To Those Americans who have no Clue about Flu

• a public service announcement from Florence Nightingale!

“What cruel mistakes are sometimes made by benevolent men and women in matters of business about which they know nothing and think they know a great deal.”

From way back in 1918! When the nurse and pioneer of public health, Florence Nightingale was in the field. Time travel!

So it’s flu season.

Put on your apron and grab your lamp and let’s take a walk with Florence.

So the flu virus transmission is by droplets. They get sneezed into the air, but drop to the floor almost immediately. Collects on surfaces.

So easy.

You can wash your hands and wipe down those surfaces with household disinfectant and bingo, no flu!

Don’t touch surfaces or rub your eyes, of course, and hand-washing really knocks it out.

Sanitation and education and vaccination are the mitigation.

When Americans argue “hey, it’s just the flu, and it’s hella deadly and so why get excited by Covid? it’s here to stay” and etc and blah de blah blah-

They are admitting that they have no clue about flu.

It’s a medieval attitude. It’s a deadly attitude. And it’s ignorant too. So it checks all the boxes!

One has to say no! We don’t have to put up with flu!

What did Florence Nightingale just say?

“If a nurse declines to do these kinds of things for her patient, ‘because it is not her business’, I should say that nursing was not her calling.”

To which Florence Nightingale added,

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“Every nurse ought to be careful to wash her hands very frequently during the day.”

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Florence Nightingale was trying to tell us, way back in 1918, one hundred plus years ago: Sanitation is key.

But it is an indication of what a low priority we give to the health and education of the American worker, that we have no clue about flu.

The health and education of the American worker is obviously a low priority.

If Americans washed their hands and practiced good sanitation and got vaccinated and were all educated-

(and if Americans were not compelled by the culture to show up at work when sick and infectious) -those flu statistics might drop through the floor.

Then pathetic Americans wouldn’t have flu to compare with Covid-19.

But the libs (libertarians) don’t give a darn about you, workers.

Blame: The oligarchs and plutocrats and authoritarians and libertarians and American/neo-fascists and the alt-right and corporations, for the flu.

(I used to get flu from money. Yes. Money is filthy! -So will that be credit or debit?)

So the boss can’t afford to give you time off every time you sneeze, without help from us, the US government- and that would be Socialism!

So instead of Socialism, we have deadly virii. Viruses.

Your choice.

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We don’t have to “put up” with flu! Or bad education or lack of sanitation! Or war, for that matter.

But the plan always was to let the flu do what the flu will do- and Covid, too!

That should make Americans fightin’ mad, and demand education and sanitation and vaccination! Oh, hell yes!

But nope. We have to “put up with it”.

Endure. Die. Hope to meet Jesus and don the heavenly wings and comfy sandals they got up there. Free harp lessons. Rapture.

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But last year we learned to our horror that Covid-19 is aerosolized.

That is far worse than droplets.

It’s insidious and virulent and deadly and it permeates the air indoors. And therefore it is many times more transmissible and deadly than flu.

(And shouting about tyranny helps in the transmission of Covid-19. Tip: Stand 30 feet away from Covid Hot-Spot Mothers that scream about tyranny.)

Even the former guy was struck by how
insidious Covid is.

“It’s in the air.”

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It’s tiny particulate matter that just floats in the air for a prolonged time.

Droplets drop; Covid floats around for an hour.

Here we have the need for what Florence Nightingale one hundred years ago called “good ventilation.”

If only we had effective vaccines! We do.

Don’t be a Covid Hot Spot- get the shot!

Tell your fellow Americans they don’t have to get the flu or Covid-19.

These are choices we are making.

And turn your righteous anger toward those that wish you harm.

That movement toward improvement we would call…

The Progressive Era!

And it’s full of education and sanitation and inspiration.

re Florence Nightingale, front line worker:

“She is a “ministering angel” without any exaggeration in these hospitals, and as her slender form glides quietly along each corridor, every poor fellow’s face softens with gratitude at the sight of her. When all the medical officers have retired for the night, and silence and darkness have settled down upon those miles of prostrate sick, she may be observed alone, with a little lamp in her hand, making her solitary rounds.”

• The Life of Florence Nightingale 1913. E.T Cook

Wear an effective mask. Wash hands. Don’t touch your face. Get immunized.
And educate and then shun those that tell you otherwise.

Spanish Flu at 100: Florence Nightingale Museum explores the world’s deadliest pandemic