I’ve been largely at home for the last few days. The winter storms have left me disinclined to venture out of the heated house without a REALLY good reason.
I’m in OH, and, for many of us, NOT venturing out is more the norm. It’s for that reason that we stock up in our pantries before winter. We are well aware that – although we COULD go out of the house – we will likely not WANT to.
Which is where I’ve been this week. Home. Snug. Eating from my stored foods.
It’s given me time to leisurely peruse the blogs. One of them has an interesting post on the largely hereditary governments of the past, and the implications for our society.
Here is the original post at Zman’s site.
I’ve been reading about COVID from a variety of sources. Many of the articles/posts at BOTH ends of the extreme seem to be based less on science, and more on deep-rooted suspicions of the opposing side. However, the near-complete shutdown of alternative points of view certainly leads one to question just how accurate the CDC and FDA numbers are. The government figures have been called into question by a number of people – SOME of them without an agenda, but actively looking for some truth.
Vitamin D is one of the unsung preventatives that might hold the key to keeping most people over 50 alive – the average person is deficient in this nutrient. The deficiencies rise as people age.
However, as so many people “sheltered in place” during the alleged crisis, I wouldn’t be surprised to see that even younger people are severely deficient in this vitamin. Too few people are going outside (myself included, although that might be considered sensible in this current weather). Even children have been discouraged from playing outside by parks closing to unmasked people, and limiting close contact with others.
Add to the masking (keeps the sun from being absorbed on the face), the use of gloves and other clothing to reduce possible skin-to-skin contamination, and the likelihood of Vitamin D deficiency skyrockets. You have to have skin exposed to the sun to get that absorption. Below is a picture of a common use of sunlamps to prevent rickets in Russian children.
It’s even more important for darker skinned people that those with less melanin (i.e., White people). Vitamin D deficiency might account for a lot of the differential in long-term health outcomes in different races.
Even many of the blog/news sites/organizations that profess to be on the side of freedom may only fulfill the task of Cooling the Marks, by keeping them from taking effective steps to stop the Oligarchy. For that purpose, many of the “top-down” organizations have been built. As of today, there are few that were not exposed by Trump; THAT was his real crime.
Consider the dependence of most of society on electronic devices (I am as great a user as anyone – I depend on them to keep me SOMEWHAT connected with family and friends, as well as write, conduct business, and interface with my hearing aids, security system, and network). Depressing to realize the extent to which we are all enmeshed with the Net. Understand, it’s not merely entertainment. THAT we could jettison without much of a problem.
No, it’s the apps that people need to work (teachers call in sick via an app, and their subs pick up the jobs with the same one), conduct business (Zoom calls, email and phone messages, online professional development learning and mandatory HR training, online forms for workers and customers, mandatory tracking of warehouse or production workers to make sure that they are “maximally productive”), online ordering – goods, food, meds – the list goes on and on.
It’s apps that people use to manage their lives – medical appointments, delivery of meds or food, check-ins with caregivers, virtual doctor visits, tracking of elderly family members, so they can continue some degree of independence, GPS travel, interfacing with medical devices.
Little of this is trivial. Little of it is private and under our sole control.
