What I Know about COVID-19

This article is the collection of knowledge / thoughts about COVID-19 that I find relevant to my everyday life.

Getting it: masks work. Not perfectly. This is a good illustration on El Pais.

Incubation period: average of 5 days.

On average, symptoms showed up in the newly infected person about 5 days after contact. Rarely, symptoms appeared as soon as 2 days after exposure. Most people with symptoms had them by day 12. And most of the other ill people were sick by day 14. 
https://www.webmd.com/lung/coronavirus-incubation-period

When Contagious: most contagious 1 to 2 days BEFORE one is sick.

Researchers estimate that people who get infected with the coronavirus can spread it to others 2 to 3 days before symptoms start and are most contagious 1 to 2 days before they feel sick. 
https://www.webmd.com/lung/coronavirus-incubation-period

Traveling:

• by plane – air fully circulates 2-4 minutes. That said, I am confused on transmission rates. This article gives me pause: Washington Post: A woman died of coronavirus on a plane. Her fellow passengers were never notified.
• by train / bus – given how air circulates, seems like a bad idea.

If anyone has additional articles that I should incorporate, please email me at covid@nikitab.com and I will review them.

QUESTIONS:

• After someone travels, when should they get tested to assess if they picked it up while traveling?

Mary’s Amazing Deliciousness

This is amazing. Like legit amazing. Super-bit thanks to Mary, who showed me the light.

Depression as an Ally

I wrote an article about depression not being a bad thing.  Posted it on Medium here!

MA Rules of Civil Procedure (Kindle, now with TOC)

I think I may have done a good thing here at nikitab.com/MARulesCiv.htm.

Idea: Public Support Conversations

Use Case: people should be able to have public “support” conversations with companies.

Product: a site that would allow individuals to have public conversations with service providers in order to ensure social accountability.

EMDR for PTSD: My Understanding of Why and How It Works

EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) is a therapy for PTSD that works surprisingly well.  I will discuss here my understanding of how and why it works.

The American Spirit

Looks like Trump is our incoming president. I voted for Hillary.

The morning brought a collective shudder of horror and  the Canadian immigration website crashing due to overwhelming traffic. Before moving to Canada, take a deep breath, acknowledge what had happened, and realize:  this is an unprecedented opportunity to evolve.

What if God’s Intention is for Humanity to Transcend Religion?

The fundamental of any religion is that God is not shallow.

Take the Christian framework.  God is wise and powerful. Yet, if one looks at the religion at face value, a paradox immediately emerges: God is all-powerful, thereby all knowing, thereby any suffering caused is as God intends it.  Yet causing unnecessary suffering is, by definition, petty.  And there is no shortage of suffering either in the Bible or in history.  A God that would force humanity to endure the 20th century, unless one assumes that it might have never existed, would be incredibly petty.  And yet…  God cannot be petty by definition.  And so we are at a liar paradox – can God create a rock He can’t lift? (An entirely new spin on “do you even lift bro”…)

Brexit–the Case for Sanity.

Whenever something like this happens, I am amazed how tabloids make things sound so polar and so one-sided catering to our collective popular trumpesque whims (all of the puns!)…

I’d just like to point out a few obvious things.  UK GDP is 2.678 trillion.  EU GDP is 16.2 trillion.  That is, UK is #2 in the top 5 (Germany, UK, France, Italy, Spain. collectively 10.5 trillion, which is 71.8% of total EU GDP) with UK being 17.6% of total EU GDP.  Yeah…

Revelation: Littering vs. ….

I was fuming.  Pissed off at an old can, part of a larger composition of litter scattered along the sidewalk.  As I righteously wallowed humanity-hating, a thought struck me: for every 1 person who throws a can onto the sidewalk, there are at least 100 who walk by and complain about it.  What if…