Closed:

All schools
All daycare
Bars and restaurants, except for take-out
Liquor stores
Senior centers
Gyms
Theaters
Malls
Libraries
Hair salons
My bank, except for drive-through and online
My dentist
All “non-essential retail” except for grocery stores, hardware stores, pet stores, and pharmacies

Almost everything is closed. Gas stations are open but I read that gas may be in short supply if the restrictions last for a while.

Oh well. Here’s a photo of a crocus I saw this morning.

Take a look at this. It’s a schedule that the Lazarovics made for themselves and their two children, ages six and nine, during the pandemic restrictions that closed schools.

Source: Sample Schedules For Kids Home From School During Coronavirus Outbreak, HuffPost, 17 March 2020

First, it’s great. Top notch parents.

Second, being the food person in my household, I’m looking at their food time.

From what I can tell:
Breakfast is about a half hour.
Lunch is about an hour: prep is a half hour, eating is 15 minutes, cleaning is 15 minutes.
Dinner same as lunch.

Is that right? Is that how much time a family of 4 typically spends on feeding themselves these days? About 2.5 hours a day? For three meals plus snacks cooked at home from scratch? That includes all prep, cooking, eating, and cleaning dishes, pots and pans, and any labor-saving devices like blenders and food processors.

I don’t know. Maybe it is. I couldn’t do it. Just roasting potatoes or cooking brown rice takes longer than a half hour. A stock pot of water for pasta takes about 20-25 minutes to come to a boil. Beans from scratch? Welp.

I think the Lazarovics may be underestimating the amount of time food takes.

At a temperature of 68 degrees, SARS [and likely coronavirus] lasted:

— Less than 8 hours on latex
— 2 to 8 hours on aluminum
— 2 days on steel
— 4 days on wood
— 4 days on glass
— 5 days on metal
— 5 days on ceramics
— 5 days on plastics (but one strain survived up to 9 days on plastic)

In general, nonporous surfaces like doorknobs, desktops and airplane seat trays tend to transmit viruses better than porous surfaces such as paper money, human hair, rug pile and fabrics. The microscopic holes or spaces in porous surfaces can trap the microbes, preventing them from being transferred.

The easiest way to kill coronaviruses … is with a disinfectant. Solutions containing 62% to 71% ethanol alcohol, 0.5% hydrogen peroxide or 0.1% sodium hypochlorite will do the trick within a minute.

Source: How long coronavirus lasts on metal, glass, plastic and other surfaces, SFGate, 11 March 2020

Zinc: Fact Sheet for Health Professionals, National Institutes of Health

Immune Function

Severe zinc deficiency depresses immune function [51], and even mild to moderate degrees of zinc deficiency can impair macrophage and neutrophil functions, natural killer cell activity, and complement activity [52]. The body requires zinc to develop and activate T-lymphocytes [2,53]. Individuals with low zinc levels have shown reduced lymphocyte proliferation response to mitogens and other adverse alterations in immunity that can be corrected by zinc supplementation [52,54]. These alterations in immune function might explain why low zinc status has been associated with increased susceptibility to pneumonia and other infections in children in developing countries and the elderly [55-58].

Vegetarians

The bioavailability of zinc from vegetarian diets is lower than from non-vegetarian diets because vegetarians do not eat meat, which is high in bioavailable zinc and may enhance zinc absorption. In addition, vegetarians typically eat high levels of legumes and whole grains, which contain phytates that bind zinc and inhibit its absorption [34,41].

Vegetarians sometimes require as much as 50% more of the RDA for zinc than non-vegetarians [2]. In addition, they might benefit from using certain food preparation techniques that reduce the binding of zinc by phytates and increase its bioavailability. Techniques to increase zinc bioavailability include soaking beans, grains, and seeds in water for several hours before cooking them and allowing them to sit after soaking until sprouts form [41]. Vegetarians can also increase their zinc intake by consuming more leavened grain products (such as bread) than unleavened products (such as crackers) because leavening partially breaks down the phytate; thus, the body absorbs more zinc from leavened grains than unleavened grains.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the US Representative for New York’s 14th congressional district (Bronx and portions of Queens in New York City), on weaponizing scripture:

“It is deeply disturbing … the idea that religion and faith is about exclusion.”