Salutations and Commiserations
In light of the ongoing pandemic of the Novel Coronavirus 'COVID-19', our club has resolved to suspend meetings for the next 6 weeks, with a review in the final week to determine whether the suspension will continue or whether meetings will resume.
Here are the results:
Anthony explained the reasoning and impact most eloquently in his email this afternoon so I won't try and outdo him.
I will re-iterate the sentiment however; that we are here for each other, so if you are self isolating for health reasons, call someone in the club for help if you need it. If you are unsure about online grocery shopping for example, someone will be able to help, or even just do it for you. Or if you'd like to get a few things from the shop but you don't feel safe going yourself, I am sure another member, me or anyone who is around at the time, can pop down for you. And I won't even be offended if you ask me to spray the items before I hand them over! Just don't dunk the toilet paper in bleach as I am not sure it will be much good after that.
~
We have had a couple of interesting weeks, and I am sorry that due to urgent accounting tasks I was unable to attend the most recent meeting.
Brian supplied some additional background information on our guest speaker Lauren Poulsen, who is part of the riding community in Leeton.
Lauren has been a rider since primary school and has managed the Community Transport service for the last several years, all of which she has worked at a local bank branch.
To summarise the situation with Community Transport, Lauren has 90+ drivers (over 90 drivers, not exclusively nonagenarian drivers) but they are not all available at any one time. For example next week she has only got 4. These are all volunteers and have to undergo a linited training programme for induction.The service has done over 350K km in the last 12 months. Griffith on the other hand has a fully paid service and so they have a much more limited service.
So if you think you could put in an hour or two here and there - that's exactly what Lauren needs. The more people on her list, the more time slots will be covered.
~
I was amused and disgusted, and quite frankly confused by the toilet paper substitute that Graeme Kruger described, which was relayed to me - however perhaps that is simply a case of South African Whispers and I have the wrong end of the stick. Or should I say the wrong end of the bedsheet? It will remain a mystery to me as I am not brave enough to google it.
It reminds me of the kind of terrible advice going around in regards to the COVID-19 virus, an example of which is here:
Two weeks ago we were delighted to have Kerrie Ross and her two students from the Leeton Multicultural Society. We learned about the reality of life before and after refugees come to Australia, with the granting of asylum being by no means the end of the journey for families with children.
The discussion that followed during the Q and A was also an opportunity for members to share their own experiences with migration. Rotary is an opportunity for us all to learn more about the world and our own local community at the same time.
And of course we were delighted to be treated to dessert by The Hungry Fox team!
THANK YOU
Thank you for reading this far and for all that you do.
I am going to miss missing our meetings (jks) - seriously I really enjoy the social side of things the most as a Rotarian, and I hope that everyone who is on Facebook will stay in touch. And do reach out for help if you need it.
I will leave you with some positive things to think about in this time of crisis:
My friend Andrea van Doore-Nave has shared the current COVID-19 positives. So here's the list to think about. The news isn’t all bad. A pendulum always swings in opposite directions... - China has closed down its last coronavirus hospital. Not enough new cases to support them. - Doctors in India have been successful in treating Coronavirus. Combination of drugs used: Lopinavir, Retonovir, Oseltamivir along with Chlorphenamine. They are going to suggest same medicine, globally. - Researchers of the Erasmus Medical Center claim to have found an antibody against coronavirus. - A 103-year-old Chinese grandmother has made a full recovery from COVID-19 after being treated for 6 days in Wuhan, China. - Apple reopens all 42 china stores, - Cleveland Clinic developed a COVID-19 test that gives results in hours, not days. - Good news from South Korea, where the number of new cases is declining. - Italy is hit hard, experts say, only because they have the oldest population in Europe. - Scientists in Israel likely to announce the development of a coronavirus vaccine. - 3 Maryland coronavirus patients fully recovered; able to return to everyday life. - A network of Canadian scientists are making excellent progress in Covid-19 research. - A San Diego biotech company is developing a Covid-19 vaccine in collaboration with Duke University and National University of Singapore. - Researchers from University of Queensland Centre for Clinical Research have observed two drugs used to treat other conditions effectively wipe out the coronavirus. One of the medications caused a complete disappearance of the virus, followed by a complete recovery of the patient from infection. This drug is now in over 50 hospital trials in Australia and USA - Tulsa County's first positive COVID-19 case has recovered. This individual has had two negative tests, which is the indicator of recovery. - A coronavirus tracker put up by Johns Hopkins University of Medicine shows that more than 73,000 people worldwide have recovered from Covid-19 so far. - Plasma from newly recovered patients from Covid -19 can treat others infected by Covid-19. So it's not ALL bad news. Let's care for each other and stay focused on safety of those most vulnerable. |
Signing off for now
Nicholas
