What happens when cold season starts?

I’ve been in a bunch of masked-up environments recently. People have their masks off to take a sip of a beverage or a bite of a sandwich. What would happen if someone took off the mask in order to sneeze and wipe his/her/zer/their nose? Pandemonium, panic, and violence?

Are we going to end up with a society more like Japan, in which it is rude to be out in public while coughing or sneezing? (this does not seem to have helped with virus control there; the death rate from flu in Japan has been 2.5X the death rate in the U.S.)

8 thoughts on “What happens when cold season starts?

  1. My word, there is so much to read about the flu at the CDC’s website, and I advise everyone to get started now, as it will require effort and patience to digest it all. The Glossary of Terms alone has 39 things that are important to know, like “Antiviral Chemoprophylaxis” which is not to be confused with Antidisestablishmentarianism. They offer a great deal of information about vaccines, best practices in healthcare and non-healthcare settings, and on and on. Best advice is to stay home if you’re sick, wear a mask (which you’re already doing), but carry a lot of tissues, maybe an extra mask, and of course more hand sanitizer. Keep calm and carry on.

    https://www.cdc.gov/flu/about/index.html

    Interestingly:

    “Flu and COVID-19 can both result in serious illness, including illness resulting in hospitalization or death. While there is still much to learn about COVID-19, at this time, it does seem as if COVID-19 is more deadly than seasonal influenza; however, it is too early to draw any conclusions from the current data. This may change as we learn more about the number of people who are infected who have mild illnesses.”

    So “it does seem” that COVID is more deadly but they really don’t know for sure yet; maybe in a few years.

  2. ” While there is still much to learn about COVID-19, at this time, it does seem as if COVID-19 is more deadly than seasonal influenza; however, it is too early to draw any conclusions from the current data. This may change as we learn more about the number of people who are infected who have mild illnesses.”

    So that’s what gave the gummint power to suspend the constitution and institute a “national emergency” regime.

    • >So that’s what gave the gummint power to suspend the constitution and institute a “national emergency” regime.

      It’s really a patchwork of regimes composed of individual state regimes, with considerable variation of enforcement and compliance inside each state by locality. The vast majority of people comply without fuss. Americans have largely discarded liberty as unessential.

  3. While it might not do much as direct viral prophylaxis, I also recommend that whenever you sneeze and need to wipe your nose in public this flu season, try to do it someplace where the background music is Bach’s Goldberg Variations from Chinese pianist Lang Lang’s new album.

    “Music is a good remedy in these particular times,” he told AFP ahead of the release of his version of the Goldberg Variations on Friday.”

    “Lang Lang will mark the global release of his new album today with a special introduction to Bach’s Goldberg Variations from the historic Temple (东景缘, Dongjingyuan) in Beijing – site of the old imperial printing house and a former Buddhist shrine, meticulously renovated in recent years to preserve its multi-layered history.”

  4. It will be interesting to see if we have a similar situation as the Southern Hemisphere where they had a very light flu season. Not sure if there is conclusive data but I have seen it attributed to the COVID precautions.

    It is almost time for that flu shot – Go get it!

    • The light flu season was reclassifying flu as covid. Similar thing as no in America dying of pneumonia last year.

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