Covid-19 (Part 3) - Life under lockdown

Out for our 3rd weekly shop.

Exploring the pandemic situation, continuing from:
• "Covid-19: a deadly wake-up call to exponential growth?"
• "Covid-19 (Part 2) - Daily Updates"

Index:

• 2020-04-18 Sat - Misplaced Animosity
• 2020-04-19 Sun - Divided States
• 2020-04-20 Mon - Food Shortages?
• 2020-04-21 Tue - Through the floor!
• 2020-04-22 Wed - Perspective
• 2020-04-23 Thur - More Science Sumaries


► 2020-04-18 - Misplaced Animosity:

[Daily Mail]

• I've been somewhat horrified at the general appetite (seen in posts from of some of my old Facebook friends) for martial law and/or capital punishment, effectively. I.e. marking anyone taking an unnecessary walk in a park as "not for treatment", in the case they ever get infected. Punishment fits the crime grim poetry.

That last coming from one of the most caring individuals I know, in response (I believe) to a litany of pictures like this one (right), from the [Daily Mail]. Flattened, zoomed in perspectives making everyone look far closer together. Seemingly just trying to stir up resentment and outrage, for viewership and quite possibly to undermine public solidarity and help usher in crony capitalist friendly authoritarianism (for the papers owners).

Above is closer to the real story of public spaces - drone footage of Birmingham city centre on a sunny Saturday afternoon. It's usually heaving with crowds, but is now deserted! [Twitter Video]


It also looks like over 90% of rail travel is gone, 80% of London bus trips and 65% of other road travel too (right). [BBC]


78% of people self isolating, as of the beginning of April [Ipsos MORI]. Pretty impressive adherence to measures (and an unprecedented economic change).

Despite all this, UK public is still being focused on the rare black sheep amongst us, and bad optics in occasional photos and videos. It's our 10'000 year (or so) old memetic predilection for social scandal, coupled with a cognitive incomprehension for relative scale and rarity.

Covid-19 (Part 2) - Daily Updates

SARS-COV-2 - lipid bilayer with
ACE2 binding s protein spikes.

... Continuing on from my previous mega-post: "Covid-19: a deadly wake-up call to exponential growth?".

It seems the future is currently flying at us on a daily basis, so I'm still finding it hard not to hyper-focus on events and feel I may as well use this blog for catharsis.

I've ended up spending quite a lot of time talking about the antics of politicians, which I'd normal tell others to ignore, but in this instance the situation is so heavily dependant upon exactly what measures are announced, when and how the public reacts.

Index:
2020-03-29 Sun - Pointing Fingers
2020-03-30 Mon - Missing reports, farm labour, excess oil, Korean expert
2020-04-02 Thur - Symptoms, Vit treatment, Exit strategy
2020-04-03 Fri - Developments (under-reporting deaths in Europe vs China)
2020-04-04 Sat - Followup

2020-04-05 Sun - Science - GAVI, CRISPR, summer reprieve?
2020-04-06 Mon - Science 2 - ICU survival rates, Bio-molecular basis of virus
2020-04-07 Tue - Science 3 - BP med danger? Bio-molecular simulation explain all?

2020-04-08 Wed - Unintended Consequences (Advertising apocalypse, BoJo in ICU, etc)
2020-04-10 Fri - Unequal impact (racial, economic and geographic inequities)
2020-04-12 Sat - Dissecting government decision making, cats & dogs and creativity


► 2020-03-29 - Pointing Fingers:

• The domestic coronavirus outbreak seems to have given Boris Johnson (and other incumbent leaders around the world) political invincibility. The 'rally around the flag' effect has him up at a 73% approval rating, the highest for any conservative government since such metric began in 1943 [Bloomberg].

Which makes sense during a crisis or war, generally. This certainly fits with the vibe I get when talking to most of my friends (those who aren't politically polarised already). Although I saw one post hinting that there may also have been some astroturfing, with copy-pasted supportive sentiments on social media [Twitter]. (Probably insignificant in this context.)


• That record polling was even unaffected by the announcement of his infection (and both health secretaries, etc). Which The Daily Mail has attempted to pin on the EU, via chief negotiator Michel Barnier, who was also diagnosed a while before [The New European]:

It's laughably implausible, given Barnier's not even been to the UK recently, so it would have to have passed via an intermediary politician. Prince Charles or Nadine Dorries far more likely. The very risibility of this nonsense claim is probably the reason I saw it plastered all over my Twitter time-line. Again, right wing intimations going viral, for free spread of their repulsive rhetoric. Including me posting it here, to illustrate the point...

Health Revolution - Part 1 - Diving into Intolerances

I originally intended this as an all inclusive, one parter, covering all my recent health research:

• To explain to people, as fully as possible, where I'm at and where I've been, personally.
• To raise awareness of my core discoveries (much of this may apply to many people).
• Possibly help others take short-cuts (I've already spoken to a few with similar issues).
• To review what I've looked at so far, reminding myself and reappraising with a critical eye.

The grey sections contain stand alone information, e.g.:

• Food intolerance may affect 45% of the population, causing a surprisingly wide variety of easily fixable, idiopathic symptoms, throughout the body (headaches, rashes, itching, diarrhoea, and vomiting...).
• Histamine intolerance may affect as many as 1 in 10 (1 in 100 at lowest estimate). Almost always co-morbid with another food intolerance/disease [source].

As usual, I became a little mired in detail. Perhaps I was guided by a previous whim to make an all-encompassing 'cheat sheet' type resource for 'histamine intolerance' (a complex issues with even greater uncertainties than other similar problems). It is almost entirely unrecognised by GPs in the UK.

+ A Poor Boy, So Sorry for Himself:

Back in 2007, with Cybernetics degree slipping my grasp, due to deteriorating mental energy and my milieu of inter-related problems (see my 'Illness CV'), I said to myself:

• 5 years from now I will definitely have found something to give me significant relief from my problems. I had something like an Orexin nasal spray in mind, to aid waking and wakefulness (but despite amazing results in monkeys, the safety trials don't seem to have been happening, since both compound and delivery mechanism are non-patentable).
• By the 10 year mark I was betting I'd be effectively cured! I am a disciple of the gods of accelerating change, after all.

Out of juice crossing the room (Jan 2008), or that other frequent trap - having to
bend down for something. There happened to be a camera to hand in this instance.

...Well, come 2013 things were only looking more desolate, with NHS appointments having strung out for 4 years before commissioning authority changes abruptly halted them altogether, the best 'progress' I had managed was successfully appealing against the result of an ATOS assessment, thus gaining a modicum of financial stability from ESA payments. I was settling deeper into my strange kind of living coma.... Until an unlikely aid came to me: IBS! 

IBS-D, to be precise.

+ Food Intolerances and Testing

I had already been chatting with an interesting guy in Los Angeles (one of my alliance co-leaders in Lord of Ultima) about the naturopathic (i.e. non medical) treatments he claimed are helping his ADHD, currently treating for chronic yeast infection with traditional remedies including ACV (apple cider vinegar). I was naturally sceptical of his reasoning (with no conventional evidence in support), but the wheat and dairy exclusions were familiar, so after only 2 days of urgent WC visits I made the necessary changes and the GI problems stopped!

I previously attempted going dairy free back around the time I launched this blog (and it's two companions - short lived): "This week I shall mostly be avoiding dairy!" (2006-12-05). But I barely gave it any time before: "So the cow milk related product embargo lead nowhere and I blatantly couldn't be arsed avoiding wheat! I have sent off for a £20 finger prick type testing kit,.."

Although I did try wheat free the following year (2007-05-13), but again:
"Well i started a follow up of wheat free (just in case my negative blood test for Coeliac the other month wasn't up to scratch) which lasted til after breakfast when i nearly fell asleep (and i'd only had bacon, scrambled egg, mushroom and baked beans!)."

My mistake is now obvious: I didn't give it nearly long enough to kick in! Also, the food reactions, which I've carefully observed this time, are not specific to what I have just eaten: eating seems to move digestion along causing the 'bad' food from 16-24 hours ago to reach the point where it actually causes trouble (presumably the large intestine). Delayed reaction.

This time around the threat of IBS was sufficient to continue exclusions for a couple of weeks. Soon after this point I was scrabbling around the loft (a long crawl space under the sloped roof, waist high at it's tallest, stuffed with heavy boxes), looking through everything (twice) to find old school reports ready for my upcoming ADHD assessment (2013-04-05)... and I realised how much better I was!: previous attempts at such confined exertions quickly transitioned into laying down, on the job, for a couple dozen minutes until I could summon the strength for a gruelling tactical retreat. What's more, I actually found what I was looking for, eventually, inefficiently, but triumphantly!