daniela

Are you comfortable asking your mother? grandmother? Or your father? Perhaps not, but if you are, that would be a good place to start, especially considering that for your question, minhag is also relevant.
You should also talk to a Rav that you respect.
You are, indeed, a very shtark woman and what you feel is a struggle is indeed a sign of that. Wishing you shana tova u metuka.

May you and your Kalla be consoled. Thank you for writing this.

👍👏

@whitecar Yes I do, and it should be in peace, with President Biden and Congress (and every other country) transferring power to Moshiach, and not in the other manner.

If you can learn with a chavrusa, what is the question? If you are studying limud chol because you feel you would otherwise make a worse use of your time, then you should, most careers will still exist with Moshiach, and if yours will not, you will retrain with the expertise you gained already. That’s what most medical doctors will do.

@SACT5 As for “goyim teaching correct Torah values” please reread that and I am confident you’ll agree it makes no sense. Of course we learn from everybody, including non jews and non religious jews, we study their books be them law, medicine, engineering etc. and if they have good middot we admire and learn, but I believe we don’t ordinarily attend weddings that involve other religions’ prayers and rituals. Sorry you call me a troll, you are definitely not the only one finding yourself in challenging situations (as of today, Moshiach is not revealed yet). In fact in my early 20s I was invited to a church wedding by a very close friend , I “went” and stayed out of the door, in the street. After some time a priest came to inquire why I was outside, I answered I am not a xian and don’t go to church, and guess what? he went inside and returned with two chairs for me and another non xian girl who saw me and did the same, the priest also added it would take approximately X more time, in case we don’t want to wait and prefer to return later. Whether the bride was delighted or not with my “attendance” I never asked, but we are still friends. I could tell you more stories, I noticed many times in my life, if we do things correctly, they respect us. With regards to the “apikorsim” or more likely misguided and confused people, have some compassion on them and be grateful we are not in their place. help them take one step towards Torah if we can and stay away if you cannot, and in any case, it is my opinion you should get rid of beliefs such as “there is no way out” because in every situation there is always a proper, correct, honorable way out.

@CTLAWYER
Thank you (& too bad)

Yes, specifics tailored to local law are important and widely variable (changing in time, too) but some general criteria exist, such as reinvesting assets in the family, sharing complementary skills among siblings, choosing wisely a spouse, and staying as much as possible away from war (not that it always works out). I am sure you have a lot more to share. Unfortunately our ancestor did not have enough time with us.

I am getting confused with all these labels. Can you specify the correct label(s) for a ehrliche yid?

Is she Jewish? the NYT posted a link to their 1986 archives, about the marriage of Wendy Weil and Stockton Rush. Her mother’s family is not clarified much, it says “The bride is a granddaughter of Mrs. Arthur B. Griffin Jr. of Stuart, Fla” (not Mr & Mrs XYZ).

Composite pressure vessels are tricky and their reuse is even more so. Very sad that people lost their life because of arrogant incompetence and greed.

Zvulon ben Irene

asking mechila is customary, and you have no other reason to.
Same here & Gmar Tov to CTL tribe and everyone on YWN

I am very sorry about the suffering of your friend’s preemie. I will not comment further about the pain of premature babies, because some already know and the rest don’t need to.

However please do not insult us. You are too lazy to wear a mask and it bothers you and makes you feel ridiculous in your own eyes. So you don’t. You also probably voted for the candidate who caters to non-mask-wearers without even considering if he furthers your interests or he doesn’t. Have you even taken out a calculator and figured out which candidate is proposing the tax scheme most convenient to you?

Your country (you feel United Statesian, don’t you? You don’t feel you are a Yid and our enemy Esav will soon fall?) is in a sad state and whoever is the next President will go down in history books, and not in a desirable way. Maybe that’s why Biden did his best not to be elected. I understand, it’s not easy for you.

In order to put up your attitude, you are bringing up something totally unrelated: in NICU all people wear masks, whether there is covid-19 or not. You also do not refrain from suggesting that a major problem of preemies are mask-wearing people. Preemies whose every single interaction with a human being means added pain on top of unbearable pain, who may or may not see (oxygen-induced retinopathy and sometimes not possible to address it timely).Yet you are concerned about their loving parents and NICU staff wearing a mask, which anyway, they always do.

If you can’t have any empathy towards a tiny baby barely visible among the bundle of plumbing and machinery and who is suffering more than anyone under torture (the latter is aware that they eventually will lose consciousness or die) I don’t expect you to have empathy for anyone else.

Finally, may I say there is no dearth of science. There is a dearth of intelligent people.

LOL

For anyone who wants to understand: yes, a virus is smaller than the gaps in a N95 or N99 mask (although it is usually attached to something larger, such as dust). The way they get blocked is because the synthetic fibers in the mask are deliberately electrically charged during the manufacturing process and will attract and trap it.
A well-fitted N95 mask will filter out at least 95%, however, if someone wears it and spends time in a room with ten people who all are positive and each one of them is spreading about 150 virus particles with every breath of theirs (or more if they speak), the N95 will help but not a lot. However, the mask is not defective, it was incorrectly used!

As for those who don’t mind catching the virus and don’t mind spreading it to others and possibly harming them, just stay far away from me and my family.

Are you really interested in an answer? It seems to me you have already made up your mind.

If correctly utilized, contemporary respiratory protection means a person will not get infected unless they want to. Period. Indeed, people dealing with the deadliest viruses in biology labs do not get sick. And if masks involved a risk, manufacturers would have been sued out of existence long since. There are a lot of surgeons and they all have an attorney.

If you would like to know how to choose respiratory protection and how to use it properly, there are many resources, ranging from manufacturers’ websites to government agencies’ informative material and regulations (you can pick any government and country you can think of, and they all say the same thing). Or you can post your questions and myself and others will take the time to answer. However it seems to me you already have made up your mind, and I can’t help with that.
With regards to your question about scientific works, you can pick up any aerobiology book printed before 2020 and you will find all the information you are seeking, complete with references to research articles that are not allowed to be posted here.

Do you guys deliberately catch bacterial infections since antibiotics exist?

akuperma what are you trying to prove? People who correctly wear respiratory protection do not get sick despite working with the deadliest pathogens. It’s true that users should be trained, and for N95 they should also be fit-tested, but I can’t solve myself all the problems in the world. I have helped people for free (I suppose a stupid idea) but most people are simply uninterested, and I can’t help that. There are lots of people who wear a mask either as a political statement, or because they think having it on the chin and occasionally pulling it up is better than nothing. Well, it is better than nothing, but just barely. Wearing a mask correctly makes a lot of difference.

It used to be true that surgical masks protect the patient and not the care providers, but this has changed a lot in the last 20-25 years, with sars, mers, avian flu, pig flu, Ebola etc. However, since those epidemics had low numbers in the West, new industrial standards for surgical masks were not adopted in USA and EU.Yet, since most masks are produced in Asia, they meet those quality standards.

@HaKatan
Do you mean scientifically or Torah?
Scientifically, yes they are not even remotely comparable. Any modern boat, let alone a ship, can’t be sunk by an individual who keeps drilling holes for the entire duration of the voyage, not even if he is given a power drill, not even if bilge pumps should fail. On the other hand, any person who has been infected (perhaps doesn’t even know that) and feels OK is spreading about 150 virus particles with every single breath.
Torah: I don’t presume to comment given that I am a woman, but I know for sure that when eventually I will face questioning, I will be able to say I have done my best to cull this evil disease and not catch it / spread it further.

@HaKatan
Surely you mean well, but masks block tiny particulate not according to your comparison with a colander or chicken wire, but because the material of modern masks (electret) electrostatically attracts nanodust which is captured and bound to the fibers. This is why Chinese KN95 work awesome and “community made” reusable cotton masks are not as effective.

Some of us are silently taking care of our families at home, as well as going out when it’s needed, because we don’t have to shave our beards to fit a KN95 🙂

COVID-19 is real, is airborne, and if it is a blessing, I am happy to let other people “enjoy” it. I do not think it is in my interest to get infected.

Would you advise your patients to get exposed to malaria given that HCQ is highly effective against it? I hope NOT!!! It has, like every medication, side effects (including psychotic episodes) and possible adverse events. I don’t know if I will take HCQ if I get sick with the virus (I’ll follow what the doctors say) but very definitely I am trying not to get sick.
Non-medical KN95 cut down exposure drastically, are affordable and widely available, and you can wear a surgical mask or face shield on top of them. Why aren’t they being pushed as an option? Perhaps because they are Made in China? Or perhaps because they contradict the President’s narrative and highlight his demented disruption of supply-chains at a highly critical time? I don’t care. Trump won’t help me when I won’t be able to provide for my family. Besides, according to the CNN audio, he seems to have known all along that the virus is transmitted via aerosol. And he lied to his subjects…. I mean, citizens. You can’t be too surprised that I am not taking his statements and his supporters’ words at face value.

All relevant info has been available to any regular citizen since February. Many actions have proven to be effective: compare the death rate in the US with other countries. Trump failed and he should resign, and certainly not seek reelection. Compare with Bush.

Why no one is mentioning that AVOIDING covid-19 is a very real possibility, has no side effects, and works?
If people suggested it’s fine to catch malaria since HCQ is a reliable cure (which it is), we would be treating them as the madpeople they’d be. But somehow with the novel coronavirus it seems alright to discount suffering, which is very real, even if it were not to result in exitus. Sadly, often it does.

You are not addressing the issue. Did she want to take the prescription? Was Dr Zelenko willing to prescribe it to her? Are the answers Yes/Yes or something else? I have traveled all over the world and I know a thing or two about medication outside local jurisdiction. Also can you please update us about the outcome? Why was a braindead person put on life support if the foetus was no longer alive or viable and given that (if I understand correctly the patient and her family are frum) consent for organ donation was unlikely? Thank you.

@charliehall
I am no MD but I have background in science

I am fascinated by the debate about HCQ, yet the media hardly mention, say, remdesivir which has evidences. Can you explain? Thank you a lot

@CTLAWYER So sorry to hear that. Was she wearing PPE? Does she think it was on the plane or in work interaction? Wishing her a refua shleima and please be very careful.

@jbaldy22

Sorry I did not say whom I was replying to, part was in reply to you and part to other comments. I agree with your statement that most children have no reason and no business to use the internet, on the other hand the access does not need to be regular and taken for granted for damage to occur (e.g. the poster HakunaMatada only had occasional access). I also respectfully disagree with your “8th grade” threshold, as an 8th grader, unless I am grossly miscalculating US school system, is probably Bar Mitzvah already or close to it.

With other forbidden items there is lots of social pressure, there’s the awareness they are forbidden, teenagers are also dissuaded by other parents’ awareness that people who have a forbidden or undesirable habit are not welcome as our/their children’s friends. There are many things that stand in the way of someone who is considering purchase or use of inappropriate items, all the way to fear / shame of being seen while purchasing or using.

Perhaps the tolerance towards internet can partially be explained by the fact many frum people don’t use it at all, as well as by the lack of technical awareness: malware and spyware alone – and legal liabilities on top of it – are enough of a threat to bring nonjewish and nonreligious internet users to implement heavy filtering. Someone already mentioned Cisco’s content filtering, which prides itself with “not interfering with the user’s experience” i.e. the user will hardly be able to realize that a filter is in place. They do so with BYOD in their own workplace, i.e. with employees who are professional network managers who know a thing or two.

I do not think we can say “inadvertent access to unwanted content” is only popups or banners, advertising sites we would not visit otherwise (and perhaps, not even imagine they existed). I think it is much more likely that a good and well-intentioned person with access to unfiltered internet joins Facebook for a sensible reason, say in order to keep in touch with someone overseas, and then, the problems begin.

As you wrote, no one really maintains that “one size fits all”. It’s no different than with clothing. But most people are shorter than 2.10m. Also, there are good reasons (including practical reasons) to separate our work environment which, for some, will need to be completely unfiltered (and probably with some “unsolicited” audits running there), and our own activity of web surfing, search, emails.

Chag Sameach & gmar chatima tova 🙂