Yep. I look goofy but, today was a spectacular gardening day. The hat minimizes sun exposure. Even during COVID 19 sun exposure increases the risk of dangerous skin cancers and it increases the rate that your skin ages.
My herb garden is planted and the vegetable garden is almost planted. My husband plants the garden. I tend to it all season, then I harvest and can about 200 jars of this and that. Seems more important this year. Putting food by.
In the scientific and medical world, there is a new sense of optimism about a vaccine sooner than later and anti-viral medications that may be effective in neutralizing the virus, preventing COVID 19 from progressing to advanced stages and death. The field of virology ( the study of viruses) has advanced at an incredible rate in the last 30 years as a result of what the world has learned in the fight against HIV.
The HIV virus locks on to one of the most important cells in your immune system ( the CD4 cell). It enters that cell and takes over, like entering a car factory and taking over all the mechanisms in that factory, shifting it from making cars to making more viruses. The virus gets into the cell and uses it to replicate itself making many more viruses until the cell explodes. The cell dies and the virus lives on to infect another cell.
COVID 19 does this to very important cells in your lungs.
Scientists have created drugs that block the HIV virus from getting into CD4 cells and from dividing itself in the cell. At present, three drugs are needed to carry this out. This three- drug-treatment regimen has made HIV a disease that is chronic and manageable, many patients living through to a normal life expectancy. We do need to make this treatment widely available in every country to every HIV positive person.
Can we modify these existing drugs to block the COVID virus? You bet we can. It is coming!
As for vaccines, 134 scientific groups are working diligently with an unprecedented amount of resources and they are working collaboratively. Three of these groups are showing great promise in the first stages of research. This is not pushing the production of a vaccine too rapidly and carelessly. This is the rapid advancement toward a vaccine with more tools and partnerships than we have ever had before.
Until effective treatments exist, people need to continue physical distancing, hand hygiene, cough etiquette and to stay home when sick.
Brazil is the new epicentre of the COVID 19 pandemic. We do not want to become an epicentre. The trick is, to keep our public health measures in place while loosening restrictions so that the economy can get back on track. We can do this but we must remain diligent.
I was in two nurseries a grocery store and a bank today. Very proud of how well everyone is working at keeping their distance. It is not perfect but we will get there. Follow our leaders. They know what they are doing. Testing will ramp up. It is not that Ontario does not have the capacity to test many more. We do. It is that we need to find a way to get more people to show up for testing and we will figure that out too. Your leaders are smart and united. They've got this.
A friend of mine was tested on Thursday night, she had her test result back this morning. Two months ago, it took 7 to 14 days to get a result back. That is tremendous progress.
A great quote I found today from Eric Arts, a professor of microbiology and immunology at Western University in London, Ont.
"With treatment or something that could be effective and good screening, we can control this disease pretty effectively until we have a vaccine. It's just that we have to be a little more patient for a little while longer and we will have relief."
Keep it up folks and have faith!
"The goal with a pandemic isn’t to remain consistent; it's to respond to new information. We Canadians need to allow our experts to be fluid with their recommendations." Inderveer Mahel ( MacLeans)
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