Facts about Covid 19 you may not know

Photograph by Anthony Kwan, Getty

Wet markets, like this one in Macau, are found throughout Asia and sell fresh vegetables, fruit, seafood, and meat.

Until earlier this year, most people had never heard of the term “wet market,” but the coronavirus pandemic has thrust it into the limelight. A wet market in Wuhan, China, called the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market, is believed to be the source of COVID-19. And it is where the first cases started showing up.

Somewhat akin to farmer’s markets and found around the world, wet markets are typically large collections of open-air stalls selling fresh seafood, meat, fruits, and vegetables. Some wet markets sell and slaughter live animals on site, including chickens, fish, and shellfish. In China, they’re a staple of daily life .
SARS was a more deadly virus but Covid 19 is far more contagious so it is much harder to control or contain.

 

Saliva and mucous from a sneeze can carry farther than the social distance of six feet  / two metres. As observed in this freeze frame photography, doctors' estimate of a safe distance is incorrect. Also the droplets stay airborne longer than first estimated

The pandemic is giving people vivid, unusual dreams. Researchers are trying explain why withdrawal from our usual environments—due to social distancing—has left dreamers with a dearth of “inspiration.” Science has long suggested that dream content and emotions are connected to wellbeing while we’re awake. Bizarre dreams laden with symbolism allow some dreamers to overcome intense memories or everyday psychological stressors within the safety of their subconscious. Nightmares, on the other hand, can be warning signs of anxieties that we might not otherwise perceive in our waking lives. With hundreds of millions of people sheltering at home during the coronavirus pandemic, some dream experts believe that withdrawal from our usual environments and daily stimuli has left dreamers with a dearth of “inspiration,” forcing our subconscious minds to draw more heavily on themes from our past. You might find yourself back in school or summer camp. You may see people you have not seen for a long time. The lack of day to day new experiences has your unconscious mind reaching into the past to provide you with scenarios. If you are having bad dreams lately, it may be caused by the stress of the pandemic, the loss of a job or economic worries or emotional fatigue from isolation. People closer to the pandemic threat—health-care workers, those living in epicenters, and those with affected family members—are more likely to experience outbreak-influenced dreams. They may dream of patients on respirators, struggling to breathe or dying. According to an ongoing study the Lyon Neuroscience Research Center in France initiated in March, the coronavirus pandemic has caused a 35 percent increase in dream recall among participants, with respondents reporting 15 percent more negative dreams than usual. Multiple studies have shown that our waking activities create a slide reel of memories that influence the content of our dreams. Emotions carried over from the day can influence what we dream about and how we feel about it within the dream itself. Reducing or restricting sources of everyday memories—by being stuck alone in quarantine—may limit the content of dreams or cause the subconscious to reach for deeper memories.