|
Post by Solana on Apr 16, 2020 17:14:45 GMT -5
My university has developed a new type of ventilator that is going to be quickly produced and sent out. They've also developed a new test with PCR to determine not only if someone has COVID, but whether they've had it in the past and now have immunity. Some of our mice had been set aside for the research. I take a lot of pride in working somewhere on the frontlines of beating this (and many other diseases) down.
|
|
|
Post by Rune Lai on Apr 16, 2020 23:54:19 GMT -5
Hopefully your work bears fruit. I know there's a long road in between development and going into widespread usage.
|
|
|
Post by Solana on Apr 17, 2020 16:54:27 GMT -5
Very true. I don't know much about the engineering side of things, but the biological side can take years. Biohazard has been my domain for over a year and a half already, and two of the labs have been working on the same project all the way through. The one just changed the biologic agent, but the other has been the same all the way through. (We're not allowed to go into details, but they're working on slowing down a type of cancer with a biologic agent. Very fascinating stuff!)
I was talking to my favorite researcher about that, and she said that they're doing their best, but it takes a long time. That's why I work so hard to make sure my room is always stocked with whatever they need and I always have it ready to go, so that they don't waste time. (A number of people have jumped into researcher positions from being lab animal attendants, and I'd love to do the same.)
|
|
|
Post by Rune Lai on Apr 27, 2020 21:27:07 GMT -5
I think it's been about a month and a half since I went into the office. We got a message from our facilities team not to come back into the building before we formally re-open (no date set yet) unless we have permission from HR, reason being that they've professionally sanitized the entire interior of the building to kill any germs, so one person going back in without clearance will require them to do it all over again.
Personally I'll only consider LA to be on the mend once the USS Mercy leaves our port, but as long as it's still there I'm going to assume that it's needed, and while the Comfort in NYC has already gotten a departure date, the Mercy has not. Our covid deaths doubled over the past week, though most of that is due to increased testing. We've never been as hard hit as NYC, and overall I think we've done a pretty good job of flattening the curve. It's just that flattening also means spreading out over a longer period of time and so we're gonna be stuck this way for a while.
My boss, just off the cuff, isn't expecting us to be back in the office before June at earliest. Since we can work remotely, the department has incentive to keep us at home rather than risk us catching the virus.
|
|
|
Post by Solana on May 5, 2020 8:42:50 GMT -5
My university came up with some better testing methods, and we sent away more mice from the same lab that had been working on clinical trials. There was also some great success with a new drug on a lady who was in rough shape, but had NO underlying issues going on. Yay for good news!
We're still on alternating weeks, plus a day on the other week, so it's nice to be able to still see my peeps. (Most of my favorite people signed up for the other week- I wasn't fast enough.
Has anyone else had trouble finding rice? Luckily, the minute and regular cook just the same in my rice cooker, but I'm wanting to try more SE Asian food from my cookbooks. (We've also had a few meat-packing plants up north have outbreaks, so meat is going to be harder to get as well.)
|
|
|
Post by Rune Lai on May 5, 2020 11:59:58 GMT -5
I'm still on my original supply of rice (I don't eat rice that often) so I haven't tried buying more, but I've definitely noticed the lack of noodles while shopping. I like making my own ramen and throwing in my own meat and veggies, but haven't been able to do that for a month now. After I heard about the meat-packing plants closing I bought a 5-lb pack chicken last week, intending to freeze most of it, and I think that'll let me ride out the shortage. Also have a couple pounds of frozen fish I bought earlier. Fortunately I'm not a beef or a pork person since those seem to be hit worse.
|
|
|
Post by Solana on May 16, 2020 17:45:17 GMT -5
We have three labs in our area working on research, including one with elderly mice. (We also now have a shortage of disposable sleeves in addition to masks and gloves, so are using them only for my biohazard or chemical hazard mice. Cloth or disposable lab coats, yo!)
A few days ago, while I was busy getting supplies for one of my rooms, I came across one of my coworkers talking with one of our former coworkers that's now working as a researcher. (It's a common path- we've had four during my time shift.) This guy was talking about the structures of the virus being from different sources and more things. I was fascinated and stood there chatting for a bit, but I had a busy day with changing cages and reluctantly excused myself.
I'm going to go that path myself. I've been trying to decide between going for a Master's now, taking marine bio classes, going for a vet tech, or going for researcher. (The marine bio classes don't really work with my schedule, unfortunately.) When I was in school, in addition to my ecology classes, I absolutely loved microbiology. The unit we had on the AIDS virus was one of my favorite things to study. I'll still go for trainer and unquestioned power for now, (as it took my friend four years to get in with a lab), but I'll keep working on the second level of certifications and being awesome. (I also told my favorite researcher long ago to please let me know if there were openings in her lab!) It'll be longer with quarantine and hiring freezes, but I can be patient.
There's really a lot of overlap between fantasy writing and research. You're trying to think of new things that don't yet exist, why and how they would work, and then try it out. Sometimes it flops, sometimes it succeeds, and sometimes you get, "What the hell is this, but it works!"
|
|
|
Post by Rune Lai on May 18, 2020 0:40:49 GMT -5
I think it's amazing you're getting to work on all this research stuff. I was a biology major and when I originally pictured what I'd be doing after graduation it was working in a lab and learning new things, but I wasn't able to get lab work in the couple months after graduation. Instead I got video game work, and then I remained in the entertainment/tech field.
|
|
|
Post by Solana on May 18, 2020 13:42:19 GMT -5
Yeah, funny how you have such a small window to jump in. I remember contacting a guy who specialized placing newbies in science jobs when I was still at the bank, so only about... oh, five years after graduation. He told me that I'd been out of school too long. But I have the last laugh now. Yeah, it took me thirteen years and I sent in fourteen separate applications to my university, but I tend to make what I want happen eventually. I just had a feeling when scouting it out before my first interview, and when I was visiting the Raptor Center before getting in and was asked if I was an employee, I answered, "Not yet."
|
|
|
Post by Solana on Jun 27, 2020 9:26:26 GMT -5
Stay safe with this second wave, everyone!
|
|
|
Post by Rune Lai on Jun 28, 2020 22:08:14 GMT -5
Yeah, cases keep climbing over here. I've still been as sheltered as I've been the past few months, working from home and only going out for food runs or medical appointments. One of my friends lost his aunt to covid a couple weeks ago. It's definitely not over.
|
|
|
Post by Solana on Nov 18, 2020 16:29:07 GMT -5
I've had a few members of my extended family catch this, but we had our first death this morning. My uncle, (technically not married to my aunt, but still my uncle) passed. We knew that COVID would be bad for him, as he was 81 and had had COPD, but it still sucks. It's also my dad's side of the family that lost my uncle last year, so I'm really feeling for my aunt losing her younger brother last year and SO this year. I've also already got the perfect cameo in my project for him as a protector, as he was in life. Right after coming out of work today, some idiot had written a bunch of BS in chalk on the sidewalk. When I saw the 'COVID HOAX' one, it was not the frikkin' day for it. I grabbed my water bottle and rubbed out the word 'HOAX' as my friend Ruby gave me a hand. She understood. (Other messages, presumably of equal caliber, were also missing words.) I left the flat earth one alone, as that bit of stupidity wouldn't hurt anybody.
|
|
|
Post by Rune Lai on Nov 22, 2020 20:36:02 GMT -5
So sorry to hear this. ::hugs::
|
|
|
Post by Solana on Nov 23, 2020 16:52:04 GMT -5
Thank you.
|
|
|
Post by Solana on Dec 5, 2020 20:41:35 GMT -5
My aunt is doing okay. I guess my uncle's COPD was pretty bad, so she was... more ready, for something like this. I'm still keeping his kickass cameo, complete with a cutlass as a nod to his Navy service.
I also packed some chalk in my coat for any messages written on the sidewalks. I wrote a positive one, and adapted the 'Covid = Hoax' one to read 'Covid will end' instead. One of my friends at work had a positive test, but is holding her own and no one else has caught it from her. The university wasn't going to tell anyone, but she did and allowed our friends to tell us, and I warned my favorite researcher as she and her hubby are also high-risk like me. (Someone reported this and other bad calls to OSHA, and the health guy proclaimed innocence and threw the supervisors under the bus, so we'll see how that goes...)
|
|