UV Light and Disinfectant -- A Descent into the Abyss

Donald Trump is nuts.

There, I said it. For years, the man has exhibited signs of mental illness, primarily malignant narcissism. His current behavior borders on sociopathy, at least according to a number of mental health care professionals, and to my mind, he always has.

However, beginning with his birtherism BS during the Obama years, he's been demonstrating even more symptoms of mental degradation, and since he's become President, based on the words he speaks and the tweets he posts, he has further descended into the abyss with no end in sight.

Some have suggested this is due to years of illegal drug use. Others have posited that it's symptoms of late-stage syphilis. I'm not convinced either of these is true.

Instead, I believe Trump suffers from early-onset dementia, which only tends to exacerbate his already known mental illness.

My mother-in-law suffered from depression (and possibly other issues) and when her dementia began to manifest in earnest, it was not only difficult to differentiate that behavior from her behavior before she went on antidepressants, but it seemed the two worked synergistically (and not in a good way).

Yesterday, Trump seriously--not sarcastically, as he's trying to say now--mused how ingesting/injecting disinfectant and UV light into the body of those infected with COVID-19 should be looked into as a possible treatment.

THIS from a man who was strenuously promoting the use of hydroxychloroquine to treat novel coronavirus, a practice now dismissed by the CDC as potentially fatal based on data from clinical trials. And now he's talking about using Lysol and black lights? IN the body?

There's already been at least one case of someone ingesting disinfectant to get rid of COVID-19, which, of course, landed him in the hospital. Fortunately, he survived this stupidity despite Darwin's theory.

How many more covidiots will do the same because Trump thought it was a good idea?

Serious, people, this guy is without a doubt, 100% certifiable. And yet, he remains in office. Clearly, he's a candidate for invoking the 25th amendment, but he's not going anywhere until we vote him out.

Let's hope we actually do.

Yours in amazement,

Michael 

Brief Rant About Armchair Epidemiologists

Someone on Twitter wisely noted that they were amazed at how all his constitutional scholar friends are now experts in epidemiology and immunology.

Truly fascinating, right?

Today's brief rant is a side burn toward those among us who speak like they are experts on COVID-19, quoting unnamed sources that taking chloroquine is either (a) safe or (b) effective as either a prophylactic or treatment for novel coronavirus.

Their "expertise" is really based on something they made up, something they heard, or from the nominal President of the United States who lies repeatedly during his daily propaganda tirades.

I've seen these ignoramuses on private message boards and public social media. What they propose is dangerous and should be ignored. Common sense says to favor the advice of the medical professionals.

What's even worse is the doctors who are just throwing a cocktail of azithromycin, an antibiotic, with chloroquine at patients in hopes of preventing COVID-19 or helping those already infected. Here's an article about why that's not a good idea:

https://www.biospace.com/article/hydroxychloroquine-and-z-pak-may-be-effective-treatment-for-covid-19/

There is one report of a doctor administering this cocktail to a nursing home full of elderly and mostly frail residents in hopes of warding off the disease. Instead, it caused such detrimental effects, it had to be discontinued.

Even the CDC is stressing that there is no known treatment for novel coronavirus right now. Believe them, believe the WHO (even though Trump made the asinine decision to cut their funding), believe the medical researchers who are working day and night to solve the riddle of this pandemic--but don't believe morons like the Fox News talking heads and the non-medical personnel in the White House, including the orange-tinged megalomaniacal troglodyte that is currently soiling the Oval Office.

Yours in ranting,

Michael

Monday Thoughts: Drug Stores, Shopping, Life

We haven't been into "town" (that is, haven't made a retail run) for two weeks today. In fact, we wouldn't be going except that I was unable to successfully shift from pickup to delivery.

My drugstore (which shall remain nameless, but it's a big chain) was supposed to reach out to my doctor to transfer my prescriptions to their online pharmacy, a separate entity from the in-store locations. After almost ten days, I found out the refills were stalled somewhere along the chain and I just gave up.

No big deal, though, they have a drive-thru.

Naturally, we'll be going to the grocery store to restock on some things we're running low on. We'll likely be going to multiple stores again because we'll not find everything we need in just one place, just like that last time.

This will be the first retail run we'll be making wearing makeshift masks. Despite the earlier assurances none would be needed (like less than a month ago), now the CDC is basically telling everyone if you're in a place with a lot of people, wear a mask. We fashioned no-sew masks from bandanas using info we found online, so I think we're good to go (we already have surgical gloves).

Never will we take for granted full shelves in grocery stores again. Nor will we be as unprepared as we were for the next pandemic, whether it's COVID-19 or it's successors, and mark my words, there will be those. We're already carving out space in our closets for our "zombie apocalypse" supplies and when life returns to normal, we'll buy the items we don't already have.

Never, never again.

I've reached out to old friends to check in with them. Some replied to assure me all is well with them, others I haven't heard back from yet. I'm trying not to worry. I'm sure you're feeling the same angst.

Yours in the midst,
Michael