Covid 19 and Public Health

"Covid 19" 

                        A year or so ago we experienced a new viral disease among us. We have called it Covid 19 and have seen that it is contagious. It has spread among us by droplets of a variety of sizes, many to small to be seen with our unaided eyes. Speaking of eyes it seems probable that Covy, (Covid is affectionately called Covy in my part of Colombia) may enter our system though our eyes. 

                    Covid can be transmitted to us as aerosols and so is a bit airborne, but seems to travel most effectively in a bit of water and the weight of that moisture bears it down. That being the case, its distance of travel is limited. There are disease vectors which much more effectively airborne to which we are subjected.

Other Vectors

                    I do not know how many disease arise or are revived on Earth each day. I am pretty sure that there are more of them than there are of us.

                    A fully airborne virus or other vector could infect a larger number of humans than can Covid. I know of no reason why it could not be more virulent.

Such a situation would be better handled by a co-operative and effective public response. We know much about how to co-operate, but to be effective we need practiced organization. I believe that it is to our benefit and that of our children and youth to create and maintain a more generally organized response that is more organize than any we have practiced. That is a much greater portion of the public may need to better understand the workings of our public heath system so as to make sure it is working well and that it is well worked. We might hear the call for organized understanding co-operation.

                    There are other disease vectors out there and new ones come. They come with the change of season and with climate changes. There are milder vectors than Covid and those which are more disabling. We can call them germs, fungi, bacteria, or something else, but we have dealt with them throughout our history and know that they have come to kill nearly half of us in a couple of years. 

We know that sanitation, excellent food, appropriate clothing and housing and enough physical exercise is good protection and an excellent defense when we do them well.

                        

Systematic Public Health

                    With the help of our public education system and our public health system we can know that we have excellent food and that it is available, the same for appropriate activity, clothing, housing, and sanitation. It is up to us to see that our public heath and education systems are well set up and working.

                    We are the public and the ones responsible for our health and education systems. It is up to see that we are appropriately organized. We are in this together. Nobody has to do it all alone, but it helps if a lot of us keep up on what is going on.

                    We have been reminded that a health public health system is one which the public is well acquainted with. We once had a better corps of well educated public health journalists than we have now and even then we needed a better one. Public health learning is an ongoing activity. The quality of food, water, and air change new germs come along. We need appropriate language to pass along the needed information. A good journalist can write to us or speak to us in language we can understand and that we can act on. The Journalist that we had passed on the word mostly in a newspaper column and sometimes on the radio. Now the word is passed from journal to professional journal by professionals to professionals in a language that even their own husband or wife may not understand.

                    The idea of public systems was that they be of, by, and for the public. But, the people working the system daily had to be clear about what the public wanted and needed, so that means an honest ongoing conversations with many. In a PHS they also need to know or have very good access to health knowledge and information and especially public health knowledge and information. That means a public which is willing to learn a bit and to speak up about their needs wants, and understandings. Having a good number of persons doing the work of  good public health journalists could be of great help.

                    With our help, the help of system professionals and bureaucrats, media people and others we could train and pay good men and women to make the public health word  available to all, bureaucrats, professional's, citizens, interested in public health. With a little more support and co-operation from us the people of our public health system would stand with us effectively in many ways. They could help get those public journalist trained, paid, and keep us well informed in language well understood by all.

                    Nearly all the men and women specializing in public health journalism have been fired and new ones not educated to the trade they need to be more than reporters and we need more than many hundreds of them. We need them at the city, state, county, and federal level. We also need them at several more specialized areas. They need to tells all they can of that we need to know about our use of and our support of our Public Health System in a language we can easily understand.

                      We may want to work out a way to teach ourselves to better support are public heath systems so that our personal health gets better support. We can learn enough and do enough. We are many and we are enough.

                    Thank you for reading.

                                                                                                    rcs

                   

Science: An Introduction

  RCS Posts science: An introduction. Science as a method of communication and for gaining understanding and knowledge.              

                Science is the practice of a method of understanding and of communication. It may be called the scientific method. This method can be a great help in self-development and in being a successful human being.

                As you become better acquainted with this method of understanding you become a more effective person. You will also develop a better understanding of the sciences in general and of each individual science, even ytterbiumology.

                The scientific method generally includes the following doings: observation, identification/recognition, description, experimental investigation, and theoretical explanation of natural phenomena. So, a scientist observes a doing or happening and begins to explain it. The method is much about how she does this. That is, how you do it may be more important than what you do.

                To start well, lets try to define some of our terms. We can begin with the word 'science.' Starting at the beginning we see that science means knowledge, the business of knowing. Just how one knows is a serious subject. A subject we could check into later. Early in its history science became knowledge gained  by study. Science brings its history with it. It still means knowledge and it still means knowledge gained by study. The science quickly came to be the study of particular and specific subjects. In its more modern meaning it has come to mean the technical and mathematical study  of a subject. However the basic method of doing science is both a simpler and more powerful attitude then one might suppose.

                We already know that "method" means "the way how." So, science is a particular way of understanding, a particularly effective way of understanding. It may be useful to remember that the suffix -ology means study. So anthropology is the study of human species, of humanity in most of its aspects. It has often been a comparative study of behavior, biology, societies. Whereas biology is the natural scientific study of life and of living organisms. It is one of the more nicely developed sciences. Cells and genes are now important factors in this study.

                It is important that a person interested in science develop a good grasp on the nature of scientific: observation, identification, explanation, knowing, researching,  and theoretical description. Also to develop their ability to recognize and observe natural phenomena is helpful to their use of scientific methodology.

                To gain and to communicate scientific knowledge one needs to become familiar with its concepts and vocabulary. As interest is shown, I hope to write more on the topic. I believe that you already have an understanding of the scientific method as a way many have found useful for gaining practical, productive knowledge and of communicating that knowledge.

                You probably already have the understanding that science is well begun and carried out with studied and practiced observation. 

                The ways of scientific observation are important to the development of knowledge. My dictionary says this about "to observe:" to notice, to perceive, to watch attentively, to make a scientific or systematic observation. "Systematic," that implies that there is a system to be learned. It seems that the way of a scientific doing is, at least, as the what.

                Observation is the act of observing; that is the act of noting and recording of a phenomena, doing, or happening, perhaps with instruments. Observation might lead to developing a judgement or inference. What are the methods for developing a judgement or an inference!

                "Identify" could be our next term to examine. If you would like me to continue some sort of exposition of science, please leave a comment to that effect in the "comment" window below.

                Identifying a phenomena is, in large part, for the purpose of being able to recognize the phenomena yourself and to enable others to also recognize it. There is more to say about the recognize/identify part of of our scientific process,  but I will leave it for another time.

                Oh, yes. Ytterbiumology is beyond my present knowledge; still it can be studied, known, and used. Its a chemical element with the symbol Yb and atomic number of 70. I may not live long enough to get deeply into the study of this element. Perhaps you can tell us more about it.     

                Thank you for reading

                                                            RCS

"We" Is An Activity

RCS Posts community and "we" maintenance including: communication, unity, common interests   

A kind of meditation:

We can agree that "we" is a relationship, can't we? When we agree to relate it may be good to speak of the level at which we wish to relate. At what level might it be good for us to relate? We could speak of the reason for our relationship. How might we go about relating ? Might it be important that we show our concern for our "we?"

What's in it for you? What's your interest? How is a mutual or reciprocal relationship handled?

A "we" must consist of people, persons, individuals, right? Have you seen
the start of a "we?" Was there a kind of joining? Doesn't a "we" require some kind of maintenance?

What do you suspect, believe, or know about the "we" in the "We the people..." document?

That "we" could refer to us. How do we go about keeping track of our common interests? How do we reciprocate? "We the people" are a social relationship, aren't they?

Let's say that we are the people in the "We the people" we know about.
What is the nature of our relationship? What is reason for our relationship? What's in it for you?

"We" implies a unity, a union. We can probably agree that better and worse unions can be detected. How might we form a more perfect union?

You may have some notions of "we" stirring in your mind now.

Communication is important. Talk, dialogue, discussion are important. Talk of "us" and "we"  may be so important as to be called vitally important.

I say that communication of persons is vitally important for the initiation and maintenance of a "we".    

To have a good nation we have to have a good "we". 


            Some find a sentence or two above worth contemplation.

RCS

 

 

An Introduction to Science with a hint about Self-Development and Knowledge

 Science: It's an Introduction

 

A Method of Understanding: 

               Science is the practice of a method of understanding and of communication. It may be called the scientific method. This method can be a great help in self-development and in being a successful human being.

                As you become better acquainted with this method of understanding you become a more effective person. You will also develop a better understanding of the sciences in general and of each individual science, even ytterbiumology.

Scientific Doings:                

                The scientific method generally includes the following doings: observation, identification/recognition, description, experimental investigation, and theoretical explanation of natural phenomena. So, a scientist observes a doing or happening and begins to explain it. The method is much about how she does this. That is, how you do it may be more important than what you do.

                To start well, let's try to define some of our terms. We can begin with the word 'science.' Starting at the beginning we see that science means knowledge, the business of knowing. Just how one knows is a serious subject. A subject we could check into later. Early in its history science became knowledge gained  by study. Science brings its history with it. It still means knowledge and it still means knowledge gained by study. The science quickly came to be the study of particular and specific subjects. In its more modern meaning it has come to mean the technical and mathematical study  of a subject. However the basic method of doing science is both a simpler and more powerful attitude then one might suppose.

                We already know that "method" means "the way how." So, science is a particular way of understanding, a particularly effective way of understanding. It may be useful to remember that the suffix -ology means study. So anthropology is the study of human species, of humanity in most of its aspects. It has often been a comparative study of behavior, biology, societies. Whereas biology is the natural scientific study of life and of living organisms. It is one of the more nicely developed sciences. Cells and genes are now important factors in this study.

Observation:                

It is important that a person interested in science develop a good grasp on the nature of scientific: observation, identification, explanation, knowing, researching,  and theoretical description. Also to develop their ability to recognize and observe natural phenomena is helpful to their use of scientific methodology.

                To gain and to communicate scientific knowledge one needs to become familiar with its concepts and vocabulary. As interest is shown, I hope to write more on the topic. I believe that you already have an understanding of the scientific method as a way many have found useful for gaining practical, productive knowledge and of communicating that knowledge.

                You probably already have the understanding that science is well begun and carried out with studied and practiced observation. 

                The ways of scientific observation are important to the development of knowledge. My dictionary says this about "to observe:" to notice, to perceive, to watch attentively, to make a scientific or systematic observation. "Systematic," that implies that there is a system to be learned. It seems that the way of a scientific doing is, at least, as the what.

                Observation is the act of observing; that is the act of noting and recording of a phenomena, doing, or happening, perhaps with instruments. Observation might lead to developing a judgement or inference. What are the methods for developing a judgement or an inference!

                "Identify" could be our next term to examine. If you would like me to continue some sort of exposition of science, please leave a comment to that effect in the "comment" window below.

                Identifying a phenomena is, in large part, for the purpose of being able to recognize the phenomena yourself and to enable others to also recognize it. There is more to say about the recognize/identify part of of our scientific process,  but I will leave it for another time.

                Oh, yes. Ytterbiumology is beyond my present knowledge; still it can be studied, known, and used. Its a chemical element with the symbol Yb and atomic number of 70. I may not live long enough to get deeply into the study of this element. Perhaps you can tell us more about it.

                                                                                            RCS