Wearing face coverings may reduce the severity of Covid-19 if the full protection fails

It is unfortunate or even sad that wearing face covering has been politicized, thus reducing the effectiveness of public health policy implementation. I never got tired of saying something exhorting general public to wear face covering whenever the occasions call for it. I wrote a letter-to-the-editor to the Observer-Reporter (a newspaper at Washington, PA) to this effect in early April. I had another letter published today (Sept. 22) advocating a new concept that has been supported by many evidences observed. I wrote an article of “The scientific basis of wearing face mask” in my blog, although article like this is inherently dull and dry.

I basically want people to be aware that wearing face covering may not fully protect one from getting COVID-19, but it may potentially decrease the severity of the disease as wearing face covering may reduce the amount of viruses one receives. This is consistent with a well-established theory of viral pathogenesis, which says that the severity of the disease is proportionate to the viral inoculum received. An article in the July 14 Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences reveals that “higher doses of administered virus led to more severe manifestations of Covid-19 in a Syrian hamster model of SARS-CoV-2 infection.”

The rate of asymptomatic infection with SARS-CoV-2 infections was estimated to be up to 40% according to a CDC report in mid-July, whereas the rate of asymptomatic infection was more than 80% in the setting of universal facial masking.

I threw in another info that taking vaccine may potentially reduce the severity of the disease when the full protection fails. The targeted readers would be those who refuse to take vaccine for whatever reasons.

Glorious gladiolus

這些 劍蘭 （gladiolus）都是去年種的，冬天來時挖出來在窒內過冬.  春天到時因疫情的關係我們沒有出去買新的 花苞，所幸這些去年種的花苞 今年還算爭氣，也花姿招展一番. 最下面的兩張是 2017 及 2013 年拍的。

The open letter of Stanford medical school faculties condemns Dr. Scott Atlas

Since Dr. Scott Atlas was appointed as the new medical adviser for the White House coronavirus task force in mid-August, I have been checking Stanford Medicine website numerous times, trying to find out what they would say about their former colleague (He is currently a senior fellow in health care policy at Hoover Institution, a conservative think tank at Stanford University. So theoretically, he is still a Stanford man.). But I was disappointed at finding nothing until yesterday when I finally read an open letter, which condemns Dr. Atlas’s radical and dangerous view and behavior about this pandemic. The letter was signed by over one hundred doctors and researchers. The following link is to the open letter.

(The Open Letter on Stanford Medicine was taken out a day or two after it was posted. The law firm representing the White House threatened to sue those doctors.)

The Open Letter is still available online (the following is a NYT document)

https://int.nyt.com/data/documenttools/read-the-open-letter-from-stanford-doctors-on-scott-atlas/813b50f72b6543b4/full.pdf

There was an article on 8/172020 Frankfurter Allgemeine (German newspaper) with a title of Sie simulieren Wissenschaft (They simulate/feign science), using Dr. Scott Atlas at White House as the title photo. One can read “corona-pseudoexperten” (corona-pseudoexperts) on it. 

(I translate two short paragraphs so you may get the idea of what this article is all about.)

. . . there are almost always a bunch of pseudo-experts from outside their fields, who wrapped themselves in the “information bubble”, isolated, but present their academic position when they felt rebuke is needed.

It is happening now in the White House. In fact Trump has not yet showed the door to Fauci, the popular immunologist, but by placing the former neuroradiologist, Scott Atlas, of Hoover Institution at Stanford University at the top of his Corona-advisory board, a pseudo-expert, who is capable of getting conspiratorial fantasies going while standing along the honest/credible virologists and epidemiologists. In his first interview Atlas corrected the cautious epidemic expert, Fauci, regarding his lock down strategy. Scott Atlas wants it—and Trump wanted it for a long while—that American people should be able to cheer again in the college-football-stadiums.

The unknown purple wild flower 不知名的紫色野花

幾個月前花園後頭的走道長了一棵很大的 weed, Katy 說她會開紫色的花，因為我們幾乎沒有走那一個地方，所以也留著沒有抜掉。看看這個紫色花（Katy 也不知道其名字）我說野花也是花, 你一定會同意。難怪 Emily Dickinson 非常喜歡野花. 她在 Holyoke Female Seminary (Mount Holyoke College 的前身）時寫了一封信, 其內有, “There are not many wild flowers near, for the girls have driven them to a distance, and we are obliged to walk quite a distance to find them, but they repay us by their sweet smiles and fragrance.” 我們這個紫色花也 repay us with her beauty.

我在 Emily Dickinson 的詩有讀到一句：”From just a Purple Flower beyond”.  所以不是只有我們不知道 Purple Flower 的名字。

The unknown beans happen to be the one we like the most, 誤打誤中

朋友給 Katy 一些 翼豆種子, 我們不知道是什麼豆, 開紫色花時非常好看 （我說豆好吃比花好看更重要）Katy online 一查, 看它的花的確叫翼豆, 但豆長出來後, 越長越長, 有一天 Katy 讓美玉看，美玉說這就是他們家種的長豇豆, 這下子可真是誤打誤中了，因為美玉楊錚幾年前給我們的長豇豆是我們最愛吃的。這種長豇豆煮稀飯是上品.

Yin tsai (water spinach) galore

We planted yin tsai (water spinach) in two ways: from the stems and from the seeds. We bought yin tsai in Chinese grocery store in mid June. After eating the leaves, we put the stems in the water and planted them when the roots came out.

The first attempt to plant the seeds was met with no success. Katy came up with a good idea by immersing the seeds in the water for a day or two before planting. It was a resounding success. We then transplanted them at an optimal time. It ended up with more than a dozen “yin tsai zones” scattered all over the garden.

Celosias in our garden: My “old flames”

Celosias live up to their name. The name is derived from the Greek word ‘kelos’which means ‘burned’. The beauty of celosia comes from the bright colors (red, pink, golden and yellow), looking like a burning flame when they are in glory. All the celosias in our garden are volunteer come backs, my “old flames”, so to speak. Some of them were moved around, pursuing the neatness of a design garden, some were left alone, aiming for a chaotic beauty.