Muh Muh Muh My Corona (virus)

My son and his fiancee are still on track, as of now, to get married in late March at the Prospect Park boathouse. New York State allows gatherings of 50 people, and the event planner for the venue has all sorts of ideas for expanding ventilation and making it partly outdoors/or tented. But that's about one-third the people they want to invite. If virus things take a turn for the worse in NYC this winter, their fallback is to have a very small private ceremony and then hold what they call the "director's cut" version of their wedding when a vaccine hits the market.

 

Men, toxic masculinity is going to be the death of you. This is not a metaphor.

On Tuesday, and not for the first time, Joseph R. Biden Jr. described President Trump’s reluctant attitude toward wearing masks as “macho.”

Tomi Lahren, a conservative commentator and Fox Nation host, countered that Mr. Biden “might as well carry a purse with that mask.”

They were among the most direct comments yet that have tied stereotypes about acting and appearing manly to the basic precautions that doctors, epidemiologists and other health experts recommend to prevent infection by the highly contagious and deadly coronavirus.

The theme has been there since the beginning of the pandemic. Some experts who study masculinity and public health say the perception that wearing masks and following social distancing guidelines are unmanly has carried a destructive cost. The virus has infected more men than women and killed far more of them.

The experts say the best public health practices have collided with several of the social demands men in many cultures are pressured to follow to assert their masculinity: displaying strength instead of weakness, showing a willingness to take risks, hiding their fear, appearing to be in control.

Men’s resistance to showing weakness — and their tendency to take risks — was demonstrated by scientists long before Covid-19. Studies have shown men are less likely than women to wear seatbelts and helmets, or to get flu shots. They’re more likely to speed or drive drunk. They are less likely to seek out medical care.

Some initial research indicates a similar pattern is playing out with the coronavirus. Surveys have found that women are more likely than men to wear masks in the United States. And recent pollshave found men give higher marks to President Trump than women on his handling of the pandemic.
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Men, take better care of yourselves — both physically and mentally. Yes, that includes wearing a mask.

 

Dumbasses. Dead dumbasses, some of them.

 

Man, if I had a dollar for every couple I've seen where the woman is wearing a mask and the man isn't ...

 

Ivermectin has a very good phase III trial released this week.

It’s cheap, plentiful, can be taken orally at home, and the results of these trials are at least as good if not better than remdesivir.

 

You can pick it up at your local farm co-op, and it’s apple-flavored!

 

Will it help give us a glossy coat?

 

I was thinking about the damage COVID is doing to movie theaters, which pretty much relied on big budget action movies and the "first" release window from the studios to make their money. It's always been jarring to me when I do see a movie in a theater that the screen at a theater seems a lot smaller than when I'm watching a movie on a computer or on TV at home, and it's really true that the size of TV screens (the affordability of large screens) is probably doing as much damage to movie going as COVID-19 will end up doing. It's all about the distance/perspective ratio or whatever...

 

I like going to movies on the — maybe — one time I go a year. I like the sound systems and just the spectacle of seeing it on the big screen. But it will be a long damn time before I set foot in one again.

I still haven’t eaten in a restaurant, not even on a patio. Don’t reckon that will change anytime soon, either.

 

I miss the gym. But I don't know how or when or why I would get back there. It truly sucks.

 

I've been going to the gym since late May with no issues. As long as we stay in Phase 3 and capacity remains limited, I'm fine with it. Their advanced air filtration system has given me a little peace of mind as well.

 

goin' great!