clean hands save lives

“clean hands save lives” is a book i received as a gift from an academic public health event but never got around to read. that changed earlier this year because of covid-19.  thanks to the virus, medical professionals and laymen alike talked non-stop about infections and how not to get infected. so a long-held simple fact’s importance resurfaced and became à la mode again, for unfortunate reasons. here you can download numerous versions of the book for free!

https://tcrouzet.com/le-geste-qui-sauve/downloads/

 

salud en los tiempos de la corona

如果有得揀乜嘢時候唔好病，咁應該係社會動盪，又或是病毒猖獗嘅時候。我老豆從舊年2019嘅十一月九號到而家五月尾廿八號差不多折騰咗半年。乜嘢搞到佢囉囉攣？米就係偏食引致膽石阻塞膽管發炎、肝酵素上升等問題。經過兩次住院，無數次社康護士上門洗傷口、換紗布之後，上星期五那一針鈎住傷口嘅針最終鬆脫。輾轉由母親陪伴到北區醫院後，日間手術部門的醫護把傷口縫合，暫時解決了對父親來說既重複、又戰戰兢兢、又知啲唔知啲嘅家居護理服務。觀乎其飲食習慣－少飲水，少蔬菜－不出一兩年內想又要遭受折磨！所以腦筋清醒嘅時候，應該養成良好的飲食習慣,免得自己和身邊人受苦又受罪！

plastic forceps, dressing tray, sterile field, non woven sponges… these things have been repeatedly consumed for the past six months on my dad, during the two hospitalizations and as well as the many community health nurses’ at-home follow-up services. owing to his old age, my dad did not have his gallbladder removed since he had this acute inflammation and fever in early November 2019. If he were 15 years or more younger, the surgeons would have removed that gallstone generating organ without second though, as i deduced simply by eavesdropping his ward neighbour. fortunately for him, that organ is apparently back to functioning after prolonged external tube draining, wound-dressing, etc. just one and a half week short of 6 months. if there is any advice for those of you have a weakness for unhealthy, greasy, low-fiber, dehydrated daily diet, my blunt and my-own-dad-tormented advice is DROP YOUR BAD HABITS WHILE YOU ARE STILL YOUNG(ER) AND SANE. it not only hurts your eventual caretakers, in this case mostly  my mom, and part-time-wise, me, additionally it will make taking any remedial actions almost impossible, as in my father’s case who has alzheimers and his stubborn,  deranged perceptions of his own well being or the lack of therein really has been painful and brings anguish to everyone involved. he gets a break now until his bad habits get the better of him in a few years time.

le mal de terre en los tiempos de la corona

 

疫情之中，經朋友又發現一可以抽水的影片。吸引我是多人戴口罩的一幕。

話說歌曲唱的是環境問題、市民參與等等，但若果把covid-19放遠點跟愛滋病毒hiv、伊波拉ebola比較，人類愈來愈大的足跡，跨進少接觸動物嘅生態環境，是否一次又一次生化危機的幕後黑手？

a seemingly unrelated song on citizen engagement and environmental pollution, but the snapshot of everyone in masks caught my attention and brought us back to the current covid-19 crisis. are our footprints too big that the present and further problems are unavoidable?

Mangkhut 山竹

Mangkhut isn’t your typical fruit (name contributed by Thailand) and ravaged the Philippines (where over 100 lives perished) and led to chaos and damages in Hong Kong unseen in recent history.

 

Trees were found two months blocking passageways or dangling next to pavements.  If there is a take home message that get hammered from time to time yet ignored but the majority of the populace, it’s “climate change”. It’s here and it’s not going anywhere anytime soon and it might well get much worse.

如果有不寫不快、時間限定的題目，颱風山竹就是我2018年趕收工前必要寫的！論樹木倒下之量、清理所需時間、延誤交通之程度都應該是近年之最！

印象中巴士服務很少在8號風球除下以後受阻，但山竹這次使到部份偏遠路線幾日、甚至一星期才恢復！Bus services never missed a bit for anything weaker than a No.8 typhoon signal were seriously disrupted for up to a week for certain remote routes, especially in the New Territories.

不可不談的是樹木本身。作為一個過度發展、過度建築的城市，香港的老樹、大樹真是買少見少。這回我（應該是街坊）『聞』見（粵：嗅覺）某些倒下的大樹竟然是麝香四散沉香之流，更聽說有部份市民在食環署清理時爭相檢走砍下的木塊。我驚訝之餘覺得就算沒有偸木賊，環境變更令到猛烈颱風襲港也令樹木悲慘收場！

And on to the trees that fell, I was surprised to learn some were fragrant emitting agarwood-like that were uprooted. That certainly was the case near a bus terminal in my neighbourhood where many trees were down. A breeze with the pleasant scent not normally there signaled the end of those trees, which took years to grow to their considerable grandeur and more likely irreplaceable in this over-built city.

 

 

changing human nature

crispr in the news, and people are shocked and many condemned dr he jianhui for the gene editing done on the twin girls born.

this has  been a long way since ivf, the ethical conversations must always maintained and will continue. however, what is at stake is the potential billions of dollars involved to be gained for the “personal shopping experience” in manipulating our our body, which unfortunately are viewed upon but those people and companies and institutions with money  and power as revolutionizing or traumatizing the way we will be (as in humanoids or frankensteins), regardless of moral ethics. that, is my pessimistic prediction given the gmos in agri-alimentary businesses and pervasive and evasive nanotechnology stuff already running around!

webcasts for the 2nd international summit on human gene editing can be found here:

http://www.nationalacademies.org/gene-editing/2nd_summit/webcast/index.htm