Couch 217: The Order of the Phoenix couch

Have fun, Chihiro!

I basically spent that whole session sobbing to Dr. T about various things as he empathized. I think it helped to get all that out, but I'm sort of exhausted now.

Though I have to say, his comment of "Even the 1918 influenza eventually ended. Not well, but it ended" was maybe not the best (his point was that was before biochemistry and stuff existed).

Yeah, but it didn't end through human agency. The virus disappeared and jumped to pigs. And it's now H1N1, which is just a seasonal flu virus except for the brief pandemic in 2009 with comparatively few deaths, and for which there is a vaccine. So it did actually end pretty well, imo.

Maybe a better way for him to put it would be if we didn't have so many developments in modern medicine and science since then, COVID in 1918 would have been a lot worse than the Spanish flu was. So we're really actually ahead of the game.

And because I feel like this whole post is too Dr. T in tone, here's some good news about a COVID vaccine.

Life has always been dangerous and no matter what we all die in the end one way or another.
I have less faith in a vaccine right off the bat than I do in just staying back from others. There have been some horrible rushed vaccine situations. I will not be in the batch of people who get a vaccine right off the bat - not until it has been out for a couple of years.

Wait, that eventually became H1N1? Didn't know that. I think by "didn't end well" was that the second wave was deadlier than the first, which he's brought up before. He's not exactly he cheeriest T... (I still think of the time, pre-pandemic, when he made the comment that we all ultimately die alone.)

I agree - we do all die alone. I guess I don't find it upsetting as a concept.

Yup. Obviously in 1918 scientists couldn't get a genetic sequence of the virus, but in the 1990s they managed to find some still-frozen lung tissue in a 1918 victim buried in the Alaskan permafrost in which the virus hadn't decayed and were able to analyze it. It was the same strain as H1N1, which had been identified separately since 1918 as affecting pigs.

ETA: Looks like my school is starting to fold: now all classes with over 100 enrolled are automatically becoming remote (i.e., Zoom). Our staff scheduler expects that they may move down the ladder to lower-enrollment classes and do the same thing there.

Im always first for my flu vaccine, but not for a covid vaccine.

SD, youve been staying back in the couch library anteroom since before it was a thing! Youre prescient!

I'm putting more faith in them finding better ways to treat Covid. They've already made some progress with that, in terms of stuff like remdesvir (sp?), blood thinners in some cases, recognizing and treating cytokine storm, using positioning before ventilators, etc. That would make it less deadly at least. A vaccine would be great, but they never found one for HIV (granted, that's a very complicated virus), and they've found treatments that have made it more of a chronic condition than a death sentence.

Stopdog is actually a cat. They invented social distancing.

Hi everyone.

I haven’t read a thing so I don’t know who, what, where, when and how but just wanted to come and say hi.
I’ve just been taking time to myself and living one day at a time. Not thinking ahead, not thinking back, but just being.

I’ll eventually see you all again. Take care. Stay safe.

I find a bit of happiness when I read The Onion
New Report Links Nationwide Decline In Mental Health To Not Being Able To Eat Inside Hard Rock Cafe

Saw this online and thought the Couch might appreciate it...

I would have loved to have the therapist locked in a box away from me.

I just knew you were gonna say that before I saw that you did

My therapist rescheduled our appointment for tomorrow. I'm so glad that she's ok and also glad that she was able to reschedule so I could still have an appointment this week.

I would poke a couple of holes in the box so they could breathe. And put down some cedar shavings and throw in some lettuce and carrots once a day.

I attributed these comments to LT!!

So half the faculty of my college (arts and sciences) within my university have requested medical waivers not to teach face to face this fall. (ETA: Assume that doesn't include disability accommodations like mine.)

Half.

Maybe schools will get the message. I'd like to see more admin teach.

Would work for the guinea pigs, except need a wood other than cedar!

i love the smell of cedar.

good lord no - I would actually take care of guinea pigs

Yeah, i love juniper. The nuns had the most awesome tiny evergreen park behind the church, it was Sooooo fragrant after a rain.

I hate the news they are whipping up a frenzy over the increase in covid in one of our states but thats only because they have increased the testing.