I kinda miss talking about literally anything else.

[conuly]

But whatever.

By now I've read a few articles in a variety of sources that lead me to think that the NYTimes was on to something with their google search analysis and that itchy or otherwise achy eyes may indeed be an early sign of covid-19 for at least some patients.

I'm not shoving this behind a cut because I think we all need another potential symptom to worry about.

Here, have a Monty-Python-esque take on the politics of whole thing.

Anyway, now to cut down on some of my open tabs. If you're wondering, the answer is 220, counting this one.

**********

The best ways to clean fabric face masks

Doctor & Expert Seamstress Tests Homemade Masks (Video)

Why some people of color say they won't wear homemade masks

The Virus Changed the Way We Internet

Restaurants are transforming into grocery stores because of coronavirus

What are Shoppers Buying Online During COVID-19? (Some of us are baking, and some of us are working out, looks like.)

Pandemic deals blow to plastic bag bans, plastic reduction (There is exactly as much risk from reusable bags as from reusable clothes.)

Muslim and Jewish paramedics pause to pray together. One of many inspiring moments in the coronavirus crisis

Play is children’s language, and parents shouldn’t be concerned if the pandemic has been showing up in kids’ games lately.

'We'll be a history project': children in the U.S. talk about the coronavirus (Mostly a video, though some of the childrens' words are quoted)

Coronavirus claims an unexpected victim: Florida vegetables

Coronavirus myth-busting: The truth about empty shelves and toilet paper shortages

NY cases came from Europe as early as mid-February, scientists find

We Had to Quarantine Our 12-Year-Old

4 In 10 U.S. Teens Say They Haven't Done Online Learning Since Schools Closed

The Child-Care Crisis Is Even Worse for Health-Care Workers

From fine to flailing - rapid health declines in COVID-19 patients jar doctors, nurses

Why Coronavirus Is Making Young Americans Really Sick

A clinic in Pennsylvania is bringing the Amish drive-through coronavirus testing for their horse and buggies

Speed of coronavirus deaths shock doctors as New York toll hits new high

Meat plants are shutting down as workers get sick

The Trump administration blames Covid-19 black mortality rates on poor health. It should blame its policies.

I Was at Rikers While Coronavirus Spread. Getting Out Was Just as Surreal.

Prisons and jails across the US are turning into 'petri dishes' for coronavirus. Staffers are falling ill, too.

U.S. prosecutors resist calls to free inmates as coronavirus spreads

Hospitals say feds are seizing masks and other coronavirus supplies without a word

The coronavirus is exposing America’s housing crisis

Essential Workers Would Get up to $25,000 Boost Under Senate Democrats' New 'Heroes Fund' Stimulus

Thousands of applicants, zero loans: Trump's small businesses lending program is a failure to launch

The Coronavirus Bailout Is Really Going to Screw Over Mom and Pop Businesses

Trump Administration Tells Some Business Owners “Do Not Apply” for Coronavirus Loans

USPS warns it might have to shutter by June as $2 trillion coronavirus stimulus package provides no funding (This is deliberate. There is a cabal that really hates the USPS. Contact your congresscritters and let them know that this is unacceptable.)

Coronavirus Is a Labor Crisis, and a General Strike Might Be Next

Virus crisis cuts off billions sent to poor around the world

Elizabeth Warren Has a Plan to Protect Your Right to Vote From the Coronavirus

New York’s Transit Workers Keep Getting Sick (41 transit workers dead as of yesterday)

Comments

[penpusher]

Great... Itchy, achy eyes. Just in time for spring allergies.

[conuly]

Joy.

[dewline]

Going through that here too.

[fred_mouse]

To go with my allergy/asthma induced dry cough and difficulties breathing :(

At this point, I'm at 'no fever? don't care'

[brokenallbroken]

That's about where I am. If I can still get out of bed without dragging, I probably need another layer of antihistamines.

[fred_mouse]

All the sympathies.

[nodrog]

https://www.americanheritage.com/air-conditioned-century

The story of how a blast of cool, dry air changed America



https://www.americanheritage.com/days-unconditioned-air

When summer came in the 1920, the trolley companies trotted out their open cars, with long rows of transverse wooden benches open to the breeze (curtains could be pulled down in case of rain). There was no aisle, and the conductors simply moved up and down along narrow, folding platforms at the side. The best place of all, which I always sought out as a boy, was the wide seat right behind the motorman, with nothing in front of him, or me, but the balmy, onrushing air. The trolley was, of course, too sensible and too unpolluting to last, but this is not the place to go into the misbehavior of Detroit and the oil companies...

[conuly]

I think that, on the whole, this is exactly the right place to blame general motors and/or the oil companies for stuff, especially stuff we know they did.

[nodrog]

“Big Auto Killed the Electric Streetcar”


- But that's irrelevant to the subject of air conditioning, was his point.

[dewline]

Well, the electric train has come back in Ottawa at least...and those are air-conditioned.

[isis]

Oh, shit, link me to the itchy eyes things? Because I was assuming it was allergies, but...

[conuly]

I was discussing it in the comments to siderea's post on the symptoms here: https://siderea.dreamwidth.org/1611730.html?thread=13436370#cmt13436370

I think that thread catches up all the articles I've seen. It's actually the slate piece on that writer having to quarantine her 12 year old that tipped the scales for me - at the time that was written, I don't think that this news had started circulating to influence what the author might've recollected when writing that.

[antisoppist]

I have had itchy, runny eyes since 19 March. They were very bad at the beginning and very weird because I've never had anything like it before and when I do get hayfever kind of allergies they are in the autumn. They are much better but still suddenly erupt off and on for what feels like no reason. Otherwise I feel very very tired suddenly at times and sometimes shivery and this has been going on for 3 weeks now and none of it counts as a symptom of Covid-19. I am telling myself it isn't, because I have asthma and am scared of getting it. But who knows. I haven't been in contact with anyone other than my kids since 9 March either.

[isis]

Yikes, that's bad - I hope you feel better soon. I have a bit of tightness in my chest, and on-and-off sore throat, along with my itchy, runny eyes. But I do think my allergy meds are helping somewhat, so I'm not too paranoid. I hope it's just allergies for you! (It could be dust/mold from being inside a lot, too.)

[conuly]

For eyes specifically I find it helps a lot to rinse them with water every time I come inside, and then use allergy eyedrops. Presumably using a neti pot helps as well, for all symptoms.

[antisoppist]

Yeah, I phoned the GP for advice and the asthma nurse rang me back and was very reassuring and said lots of people have reported an increase in this kind of symptoms and it can be stress-related and due to being in the house a lot more than usual, as you say. I wish there was a way of knowing when I get panicked at 3 in the morning that this is going to get worse, though. Urgh.

[mount_oregano]

I'd like to bake -- there's sort of a bake-off among my friends -- but yeast was sold out two weeks in a row at my grocery store. (I guess there's more than one bake-off going on.) So now I am making my own yeast. A colony of sourdough starter is coming to life in my kitchen right now. Bread in three ... two ... one ...

[conuly]

Did you buy yourself a new bread machine?

[mount_oregano]

Nope, I'll make it the old-fashioned way, which is much more fun. Besides, bread machines don't work with sourdough.

[marahmarie]

I kinda miss talking about literally anything else

I feel that way, too. All. The. Time.

It's a sad mixture of "If I talk about anything else I'll sound trifling" and "If I don't talk about anything else maybe the clueless will finally buy this clue". I mean, even ONE clueless person who buys, tells one or two others who buy as well and/or get more down the line to....you never know. I never stop trying. And it's wearing on me.

[marahmarie]

USPS warns it might have to shutter by June as $2 trillion coronavirus stimulus package provides no funding (This is deliberate. There is a cabal that really hates the USPS

This again? We've had this convo before (if I recall correctly, you were the one who clued me in on their hatred of it). And they're still at it, huh? Could the public possibly start a GoFundMe for the entire postal service? Would it make enough to keep them open? We can't not have them.

[conuly]

"Again" suggests that they took a break at any point.

[marahmarie]

Well, I'm not suggesting they did, only that I'd hope by now they'd have died in a fire already that I can't believe they're still at it.

[conuly]

Any one of us... or them... may drop dead at any moment nowadays, so hey, who knows.

[marahmarie]

Right? Though - not likely! (see: our opinions on cockroaches)

[shadowkat]

The only problem with the itchy eye bit - is that's also a symptom of allergies, head colds, the flu, looking at a computer screen too long, too much dust or pollen in the air, etc.

The loss of sense of smell and taste seems to be more of an isolated COVID-19 symptom, you don't get that with other ailments. I've been told that it is not a nasal disease, which I thought odd - considering that's how they do the test - a swab deep in the nasal cavity.

[conuly]

I have suffered loss of smell with colds, though only after congestion.

[thewayne]

Problem is, it's also a burgeoning spring, so itchy eyes is a double-whammy. I've been using eyedrops pretty much every morning when I get up for a couple of weeks now, but I just need them then usually.

[dandelion.livejournal.com]

Did they account for the fact that itchy/achy eyes spike in prevalence at this time of year anyway?

[conuly]

They say they did.