Brundageba

I think this will bring back memories and as well...it's on topic Alison

“Abril es un mes durísimo, es un mes que todavía vamos a peor”, fueron las palabras finales del doctor Xavier Sáez-Llorens en la conferencia de prensa del Ministerio de Salud (Minsa), Caja del Seguro Social (CSS) y Ministerio de Seguridad (Minseg) sobre el coronavirus. " April will be a very hard month. I will will get worse. " Dr Xavier Saez-llorens , Infection Desease advisor to the Panama Dept of Health Stay home as much as you can. When out , be mindful and careful to distance, don't touch your face. Organize. The LESS we are out at all the better. Tuck in. We'll be OK. Alison

Yes Keith.....I am 100 % aware that the "take" on this brought forward to the public through US media varies. ( boy..I tell ya....sigh....) For me personally , and for my own mental health , I try to stay focused on HERE...in Panama...today. I discovered that just this week. I'm curious, and as well hopeful that something positive in the way of CURE might evolve out of the USA...it has not...yet. I only get bombarded with organized disorganization with bodies being carried off in bags, and joggers still jogging. Worries about the economy......I weary of it. sigh................ I don't start my day anymore with the TV news( ...oh, I do like Panama's news.... ) Here in Boquete we are all screwed into our places.....calmly. Sitting here in the breeze...waiting for the World to change ( should be a song...) I attempt to keep my husband and I healthy & alive. I drive him crazy. I do my best not to irritate him...and he's trying too...but we irritate each other. It's all in this COVID nightmare sci fi episode we are currently living in. PEACE: That's my focus. If I watch TV outside of Panama I go a bit tense, frustrated and irritable...my husband pays the price. I end up ranting...at the TV...pick a channel...any one. We are only into week 4 of this here and the numbers are rising as well deaths in Panama. Easter is on the way...and Panama folks LOVE Easter fun together. Cops will be ready. All Panama can hope to do is hold this at bay . We all are focused on that...together ...doing the right thing. It WILL end......value your days. BOQUETE STRONG Alison OK...just me here. I just went up and pondered again this dialogue in the thread. Got me feeling a bit tense and annoyed all at once. It would be a cryin shame to ruin what Bud so well did to create CL. Just the facts well organized and laid out for all of our wellbeing here. Topics that relate to us here in Boquete. He has really done one helluvah job too !... USA politics are not our issues here. They really don't make this forum healthier. (or us)... I do understand that this did begin with a piece on Panama by FOX...yah every news channel got a kick outta that and missed the entire efforts in place here in Panama to keep people alive. That irritated me.......see? irritation is easy these daze.

Expensive but a treat in a very tough time. We all need a hug and can not get one...so this might help ! Double thumbs up for enterprise. !!!!!!!!! Just stay careful. Consider anything "out there" that comes inside your home something that might do best in a separate food container from your house. (The food itself is clean of course ) ...toss the containers it came in direct into your garbage bag you have ready out side. Have your receptacle ready to receive when the delivery arrives. Give exact change. It seems insanely OCD...but that is how it is done in the hospital. Develop this mindfullness & good containment habits. It ain't over yet! DIRTY =outside CLEAN= anything inside. Never the twain shall meet.. Alison, RN GREAT job Chris...thank you ever so much

Now there's a job for YOU !!!!!!!!!!! we'd all love it. (Bud here at CL?...he's been pretty busy)

My take is they are inert teeeeny pieces of blob with DNA material that comes ALIVE when they enter the host cell...be it bat or human. It has to be stopped from replicating or it takes over the host. Its the patients immune system in battle . Total systemic sepsis killed many with the virus in Italy. The virus had overwhelmed the patient's immune system...made it so weak the patient was then open for any bacterial infection...an example Klebsiella Pneumonia a common pneumonia that is contagious. You get both rolling in a community you are dead in the water. Lombardy Italy...that was their story. This is serous business stuff here Bud Panama and its citizens are amazingly compliant to my eye. This will buy it time. Some people are recovering...some developing immunity of their own as they recover from low level infection. Eventually I believe the world's best scientists and docs will find a breakthrough. The entire planet depends on that happening. I have enormous hope for Panama.....and Boquete. Meanwhile I am sure loving it here. Us gals had the entire town to ourselves today !!!!!!!!!!!! :-) Tomorrow I trust my husband will do as I told him without me being there to nag him .....

Check the date....what are they thinking? Are they in coma or something? Where the heck will THAT $$$$$$$$$ come from after this plague is played out. Hard to believe I am reading this

I know, that got your attention, because it sure got mine !!!. https://www.sciencealert.com/virus Here is a little excerpt to wet your whistle .. .( not a politically correct expression these daze): A virus is genetic material contained within an organic particle that invades living cells and uses their host's metabolic processes to produce a new generation of viral particles. Are viruses alive? This is a question scientists continue to discuss as definitions of life and ecology change. Current thinking suggests viruses should be considered part of a complex living system, one that extends between all organisms. 'Virions' are the inactive particles that move through the environment, which we don't tend to think of as alive. Only once they're part of a cell do viruses take on living characteristics of their own, borrowing the host's biochemistry to reproduce. As such, it's more accurate to think of viruses as part of the continuum between chemistry and biology, one that isn't clearly divided into living and non-living.

Under reported. "As if" this is a suggestion . We KNOW it's been a well orchestrated, professionally managed, progressive containment, begun quite early ... by government order under penalty of arrest for violation. News-lite

Why not get crafty. Sew a mask with a pocket and slide in a square of vacuum cleaner bags...some of those bags are HEPA filters right? Toss the filter square after use Wash the cotton mask in chlorine IF we distance .(.. and now men and ladies' days) ...a bandanna (scarf) is better than nothing considering HAND TO FACE is the most common way transmission occurs ( apart from a sneeze in range) ....Its the things you touch and bring to your face. Bandanna does that job...right?

Due to the current financial situation caused by the slowdown in the economy, the Government has decided to implement a scheme to put workers of 50 years of age and above on early, mandatory retirement, thus creating jobs and reducing unemployment. This scheme will be known as RAPE (Retire Aged People Early). Persons selected to be RAPED can apply to the Government to be considered for the SHAFT program (Special Help After Forced Termination). Persons who have been RAPED and SHAFTED will be reviewed under the SCREW program (System Covering Retired-Early Workers). A person may be RAPED once, SHAFTED twice and SCREWED as many times as the Government deems appropriate. Persons who have been RAPED could get AIDS (Additional Income for Dependents & Spouse) or HERPES (Half Earnings for Retired Personnel Early Severance). Obviously persons who have AIDS or HERPES will not be SHAFTED or SCREWED any further by the Government. Persons who are not RAPED and are staying on will receive as much **** (Special High Intensity Training) as possible. The Government has always prided its self on the amount of **** it gives our citizens. Should you feel that you do not receive enough ****, please bring this to the attention of your Local Representative, who has been trained to give you all the **** you can handle. Sincerely, The Senate committee on Economic Value of Individual Lives (E.V.I.L.)

My husband ( who kicked and screamed against my harping, came home to report: " You wouldn't believe it. I saw a woman with mask and gloves on, come out of shopping. She took her mask off with her dirty gloved hands and put that mask inside her purse then took her gloves off and toss them on the car seat" My point is...he has developed an awareness, and as well habits. He's getting good at it. Now when he sees these things it makes an impact...and impression. He sees now what he was blind to 4 weeks ago. A month ago he didn't care, he didn't know and he was beginning to start filing for divorce with my harping. This is more than a 15 day gig. We have to develop habits that keep us alive until that vaccine comes on board. So the lady contaminated her mask if her gloves picked up virus on any surface during shopping. it was on the mask which she put inside her purse contaminating that. She contaminated the car seat with her dirty gloves. I do hope re-use of those was not her future agenda. It not being critical. Its developing habits and then you have awareness of others mistakes. IF we help each other we'll as a team get through this alive.

Right here is a GREAT example of habit behavior you do without thinking. Ya gotta see this one ! VIDEO-2020-03-06-08-06-12.mp4

DO NOT TOUCH YOUR FACE WITHOUT HAND WASHING...be mindful of habits OK so the wind is blowing, my hair is in my eyes and I have allergies and my nose is running. ( I am in my own back yard) I realize how MANY times I have touched my face...nose, eyes. LOTS. I have a habit. I rub my nose. I can not stop even though I try. Now at this point of the COVID infection , we must just cover the face. Pick: fancy mask, bandana... put something over your face. The masks move and are a potential for self infection if loose , mis-fitting or manipulated. TEE SHIRT STRIPS. This works real well and for short term use works fine according to what I had read in medical literature. Take a tee. cut the body across in 6-8 inch strips. Cut one end. So now you have a long 8 inch wide strip. Take that and place over nose and mouth and tie behind the head,. You can double the layer. Experiment. Keeps the hair outta the eyes and hand off your face. It is much better than a mask that is half on or manipulated ( I see that an awful lot) I saw a show yesterday . It was an interview with an ER doc in N.Y. That was the exact message he gave. "Chances are slim you will get this, IF you don't touch your face, frequent hand washing....stop smoking "( hand to mouth) Say it again: AVOID HAND TO FACE CONTACT WHEN OUT SHOPPING This is war.....we will win and have one helluvah party ! ALISON PLEASE PLEASE help others to learn how to handle this. IF you see something say something. I gave the "don't touch your face" speech more times than I can count to a man servicing the cash register at a busy store. Interesting because we were talking about the value of a mask. I told him what I just told you. In that time, he tweaked his nose with his finger at least 5 times. Each time Bill and I said in UNISION ......"Dont touch your face" ( he was NOT aware he was doing it..its a habit HE has an he's not aware he is doing it..like me) Next week we saw him using a mask. Alcohol and hand sanitizer is hard to find now. Put a wash cloth soaked in Clorox solution.inside ziplocks (.I doubt you need 100%...just a solution) Use that for your hands a/o surfaces. Pack a few...off ya go ! When you get home...take care of the hands...hand creme.

I saw a LOT of cars outside MIDAS yesterday. Just a theory I have...but I suspect the "pass" is for Ag workers out in fields that need to plant and harvest the country's produce. I seriously doubt it's for yard work. But I'll have to say...I am impressed by his ingenuity. (something I'd do when I was young and full of mischief...now I'm just old and full of sh**)

Yes Erin...I'm impressed. I mean I handed a doorman at the bank a $ gift for his family and he would not take it...."against the rules he said with a sorta sad look after he asked his boss through the window of the bank...". Everybody is so sweet and you know they are suffering big time.

Reason I asked is ...well everybody wants to work. Nobody is working. I used to write my own excuse notes in school so my mind goes to that....

Wow...this is when they need it most. Ministry of Public Security is packing bags and delivering them in Panama City ( I believe it's in PC).

Does anybody out there know if there IS in fact this hall pass? I have not seen that...maybe I missed it

Bill and I are taking credit on yard care. Two Ngobe families. Sort of a form of Cooperativa. We loan...they return service down the road when they are free.

When I went to nursing school I learned about epidemics, public health and as well isolation techniques for sanitary containment and protection. What I see now happening is a living example of what I learned in my nursing books. I taught nursing...so I taught how to do the things every citizen is now asked to learn now...and fast. Surprisingly enough what I find here in Boquete is an amazing understanding and compliance among citizens. Also what I see with this government and Gorgas Institute ( the virologists, epidemiologists , public health experts on and on...the team) is amazing data collection considering the size of the country and what I though was limited resources. That is HOW epidemics get controlled...data collection and acting on it. Hot spots are being isolated quickly and as well isolated by sanitary fences ( blockades in an out of hot spots) . Cases are being identified and separated early then followed by Public Health nurse monitors and police enforcement. Then an arrest and a whoppin $50,000.00 - $100,000. fine for violation of quarantine violation of a COVID positive home isolated case ! Impressive mandate and seemingly draconian some would say. Lets see how this rolls out. We will know in time. Folks seem to be doing well with all this like a new nursing student...they are passing class. I like what I am seeing. It's what I learned in school & has to be done to slow a contagious Pandemic. I thank God for what I see through my nurse's eyes. . In time, many many folks will be developing their own immunity with recovery from mild cases...that's the upside .

Why?. I feel protected by the country I live in and love. I feel encouraged by the smiling eyes I see above the masks they wear. I am touched by the door guard who would not accept the $ gift I wanted to give to him for his family..."No he said, it is against the rules" ( I dropped it and hope that got it). I cry for my Ngobe friends I cant reach because they have no power to charge their phone or money to buy a card. They have no running water...no tank to store it for when it does not run. I fall asleep at night praying for them and all my friends here. When this is over I want to see every face. I do not want to see one lost to this virus ! Life's short. Panamanians are a robust caring folk that are genuine givers/helpers. How very fortunate that I am here with them through this I cry for all this happening to the people I love, yet I am happy here.