Connecticut Green Living

This morning I coughed up some phlegm. Is this the detritus of my Covid that ostensibly ended a couple weeks ago? Or did I catch something this week? I don't feel safe in New Haven schools because I am not. Before I get hate mail: I know what the rules are. It's who-gives-a-hoot in terms of masking in America. Young Americans have decided the pandemic is over, so those of us over 50 can just grin and bear it and hopefully not end up in hospitals gasping for air. Yesterday, a teen was coughing. I put on a second mask as I sat at the desk, nervously wondering if she were ill. I decided to call Admin and ask that a mask be sent up. The teen agreed to wear one, then as she became more and more lethargic, soon asked if she could go to the nurse. Of course, I said, of course. I heard a few coughs from the other side of the room, an animated boy "working" in a close group. Did he have Covid? I counted: maybe three masks in class. It should be noted, often I see more kids t...

For better or for worse, we’ve all gotten used to wearing a mask everywhere we go. No matter how stylish they are, we can’t escape our glasses or sunglasses fogging up from our breath, misting over the top of the mask and leading to temporary blindness. I have often been at the store, struggling to find the buttons on the terminal as I insert or pass my credit card over it. A solution for this frustration is a product created by a company called Keysmart, the FogBlock. It is billed as "a no-wipe spray to apply to glasses and sunglasses to keep them from fogging up. Safe for all lenses, the FogBlock works up to 24 hours per application and comes in a 1 oz. bottle, making it the perfect travel accessory." It is officially called an "anti-fog spray for PPE masks". It is wonderful, but in my experience it did not last 24 hours. When I applied to my glasses, I realized I would have to reapply the next day. But it is a small, portable bottle and it's not a pr...

Yesterday I realized what my county needs - free masks, widely distributed. Why isn't this being done? I boarded a bus to get to Milford to my doctor's appointment yesterday, an event so traumatizing that I had a nightmare the night before. The issue is not with the driver or how the bus companies have smartly set things up - rides are free because one cannot venture farther than a roped-off portion at the front - but dealing with other passengers. There are a few types: 1. The individual who is casual about his or her mask and just slowly puts it on when he or she has already boarded the bus; 2. The individual who is already wearing a mask and behaving in a civilized manner; 3. The individual who, for some inexplicable reason, is using the mask as an excuse to loud-talk with the driver, therefore spewing droplets as he/she speaks; 4. The person who is unaware of everything going on around them, perhaps for reasons of mental illness, including the requirement to wear a mask; ...

As I write this, Connecticut is suffering from a 2-3 percent reported infection rate of COVID-19 . The statistics are impossible to know exactly because not everyone who wants to be tested has been; others have not been tested for other reasons. In some cases the tests have been inaccurate. Despite the high rate of infection, many in our state refuse to wear masks as they are supposed to do when entering stores or when closer than six feet to another individual outside their home. A concern, too, is that people have misinformation about masks, that they are the be-all and end-all so if one is wearing so much as a homemade cloth mask or store-bought surgical mask, she can stand and chat at close range for several minutes with a friend or stranger at CVS. This is wrong. Surgical masks are only about 50 percent effective, according to Jill Crittenden, a research scientist with Massachusetts Institute of Technology, who spoke on May 28 as part of a new series addressing COVID-19; this was ...

For good reason, I have feared going out into the world over the past three and a half months. Yesterday I took three bus rides and on the second, I could have had my life put in jeopardy. I will only know if I come down with COVID-19 symptoms or get tested to find out. Here is what happened: I was on the Coastal Link bus here in Connecticut, gazing out the window, when an unstable and quite vocal disheveled character wandered aboard in front of Stop 'n Shop. He sat down and then got up and started to sing (badly) out the window. This immediately rattled me so I mentioned it to the driver, who called out but then ignored him. As I gazed out the window trying to calm my nerves, I suddenly heard something and turned to my left. He was at my side, crazed One-Flew-Over-The-Cuckoo's-Nest-like, cackling and writhing just inches from where my nostrils could absorb someone's viral droplets. "AAAAHHHH!!!! GET AWAY! GET AWAY FROM ME!" I shrieked. He toppled backward, as if...