So, apparently, the hospitals in NYC (and other places) are “converting” normal patient rooms to “Negative Pressure Rooms” to isolate, handle, and care for the large numbers of Coronavirus patients.

Now, negative pressure rooms are just that, they have slightly lower pressure than the adjacent room so that air leakage is one way…into the NP room, preventing whatever cooties the patient inside the room has from getting out into the hallway or through the door.

This, of course, requires a bit of fine balancing of air out vs air on, and some pretty powerful fans and/or other air handlers. Generally, the NP rooms also get the air changed more frequently, like 10-12 times an hour.

Modifying the airflow in a set of rooms from “normal” to Negative Pressure is not a trivial task.
One has to find some way to handle the additional airflow, to heat (or cool) the increased incoming air to environmental standards (likely 65-70 degrees F) to balance that airflow  correctly and some way to handle the infectious materials that may be in that air you are exhausting from those rooms.

Since the hospitals are doing this “quickly” I don’t think I would want to spend much time breathing the air around the outside of the hospital. You are talking at least 5 times the air quantity of a “normal” room and that air has to be somehow filtered for the diseases that the patients have. The filtering/germicidal devices that are in place to filter for the rooms that already exist won’t work well if they are expected to handle 2 or three times as much air volume. And you can’t just easily add to such devices on a moment’s notice….they need to be ordered and custom built and tested and adjusted before they can be used.

Lots of air, handled quickly, and now at a greater load for that filter or germicidal device to make the air safe for the rest of us. All done in a “hurry”…I’m glad I don’t live downwind of a hospital that has covid cases.

Yeah, I feel safe about it.  You should too….

Went to help a friend yesterday, (yes, we “social distanced” outside) and stopped in to the grocery store on the way home to pick up a few things.

Lots of fresh veggies
Lots of milk
Lots of eggs.
Lots of cheese
Lots of lunchmeat.

Fresh fish counter had lots of stuff and all of it was on sale.

Meat at ~70%
Bread shelves at ~ 30%
Chips at~50%
Cookies at ~50%
Canned goods at~70%
Pasta at ~30%
Rice nonexistant
Wheat flour shelves completely empty
TP, some, not much

Sugar maybe 10%
Pop/soda at ~70%

Half the folks wore masks, everyone was pleasant but staying apart.

North West Indiana 4/5/20.

How are things in your area?

Had to make a trip today.

25 or so miles each way.

I saw a fair number of people wearing masks…..INSIDE THEIR CAR….alone.

I think they are missing the concept.

I find this interesting:

“The underlying cause depends upon what and where conditions are reported on the death certificate. However, the rules for coding and selection of the underlying cause of death are expected to result in COVID- 19 being the underlying cause more often than not,” the guidelines read.


“COVID-19 should be reported on the death certificate for all decedents where the disease caused or is assumed to have caused or contributed to death,” CDC guidelines issued March 24 read. “Certifiers should include as much detail as possible based on their knowledge of the case, medical records, laboratory testing, etc.,” the guidance continued.”

S if John comes to the hospital, with a heart condition at 75 years old, already on oxygen, with diabetes, showing signs of Covid 19  and subsequently dies, then he is assumed to have died from coronavirus, tested or not.

So we won’t have any decent statistics to work with, later.

“If the decedent had other chronic conditions such as COPD or asthma that may have also contributed, these conditions can be reported in Part II.”

I am gonna go work outside today.

Be safe

Seems that (locally, at least) WalMart is finally limiting the numbers of people in the store, and actually acting like there is a health crisis instead of Business as Usual.

No more than 5 people per thousand square feet.

‘Cause everyone needs to shop for cheap chinese goods. Clothing, footballs, and cheap electronics.
The food at the SuperWalmart grocery section I can understand….But the rest?

Odd how no one ever questioned the people at Walmart considering the “lockdown” orders, innit? 

How to reuse an 9-95 mask…do’s and don’ts.

I was wrong that sterilizing the surface with alcohol would do the trick. Treatment with alcohol degrades the efficiency of the mask.

But hot air at 158F will do the trick.

Steam 125C will do the trick.

Soap and water will degrade the efficiency of the mask.

Hot water (boiling) may well be effective.

Both CBS and NBC (and possibly other DNC mouthpieces) are pushing for a “National Lockdown order”.

While I do understand the reasons to want this, it is a very very very very slippery slope precedent that they are advocating.

And here these assholes were worried that Trump would do the whole Martial Law thing against them.

Yet they WANT to enable this or ANY OTHER future president to Lock-Down the whole country with the stroke of a pen.

Do they not realize what a Pandora’s box they are opening?? 

On CBS this morning….Government Health Officials are lamenting that people are not staying home….and that there isn’t a national order to do so.

Firstly, dude, people no longer believe you anymore (or, like me, never really did) because your story changes often. Your advice often flouts common sense.

Second, the whole Stay At Home order things is…not really enforceable unless there is Martial Law in place, or someone declares a State Of Emergency…and no governor wants to do that.

But why should we listen to people who we know don’t tell us the truth…or at least the WHOLE truth? Whose aims may or may not be in our best interest?

I AM mostly staying home, limiting my contacts, “Social Distancing”. etc. I live in a mostly rural area, so it isn’t that difficult for me. It is, I think, harder in more urban areas. THOSE areas might well have benefitted from more mask wearing, but they didn’t because they were told not to. NOW, they wonder why folks have begun to stop listening?

Took the 182 in for the annual inspection yesterday.

One bad cylinder on one side, and two marginal ones on the other side.

Shit. This is gonna be a bit costly.

But hey, no one ever said aviation is cheap.

It’s the downtime while the cylinders are reworked that sucks though.

Prolly 3 weeks.

Now Masks DO help the rest of us, not just the Medical Personnel. Proper fitment is key to effectiveness, but even a poorly fitting mask has a great deal of effectiveness…according to new CDC “guidelines”
Which anyone with a brain already knew.

As, while not as effective, even a kerchief is better than nothing at all, for those folks who weren’t aware that water is wet and gravity makes things fall.
So says the “experts” now, in contrast to their advice of weeks ago.

How can we trust the government health organizations words when they say such things? And when their message changes halfway though the crisis from what we all suspect are lies to the exact opposite ?

And now they are admitting as well that all those unexplained cases of “not seasonal flu” after Thanksgiving were likely coronavirus, despite telling us that there had been no cases prior to the end of January.

W.T. F.