Jim Styro's COVID-19 Update, 2020-03-22

Week One of the COVID-19 "New Normal" is in the books - and all in my household remain disease-free (to the best of our knowledge).  We are asymptomatic at least - but (for the most part) trying to behave as though we have been diagnosed with the virus in order to minimize any spread.

Below are some additional things I have thought and done during the past week -

• On Tuesday, I bought gas after shopping at Costco.  The price?  $1.65 a gallon.  Never thought I'd see gas prices like THAT again.  It makes me wish I had someplace to go...
• I wrote about Glenn W. Levey Middle school the other day - but I don't know who Glenn W. Levey is/was.  (Full disclosure:  I assume he's dead.  Don't they mostly name buildings after dead people?)  I did some Google checks for Glenn - but came up empty.  I did pay closer attention to the sign in front of the school during my walk on Friday - and confirmed my earlier suspicion that being an "Exemplary School" and a "Blue Ribbon School" are the same thing.

• Speaking of walking, yesterday was my eighth straight day of walking my 2-mile route.  I have started to see more people out strolling the past couple days.  Physical (not "social")  distancing protocols were observed in all cases.  
• I was advised yesterday - and subsequently confirmed through other sources - that "physical distancing" (rather than "social distancing") is now the preferred nomenclature.  The intention is to emphasize the need for maintaining physical distance to avoid the spread of COVID-19 - but acknowledge the need that social interaction (which can be done while maintaining physical distance) is very much needed during these stressful times.
• You cannot kill the COVID-19 virus with a hair dryer.  I had a conference call for work mid-week where a lady told us otherwise - and that she expected to see people buying up all the hair dryers to blow dry their way to health.  The misinformation that heat will kill COVID-19 has been going around for a while.  Thank goodness Snopes knows better.
• Donated double red cells at the Red Cross in Livonia yesterday.  My blood pressure was a little higher than normal (I wonder why?) although I haven't detected feeling emotionally stressed.  I do know that even after 78 donations (according to my profile at the Red Cross website), I still don't like needles or the sight of blood (Imagine that!  Since so many of us love both needles and blood.)  I don't know how many years their records cover - but I estimate having given regularly for about 40 years.
• Here's the thing - my blood type is O Negative.  Only about 7% of the population have that blood type.  While it is not the rarest blood type, it is much desired by the Red Cross - because patients of all blood types can receive O Negative blood.  In the lingo, I am a "Universal Donor" - which makes me extremely popular in the blood biz.  I have already scheduled my next donation for August 15 in the hope it will forestall many emails and phone calls from the Red Cross in the meantime.  But I don't hold out much hope this tactic will work.  I'll keep you posted.
• No new items to share from biologyproducts.com.  But you haven't heard the last of them.

Take care.