wore properly covering the nose and the mouth down to the chin such that majority of the air going in and coming out is through the mask.

What other choices?

Though not medically recommended, masks made of multiple layers of cloth with criss-cross strands could be made at home. Preferably more than 3 layers. If possible a filtering medium in between the layers is recommended.

How to really wear it?

1. Hold the masks only at the strands which are for fixing it. Fix it such that it covers your nose and the mouth and you feel that majority of the air entering is through your mask only. You are not feeling the air entering through the sides of the mask. If this is not so then there is no point of wearing your mask.
2. Once you wear it, do not touch any portion of the mask. Move around as though you are not wearing them. Do not touch your face at any point of time.
3. If you want to remove it, again, hold them at the strands and make an arrangement for hanging the mask from the strands. Ensure that you or any others or any other thing does not touch the surface or the insides of the mask. To wear it again, follow step 2.
4. It is better you have a mask for the office work separately and keep it at the office.
5. If you are using masks made of layers of cloth, it is recommended to wash them everyday.

For better results with the mask, another important aspect is maintaining distancing. At any point of time maintain at least a minimum of 1 metre distance between everybody. And everybody in the vicinity also to maintain the same. It is not enough that you are wearing the mask properly and maintaining the distance. Everybody else should do so. This will minimize the payload, if it exists in any of the person in the group.

With all the above we are ensuring that the payload when delivered to our body, will be minimal and our immune system is capable of fighting that smaller payload.




Survive.

All systems of the world showing their kinks

             The world we live in boasts about so many "systems" being in place to better the human life. Every country, Every state, Every district, Every town, Every village, Every community, Every friends circle, Every individual have their own idea about the best system. There is no collective agreement to any sort of the "best" system. When we use the word system, the few things which come to our mind are political and economical systems which are in turn made up of theological, business, ethnicity, history and other smaller systems which make up the political and economic system. Whenever people talk about a system they will be indirectly talking about the political and economical systems. Why do all these exist? Yes, you will tell me that these exist to keep the 1% continuously maintain their 1% by keeping the other 99% exactly where they are by giving them the illusion that they are indeed growing in all walks of life.

              The point of discussion is do the 1% who run and maintain the systems, understood them like the back of their hand? No. They dont understand the beast they have given birth to. The beast dont care whether you are the 1% or the 99%. It is just that the time taken by the beast to make them surrender. All the systems in the world cannot clearly define what is exactly required for the world to self-sustain. All the systems in the world dont know how to manage a calamity. All the systems dont know that for the 1% to stay there require the other 99% to exist. If we are left with only the 1% then there will be nothing left.

            All the systems in the world look good when the going is good. If the going gets tough all the systems become questionable. Every kink in the systems start leaking out. Every system starts blaming the other and starts exposing itself. One aspect is very clear. All the systems are in-sensitive to particular traits which belong to living biological organisms. Just because the system has appointed few institutions as living beings under the legal system does not classify them as a living/breathing biological organism. All the political and economic setup of the world cannot compensate for the hardships of the 99% toiling away so that the systems always run in profits. When the going is good, the 99% rarely ask to what happened to the profits. When there is a situation, that is when questions will be raised as to what happened to the profits. This is the time the systems in the world should know how to act and how to prioritize. This is the time the 1% should act and ensure that the 99% continue existing. It is pathetic that the Masters cannot bear the hardships of the people offering their services ever for two months. There have been people working for the same setup for several years and suddenly they become a liability.

              You cannot sell masks for ever if it is certain that all the people buying them will gradually cease to exist. It is high time, the systems/governments/corporations running the world, to pool their resources and provide them to that part of the 99% which can save the remaining 99.999999% of the living world. This is time for them to maintain normalcy in the world by doing things which would put the 99% thoughts to normal. Invest in keeping the 99% safe and then devising means to take in their service/efforts. It is time to stop the traditional mind set and device work cultures/work environments which look/appear and "do" the job of ensuring the health of the person providing his services. This is time to instill confidence in the workforce of the world by a radical shift in the way which the workforce works. Re-design the work areas/procedures to make it fool proof so that nobody gets affected just because he went to work. Ensure nobody is affected because he chose to work.

            I request all the systems in the world to protect the workforce. The workforce is what keeps the world ticking. The workforce feeds all the families in the world. The workforce is what ensures that there is a 1% in this systemic setup.