A Concerned Scientist @BE@qoto.org

@pimoore@social.lol @cstross @graydon @acb

I believe I read somewhere that the research got defunded after a successful phase I trial, but I can't find where I may have read that.

I'm not seeing anything about it, officially, after that first trial.

https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT04784767

@DEWLine @graydon @acb @cstross

You're not wrong, but the future people have to be willing, too. The "Fresh Air Movement" of 1918/1919 obviously hasn't had the effect in 2020 that they were hoping for.

@readsteven

I had the same problem with a local paper(which had been bought by a big conglomerate) this past year. After not being able to cancel online, then being told at customer service that I had to call someone else, I e-mailed this link to their support:

https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2021/10/ftc-ramp-enforcement-against-illegal-dark-patterns-trick-or-trap-consumers-subscriptions

Within an hour I got an e-mail saying it was all taken care of, my account was deleted, and a refund check for the rest of my subscription was in the mail.

@jik @augieray

I don't think you're wrong....the average person was out stuffing their unmasked face in a shopping mall last week. We're so far from even having the conversation about what to do to turn it around it's incredible.

@augieray

I've finally accepted that it's going to take something much worse to bring back any public health precautions, so this just goes in the "never-ending" category in my mind for now.

It's my understanding that our county has now fallen under 90% uptake in childhood vaccines for kids entering school and is dropping rapidly. I suspect that eventually people will remember why public health was implemented, but, it's not even on their radar at this point and I don't really want to participate in their experiment.

@james@strangeobject.space I wish there were a way to tell, but probably just time. The person I know who completely lost theirs has only been able to taste "salt" for about 13 months now, so it sounds like you're probably better off than that at this point.

Real rest seems to be about the best option for clearing the virus at the point it seems like you're at.

@wolfgangcramer

I'm glad to see this discussion happening. This is something I always talk with fellow scientists about. That said, I don't know what the actual, real life, answer is.

If you're actually attempting to counter disinformation you're talking about setting up industry wide comms, and at that point who decides what points are pushed out aggressively? Which ones aren't? There's too much science done on a daily basis to pump it all out there beyond journals.

Does academia, government or commercial R&D decide what is worthy? Good and bad research comes out of each. It's a great discussion, but I have yet to see a great answer.

@vscooper

Bob Wachter's case is exactly why there's people that just shouldn't be given a never-ending platform. Forget everything else you know or think you know about him. He failed his own family. He basically bullied his wife back into society, unprotected, to prove a point and she got long COVID and has struggled mightily since. Why would anyone else listen to him about what to do for their families after he failed his own family?

@acb @cstross Far-UVC is promising, but expensive right now. Hopefully as it's adopted the price will come down a lot.

@james@strangeobject.space I wish you all the best getting over it! As gentle as I can be here...

Just wanted to share that there's probably two different things at play with loss of smell and taste. One is inflammation and if that's "all" you're dealing with you're very likely to get your smell and taste back as you get over the illness. The other is olfactory damage, and unfortunately if that's the case then you're probably looking more longterm.

I know of a case of each of those, personally, and I certainly hope you have no longterm damage!

@bethsawin

I want every one of those now!

@augieray Congratulations! I also got a bit sedentary mid-life as the kids didn't need my constant attention any longer. I found some regular exercise plus 18:6 intermittent fasting really worked in combo for me.

@augieray @zephyrleifrenner I feel like most everything you could ever want to know about the subject is covered here:

https://tinyurl.com/FAQ-aerosols

https://cleanaircrew.org/boxfanfilterfaq/

@IndianaTux Yup. It's interesting how we're cycling back around to the idea, though. We previously lived in a 100-year old super drafty place for a while. It was only after we moved out that we realized it was designed that way after 1918 and the lessons learned about air quality during that pandemic.

@IndianaTux

I totally understand. I became a bit of an IAQ nerd over the last year or two. I always had a passing interest in it, especially when the kids were babies, but I started really watching our CO2, and what it meant, more recently.

There's an interesting trade-off between insulation and air quality, for sure. Modern super energy efficient homes usually have crappy air quality. I started learning about how bathroom fans can make a significant difference in home air quality if run on a cycle throughout the whole day and installed smart switches on both of ours that took data from a CO2 monitor and turned them on and off automatically.

Then I ended up installing a full-time fan in the center of the house(kitchen) that I can turn in or out, or completely seal up without taking it out, and now we keep the CO2 around 400-700 all of the time, but we definitely sacrifice some energy efficiency to do it(I did have it blowing out when it was ~25F outside yesterday).

If I had to do it all again I'd have a whole home ventilation system, but, that's a whole other level.

@IndianaTux

Just as an FYI, I appreciate you mentioning it. I know that cooking can raise VOC levels, but I never really thought too deeply about it. Checked my VOC monitor and sure enough, VOCs often show the highest point each day when I'd be cooking dinner. They generally seem to dissipate pretty rapidly, but I'm also usually running a window fan blowing out a few feet from the stove. I always kind of enjoy looking at these things. The science nerd in me coming out.

I haven't hit 500 ppb, though. Looks like 153 Friday, 174 yesterday and 244 today.

@IndianaTux

Oh, and I just noticed you mentioned a CR box. Sorry, I missed that part. So, perhaps you were filtering out the PMs and recirculating your VOCs.

@IndianaTux

I see where you're coming from. The data sheet on the Sensation SGP-40 seems to go to a broken link on their site("This XML file does not appear to have any style information associated with it") but I can see it's an MOx sensor and this article has some good info about what they measure:

https://amt.copernicus.org/articles/12/1441/2019/

I know I always seem PMs when I cook, so you not seeing a spike of them when cooking might just mean they hadn't accumulated at your sensor yet? PMs are generally associated with the combustion of VOCs(smoke).

Here's another article on VOCs in cooking oils:

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S135223101930264X

Honestly, getting a little out of my expertise range here, but an interesting case study there. I've watched PM numbers when cooking a few times, but I do have a VOC sensor that I'm not sure I've ever looked at while cooking and now I feel like I have to.

@IndianaTux

Could be quite a few things, but most likely you're seeing oils/fats being heated. I'm not personally familiar with that exact IAQ monitor(some monitors actually monitor proxies and not exactly what they say they're monitoring), but that's what I'd guess.

@nedhamson

This is all so stupid. Suddenly the US State Department cares about masses of COVID cases? Because China might spur variants? Like, western countries can't spur new variants?

So then China essentially just goes "Fine, then we won't report our case numbers, either. Two can play at that game."