Take a Tour of the Luscious Cherry Blossom Trees in the Brooklyn Botanic Gardens

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1. dienne77 says:

   May 6, 2020 at 1:55 pm

   This is going to seem off-topic, but bear with me.

   Honest question – if anyone has any knowledge or research, I’d appreciate it: Is there any difference between brief, casual exposure to coronavirus vs. extended exposure? For instance, if you quickly pass an infected person and one small particle gets in your eye, are you any less likely to get the disease – or a severe case of the disease – than if, say, you work in close contact with an infected person for 8 hours a day, multiple days? Intuition would suggest that the body could probably fight off a few hundred viruses in one particle, whereas it could not fight off the millions of viruses it would be exposed to over the course of hours/days. Furthermore, if the body does fight off those few hundred viruses, might there be some immunity built up?

   I freely admit I have no expertise in this field and the googling I did yielded limited, mixed results. I admit intuition could be completely wrong, in which case, my next point would be completely moot.

   But if I’m right, might the best course of action, assuming we’re going to open the country some day before a vaccine is available, be to open up places that allow for, perhaps even encourage, brief, casual exposure, such as botanical gardens (zoos, parks, the lakefront trail in Chicago as other possible examples)? The number of people admitted could be limited and people could still be encouraged to maintain social distancing, but there would be more exposure which could start to build herd immunity without as great a risk of people developing severe cases of the disease.

   Going to a park, zoo, garden, etc. would be completely voluntary. Maybe only younger, healthier people would do it (and we could even issue warnings to discourage older/infirm people and those who live with older/infirm people).

   My concern is that if we go straight to opening up workplaces, there’s little that’s voluntary about it – people who still have a job to return to won’t be in the greatest position to refuse. Also, people of all ages and levels of health have to work, not just young and healthy people. And work is usually 8-12 hours a day of continuous exposure to the same people. Might it not be a good idea to try to build at least some herd immunity before forcing people back into such conditions?

   Again, let me stress, I don’t know that my intuition is correct on brief vs. extended exposure, and if it’s not, botanical gardens could be as dangerous as meat-packing plants. So if anyone has any actual research or expertise in this area, I’m very open to response.

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2. FLERP! says:

   May 6, 2020 at 2:31 pm

   I recall seeing research, or at least informed discussions, several weeks ago about physicians’ constant exposure to patients with very high viral loads as an explanation of why so many younger doctors in epicenter hospital settings were falling ill. Might try googling those terms. Not sure it would apply to a workplace where, even if you’re in relatively close contact, you don’t have a situation where there are serious COVID cases all over the place.

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3. Bob Shepherd says:

   May 6, 2020 at 2:44 pm

   Thank you, Diane. This is so wonder-ful.

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4. LeftCoastTeacher says:

   May 6, 2020 at 4:19 pm

   Ahh, a tree grows in Brooklyn. I haven’t been to New York, so the video was splendid. I loved the cherry blossoms when I was in D.C. one springtime. But cherry blossoms can’t top how my class cheered at the end of my lesson in Zoom just now. I’d theatrically recited some Poe. I came here again today because I had to say:

   There is nothing in the world — nothing — better than teaching.

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