Following The Herd . . .

Jan and I headed out a little before 1pm for a WalMart/Sam’s Club run. We needed to pick up the prescriptions I had dropped off yesterday, and also to pick up some supplies while we were there.

After WalMart’s big announcement yesterday about restricting the number of people in the store starting today, I expected to find a line outside the door, but No. One entrance was closed completely, and the Market side entrance had the entrance and exit roped off in different directions, but that was it.

Not sure how funneling everyone through one entrance is better than spacing them out over both.

Of course that could be because it was drizzling when we came in and raining when we came out, so I’m sure how well people would have taken to lining up in  the rain. And they certainly weren’t limiting the people inside, since it looked like a pretty normal Saturday afternoon crowd.

Well, normal, if you consider that a lot of people, including Jan and I, were wearing masks. However a number of folks had apparently given up, and had them up on their foreheads or under their chin. Probably because they’re hot, or kept fogging up their glasses like they did for Jan and me.

WalMart had this sign posted over their water fountains today.

WalMart Water Fountains

I guess this explains why I found two employees drinking from the lavatory faucets in the bathroom. Not sure that’s an improvement, Kung Flu wise.

Apparently WalMart is catching up with the supply chain, since they had plenty of brand name toilet paper, paper towels, and baby wipes. The only thing Jan couldn’t find was the Dial Antibacterial Hand Soap that she wanted.

Next it was right across the street to the Sam’s Club to pick up our other 3 prescriptions. Every year when we get new ones from our doctor, I go through them looking at WalMart’s $4 – $10 list and Sam’s Plus Member list, to find the cheapest place.

Luckily all of them are on one list or the other, so $10 or $12 at the most for a 90 day supply.

Before we left the Sam’s parking lot, I put in an online order for the Whataburger right back across the street out on the feeder in front of the WalMart. And after we picked it up, we moved over to Kohl’s big empty parking and had our burger feast. YUM!

A little later on the way home, I pulled in Costco to get gas there, and was surprised to find it still at $1.45. Expected it to be lower, but not bad.

As forecast, it did rain all night and into today, so I’m glad we got the roof and  the doors finished on the shed yesterday afternoon. And I was happy to see that there was no water inside the shed when I checked it this morning.

Back on the virus front, a number of epidemiologists and immunologists are starting to worry that the lockdown is delaying the development of Herd Immunity. Herd Immunity is the concept that once enough people have contracted the disease, it becomes harder and harder for the virus to get a toehold in the population.

This is what happens with the seasonal flu each year. And it’s what I depend on to protect me from the flu. As I’ve said before, I can’t take the flu vaccine so I depend of the ‘kindness of strangers’. If everyone else gets their flu shot then there won’t be anyone for me to catch it from.

At least that’s my story and I’m sticking with it. And have since 1966 when I got my second and last flu, resulting in me being hospitalized and in and out of a coma for 10 days.

And in what might be really good news:

HIV drug leronlimab, which successfully treats coronavirus, moving to phase 2 trials, and could be ready and could potentially be approved by the FDA for use in four weeks.

And there’s more news about Ivermectin, an anti-parasitic drug already FDA approved and in use all over the world. Originally developed as a veterinary drug, it was approved for human use 50 years ago and is credited with going a long way toward fighting River Blindness and other Third World parasitic diseases, being administered over 200 million times a year.

In recent years here in the U.S, its human use to combat head lice has been replaced by other drugs more aptly used as a shampoo, but it’s still used as a farm animal treatment, with some people using it themselves as well.


Thought For The Day:

Ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge.” – Charles Darwin

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