Here’s Your Answer (Six Sentence Stories), Gate Edition of Good Fences, Paradise (Sammy's Poetry Day) and Brian's Thankful Thursday

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(Today i am breaking the rules of the six sentence story; doing two stories and not using the cue word directly in them, as you will see, although it relates. If Denise wants to remove my name and link for this week, i will understand.  Please know i am doing this because i believe this is important and the information needs to be out there.  Most of the information shared in these stories is from letters forwarded to me, one written by a PhD biology student, the other from a biomedical researcher.

There are two six sentence stories here today.   Because the cue word is Question, in both of these stories i am trying to answer the big question now, “Why are there more precautions being taken for Covid19  than are taken for the regular flu or even H1N1(Swine) or Avian flu?”)

Story (i.e. Answer) #1

Covid19 is a worse problem than seasonal flu because our regular flu is a human virus with DNA/RNA chains that the human body recognizes and goes after right away, while Covid19 is a brand new mutation of an animal virus that our bodies do not recognize at all and have no defenses against.

Most such “novel” viruses only pass from animal to person, but sometimes one will mutate and become transmissible from human to human; normally that takes years, but in this case the virus mutated in TWO WEEKS to become transmissible from human to human, unheard of before!

Swine and Avian flus also mutated to move from person to person, but they mutated very slowly and made people sick in different and more easily treatable ways than this virus.

The Covid19 virus is so “slippery”, that is, it mutates so very fast, that it has already mutated into another strain in humans, so we have two different strains to try to develop tests, medications, and vaccines for.

This virus is a lung eater, unlike previous animal flus that give us more typical flu symptoms.

Also consider that right now it hits older folks much harder, but as slippery as it is in mutating we have no way to know what it will do next, we can only know that it probably will mutate again if we don’t get a handle on the situation, and we have no idea what that mutation will look like or whether it will start attacking everyone equally.

Story (i.e. Answer) #2

Considering the facts from the first story, history has shown that only fast and immediate closings of public places has helped to slow or stop previous pandemics; since Philadelphia and Baltimore were reluctant to close anything back in 1918, they were the two hardest hit cities in the US with the Spanish Flu.

Swine flu and our seasonal flu are both easy to detect, Covid19 is not, and because we have so few test kits we are having a difficult time tracking where this one is going; we probably have a lot more cases than are being reported because of the lack of testing, and that is a bad thing.

Covid19 is more contagious than seasonal flu or Swine flu, much more; if you sneeze on your hand, then touch a doorknob with the other flu types, in about 10 minutes, it’s dead, but Covid19 lives up to 3 days on metal and up to 24 hours on cardboard!

When only a few people at a time get the flu, the healthy can easily take care of the sick; if we get millions and millions sick at once, there are simply not enough resources as the medical community and all those places from which we buy our supplies would be totally overwhelmed, not to mention that those who bring us electricity and water would also be short on manpower to continue doing so.

This disease spreads so fast that if we don’t take drastic actions to keep our distance and stop it we might have billions of people sick all over the world all at the same time; the inability to adequately treat that many sick people at once and lack of basic supplies (possibly including water and electricity) would mean a much higher death toll than the current 3% as most would simply not get any care because it would not be available.

Folks, this is serious, and the only way to deal with it is to isolate yourself as much as possible; Henry VIII survived the Black Plague because he was able to shut himself in his room and refused to see anyone at all, for any reason, until it was over, and as much as you can, it’s a good idea to imitate that right now.

Linking up with Denise at Girlie On The Edge Blog, where she hosts Six Sentence Stories, and the cue is Question.         

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Gosia at Looking for Identity has taken over Good Fences, and it's now Good Fences Around The World.  Post a picture of a fence or gate, link back to her blog, and go visit other blogs to see what interesting fences there are out in this big world.      

Yesterday i moved this gate for Ms. G:

And here’s a gate i am glad i don’t have to try to move:

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It's Angel Sammy's Poetry Day!  This week's image and my poem:    

This island is my paradise

Bring me a drink with plenty of ice,

Let me take a hammock snooze

And sunshine chase away my blues!

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Brian of Brian's Home hosts the Thankful Thursday Blog Hop.   It's time to share something for which i am thankful.  

Today i am thankful that restaurants here are not closing, they are simply converting over to take-out, curb service, or delivery outlets.  All of my children work in restaurants, and people can still go get their favorite meals out, just to bring home instead of to eat there, a win for everyone in today’s world.

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Today is:

Absolutely Incredible Kid Day -- Camp Fire USA encourages everyone to send a note or letter to a young person today, telling him/her exactly what an incredible kid s/he is!

Commemoration of the Victory over Kadhafi -- Libya

Companies That Care Day -- national event that encourages employers to highlight and expand their employee and community initiatives, and recognize the people who make their companies successful    

Corn Dog Day -- some sites say the 20th; #2 Son will celebrate both days, if i can afford that many corn dogs

Greater Dionysia -- Ancient Greek Calendar (largest festival to Dionysos, lasting five days; date approximate

Kashubians' Unity Day -- among Kashubians in northern Poland

Let's Laugh Day -- a holiday spread by ecard companies, because any day is a good day for a laugh

Lord's Evening Meal -- Jehovah's Witness

Mojoday -- Discordianism

National Chocolate Caramel Day

Oil Nationalization Day -- Iran

Pet Passport Day -- today in 2000, the UK passed the pet passport law, allowing pets into Great Britian without quarrantine if they met certain criteria

Poultry Day -- a day to honor the role poultry plays in our lives

Quinquatria -- Roman Empirical Calendar (celebration of Minerva and Mars, especially the birthday of Minerva today; through the 23rd)

See If You Can Find Someone Who Remembers Honey West Day -- internet generated trivia question

Swallows Return to San Juan Capistrano Day -- despite what you think, the bird you saw there yesterday was not a swallow, the natives will tell you

St. Joseph's Day (Patron of bursars, cabinetmakers, carpenters, civil engineers, confectioners, craftsmen, dying people, emigrants, expectant mothers, families, fathers, happy death, holy death, house hunters, immigrants, interior souls, laborers, married people, Oblates of St. Joseph, people in doubt, people who fight communism, pioneers, protection of the church, social justice, travellers, unborn children, wheelwrights, workers; Universal Church; over 50 cities, diocese, and countries; against doubt and hesitation)

    As Patron of fathers, his day is also Father's Day in Belgium, Bolivia, Honduras, Italy, Portugal, and Spain.

    Valencia, Spain has it's biggest day of the Las Fallas Festival today, with the fireworks.

Time Zone Day -- US Congress passed the Standard Time Act to sort out the fact that different states and cities used different times, with no rhyme or reason

Zimbor-Quattor's Revenge Week begins -- Fairy Calendar

Birthdays Today:

Michael Bergin, 1969

Bruce Willis, 1955

Glenn Close, 1947

Clarence "Frogman" Henry, 1937

Ursula Andress, 1936

Phyllis Newman, 1935

Renee Taylor, 1935

Phillip Roth, 1933

Ornette Coleman, 1930

Patrick McGoohan, 1928

Brent Scowcroft, 1925

John Joseph Sirica, 1904

Earl Warren, 1891

Edith Nourse Rogers, 1881

Charles M. Russell, 1864

William Jennings Bryan, 1860

Albert Pinkham Ryder, 1847

Wyatt Earp, 1848

Sir Richard Burton, 1821

David Livingstone, 1813

Thomas Mckean, 1734

William Bradford, 1590

Debuting/Premiering Today:

Batman Vs. Superman, Dawn of Justice(Film), 2016

"Kate and Allie"(TV), 1984

"A Child of Our Time"(Oratorio), 1944

"Amos and Andy"(Radio), 1928

"Faust"(Opera), 1859

"Die Braut von Messina"(Schiller Play), 1803

Today in History:

A Mongolian victory in the Battle of Yamen ends the Song Dynasty in China, 1279

Explorer Robert Cavelier de La Salle, searching for the mouth of the Mississippi River, is murdered by his own men, 1687

The SS Georgiana, said to have been the most powerful Confederate cruiser, is destroyed on her maiden voyage with a cargo of munitions, medicines and merchandise then valued at over $1,000,000, 1863

Pluto is photographed for the first time but is not recognized as a planet, 1915

Eight American planes take off in pursuit of Pancho Villa, the first United States air-combat mission in history, 1916

The U.S. Congress establishes time zones and approves daylight saving time, 1918

Willie Mosconi sets a world record by running 526 consecutive balls without a miss during a straight pool exhibition at East High Billiard Club in Springfield, Ohio. The record still stands today, 1954

Gumby makes his debut, 1957

The wreck of the SS Georgiana, valued at over $50,000,000 and said to have been the most powerful Confederate cruiser, is discovered by then teenage diver and pioneer underwater archaeologist E. Lee Spence exactly 102 years after its destruction, 1965

Texas Western becomes the first college basketball team to win the Final Four with an all-black starting lineup, 1966

India and Bangladesh sign a friendship treaty, 1972

The United States House of Representatives begins broadcasting its day-to-day business via the cable television network C-SPAN, 1979

Argentinian forces land on South Georgia Island, precipitating the Falklands War with the United Kingdom, 1982

Zimbabwe is suspended from the Commonwealth on charges of human rights abuses and of electoral fraud, following a turbulent presidential election, 2002

A cosmic burst, GRB 080319B, that is the farthest object visible to the naked eye is briefly observed, 2008

After two decades of being closed due to civil war, the Somali National Theater reopens in Mogadishu, 2012

The papal inauguration ceremony for Pope Francis is held in St. Peter's Square, 2013

The world's last male northern white rhino, 45 year old Sudan, dies in Kenya, 2018

American Karen Uhlenbeck becomes the first woman to win mathematics' Abel Prize, 2019