Too good to leave buried in the comments

Guest post by Cladosporium:

Note from ERJ: This showed up in the comments section under the post about moving events outside. It is too good to leave buried in comments. Also, comments tend to be first-draft documents. Evaluate the piece for the information and overlook any grammar hiccups (if any).

We are dealing with presumably a virus. If the virus is present you have a ~13.8%* (Worst stat I could find) chance of contacting it and having severe symptoms. To reduce that chance of contracting the virus we are told to wash our hands. This is true...do that, it doesn’t kill the virus, soap makes it so the virus cannot stick to you and gets washed down the drain, remember that.

A sneeze puts microscopic droplets (aerosols) in the air, when the moisture evaporates it can leave a charged particle behind call "drop nuclei" which float around in air, then settle on surfaces. Cover your mouth to limit this.

We are told to limit close contact, also good. Cleanliness is incredibly important, maybe next to godliness. Your shoes bring in an incredible amount of foreign material into your household, leave them in the garage, outside, or in a specific spot, don’t wear them around the house, pretty simple. Work clothes, if they are dirty, take them off outside your living area. Dirty clothes, clean them, don’t let them pile up in your bedroom. Counters and horizontal surfaces, keep them clean, put dirty dishes in the dishwasher or clean them, don’t let them hang around in the sink. These are some of the things you should consider, here’s why.

Have you ever sat near a window and a ray of sunshine beams through and you see all the tiny particulate in the air floating around? Assuming you have, my specialty is analyzing and telling you what you are seeing and what it is composed of. Generally, this stuff flying around is the general wear and tear of your house, clothes, you , others and life in your house, outside stuff coming in your house and so on.

Generally we find cellulose and synthetic fibers (clothes ) lots of skin fragments (you) Mold, danders from pets, combustion products, pollens and so on. We have been breathing this in since the day we were born, it’s normal and our bodies can handle it. If one of these categories becomes overwhelmingly large or a foreign particulate becomes added to the mix, odds increase of a possible reaction and we are all about decreasing them. For example, mold counts go up because a leaky waterline to your fridge and it soaks your drywall in an area you don’t normally look at. You feel different, something is not right, you begin researching on the internet and you conclude you may have a mold problem (sometimes at this point people think you’re crazy) along with a dose of fear many websites thrive on.

Some people panic and are told to move out of their homes and they do. A legal mess usually ensues. A reasonable investigation will find the mold, remove the stuff, clean up, and things go back to normal.

I tell you this because the one thing you cannot do is remove all possibility of contact with particulates but with reasoned thought and actions you can minimize risk. Minimizing airborne dusts can help minimize possible contact.

Change your furnace filters, if you’re especially concerned about indoor air quality get a HEPA air-cleaner at a home project store. You will notice the clarity of your air increase dramatically. These are simple solutions, known to be true, and will help minimize risk and alleviate the fear of the unknowns.

Here in Michigan there are Ad Council billboards telling people to prepare for an emergency and they have been up for years. Folks I have seen in the stores are not panicking, they are prepping rather quickly. I think they look a bit sheepish knowing they should have listened and done this sooner. Good for them. My hope is that this is the beginning of a great awakening. Eyes open and ears hearing.

Jesus said fear not, he also said beware of the scribes. He also said be confident in his word, that is truly the only thing we can be certain is true.