Begrudging Recluse on Nostr: I'm reading "Spillover" by David Quammen (I know, I'm late to the party!) about ...
I'm reading "Spillover" by David Quammen (I know, I'm late to the party!) about animal infections, pandemics, and the way diseases spread among people. I came across this part in the chapter about the SARS-CoV-1 outbreak of 2003 and it made me chuckle:
"At this moment I became conscious of a dreary human concern: Though we were searching for SARS-like coronavirus in these animals, and sharing their air in a closely confined space, none of us was wearing a mask. Not even a surgical mask, let alone an N95. Um, why was that? I asked Aleksei.
'I guess it's like not wearing a seat belt,' he said. What he meant was that our exposure represented a calculated, acceptable risk. [...] Accepting that increment of risk is part of functioning within exigent circumstances. [...] If you were absolutely concerned to shield yourself against the virus, you'd need not just a mask but a full Tyvek overall, and gloves, and goggles -or maybe even a bubble hood and visor, your whole suit positive-pressurized with filtered air drawn in by a battery-powered fan. 'That's not very practical,' Aleksei said.
O, I said, and continued handling the bagged bats. I couldn't disagree. But what I thought was, Catching SARS -that's practical?"
#covid #covid19 #SARScov2 #WearAMask
"At this moment I became conscious of a dreary human concern: Though we were searching for SARS-like coronavirus in these animals, and sharing their air in a closely confined space, none of us was wearing a mask. Not even a surgical mask, let alone an N95. Um, why was that? I asked Aleksei.
'I guess it's like not wearing a seat belt,' he said. What he meant was that our exposure represented a calculated, acceptable risk. [...] Accepting that increment of risk is part of functioning within exigent circumstances. [...] If you were absolutely concerned to shield yourself against the virus, you'd need not just a mask but a full Tyvek overall, and gloves, and goggles -or maybe even a bubble hood and visor, your whole suit positive-pressurized with filtered air drawn in by a battery-powered fan. 'That's not very practical,' Aleksei said.
O, I said, and continued handling the bagged bats. I couldn't disagree. But what I thought was, Catching SARS -that's practical?"
#covid #covid19 #SARScov2 #WearAMask