How the Family of a Bioscientist Shops and Cleans Groceries in the Midst of The American Pandemic of 2020.

I know you have anxiety about shopping for food for you and your family. I know you are scared. You can be afraid. Fear is normal when there is danger, but stop thinking about it and prepare to get your groceries. You can do this. You can order them for delivery, but it is true that delivery is not smooth in all parts of the United States. If you can find a grocery store that is using staff to control traffic of shoppers: distance control, limited numbers of people in stores, a system for sterilizing wagons for you, separation in check out lines, procedures for protecting you and the cashiers, then you can shop yourself as well. This too may vary around the country. In either case, what do we do when we get our food at our door? Well, in our household we wash them, in warm water with regular dish soap. NOT surface cleaners. DISH SOAP. The CDC does not recommending washing food packaging or foods with household surface cleaners because those would be toxic chemicals if they contaminate your food. 

I know that viruses are actually very susceptible to soap, detergents, and their main molecular components dissolve nicely in soapy water. Make sure you have enough dish soap to make suds, bubbles. Of course, any food you cook will destroy the virus too, but you can still wash your veggies for your salads and for safe handing in your own home doing food preparation. Make sure you rinse off all your dish soapy water well, but just use dish soap and do not use surface cleaners on your food.

You should be able to also use tap water washing without any soap at all, but I have heard from persons who have lots of anxiety about shopping for fresh food, and dish soap in water may help you feel less of that anxiety. 

Again, just use dish soap made for washing food dishes, and just use the dish soap in lots of water. Rinse the wash water off. Let your produce drip dry a few minutes before you try to place them in the fridge. 

Here is a little video on how. It's easy. 

You can do this. You can :).




Here are some updated guidelines from the US CDC regarding COVID-19 and food. So far there is no evidence that the spread of COVID-19 happens from food or the risk is extremely low. 
US CDC Food Guide for COVID-19

United States Interactive Map Coronavirus Cases, Deaths, Doubling Time (updated daily)

Here is an interactive map of the United States showing COVID19 cases in each State and Territory. This map here will update automatically when CDC data is updated. 

The graph below is based on confirmed COVID19 death data reported from the CDC. These numbers may lag slightly behind other US reporting sources and will underestimate the actual current death total from COVID19. For that reason, we are calculating and plotting the average doubling time in days over the last three days. Doubling time as of 6/5/2020 is 72.5 days and over 108,000 persons have died confirmed by diagnosis. Many deaths in various states are being classified as "pneumonia" to keep them off of the COVID19 official deaths count, so far more deaths have occurred in reality. 

Below, you can mouse over each state to click and link to the COVID19 website for that state. This map will automatically update here when the CDC also updates the map. 

If you click on the "+" sign in the bottom States bar, you will open down a table of current COVID19 cases per state. You can also download in a .csv file of the latest numbers posted today.

Manned Space Flight from the United States begins again. Watch Live on NASA TV successful!!

You can watch the launch about to happen from Florida here on NASA TV.

Using the Space-X rocket. Two astronauts. Bob and Doug reach orbit. 

Falcon 9 launch smooth. 

See more at NASA TV using the link below:


https://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/#public

Interactive Graphs: COVID19 Cases, Deaths and Testing. (updated daily)

Here are graphs that you can adjust to look at different timelines for testing as well as cases of illness and deaths for any country. I have embedded iFrame code in this posting to give you graphs you can adjust right here. You can return here as the data updates automatically. 

APOLLO 11 TRACKER: the Pandemic Lockdown Edition for NASA Lovers like me.

Come with me in 2019, and follow in real-time (50 years ago) what is/was going on with the Apollo 11 Mission to the Moon. You can get these reference books today if you are a NASA fan like me. I also have my Buzz Aldrin NASA Ball Cap on. These books were news reference books published by NASA. They were in the hands of Walter Cronkite and his coworkers and they are great for nerds like me. 

This is the updated version of my Apollo 11 blog in real-time, last July 2019 recapturing the mission of Apollo 11. I have reposted this for anyone stuck at home during our COVID19 pandemic stay-at-home activities. 

VIDEO: Why Coronavirus (COVID19) is not like the Flu, and how you can save lives staying home.

So, you are young or annoyed about wearing a face mask in public places like stores and airplanes? Do you think this pandemic is no different than the common flu? Well, you are wrong and with two simple numbers, I can show you how YOU can be responsible for either infecting and killing several fellow humans or help spare them by breaking the chain.  These numbers are 1.4 and 3.  They are tiny numbers, but they explain why COVID19 is causing many of our most vulnerable citizens to lose their lives in ICUs all around the United States and the world. Mostly in the United States unfortunately where many people are refusing to help protect others.