[BALUG-Talk] REMINDER: BALUG: meeting: TUESDAY 2020-02-18 Rich Morin...

[Rick Moen]

Quoting David Fetter (david@fetter.org):

> This part is flat-out xenophobic scare-mongering.  Stop it.

Applaud your sentiment, David, but I'd also speculate offhand (could be
mistaken) that the author of the cited passage was someone other than
Aaron C.  Just something about the whitespace content suggests it was
(my guess) a leftover from someone _else's_ e-mail conversation.

Speaking as a kid from Hong Kong (and also as a mathematics major with
an emphasis on statistics), my general sentiment on the other matter is
that avoiding particular ethnic restaurants at this point is a rather
pitful example of magical thinking.  But, on the plus side, more good
home-town cooking for me.


Me, I save most of my worry for the erratic behaviour of other drivers
while I'm getting to the restaurant from Chez Moen in West Menlo Park.
And climbing down stairs to get to the family car.  And using my ladder
to clean out my house's raingutters.  _Those_ are all activities posing
serious risks to my health.

Going to a San Francisco restaurant (once past the figurative bumper-car
festival on the streets), irrespective of ethnicity, is bloody well way
down in the five-sigma levels of health safety -- just like any
commercial airline flight.

Want to do something to protect health?  Carry tissues to avoid touching
the same elevator buttons and door handles some thoughtless person with
the flu touched an hour ago.  And, if you use stairs as I do, take
measures so you don't need to touch the banisters with bare hands.  And,
speaking of hands, wash them quite a lot with warm water and soap, and
keep those hands away from your face.  

CDC estimates for flu deaths in the USA so far this season:  a bit over
12,000.  (We are in peak flu season through the end of February.)