Coronavirus:

[MurphOnMillerAve]

Here's something odd (to me at least .)
Late this morning, I drove to the cemetery to visit my wife's grave. I got as far as the front gate - it's iron gates were closed, tight , and possessed of a printed paper sign attached across the latch, announcing,

"Grave Yard is Closed Until Further Notice."

I have never seen anything like that. Assuming the virus had something to do with the missive, what could one possibly have to do with the other?! Crowds visiting a graveyard? No, not that one. People lurking about keeping less than 6 feet from each other !!!!! No.

I don't get it.
Anybody here have a helpful conjecture for me?

[HONDO74]

Get through this one and plan better for possible future ones, and don't expect any of them to be the same target or specific needs; it's a big picture issue and how it ripples across the entirety has to be better understood.

Big shortage right now is morgue space......there's a detail to be considered.

Portable Morgues.
FEMA is sending 85 refrigerated trucks to New York City to serve as temporary morgues
https://www.marketwatch.com/story/fema- ... 2020-04-01

The city and FEMA have delivered refrigerated trucks to various hospitals, while the Office of Chief Medical Examiner has been guiding them on how to properly move and store bodies, officials said.

[Roy]

I have no problem with having a reserve of dialysis equipment, too.

The equipment and supplies need to be designed to last. I saw a ventilator mechanism on the news. It used a flexible bag, to pump air. This needs to be made of a material that will not get brittle with age, attract insects that will eat holes in it, etc. Another possibility is a piston and cylinder, like Flyer used on their smoke and choo-choo unit. Doesn't need lubrication, and will operate after decades of disuse.

[chuck]

There is no one to perform the maintenance at the cemetary, that's why its closed. No one to pick up the trash, toss the cut flowers, etc.

Re the longevity of medical equipment. The stuff has a limited shelf life. You need to inspect and "rotate" the stock on a yearly or possibly 5 year bassis. You can't stick it on a shelf and forget about it. AED's need to have the batteries replaced within 5 years, they do start beeping when the battery is within 30 days of failure. Adhesives stop being adhesive, tubing gets hard or falls apart.

Re what to have on hand, you need to have a dedicated group that monitors globally what is going on and has made plans to deal with it. This includes plans to identify potentially sick people as well as how to screen them. How to rapidly make and deploy basic medical devices to deal with a potential pandemic.

Re simplified equipment, the federal government funded a research project to make a basic ventilator with a target price of $2K and a streamlined manufacturing plan to make them. The company doing the work was bought out by a large medical device company that killed the project because they wanted to sell their existing $14K machines which had a higher markup, aka more profit for them.

[Rufus T. Firefly]

Here's something odd (to me at least .)
Late this morning, I drove to the cemetery to visit my wife's grave. I got as far as the front gate - it's iron gates were closed, tight , and possessed of a printed paper sign attached across the latch, announcing,

"Grave Yard is Closed Until Further Notice."

I have never seen anything like that. Assuming the virus had something to do with the missive, what could one possibly have to do with the other?! Crowds visiting a graveyard? No, not that one. People lurking about keeping less than 6 feet from each other !!!!! No.

I don't get it.
Anybody here have a helpful conjecture for me?

People do gather at funerals; saw in Italy that priests were doing 5 min funerals limited to 5 family members all at a distance.

[Rufus T. Firefly]

I have no problem with having a reserve of dialysis equipment, too.

I was using that merely as an example of the diversity of what might be needed in reserve. The list of possibilities could be quite long and require considerable upkeep and maintenance to keep it all at the ready.

[MurphOnMillerAve]

Here's something odd (to me at least .)
Late this morning, I drove to the cemetery to visit my wife's grave. I got as far as the front gate - it's iron gates were closed, tight , and possessed of a printed paper sign attached across the latch, announcing,

"Grave Yard is Closed Until Further Notice."

I have never seen anything like that. Assuming the virus had something to do with the missive, what could one possibly have to do with the other?! Crowds visiting a graveyard? No, not that one. People lurking about keeping less than 6 feet from each other !!!!! No.

I don't get it.
Anybody here have a helpful conjecture for me?

People do gather at funerals; saw in Italy that proests were doing 5 min funerals limited to 5 family members all at a distance.

I don't know that the gates were closed to funerals. Funerals have been banned around here, so what would be the need to close gates to them? Funeral homes would be well aware of the rules and wouldn't be appearing at the gates, unexpected and unannounced, and indisposed, with a funeral cortege lined-up behind their hearse. No, I don't think the gates were closed to funeral groupings.

I am most convinced by Chuck's reply.

And I Thank You, both, most sincerely, for your outreaches.
Murph

[MurphOnMillerAve]

There is no one to perform the maintenance at the cemetary, that's why its closed. No one to pick up the trash, toss the cut flowers, etc......

Thank you, Chuck. That makes sense to me, though it hadn't occurred to me at all..

It's all so strange, isn't it.
Yesterday, Palm Sunday for me, my parish church, along with every parish in the diocese, had its doors closed and locked shut against all of us. No palm. No Mass.

So, I walked the 3 miles from our house to the front doors of our church, tried the frontdoors, finding them, indeed, locked-shut, and moved over to the statue of Our Blessed Mother standing at the front and center of the façade, as we were urged to consider doing in a letter from our pastor, and knelt down on the pavement step in front of the statue, with my back to the passing traffic, easing by, and prayed, by saying Hello, and expressing my gratitude for my life so far. Then, I arose, using the tall statue to help me stand up straight, pulled my hoodie-sweatshirt up over my head again, and made my way back homeward. The exercise felt good, in every aspect of it.

And today, an entire cemetery is closed against me (and others who may have wanted entry.)

Now, I am listening to Friar Alessandro, The Voice From Assisi, singing "Panis Angelicus" , which gives me joy.

[Rufus T. Firefly]

There is no one to perform the maintenance at the cemetary, that's why its closed. No one to pick up the trash, toss the cut flowers, etc......

Thank you, Chuck. That makes sense to me, though it hadn't occurred to me at all..

Except that I'd think that maybe they would declare them essential as there is real need. Getting your lawn service guys out is apparently essential..........

[MurphOnMillerAve]

There is no one to perform the maintenance at the cemetary, that's why its closed. No one to pick up the trash, toss the cut flowers, etc......

Thank you, Chuck. That makes sense to me, though it hadn't occurred to me at all..

Except that I'd think that maybe they would declare them essential as there is real need. Getting your lawn service guys out is apparently essential..........

An interesting point, too.

[Roy]

Re the longevity of medical equipment. The stuff has a limited shelf life. You need to inspect and "rotate" the stock on a yearly or possibly 5 year bassis. You can't stick it on a shelf and forget about it. AED's need to have the batteries replaced within 5 years, they do start beeping when the battery is within 30 days of failure. Adhesives stop being adhesive, tubing gets hard or falls apart.

There are ways to design longevity and cost effectiveness into things. Defibrillators could use hand-cranked generators. We spent 56.7 quadrillion dollars developing a ball point pen which could write in space. The Soviets used a pencil.

Re simplified equipment, the federal government funded a research project to make a basic ventilator with a target price of $2K and a streamlined manufacturing plan to make them. The company doing the work was bought out by a large medical device company that killed the project because they wanted to sell their existing $14K machines which had a higher markup, aka more profit for them.

Ventilators are balloons. You could use hamster wheels, to run them.

Psychopathic profiteering should be no shock, to any American.

[Roy]

...I'd think that maybe they would declare [cemeteries] essential as there is real need.

I think that would depend on the capacity of the cemetery.

[chuck]

I spent the last ten years at Michigan working in Biomedical Engineering. While my primary job was IT support, I was involved with the senior design class. Almost ALL of the design projects involved microprocessor or full blown computer control for both diagnostic and theraputic devices. While 3rd world crank based AED's were possible, ANYTHING made for domestic use required a full 10 year review prior to FDA approval.

[chuck]

The cemetary MAY be open for internment but no funerals per say.

[Roy]

I have no problem with having a reserve of dialysis equipment, too.

I was using that merely as an example of the diversity of what might be needed in reserve. The list of possibilities could be quite long and require considerable upkeep and maintenance to keep it all at the ready.

Understood. This is supposed to be an advanced country, with good human values. We should have been the best prepared. South ****** Korea put us to shame.