Fat Farm Fatalities: Covid 19

Today the news featured the story of a man who exposed his mother, sisters and daughter to the virus. He himself died his first day in the hospital. What was apparent from the photo of the entire family is a shared pre-existing condition – obesity, and possibly resultant diabetes. We need to be looking at several levels of vulnerability and what contributes in these cases.

The food industry is getting by with a huge burden on the government through the health care system. As obesity becomes normalized in various modes of “learning to love myself the way I am,” outsized “big and beautiful” models, even XL caskets, together with elevating “fat shaming” to a felony; people are becoming accustomed to evidence of an unhealthy way of life.

Packing on padding is not a healthful step in life. Those extra pounds got put on one bite at a time, less exercise to off set the calories, and then a regimen of repetition. Only when the food industry is exposed for its role in creating food cravings, addictions and tricking the body’s metabolism, will people see how they have been set up and taken. The industry has groomed them. Only when this is exposed will people have the choice to take that next bite; or take the next step.

Cause v. Contributing Factor

There was some discussion that asphyxiation might not have been the cause of death for George Floyd. The problem here is the use of “cause” instead of “contributing factor.” Was the knee on George’s neck for 9 minutes “the” cause, single linear causality? Even if it was not, any reasonable person could conclude that he would not have met his untimely end when he did, but for the major contributing factor of the officer’ knee on his neck.

A Question of “Proportionality”

When someone is stopped for having a taillight out, and it escalates into an assault and arrest, something is distorted. The fact that a man can walk or run through a neighborhood, and vigilante types can act on a misguided hunch to end that person’s life, is criminal on its face.

The police themselves have a standard which you do not want to reach. Are you perceived as a “threat.” Once you are, it seem that almost any action can be taken against you. I was talking with a local policeman in Maryland about this issue. He described a scene in which a farmer, emerging from his own home in the country, carried a pitchfork. The officer described him as a threat. I said, “Why don’t you just back up out of his range?” He replied,”Oh, you’re one of those humanitarians.”

I carried that one a little farther. “You are on his property, and he does not have lethal force. You arrived and you have choice over where you position yourselves. Back up.”

I would just like to see time spent on developing apprehension “flow charts.” Even someone fleeing the police…where is he going to go? Do you have to shoot to kill? What about shooting him in the leg. Better, how about picking him up at this home, where he is bound to return? A bullet is not a solution. It is an overstatement and invocation of lethal force. Why? Because you have a gun?

Training needs to extend beyond use of lethal weapons, and more toward seeing the person as a human being, and the situation as not necessarily confrontational or having to play out with finality in a few minutes. Let’s get some proportion back into law enforcement.

Masking Second Hand Breath

Words matter. Social distancing is an unfortunate term, because people are trying to get together. The “six foot rule” would be better. That is what you want. Not a seemingly anti-social term.

Does wearing a mask stifle your breathing? Fog your glasses? Get a better fitting mask. The reason you are wearing a mask is the same reason that smoking was banned from public places years ago. Second hand smoke was deadly, consisting of tar, nicotine, carbon monoxide and cyanide gas. It created a gas chamber. An effluent of smoking, it created liability for employers. And is gone.

Second hand breath can be more immediately deadly than second hand smoke. It creates a virus chamber. You don’t have to wait years. And you have no visible sign [asymptomatic] or behavior that the virus is being distributed, unless by sneeze, cough, spit, touch, or loud speaking. You just don’t know who is a source. The smoker is now the breather. That is why we wear a mask. It’s not about your liberty. It’s about the health of people you come in contact with.

Corona Virus Similar to Drone Strike

The similarities are striking in some ways. A drone can invade the sovereign territory of a country to seek out an adversary and kill him. While the virus is simply carried into contact with an unsuspecting person who is unsuspecting.

Both attack without notice. One arrives through an asymptomatic carrier. The other is undetectable from a distance. One essentially suffocates you. The other blows you to smithereens. One has no known cure or antigen. The other requires not becoming an intentional or accidental target.

The question is, given the similarities, will the season of the virus result in PTSD for any of the bystanders? What kind of side effects will we have from those who have not had any contact with the virus? What is their “take’ on it, and what outcome will they create or take away with them? Stay tuned.

Keep Virus In Your Mud Room

Many Colorado homes have a mud room so hikers don’t track in items from the outside world. You might consider your garage, even the trunk of your car like a mud room. Leave groceries not requiring refrigeration in the garage for several days to let the virus die.

Wear gloves in grocery store, then remove before touching steering wheel. Put them on to remove groceries from car. Watch your chain of hygiene.

Use paper towels on your counter when you put down groceries, packages. Handle items from outside with paper towels or gloves, then easily discard the paper in trash.

Take wax papered cereal out of the cardboard box that can keep the virus going for 72 hours. You can also microwave containers, even clothing to kill the virus. And, while we are at it, should you touch your face, you are not doomed. Just wash it with soap for over 20 seconds and the virus should succumb just as it does on your hands.

Get Ahead of the CDC: Wash Your Face for 20+ Seconds

Now that the CDC advises us to wear a mask when out in public, consider what is not being said, yet. You are told not to touch your face. They make it sound like once you have touched your face, there is no recourse. That is how the virus enters your body. But if you touch it and you are not doomed!

Wash your face with soap for 20 seconds. The same precaution that will kill the virus on your hands will kill it on your face. Suds up your face.

Suppose a virus has made it into your nose. Then, wouldn’t blowing your nose somewhat frequently, make sense as well? It’s a precaution, and we can use all the precautions we can get.

Keep the Churches Closed

Ministers in Texas are suing in order to hold services not limited to 10. The claim discrimination by the judge that established “essential” services.

To them I say: “Christ did not say, “I came that you might have COVID-19 abundantly.” He said, “I came that you might have life and have it abundantly.”

Each pastor should guarantee that “What spreads in their church will stay in their church.”

This is one of the most short-sighted, selfish, dangerous, and stupid things I have seen in the last week.