COVID19

Redesigning the nursing home system: health & design experts study COVID-19 spread, and how to stop it

frank lampard 1 week ago

AUSTIN (KXAN) — It’s not a group you’d expect to find working together, but some of the state’s top health care professionals and designers are searching for solutions to the coronavirus crisis in nursing homes.

“Design is a very creative process that considers the human needs of whoever you are designing it for, first and foremost,” Design Institute for Health Executive Director Stacey Chang told KXAN in May.

Chang leads the partnership between Dell Medical School and the College of Fine Arts at The University of Texas at Austin, breaking ground at the intersection of health care and design.

After the Austin City Council approved a resolution dedicating resources to long-term care facilities, Chang said they would begin looking at the root problems contributing to the spread of the virus and how to redesign the system to prevent it.

MORE: ‘We’re not moving fast enough’: Austin City Council to consider

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7 Types of Home Projects to Avoid During the COVID-19 Pandemic

frank lampard 3 months ago

Quarantine means spending way more time at home—and for some people, that also means noticing everything you want to change about your space. But is now a good time to take on a major renovation project?

Probably not, experts say.

“If you’re not already in the middle of a renovation, I don’t think right now is the time to start a big project,” says Katie Kurtz, a real estate agent in Minneapolis and home design blogger at Adorned Homes. “You could get into the middle of it and realize you need help with it, and you’re probably not going to be able to find anyone to come in.”

In compliance with social distancing guidelines, many contractors are limiting the number of people on work sites, which means projects are taking longer than usual, Kurtz says.

But even DIY projects come with challenges during a pandemic.

“Most stores only allow

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Oklahoma woman tests positive for COVID-19 after found dead in her bathroom

frank lampard 3 months ago

OKLAHOMA CITY (KFOR) – An Oklahoma woman’s death was sudden, and while doctors are still working to figure out why, they uncovered she was positive with COVID-19.

Her family in Lawton tells KFOR they had no idea.

“I am like what am I going to do when I need to talk to my sister?” Jane Fairchild asked.

Long talks on the phone are just one of the many memories Jane Fairchild will miss about her big sister Sandra McKinnon.

“She sounded fine,” Jane said. “She didn’t sound sick at all.”

72 hours after they hung up, the 64-year-old was found lifeless and alone.

Jane was with her husband, Richard, when the gut-wrenching call came in.

“She passed away in the bathroom, and according to the coroner, she had been there a few days,” Richard Fairchild said. “Sunday she was here and by Wednesday she was gone.”

The family is left

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Elusive graffiti artist Banksy reveals rodent artwork inside home during COVID-19 lockdown

frank lampard 4 months ago

A picture by British graffiti artist Banksy on his bathroom. Picture: Instagram

He is known for placing mysterious artwork on streets but British graffiti artist Banksy has released his latest work inside his own home amid coronavirus lockdown measures.

The anonymous street artist posted new artwork on social media with the tag “my wife hates it when I work from home”.

It was a rare insight into his life in lockdown with a series of images of his bathroom covered in rat sketches.

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The scene was shared on the Bristol artist’s Instagram page and shows rodents in various interactions with bathroom items.

One rat is shown jumping on the toothpaste and another is running on top of a roll of toilet paper, causing it to unravel across the floor.

Another rat is reflected in

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Stowe Garden lays off 80% of its staff due to COVID-19

frank lampard 4 months ago

Nearly two weeks after Daniel Stowe Botanical Garden closed its gates in response to the coronavirus pandemic, it has laid off 42 staff members, or about 80% of its workforce.

The garden, which turned 20 last year, had employed 51 people until this week. Now, it has a staff of nine.

Cuts were made in every department, from senior leaders to members of the custodial staff, said Executive Director Patrick Larkin. The horticulture staff has dropped from seven to two-and-a-half, he said.

If the garden remains closed through May, Larkin expects it will lose more than $500,000 in projected income from ticket sales and special events. And the losses will be even deeper, he said, due to memberships and donations that won’t be coming in.

Earlier this month, area residents looking for a fresh-air escape had flocked to the 110-acre garden in Gaston County in higher numbers than usual, Larkin

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Will coronavirus survive airborne? Are young people safe? Do face masks protect me? Are men more likely to die? Burning questions on COVID-19

frank lampard 4 months ago

Some outlandish rumors about COVID-19, the disease caused by the new virus SARS-CoV-2, still persist, and continue to percolate on the internet: To some, it’s a dastardly bioweapon designed to wreak economic armageddon on the West; a left-wing conspiracy to damage the reelection prospects of President Trump; a virus that leaked from a Wuhan laboratory.

Such paranoid speculation is at the very least unhelpful, health professionals say, and only serves to politicize a global public-health emergency and distract from potentially life-saving measures to contain and/or slow the spread of coronavirus. After reportedly jumping from animals to humans at a food market in Wuhan, China in early December or before.

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Conspiracy theories politicize a public-health emergency and distract from potentially life-saving measures.
”

As the world struggles to come to terms with the prospect of COVID-19 changing the way we socialize and work, people are left wondering whether the financial

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