HOW YOU CAN SUPPORT HEALTHCARE WORKERS

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A Doctor Explains How to Make the Safest Face Mask

I learned early on in my life the absolute joy of helping others in personal ways.  Our grade school class was approached by the Red Cross to knit blankets for people in poorly-equipped hospitals in Europe where it was unusually cold that year.  

We were given boxes of a light grey yarn and number nine knitting needles.  It was great!  The entire class knit everywhere they were for months and produced over a hundred very warm lap blankets.  These were sent to help others one-to-one. 

Lost Sense of Community

As I've grown up, it seems this sense of community has been lost and in all kinds of tragedies we are told, 'Don't send anything other than money.'  

The personal involvement and satisfaction of doing something more than pushing a few buttons has been lost.  So here is a way to help.  The Centres for Disease Control are recommending wearing cloth masks when we go out into the public.

Healthcare Workers Will Die Without Masks!  

However, physicans, healthcare workers and support staff working in our hospitals and clinics must have masks if they are to survive the battle to save the lives of those infected with COVID-19.  

There are not enough masks for them until manufacturing catches up -- so if everyone buys up the N95 surgical masks on the market -- far too many of our health care providers will die.  What a dilemma!  

Your Mission

Yet, there is a way to make masks that are as just as protective as the video above illustrates.  Make some for yourself and your family and if times grow even more difficult these homemade masks could also support the healthcare workers.  

Finally, be sure to read THE SEGMENT on masks so you wear them in a healthy way.

IS IT OVER YET?

We are all a bit over the novelty of working from home, being socially distant from friends and not being able to go places we like to be -- a cafe, sports event, to the movies or grocery shopping.  We all have, what my Dad called, cabin fever and are eagerly looking for a date when this will all be over!  

If you've been following this blog, you've noticed I update the COVID-19 'reported' statistics twice a day - the number of 'reported' cases, the number of 'reported' critical cases and the number of 'reported' deaths.  

'Reported'

I put the word 'reported' in quotes each time because some countries are too busy fighting the virus attacking their people to be worried about keeping stats, some do not have enough test kits, some are not forthcoming with the truth about their statistics for political reasons and some are changing strategies (such as dramatically increasing testing) which impacts their statistics when compared to other countries.  

We must all be patient and understand that until this is over, accurate data will not be available -- in some countries, we may never know the extent of the infection or the death rate, etc.

Unexpected benefits to find during this journey, such as:

If we are honest, there are some positive benefits we are beginning to realise, such as how we are:

• Starting to look more closely at the value of family, friends and colleagues/ workmates
• Finding creative ways to reach out to loved ones and long-lost friends
• Learning how to be productive from home, despite the distractions
• Realising how satisfying it is to have some time to think and reflect on what is important in our lives  
• Revisiting simple preventative measures to keep us healthier into the future
• Awakening to the surprising value of science and mathematics in our daily life.  

The Light at the End of the Tunnel

In an effort to stimulate your thinking again (after the amazing simulator from the article before this one) here is a way to understand 'the light at the end of the tunnel' - a question in everyone's heart and mind - when will this all be over!  

I found it fascinating, however, I apologise because it will only take up a bit over seven minutes of your long day today. 

Enjoy!

Thanks to the Brilliant work of 

Aatish's Exponential/Logistic Curve-Fitting

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How to Tell if We're Beating COVID-19

Even more Mathematics:

This is a brilliant explanation of 'exponential'.  

Thanks to 3Blue1Brown and

Minutephysics and Aatish Bhatia

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Exponential Growth and Epidemics