OK, *now* we're in trouble ...

[rslade]

For some reason, on the Johns Hopkins CoVID-19 dashboard, Canada, as a country, has disappeared.  (If you switch to the province/state/dependency mode, the individual provinces with infections still show up.)

This is disturbing, for someone who lives there ...

[rslade]

Yesterday, on the Dr. Bonnie Show (co-starring Adrian Dix and Nigel Howard), a reporter "asked" a "question"[1] designed to give warning that he was going to run a story on the dinner time news hour that N95 masks were available, at various locations, and implying that the provincial government was not doing enough to find masks for medical personnel through local sources.

Without even having to draw breath, Dr. Bonnie pointed out that N95 (and I have been guilty of being careless with this distinction, myself) is not a type of mask, but a type of filtering material.  It is a filter that can trap or eliminate 95% of particles of more than 5 microns in size.  Once you have that filtering material, you can use it in dusk masks (which you can usually buy at any hardware store), face-fitting masks, medical masks (needing water-repellent coverings and possibly other capabilities), and various types of respirators (both with and without built-in goggles).

This is one of the reasons we love Dr. Bonnie.

[1] - The story did not, in the end, run on the dinner time news hour.

[rslade]

Usually I see this type of video clip demonstrating critical mass (in terms of nuclear weapons, rather than fault-finding church services), but it works for social distancing, as well.

Also on YouTube, although not, seemingly, posted by the originators at the Ohio Department of Health.

[denbesten]

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@rslade wrote:

Also on YouTube, although not, seemingly, posted by the originators at the Ohio Department of Health.

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So, that is why there has been a shortage of mousetraps in central Ohio!

[rslade]

See also "Is Zoom conferencing safe to use or not?"

[rslade]

OK, further to different types of contact tracing, a good overview of how to do it properly.

[rslade]

A woman, dying of CoVID-19, repeatedly talked to "Alexa" about it, particularly about the pain she was experiencing.

This raises all kinds of issues in regard to "digital assistants."

We have seen a number of instances where these various voice assistants have failed, sometimes drastically, in situations where emergency help has been required.  (More generally, there is the issue of the quality of information provided.)

We are also seeing increasing instances of people "socializing" with their devices (which, in these days of quarantine and isolation, must be a concern).  (See also the Movie "Her.")

There are also issues in regard to the ability of users to interact with the devices and understand the reality of their capabilities and responses.  (My mother is in a care facility right now, which is, of course, keeping visitors away.  I have a Facetime call, which the staff will be handling, booked with her in a few hours.  My Mom does NOT handle technology well ...)

[rslade]

[rslade]

So I'm in the mall, checking out where everyone (anyone?) is, and swinging wide around corners so that nobody is suddenly coming the other way, when it suddenly hits me that those movies and TV shows where the attacker suddenly jumps out from an alcove or behind a door or around a corner are going to seem pretty silly for a while ...

Which also reminded me that movies and TV shows, where the gang gets together, these days prompt an immediate reaction of "You're too close together!"  (Gangster movies, where rival gangs "meet" in a huge warehouse, and everyone stays a paranoid distance from each other, with hands on guns, prompts a "that's more like it" thought.)

[Beads]

Baselining your surroundings is something all security people should be taught and practiced outside of the military for life. Good that your noticing things you probably took for granted just a few short weeks ago.

Also, keep in mind that the human eye, though not as perceptive as we might think compared to many other animals is extremely good at finding motion. You instinctively notice even the slightest of motion before you register the color of objects. Use this to your awareness and stay safer doing it.

- b/eads

[rslade]

One of the things that has been bugging me, consistently, is the media finding people who have been inconvenienced in some way, and complain vociferously, even though they are generally safe.

In the latest example, some people have been brought home, by government arrangement, from one of the stricken cruise ships, and provided with quarantine accommodation.  But, along the way, there was a limited breach or exposure of the data about those people rescued.  Are they grateful?  No.  "Didn't we go through enough? Now we have to have a breach too? I'm just very angry that they would allow something like this to happen."

Look, people.  Your lives have been saved.  Emergency management is for emergencies.  It's not going to be perfect, because the whole situation is vastly imperfect.  No, the data breach shouldn't have happened, and was a mistake, and maybe somebody was careless.  But we are doing the best we can under very trying circumstances.

(We have a saying in our house, dating back to emergency surgery some years ago.  First, let me save your life.  Then I will deal with your sensitivity to adhesive tape.)