First, let’s go with some helpful info for those who are stuck at home, have no work, and need to keep the kids occupied.
Audible for kids (https://www.audible.com/ep/kids-audiobooks) is offering free service while school is out.
Sesame Street (https://www.sesamestreet.org) continues to be a fabulous resource for parents and kids, as always. They even have printable activities on their website, like coloring pages, and activity pages.
Scholastic, the publiisher that produces so many children’s books also has a lot of content on its website, with lesson plans and ideas for fun learning: (https://www.scholastic.com/home/). I couldn’t find anything free, though. They did have a free book fair a few days ago. I’ll try to find out about them beforehand to let you know so you can participate.
My church, and other houses of worship are using zoom.us to allow parishioners to participate remotely. Zoom is free up to a certain number of people and with a time limit. But it is fabulous. I used it with my cousins. You’ll need to download it, though, so you might have to help your tech-challenged participants get set up. But once it is set up, it’s super easy to use. You just click on the link that the leader started and punch in the number.
Of course, all of these assume you have some sort of gadget to connect to the internet.
BestBuy is offering curb service. You can call them and they will take your order out to the car. If you can’t afford to buy one, I’m not sure I have an answer for you, as the libraries are closed, and the places you might be able to get used ones are probably also closed.
Now, a word about our current “hardship.”
In World War II, young men were plucked from their lilves and thrown into life-threatening situations. Back at home, their families members faced rationing for everything from butter to clothes; factories were forced to produce what the war effort needed; curfews in London; the list goes on and on of the hardships people faced.
We are being asked to stay in the comfort of our own homes, shop only for what we NEED, instead of frivolities, and use the phone or other gadgets to talk to people. We are not even asked to stay inside.
Why is this so hard, people?
Just do it.
And as we look to our political leaders for help and support, look closer to home. The Boob in the White House is NOT helping. When he stops talking, listen to Dr. Fauci, but beware of even the others on that stage. The message coming from Washington, that supplies are being shipped for example, that they have plenty of supplies, is simply NOT matching what is happening on the ground.
So look to your own governors, and other governors who are doing what they can. Gov. Cuomo is adding 2,000 hospital beds: 1,000 at the Javits Center, and four other 250-bed temporary hospitals statewide. He is also asking hospitals to increase their capacity by at least 50% by putting beds closer togther, and being creative with space.
He is doing that because he looked at the numbers and he knows what he will need. He has 53,000 hospital beds and expects he will need 110,000, less if New Yorkers stay home and slow the spread of the disease. If the spread is slowed down, then the hospital system can handle the influx. This is the same scenario everywhere, just with the numbers changing to match specific states.
Of course, all the hosptial beds in the world will not matter if there aren’t enough healthcare workers to staff the hospitals or if they don’t have the equipment they need.
Our president needs to compel industry to make personal protective equipment (PPE) and ventilators. Why he won’t do that is anyone’s guess. He said he asked manufacturers to produce the equipment we need and they agreed to do it. Gov. Cuomo says there is a price war among states and healthcare facilities to get the equipment. An 80-cent mask now costs $7.00. Seven DOLLARS. That is unconscionable in this time. Just despicable. But that’s captialism. That’s the free market. Tha’s greed in action. But it can all stop if the president acts. Call your representatives in Congress and get them to pressure the president to do the right thing.
it is true that the vast majority of people who get this disease, especially young people who are otherwise healthy, will get over it like a flu-bug and be okay. What people are not recognizing is that the numbers are astronomical. Yes, 64,000 people died of the flu last year. BUT THEY DID NOT ALL GO TO THE HOSPITAL AT THE SAME TIME! That 64,000 is spread across the whole flu season. And, anyway, REALLY, why is it okay that we lost 64,000 people to the flu (but that’s another topic). We have a flu vaccine, so a lot of people did not get it who would have, and a lot of people who did get it, got a mild case of it. COVID-19 is much, much MUCH more contagious than the flu, we do NOT have a vaccine, and it’s going to hit us all at once if we don’t back off from each other….literally.
And please stop spreading foolishness on social media. Sites like Facebook are wonderful in this time to keep us all connected but away from each other physically. Stop posting copied content that starts out with “My friend,” or “My colleague,” or other beginnings that make it look like you yourself have knowledge of something or that you know someone personallly who does. This crap does not help anyone.
Oh, and COVID-19 is NOT a fragile virus. For heaven’s sake stop spreading that bogus video that is supposedly from WHO (World Health Organization) saying heat can kill the virus. That amount of heat will killl YOU first. If you see something that purports to be from a reputable site, GO TO THAT SITE AND NOT FROM THE LINK PROVIDED. If you are seeing it, then you have a gadget that will get you to the site independently using a Google search or whatever your search engine of choice is. Do that FIRST. If you can’t find it on that website, it’s a hoax. I don’t care how f’g slick and professional it looks.
I’ll try to post again, and let you know if anything changes.
But, I’m also going to have to get into deadline mode soon to get this week’s issue out, providing I can still publish a paper at all.
See ya (from a distance),
bd
PS: visit www.mass.gov for updates on Massachusetts.
Visit www.cdc.gov for the federal government’s info, and more specifically visit https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/03.16.20_coronavirus-guidance_8.5x11_315PM.pdf for the “15 Days to Slow the Spread” document that Dr. Fauci and others have been holding up at press conferences.
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