Thought For the Day
- Donald R. McClarey
Donald R. McClarey
Cradle Catholic. Active in the pro-life movement since 1973. Father of three, one in Heaven, and happily married for 43 years. Small town lawyer and amateur historian. Former president of the board of directors of the local crisis pregnancy center for a decade.
Face masks probably work against Coronaviris (SARS-Cov-2) about as well as condoms against HIV. I do think face masks help, even the cloth ones. And HIV is slowed down by condoms. I do believe that. But people will not, over the long haul, use them properly in everyday life, especially if said people are untrained.
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I assume people have seen that now children are falling sick and dying (or they will die, in vast numbers. We need a model!) of from some kind of inflammatory disease caused by this new SARS. Parents cannot go back to work if the children cannot go back to school or daycare. Children are even less likely to use masks properly than adults. No 4-year-old-girl will mess up the princess dress she has insisted on wearing to pre-school for six days straight (and counting) with a mask. More stringent regulations on daycares and (private) schools that will make them much more expensive in the next few months.
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http://www.foxnews.com/health/colorado-sees-first-coronavirus-outbreaks-connected-to-childcare-centers
DJH-
one of the gals over on According To Hoyt mentioned it to her mother, and got an exasperated answer that boils down to: “It’s Rheumatic Fever, of course. Didn’t any of those doctors pay attention at school?”
That’s why treating strep throat and stuff is so important… and since it’s caused by untreated bacterial infection, there’s a decent chance this is caused by the over-reaction to a disease that isn’t a threat to young, health folks.
Foxfirer, when I saw toxic shock mentioned as a side effect I knew it was bacteria related. One rarely hears of strep related scarlet fever any more or even rarer rheumatic fever. Many many years ago there was a girl down the street with rheumatic fever and I remember she was house bound for weeks w/o visitors. Maybe quarantined though the adults didn’t use that term.
nod
I didn’t even know that’s how one got rheumatic fever. Another history buff popped up to say yeah, that’s why antibacterial treatments were so incredibly widely used by pediatricians, because it stopped such a horrible thing in its tracks.
I have heard of Rheumatic Fever, but don’t know what it is. All I know of Scarlet Fever is if you get it, say good-bye to your teddy bear because it (he) will be thrown atop a HUGE bonfire along with all your bedding, clothes (inc the aforementioned princess dress), your bed, your books and everything you’ve ever touched.
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About thirty years ago, my brother in law told me a story about a young doctor who was called in to treat a little kid with a red rash. He was going to order all sorts of tests, but the grandmother who was in attendance looked at him and said “Doctor, that’s Chicken pox.”
My youngest son now 33 had an asymptomatic (well, unrecognized by me) strep infection when I was a single parent. After complaints of serious joint pains his pediatrician thought he should be hospitalized, where his rheumatic fever diagnosis was confirmed. After a decade or so of regular penicillin shots he’s been very healthy thank God, but may need heart valve surgery in his 50’s or 60’s.
DJH and Foxfier, thanks for making us all aware of strep season and a reminder of the seriousness of the infection. I’m going to alert some of the young moms I know. We have all been inundated with COVID-19 info nightly that most of us want to stay far away from a clinic or hospital.
My oldest when about 7th grade had Scarlet Fever twice. On the second occurrence he was asymptomatic for strep. He was The Mummy for Halloween and thought he was allergic to his toilet paper costume. When he showed me the rash on his chest I took him to acute care ASAP. Thanks to antibiotics there were no lingering problems. We never found a carrier in the family. I’ve been told that the family dog can be a carrier.