Small Bites

Brief posts on items of interest.

An Idea for a COVID Mask-wearing Ad Campaign for Washington, DC

12.01.20
Teaming up with DC Comics, the city of Washington, DC could create a public service ad campaign to promote mask-wearing, playing off the double-meaning of “DC.” Here’s a rough comp of an idea:

Other lines:

In DC, Super Heroes Wear Masks. Do you?

Everyone in DC Wears a Mask. Now it’s Your Turn!

Why Handwashing Works: Soap Rips and Pulls

10.17.20
The reason handwashing with soap is so effective and so strongly urged in fighting the COVID-19 virus is because the soap essentially disassembles or pulls apart the virus and thereby makes it inoperative. COVID-19 is what’s called an envelope virus, meaning that it’s surrounded by a “bilayer lipid,” or more commonly, a double layer of fat. That fat envelope is weakly attached to the virus (—for those of you who remember your chemistry, think non-covalent bonds—) and what the soap does is to bind to and then pull the lipid molecules away from the virus, thereby destroying it. These detached lipid molecules are then harmlessly washed away. The other trick soap performs is detaching the virus from our skin. If we’ve come into physical contact with the virus it’s not just sitting quietly on our skin, it’s actually weakly bonded to it. Soap contains surfactants, molecules with one end that likes to bind to fat and one end that likes to bind to water. The surfactants then attach one end to the virus and one end to the water from the faucet, freeing the virus from our skin.

Which Can Would You Use?

09.25.20
Here are wipes stations at two grocery stores just outside of Washington, DC. Which would you prefer to use…and why?

The store on the left is clearly more interested in selling advertising (in this case for a local realtor) while the one on the right makes it clear that “Wipes (are) Available Here!” But what caught my eye was how you’re supposed to dispose of the wipes. On the right, the open-top trash can lets you simply drop in the used wipe. Using the can on the left, requires you to push and hold the flap in order to toss the wipe, creating an opportunity for infection.

What I didn’t notice in either store and only when I looked at the pictures later, is that each wipes stand actually has a drop-in disposal opening, neither well marked, nor for that matter, well designed.

Tracing Masks for Epi-Maps?

09.24.20
Dropped or discarded masks are everywhere these days, on roads, sidewalks, and trails. Could they actually be put to good use? In the same way that wastewater in municipal sanitary sewer systems is being collected and tested to detect the spread of Covid-19, could abandoned masks serve a similar purpose? Of course there’d be a lot of assumptions and caveats (e.g., masks dropped are in the same proportion to masks worn, mask wearers are Covid-positive at the same rate as the population generally, etc.), but still, they might contain some useful information, and at a minimum it’d be safer to have them off the street.

Can You Spot What’s Missing?

09.23.20
Take a close look and see if you can spot what’s missing from this National Park Service flyer.

There’s no mention of masks.

It’s possible this is an oversight, but I think, unfortunately, it’s more likely an intentional omission.