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Believe It or Not

I recently witnessed an exchange between a potential shopper and a retail assistant at the door of an Op Shop, where the shopper was asked to please use the complimentary hand sanitiser at the doorway, which was a condition of entering the shop. The shop assistant was pleasant and polite, but the shopper backed up as though she had been asked to swallow razorblades with a bleach chaser.

The woman refused to use the sanitiser, claiming she never used it because she was not “buying into the fear”. When the shop assistant politely advised that using the sanitiser first was a condition of entry, the woman stomped off in a huff.

Right now the planet is not in a good place, health wise, and whether you believe the virus is a hoax, a conspiracy, an  immune system killer via waves from the 5G satellites, or just plain evil dust being sprinkled on us from above by same, the fact remains that there is something out there and a lot of people around the world are dropping down dead when they contract it. Even those who recover are being left with after effects which will not necessarily go away.

So it’s not good.

Right, so you don’t believe there is a deadly virus out there. Okay, then feel free to have your  like-minded friends all come to visit you, all at the same time, and you can all hug and party like there’s no tomorrow. That’s your prerogative. Chances are though, that one or more of them may have been exposed to and infected by another like-minded individual and before you know it, your tomorrows may be severely compromised or worse, definitely numbered, because you have all come down with what feels like the worst flu you can ever remember having…

Well you can’t say you weren’t warned.

If by some stroke of luck you all survive the defiant group hug in your own homes, that doesn’t let you off the hook when it comes to the general directives when you are outdoors, and if that directive includes keeping physically-distanced from others and using hand sanitiser, when asked, before you enter a premises, then what’s the problem? It’s not a biggie. The thousands of people dying around the globe are not dropping all at the same time from natural causes and no, it is not “just flu” either.

You see, despite what you may or may not believe, there are many others out there in your community who are taking COVID-19 a little more seriously. As a result they are following all the directives currently in place to protect themselves and others, and while it may be impacting their lives to a greater or lesser extent, depending on their circumstances, at least they are still alive and not threatening the lives of those around them.

It is not that difficult!

No one is asking us to leap through hoops of fire, do the razorblades and bleach thingy (okay, maybe someone I just can’t be bothered naming here did mention bleach), or lock ourselves up so securely as to never see the light of day again. Even at the peak of the threat, we could make a visit to the chemist or the supermarket. We could go out onto a balcony or into a backyard. Walk, cycle or jog around the block or the park. We were just asked to stay distant and make good with the hand sanitiser and keep our socialising to the phone, social media and Face Time, and if you think that has flushed your whole life down the toilet, then you might want to rethink your whole life.

As for the woman who refused to use the hand sanitiser and stomped off in a huff; perhaps that was a blessing because I don’t know whether it was her clothes, or her, or both, but she smelt like there had been no laundry or showering done  in while. Quite a while to be honest, and I wondered whether not washing at all may have been part of her protest over the “fear” she was not “buying into”.  I mean, general hygiene has always been a thing, not a request that has just popped up recently because we have all been asked to be more diligent about it. But  hey, if you don’t want to wash  yourself or your clothes or sanitise your hands, stay home.

Trust me, no one won’t miss you.

 

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The Gift of the Jab

Misinformation is a problem at the best of times, and unfortunately, the Internet is full of it. People with no solid background in science, medicine, or healthcare are some of the worst offenders when it comes to misinformation because they often manage to package themselves as “qualified” or “professional” when they actually aren’t either and this is a real problem because they inevitably attract followers via those looking for answers when things go wrong.

They are kind of like cult leaders, I think,  with an over generous dollop of pot-stirrer (to attract controversy) thrown in for good measure and are very good at roping in the type of people who will readily believe whatever they read or hear and in the case of parents looking for something to blame when their child is not born perfectly healthy…well they’re just fodder for these self-styled “professionals”

Top of the list right now are the anti-vaccers. On the off chance you don’t know who they are, anti-vaccers are are loudly vocal group advocating that parents forgo vaccinations in the interests of their children’s health. They have proclaimed that vaccinations are full of poisonous toxins and are to blame for such conditions as asthma, schizophrenia, autism and eczema and that’s just for starters. No doubt there are other health issues out there just waiting to be labelled as vaccine-induced too but those I have mentioned above are the most common baddies at the moment. The anti-vaccine advocates would have you believe that it is actually good for children to contract nasty preventable diseases because, basically, they are “non-threatening” illnesses and once the child recovers they will have a natural immunity. Ri-ight, except that “recovers” is the debatable word here.

Let’s do a whip-around of those “non-threatening” diseases, shall we? We’ll start with Measles, Mumps and Chickenpox. Yes, children have caught these and most of them recovered, but measles and chickenpox can leave pockmark scars that don’t go away. Mumps can leave boys sterile. Adults who are unfortunate enough to contract these diseases are a lot sicker than if they had had the diseases as children. Adult males who contract mumps are more highly likely to end up sterile.

Next on the list is Diphtheria. This highly contagious bacterial disease attacks and causes inflammation of the mucus membranes. It also causes the formation of false membranes in the throat, which seriously hinders breathing and swallowing, as well as potentially fatal heart and nerve damage via the bacterial toxins in the bloodstream. Tetanus is another bacterial nasty which causes severe and painful spasms and rigidity of the voluntary muscles and locks the jaw. There is no cure. Tuberculosis (TB, Consumption) is a bacterial infection that especially infects the lungs. Symptoms are fever, coughing fits that get more severe as the disease progresses and death is usually caused by eventual haemorrhage. The most common form, Pulmonary Tuberculosis, has caused millions of deaths. And let’s not forget Poliomyelitis (Polio). This infectious viral disease attacks the central nervous system, causing paralysis. Those making a recovery are left crippled. Many ended up in an iron lung, a big metal device which provided prolonged artificial respiration. Before vaccination, hospitals had a lot of these.  And then there’s Whooping Cough, a highly contagious bacterial disease characterised by compulsive coughing. Also know as Pertussis, it is usually fatal in babies and toddlers. Seriously, who would do nothing to prevent their child catching one of these when the means to prevention is readily available???

The advent of vaccination means these diseases have, thankfully, all but disappeared in developed countries. The bacteria that causes them is still present in our world but the controlled dose of lab-grown versions of them means we can be safely “infected” but not catch the disease, let alone die from it! But vaccination is most effective when everyone gets it and that’s where those refusing to vaccinate their children are causing so much damage. A vaccinated child coming into close proximity with an unvaccinated one who is sick can still contract the disease and can then pass it on to others, like babies not yet old enough to have begun the vaccination program, those with other health issues and the aged and it is often fatal for them.

In an extreme effort to promote non-vaccination, anti-vaccers have propagated a rabid campaign of misinformation which has caused a lot of confusion for some parents who naturally want to do the best by their children. This is very unfair. Interestingly, many of the anti-vaccination supporters soon lost their fervour when the Australian Government imposed welfare cuts and the non-payment of other government assistance to those refusing to vaccinate their children. Funny that! But with the reintroduction of many of these nasty but preventable diseases, due to a stubborn and misguided group of individuals opting out of vaccinating, some hefty action needed to be taken  and withholding the government handouts these people enjoy was probably one of the most effective actions it could have taken.

Because money talks.

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What’s with the step-counting apps???

Well to be perfectly honest, probably nothing. I don’t see the sense of something that counts how many steps we have taken in a single walk from A to B, so of all the apps being pushed on us as a great idea, this one just isn’t.  Sure, I get that fitness is still big business and those who can manage to cash in on it will do so via useless items like calorie counters, lycra, activewear and little bracelets and/or phone apps that count how many steps you take in a single day. I mean, how often do you really don that lycra outfit you spent a lot on? Or actually use that calorie counter? Chances are that a week or so after dashing out to buy it, it has found a spot in the back of the wardrobe/cupboard and remained there ever since. It happens. It’s all gung-ho and then…nothing, until you rediscover it and sell it for a tenth of the purchase price on eBay.

So why splurge on some gadget that is going to count your steps all day? Okay, so you walk to work, take the stairs to your floor/office, at lunchtime walk to that earthy cafe for a macro salad and a lite decaf, walk back to work and then walk home. You know you have done a reasonable amount of walking, right? You’re happy about that, yeah? So isn’t that all that matters? You made a conscious decision to walk. End of story. Are you really going to get all excited by a step reading? Okay, so you are. That could almost be a bit pedantic. What possible rush could you get out of knowing to the last footfall how many steps you take in a single day?

But step-counting gadgets are literally walking out the door because many of us have been hyped into thinking we need them and the retailers and the manufacturers are laughing all the way to the bank. Possibly on foot but I bet they’re not! Meanwhile another person on a fitness fix has bought one of the bracelets or apps to tell them that their power walk to the shop, around the block or wherever has upped their step-count and burned X amount of calories. But you can guess that on your own, surely. As in, walk instead of transport equals good for you and it stands to reason that you would have burned up calories and a few fat cells into the bargain. Shouldn’t that be all you need to know?  You got off the couch and got yourself into motion and it did your body a whole heap of good.  Your mind too for that matter. You don’t need to know how many steps you took to achieve that.

Forget the apps, just do it!