Waiting

Posted on by Thor

I got sick right after attending a graduation ceremony in an arena filled with 10,000 spectators. I stood in the nose bleed section with my back too a wall so no one would be breathing down my neck, but someone in my section had a respiratory virus and I caught it.

I suspect what I have is RSV or the flu. I still have a lingering cough. I went to Doctor Angle Ho on Mills Avenue today and she prescribed two medications that she says will knock down the effects of the infection. One is Benzonatate and the other is Oseltamivir phosphate.

Benzonatate is a prescription cough suppressant. It calms your cough reflex to help prevent coughing for three to eight hours after taking a dose. My cough has died down so I might not need this right away.

Oseltamivir an oral anti-viral drug approved for the treatment of acute, uncomplicated influenza in patients whose flu symptoms have not lasted more than two days.

So the sketch above was started in the doctors waiting room which was completely empty. That is why there is a medical Caduceus on the TV screen. I only stated blocking in the lines of the empty waiting room when I was called back. I was weighed, my blood pressure was taken and then a sonogram was used to take my pulse in my ankles. I’m not sure what my ankle pulse had to do with my chronic cough but hey, I’m not the doctor. The doctor never determined exactly what virus I had.

Since the doctors visit had flown by so fast, I decided to go to my Toyota dealership since my Prius has had a warning light on for the past month or so. I stated drawing right on top of the unfinished doctors waiting room sketch. Both scenes were using 1 point perspective so in many ways the two scenes lines up. I started the dealership drawing because I was fascinated with a woman who seemed to be wrestling with her hair. Eventually her friend helped her get the knot into some semblance of a workable form.

I managed to finish this sketch with plenty of time to spare before mechanics decided to make any assessment of what work they might want to do on my Prius. The sketch is a sloppy artists version of a double exposure. I had to rush back to the Lake County studio to teach several online art classes. With the long commute I was running late. The dealership got me a free rental but regardless I was going to be late for class.

COVID Happily Ever After?

Posted on by Thor

The COVID-19 pandemic had played out like a fairy tale for most people. In the first act normal everyday life was interrupted by a dark and deadly mythical creature. In the second act heroic scientists helped the millions of people who were dying by creating an invincible vaccine. For many, once they took the vaccine, the story was over, they were vaxed and done and life returned to normal. Masks came off and everyone huddled together indoors to comfort one another, and spread the disease.

However the vaccines do not actually protect against infection, it protects against hospitalization and death. There is also another segment of the population who decided that vaccines were a hoax and they refuse to ever get vaccinated. There is plenty of human wood for the COVID forest fire to continue to burn through.

We are in a relative calm right now, but hospitalizations have begun to climb again due to immune evasive new variants. No one knows how high the next infection wave will rise this winter. Flu which has been on the sidelines because of social isolation and masking is now coming back with a renewed vengeance along with RSV. This winter promises a triple whammy of infections.

The other factor is that the immediate threat from a COVID infection is not always apparent at the first flush of infection. Cardio vascular disease, diabetes, blood clots, along with heart disease, and brain problems are being discovered months and even years after the initial infection.

So just how many people have died due to the pandemic so far? The pandemic directly or indirectly caused 14.9 million deaths in 2020 and 2021, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on May 5, 2022, in its newest attempt to quantify the outbreak’s toll. That’s around 2.7 times more than the 5.42 million COVID-19 deaths the WHO says were previously reported through official channels in the same 2-year period. Over 2,000 Americans continue to die each week from COVID-19 and this seems to have become the accepted new normal.

On top of this, excess deaths are on the rise. Excess deaths are the number of deaths above what would be expected over a 5 year average. Excess deaths are happening in every age group.  The number of excess deaths today is higher that the number of deaths from COVID-19 at the start of the pandemic lockdown. For some reason no one is reporting about this rise in excess deaths. My concern is that these deaths could be the result of the after effects from COVID infections. There is likely collateral damage. I however an not a scientist, so don’t take my word on that point. It is just my suspicion. The long term effect of COVID infections are only now being discovered. And the media remains silent.

Halloween Mask

Posted on by Thor

COVID is airborne and you can be much further than 6 feet from an infected person to get infected yourself. Despite this, children are sent to poorly ventilated schools to spread the virus and bring it home to parents and grand parents. The idea that children can not be infected was a lie perpetuated to keep the economy rolling. If children are not in school, parents can not be as active in the workplace. Kids get sick, Kids spread the virus.  Kids have lasting side effects.

Halloween lines up with the rise of a tripledemic of Flu, COVID and RSV. Pediatric wards are filling up. Nearly half of a Virginia High school is out due to a “Mystery” flu like illness. Now these germ factories and their unvaccinated parents will be walking door to door to spread disease.  These new variants are spreading at outdoor events like Octoberfest.

Kids will wear costumes as they go door to door, but how many will have qua#analogartistdigitalworld #covid_19 #illustrator #illustrativejournalist #sketch_daily #sketchbook #illustration #art #orlando #florida #centralflorida #floridaart #forsale #StayHome #StopTheSpread #SaveLiveslity KN-95 masks? How many parents will wear masks?  Halloween is the second most expensive holiday in America after Christmas, and the cost of candy has risen by 30% this year, so everyone wants the resulting sales and profits. Profit over public health is the American way.

While the risk of transmission during trick-or-treating is greatly diminished because it is an outdoor activity, it is still possible to get sick if you are not careful. Here are some ways you could contract COVID-19 while trick-or-treating:

  • Not wearing a mask.
  • Traveling with a large group of trick-or-treaters who are not vaccinated.
  • Going indoors to receive candy.
  • Accepting candy from an individual who is contagious.
  • Reaching into a community candy dish to collect your candy.
  • Eating candy without washing your hands or using hand sanitizer.
  • Rubbing your eyes while trick-or-treating.
  • Touching your mouth or nose before washing your hands.
  • Attending an indoor Halloween event.