The What’s Up Docs podcast from the BBC is an entertaining but factual podcast about health presented by two doctors, Chris and Xand van Tulleken (brothers and twins!) who find out to their dismay that they were wrong about the dangers of getting a nice healthy colour from the sun.
A tan occurs when UV radiation damages skin cells, causing them to produce more melanin as a protective response. This process involves DNA damage to skin cells, which can accumulate over time and potentially lead to skin cancer.
Sunburn is obviously harmful and painful. Even one blistering sunburn in childhood can double your lifetime risk of melanoma.
It’s a bit late for my Irish readers, as we had cloudless skies and a hot sun last week. Temperatures reached 25C where I was, so I slapped on the factor 50 sunscreen and made sure I was wearing a hat when I was outside. Many years ago, a neighbour died of skin cancer at the age of 52, only a few years older than I am now.
The Met Éireann UV Index page will show you what the UV index in Ireland is. If it’s 3 or over, you should be covering up with clothing or sunscreen. It’s quite alarming that the difference between a clear sky and a cloudy sky is 1-2 or 8-10 on that index.
The pain I’ve felt in the last few days because of a tiny little stone inside in my body is worse than anything I’ve ever experienced. Absolutely excruciating and uncomfortable. It’s weird drinking lots of water only for my mouth to be dry moments later.
I’m feeling ok right now, at this moment, but I doubt that it’s over yet. I’ve been to the doctor and following his advice. Yet again, feeling so lucky to be married to a wonderful woman who takes such good care of sick ol’ me.
Why don’t people use an umbrella to shield themselves from the sun when they’re out for a walk? It’s a perfectly natural item to use if rain is falling from the sky, but if it is the UV radiation of a sunny day, there’s none to be seen.
It felt weird, but I took my dog for a walk and I used a black umbrella. OK, it felt more than weird. It felt stupid. I mean, it wasn’t raining. There’s hardly any cloud in the sky. I had an SPF 50 mineral sunscreen on already.
But, you know what? I realised I was a lot more comfortable than I normally would be. My dog, Diego, sniffs around in the grass, forcing me to wait around on the other end of his leash. There are trees about, but not enough shade. I had a black umbrella over my head, covering my upper torso and arms. I took my baseball cap off because I didn’t need it. It was nice.
Diego was happy, reading the unseen and unsmelt messages we humans can’t perceive.
On the way back, he stopped, and wagged his tail slowly when I asked him if he wanted to be picked up. He is a 2.5 kg chihuahua, after all. He lay on my arm, and cooled down in the shade cast by me and the umbrella!
I’m not a huge fan of the sun. You’ll never find me sitting in a chair soaking up the rays, so when I do go out in it, it’s nice to be prepared.
PS. I realise 19C (66.2F) isn’t that hot, but I’m melting here!
I managed to avoid Covid-19 all this time, but on Monday afternoon I started to come down with what I thought was a bad cold.
Monday night test. No photos of the positive tests on Wednesday.
The first few hours on Monday evening were the worst, with a dull headache, shakes, coughing, fever and tiredness forcing me to bed early. I got progressively better over the next few days, but there was still that wracking cough, congestion, fever, tiredness and the shakes that would strike randomly or all together.
I’m still isolating. If I dare speak too loudly, I’m wracked by coughing that almost has me doubled over. I can feel perfectly fine, but then a tickle starts in my throat, and I’m coughing again.
My wife has been amazing, caring for me. She is my rock through this time. Somehow, it appears I didn’t infect her. We spent 6 hours in the car together on Sunday. I tested myself on Monday, but it was negative. I should have worn a mask then, even with the negative result, but I didn’t. It wasn’t until Wednesday when the tests turned positive. My teenage son has escaped too, I hope!
Thankfully, I’m fully vaccinated. I don’t like to think what it would be like if I wasn’t.
I started writing about what’s happening with Covid-19 on St. Patrick’s Day this year and I said I was writing for future me. While it’s impossible to capture everything I see and experience this post my cousin shared on Facebook (author unknown) covers most of the major events of the last month.
Sharing this for my future self ?? Schools and Creches close 12th March 2020 All pubs and clubs close 15th March. No St Patricks Day Parade Lockdown begins in Ireland midnight 27th March 2020 Fuel prices dropped a record amount (now €1.12/litre) Self-distancing measures on a rise. Tape on the floors at food stores and others to help distance shoppers 2m (6ft) from each other. Limited number of people inside stores, therefore lineups outside the store doors. Non-essential stores and businesses mandated closed. Parks, trails, entire cities locked up. Entire sports seasons cancelled. Concerts, tours, festivals, entertainment events – cancelled. Weddings, family celebrations, holiday gatherings – cancelled. Funerals limited to children/parents/spouses of deceased. No other family or friends. No masses, churches are closed. No gatherings permitted. Don’t socialize with anyone outside of your home. We are to distance from each other. Shortage of masks, gowns, gloves for our front-line workers. Shortage of respirators for the critically ill. Panic buying sets in and we have no toilet paper, no disinfecting supplies, no paper towel no laundry soap, no hand sanitizer. Shelves are bare. Manufacturers, distilleries and other businesses switch their lines to help make visors, masks, hand sanitizer and PPE. Government closes the border to all non essential travel and makes it mandatory to self isolate for 14 days when returning. Fines are established for breaking the rules. Fines for those price-gauging others. Stadiums and recreation facilities open up for the overflow of Covid-19 patients. Press conferences daily from the Government. Barely anyone in the street or on the roads. People wearing masks and gloves outside. Essential service workers are terrified to go to work. Medical workers are afraid to go home to their families. Many people placed on leave and unable to work with the government paying 80% of their wage. They say it started in Wuhan, China at a seafood market. Hundreds of thousands affected, dead, dying, critically ill. Many recovered. This is the Novel Coronavirus (Covid-19) Pandemic, declared March 11th, 2020. Why, you ask, do I write this status? One day it will show up in my memory feed, and it will be a yearly reminder that life is precious. To not take the things we dearly love for granted. We have so much! Be thankful. Be grateful. Be kind to each other – love one another – support everyone. ??
From Facebook post, author unknown.
Not everything there is accurate and obviously what is, only applies to Ireland. There isn’t a strict 14 day quarantine on people arriving in the country. People are asked to self isolate for that time but there’s no follow-up AFAIK. We’re all self-isolating now anyway.
The PPE that arrived from China turned out to be ill fitting, too small and of poor quality. I hope subsequent shipments were better.
Hello I’m wondering if you’ll post this message. I’m a nurse in one of the largest teaching hospitals in the country. Today I and my colleagues came to work and were supplied with the three quarter sleeve gowns shown on tv to look after Covid patients. We put up a huge battle with our manager who insisted that the gowns offered adequate protection and were standard now countrywide. Infection control just told us to practice our hand hygiene even more thoroughly and wash our arms. We were put in the most awful of dilemmas. Some of us resorted to taping our arms up to the sleeves of the gowns. ( it doesnt work, the tape split and was difficult to remove safely) The rest of us continued to protest until a small supply of proper long sleeve gowns were found. Those who protested more loudly were given the gowns. Those who were afraid of overpowering management relented and had to wear the short sleeve gowns. Today was a fucking nightmare. The very managers marching us into covid positive rooms will never have direct patient care. We know they wouldn’t dare put themselves at risk but it’s ok to put our lives and our families lives at risk. Senior consultants are protesting over poor quality PPEs and the use of surical masks with Covid patients but even their voices go unheard over the suits in management who have business degrees but who have absolutley no qualifications in looking after patients or in infectious diseases. I’m telling you this because the truth needs to be told. Jesus I thought we were at rock bottom before but never more so than we are now. We are forced to wash goggles after each use. (Not enough to go around.) We are told that surgical masks are fine even when pts are coughing terribly and are on nebulisers. (Not enough FFP3s in supply) And now we are given gowns that either have no sleeves in them or we have the option of plastic gowns that only cover the front of our bodies. Our upper chest area and backs are completely open. Every nurse, doctor and healthcare worker who provide direct care to covid pts in Ireland is terrified right now. The stress alone is killing us. We all have families to go home to. We are all aware of the now high level of covid positive staff in our hospital and yet they continue to force us into wards and rooms without adequate protection therefore risking our lives and the lives of our loved ones. What infuriated all of us even more this evening was the director general of the HSE, Paul Reid stating that the PPE’s “just look different”. The fucking neck of the man. Who does he think he’s fooling? Would you send a riot policeman into a riot wearing a straw hat and tell them it just looks different? It’s an insult to all our intelligence and it’s placing a huge amount of lack of trust in management at a time when we should feel confident that they’ll keep us safe. Some of us are now in tears in work. All of us are petrified. None of us are sleeping well. We are all willing to care for Covid patients, that’s our job but for the love of God provide us with the equipment to do so. Don’t let any of us risk lose our lives doing so. We may be considered angels but we are all highly qualified medical staff with families who we love dearly and we are being forced to do the unthinkable. The rest of the worlds healthcare workers wear hazmat suits with covid patients . We don’t have that luxury but for Christs sake please please don’t let them take chances with our lives by forcing us to wear shoddy PPE’s. We are all worth so much more than that even if they don’t think so. Thank yo for letting us tell the real truth.
An incredibly stressed nurse on behalf of all my incredibly stressed colleagues on the frontline. (Ps I aplogise for my use of bad language.)
My friend David works as a nurse in Wales. He and his colleagues face the same issues with PPE.
Many countries now want people to wear a mask when they go outside. The American CDC recommends their use. There’s a “no sew” mask you can make yourself but it might not be that effective.
Using masks is unlikely to be of any benefit if you are not sick.
Sick people will be advised by their doctor when to use a mask. Healthcare workers need masks and other personal protective equipment to protect them from infection during their work.
On the other hand you can be infectious for several days without symptoms so wearing some sort of mask that stops you breathing or coughing particles in an enclosed space like a grocery store might be worth it.
Throwing in a “I hook up with models” joke in the middle of a press conference involving hundreds of thousands of people dying, and blaming people who collect data, is a different type of leadership. pic.twitter.com/8htZN7OxNE
What kind of monster makes a lewd joke while talking about the projected deaths of thousands of people?
Tom Gunn is 82 years of age. He served in the Congo with the Irish Army & survived the Siege Of Jadotville. And now he’s survived #COVID19 After two weeks in hospital he’s back home with his family. Tom is one of my guests on #NewstalkBreakfast in the morning. On air from 8am 📻 pic.twitter.com/9KvV1VL82d
A month is a long time, an advert on the February 27th Naked Scientists podcast was run by the Local Enterprise Office here in Ireland for “Local Enterprise Week” at the beginning of March to “help local business grow in 2020”. I wonder will people become wary of meeting others after this pandemic is over? I’m slowly catching up on my podcast backlog. Many are being recorded at home or even on a park bench as happened with the March 16th episode of Planet Money.
Schools in Ireland closed on March 12th, so we’ve been at home since then. New restrictions were introduced on March 27th, as summarised by Gavin Sheridan:
Irish Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has announced:
1. For two weeks, to April 12, everyone to stay at home in all circumstances (except essential services, shopping, medicines, care for relatives, brief exercise) 2. All public and private gatherings of any number of people banned. 3. All non-essential shops closed. 4. All community centres closed. 5. Shielding introduced to all over 70s. 6. All visits to offshore islands banned. 7. No travel outside of 2km of your home (except reasons above), for any reason.
Tonight, the Government has received further recommendations on the actions that we need to take to protect our people. #COVID19pic.twitter.com/2bmDzEt22q
It has made a noticeable difference. I haven’t left Blarney since then. Even before that I had curtailed how much I walk but now it’s a quick walk around the park with the dog in the morning and evening. Pokemon Go gyms have been relatively stable. There’s one by the River Martin that hadn’t been attacked for over 100 days until mid-March but because more people were staying “close by” they were walking down there. That has stopped now and the gym hasn’t been touched in 7 days.
Google Fit knows I’m not going anywhere
Blarney Woollen Mills is blocked off, but you could still get in to the grounds there if you hopped over a low wall. One of the gyms in there remains untouched after 15 days!
Blarney Castle Garden was open until a few days ago, but the new restrictions closed them.
Dave Bolger created a site called 2kmfromhome.com where you can find out how far you can exercise. Simply launch it on your phone and allow it access to your location. It will then display a map around you with a circle where you can go.
Work on the construction site across the road from my home has ground to a halt which we’re grateful for. The road outside is still clogged with dust and of course they never clean it up properly.
PPE, Personal Protective Equipment, is a phrase that has entered everyday language. Every country has shortages of it but Aer Lingus are flying to China to pick up PPE worth millions of Euro.
If I remember correctly the Government expects to buy €225 million of it over the next months. Unfortunately the latest flight had to return and make an emergency landing after a bird strike.
People are queuing outside shops because the stores have limited how many people are allowed in at one time. Going shopping is stressful. People jump back from you if you get too close. This thread on Reddit compares it to a survival game.
Last Week Tonight was filmed at home. Other American talk shows are too. Ryan Tubridy presented a couple of episodes of The Late Late Show without a studio audience but a few days ago it was reported he had tested positive for Covid-19. Miriam O’Callaghan took over last week’s show. Irish radio shows are being recorded at home. My wife rang the bank this morning. The woman she spoke to is working from home and thought it was weird. She’ll get used to it.
Chris Hadfield offered advice for people staying at home
In a sure sign that people are getting used to this new normal some on Twitter were worried that bots were congratulating and supporting the government on everything they do. I somehow doubt that’s happening and others have pointed out that it’s really hard to get a Twitter username without trailing numbers unless you come up with something unusual. I bet there are a whole lot of new Twitter users now looking for the latest news.
Concern that Twitter bots are supporting the government.
Thanks for the update Simon. Can someone explain why so many of the accounts which congratulate our Minister have Zero followers. Most of the other accounts congratulating him have 10 or less followers. Leo has form on this.#coronavirushttps://t.co/WsWKS4Mbgapic.twitter.com/ajoHfZt0co
Even Jim Corr, he who fights the New World Order and the evils of 5G had choice words for Paddy Cosgrave who is repeating all sorts of nonsense and lies. Quite a moment.
There are two many cases where people have spat at Gardai and told them they are infected. A father and son in Cork did this and were arrested. A woman in Dublin did the same.
— my book is better than my tweets (@MichellCClark) March 30, 2020
I saw on Twitter this morning that a 13 year old boy died of Covid-19 in London. Heartbreaking. 🙁
If you have a few minutes write a letter to Andrew McGinley. In January he found his 3 children dead in the family home. His wife was found nearby and has been charged with their murders. Andrew is feeling the effects of isolation.
I’m looking for a favour. I’m struggling with isolation like you all but really missing the company. I was also enjoying most of the letters that I received so I have a request. Can you write to me? If you feel like using one of your An Post postcards then great. Letters welcome. pic.twitter.com/V72gLbGbtC
He is getting lots of post but this one just breaks my heart.
Thanks An Post. Eugene my postman had the extremely difficult task of having to deliver the package below which was posted the day before Carla passed. It will forever remain unopened, somewhat like the package that Tom Hanks never opened in Castaway.https://t.co/D5hAPpAKIOhttps://t.co/ORASPoXM2Qpic.twitter.com/td1i9EVzgB
I was going to write a post featuring that image because Taoiseach Leo Varadkar announced yesterday that everyone in the Republic of Ireland must stay at home with very few exceptions in an attempt to stop COVID-19. There’s an increased Garda presence with motorists likely to be stopped and asked where they’re going. Exercise must be taken within 2km of home.
The image used in the meme above isn’t great. Every time I saw it the floor plan was blurry while the text was pin sharp so I wanted to know if there’s a better version available.
Looking for that image I think I found the first or perhaps very early use of it on Reddit.
That image is a paltry 360×360 pixel image, without the headline text. It seems at least two different people created memes out of that tiny image and it went viral!
There’s a global pandemic in multiple countries and people are creating memes. This letter from Italy is right.
You’ll laugh. You’ll laugh a lot. You’ll flaunt a gallows humour you never had before. Even people who’ve always taken everything dead seriously will contemplate the absurdity of life, of the universe and of it all.
Edit a bit later: Gardai are stopping traffic as seen in this video. They’re talking to the driver through the passenger window. Via this tweet.
Alternative facts have long existed in the world of food. When you create a powerful enough fiction, you are no longer bound by the need for evidence, for fact checking, for responsibility and a concern for the safety of the vulnerable. The people peddling the candida myth have discovered that in making up a problem, valuable new markets can be created from nothing.
Consider installing a browser extension that blocks ads and other malicious scripts in your browser to protect your privacy and security. Here are a few options.
uBlock Origin is a free, open source, ad blocker for your browser.
Use pi-hole if you have a spare Raspberry Pi on your network.
Set the private DNS settings on your phone to dns.adguard.com to block adverts and trackers.
