Who was that masked man?

   POINT RICHMOND, Calif. - Sunday was a day of mask production here in Admiral Fox's workshop office.
     No, not mass production. Mask production. 😎
     And no, no, NO! Not Lone Ranger-style masks, though it would be pretty cool if they could be used to fight infection. Hi-ho, Silver!

If Clayton Moore was still alive,
he could model medical face masks.

    The masks coming out of Admiral Fox's shop are to help people avoid getting infected - or infecting others - with COVID-19.
     Wait! Cloth masks won't stop COVID-19, right? Well, yes, that's correct. That's certainly the prevailing official medical wisdom.
     But a New York City doctor made a good argument last week that by wearing a mask, people are much less likely to touch their faces. The mask is a reminder that the mouth, nose and eyes are the weak spots in any human's defense against viruses and disease.
     The same doctor said compulsive hand washing is a virtue right now.
     Then, a few days ago, a well-respected doctor/medical researcher at UCSF in San Francisco said pretty much the same thing about masks when he was talking in a nationwide teleconference with journalists. Ditto for hand washing. Lots of hand washing.
     A mask can't hurt, he said, it can only help, even if only a little. And if everyone wears a mask, well, the overall risk of infection drops, as has been shown in other countries.
     So at least for the near future, masks will be the latest fashion accessory for all of our outside-the-condo forays.
     But will our Yorkie pooch Biscuit be willing to don a matching mask to what the Admiral or I wear?
     He's not saying.

The face mask manufacture workbench

Face mask Version 1.0

Waiting for Mr. Coronavirus

   POINT RICHMOND, Calif. - Everyone reading this is likely in the same boat, so to speak.
The coronavirus has us all hiding out inside our homes. Or if outside, we are wary of anyone getting within 10 feet of us.
     Yes, I know the recommendation is 6 feet. But when you are about to pass someone walking on a sidewalk it's hard to gauge. Ditto for having a small dog on a leash when you pass someone with young children who just have to pet your pooch.
    This is prelude to restating a bit of the bad news you have already received from screeching media sirens of disaster about how quickly this virus is infecting people - and spreading.
    For days I have been fascinated by a virus-case online graphic published by Johns Hopkins.
     Fascinated and horrified.
     The only good news - such as it is - is that it updates every hour of two and doesn't have a running tally in real time where you could watch the number of cases in 167 nations as they pile up.
     It is still startling to log on every couple of hours and see the upticks.

     The screenshot above shows that the total number of confirmed cases worldwide has hit 297,000-plus as of 10:43 a.m. Saturday, March 21.

     A couple of hours before, that number was about 279,000.

     A couple of hours. Jaysus.

     Of course, there's a lot of argument to be had about the world's population being 7.8 billion and that the infection rate of confirmed cases so far represents an infinitesimally tiny fraction of the globe.

     But if you start watching the numbers the way I have, and see how the totals are jumping (for the U.S., especially) you get a mathematical understanding of why health authorities are soooooo freaking insistent on people sheltering-in-place.

     Until we get reliable testing of everyone, any one of us could be carrying the disease, period.

     The cute little kid that wants to pet the dog. The grocery store clerk. The gas station attendant at Costco. Your neighbors who you normally enjoy a glass of wine with. 

     For the moment, we all have to be paranoid to the point of being, well, paranoid.

     The hardest part for me is sitting still while this unseen enemy steadily advances. Like most people, I can barely contain my anger at the federal government and the narcissist-knothead masquerading as president of the United States.

     How many people opined when he was elected that "Trump is going to get us all killed"?

     But at that point the fear was mostly about a nuclear Armageddon, not a microscopic enemy threatening life as we know it.

    There. I feel better having vented. Sorry if it rattled you even more than you might be rattled. But if you got this far, you might take a peek yourself at the Johns Hopkins coronavirus website by following this link:

Johns Hopkins Virus Tracker

     Or maybe not looking is a better strategy.

    Stay safe, amigos, wherever you are.