Tuesday, January 30, 2024

The New Impaired Driving Issue

We're having a rash of car accidents near me.

On a few posts, a left turn on a red in front of a school bus and a collision with a building, I referred to that recent Lancet study as possibly pointing to the cause: 

"19.4% of people who've had Covid and recovered (not officially Long Covid) show signs of SEVERE impairment in brain functioning. I expect we'll see more of this. Buckle up for safety, and keep your brain alive with an N95." 

(The study lists them as not having Long Covid, with more than half of Long Covid suffers having severe impairment, but, really, they just don't count as having it for the study because their other symptoms cleared up.)

It's not my imagination that there are more collisions happening lately. Is there something else that might be causing such a dramatic change??

In a collision between a car and pedestrian near me, the local paper reported

"Police are also reminding residents that, with the recent increase in pedestrian-involved crashes, to use the designated crossing areas and be aware of all traffic."

My response: Can we please remind motorists to use the designated roadway correctly and to be aware of all pedestrians??

A commenter added

"This reminds me of how society tells parents of young women to teach them how to protect themselves at bars or how to walk home safely, but society doesn't tell parents of boys to teach them not to rape our daughters." 

Exactly.

We have huge issues in my area with the amount of collision reporting pointing to anything but driver error. Typically the reporting refers to the vehicle losing control. If there's literally any other person involve who's not encased in steel, then their actions are blamed: usually it's not bright enough clothing or wearing earphones. As vehicles get bigger and bigger, creating a blind spot directly in front of them, responsibility for collisions is more and more on the people being crushed by them.

And on top of all that, we know that about one in five people who have had Covid and feels like they recovered is actually suffering from brain damage. This is going to impact other aspects of our lives. 



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COVID BASICS: (1-3 from Dr. Joe Vipond): 
"1. Covid is predominantly airborne. [It can cross a room in minutes and linger for hours.]
2. Over 50% of transmission is from asymptomatic people. [They feel perfectly healthy!!]
3. Long Covid is real and impacts a substantial number of people. We've NEVER EVER EVER had these three things told to us by the system. Not once. Not by our leaders." And also...
4. Vaccines help reduce severity of cases, but can't eliminate transmission (yet), and they wane in effectiveness within months because Covid mutates so fast (because of all the spread!) 
5. N95s trap Covid using inertial impaction, diffusion, interception, and electrostatic attraction. They really work!! (2 min video explanation)
6. Covid's the #3 killer in Canada, and we don't know how many people it has disabled. Avoid being one of them. There is no effective treatment for Long Covid, only prevention. Be wise with N95s! 

Well-fitting N95s reduce transmission by about 95% - even higher if everyone wears them; cleaning the air helps by about 30%, and vaccines reduces hospitalization by 60%. Put together, we could ALL be 99.999% protected from this mess and more! We don't have to get sick every winter; it's a choice.   

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