Blog Posts

Coronavirus Concerns

May 8, 2020 By Genius_within

Covid-19 Unanswered Questions & Contentious Issues

There is a lot we do not know for sure

Virus source/ origin – man or beast (host) bats/ snakes/ birds/ rodents or something else

What is the source of Covid-19?
Where did Covid-19 originate? [Conjecture; Laboratory, Wuhan, China/ animal sold in open market/ other scenario]
Was it manufactured?

Virus mutation – what original virus..

Did Covid-19 mutate from some other virus? It looks like flu virus (corona)… What does that tell us?

Virus transmission medium – from body fluids to water (e.g. sewerage), air-borne

Is Covid-19 only transmitted through body fluids [sweat, breath-vapour, sputum, semen, blood, faeces, urine….]or other mediums too?
What happens to underground water sources if we bury people who are contaminated with the virus?
What happens to rivers, dams, and other water systems if people do not have sewerage systems or the sewerage systems are faulty as is the case in many municipalities across the country?
How long can the virus survive in vapour and what happens to the vapour in air-conditioning systems in offices, hospitals, factories, cars and other enclosed spaces where it can collect/ multiply?

Virus hosts/ carriers – people & which animals?

What effect will the virus have on our pets? [dogs, cats, birds, rats, … – they may or may not show symptoms, but could they be carriers/ hosts?]
Are our pets at risk – which ones?
Are there other carriers? [insects, animals, reptiles, birds, bats, …]

Virus inoculation – no vaccine, immunization available and will take at least 18 months to produce, and even longer to test properly so this is not an immediate viable proposition

How long will it take to get a vaccine, and if they do, how safe will the vaccine be?

Virus antidote – no cure, remedy

There is nothing much at this stage except to build up you immune system as much as possible and stay as healthy as possible.

Virus antibodies – People who have survived the virus have anti-bodies.

Would it be able to help others, and if so, how much is required and how long will it last?
Obviously they can get sick again, but will probably build up even better immunity (if its not too soon after the first infection).

Virus gestation/ incubation period – 3-14 days, now it is believed it can be as long as 28 days.

How long is the actual incubation period? [inconclusive and contradictory results]

Virus life expectancy without host – no of minutes/ hours/ days/ weeks/ months??? 2 weeks? There is much contention, so it is unknown.

Virus parameters – temperature, moisture, surfaces, pH? The data varies; copper 3 – 4 hours, fabrics 3-4 days [ conjecture, little conclusive proof because it depends on other factors too like e.g. humidity, temperature, etc.]

How long does Covid-19 survive in water? In the air? How likely is this to change?

Virus aversions – ultra-violet lights? Kills 99% viruses.

What does ultra-violet do to Covid-19?

Covid-19 testing –

How effective/ accurate is the Covid-19 testing; the collection, the kits, the results?
The testers are exposed to thousands of people, some have the virus some not, how can we be sure they are not the ones transferring the virus on their clothes, the equipment?
At our current rate of Covid-19 testing it will take us more than 16 years to test each person once. [These calculations are based on the census numbers, so does not include illegal immigrants and other visitors.]

Covid-19 Impact –

What is the real impact of the virus? E.g. in South Africa only a small percentage of the population has been tested (less than 4%) so we have no idea what the situation will be like in 2 – 4 weeks’ time, or later when the lockdown is lifted.
The stats are unpredictable, so we have no idea what the real impact will be.

Body disposal –

How are they going to deal with the volume of bodies? [sterile removal from homes – body bags, who will do the removal, how, by what means, and disposal – mass graves/ mass cremations],
Will funerals be allowed? What form will it take? What are the max numbers permitted at a funeral, if allowed? Distances still 1 m? What other conditions?

You probably have lots of questions of your own….

Like to add them here? Concerns, comments, questions.

Join the Conquer Covid-19 Mastermind Movement

For the smartest solutions sign up here to become part of the movement to Conquer Covid-19

Covid-19 statistics are suspect

The numbers are not a true reflection of actual numbers infected, for one, because millions of people have not been tested.

Stats for Covid-19

Autopsies have not been done on every single person that has died so we do not know how many have died from Covid-19 or another affliction and whether they died because e.g. their immune system was already compromised before the infection.
Even health authorities are not sure how effective the testing is neither on the collecting side nor the testing side of the process:
- Collection of samples can be problematic
- Testing may not show up all cases
- Gaps between testing can have a negative impact on the numbers
- Contamination by health workers/ handling
- Lab tests not 100% accurate
Even though individuals are tested, some may show no symptoms.
Tests (done) is not a reflection of how many people have been tested because some individuals (like health care workers) have been tested more than once and recovered individuals have probably also been tested more than once.

We do not know what the rate of infection is or is likely to be when we lift the lockdown for the same reason as above and because there is a time-lag between infection, symptoms and death or healing.

Apparently the time-lag is about 14 – 28 days, and can be as short as 4 days from symptoms to death.

Death toll

At this stage: Overall Average of confirmed cases based on the stats available:

Death rate is around 3.4% and recovery rate about 10 times that according to Google [at time of research]

NOTE: This is during (more or less) global lockdown, and does not reflect what will happen when we are allowed to move around freely again.

Death rate from seasonal flu

??? The death rate from seasonal flu is typically around 0.1% in the U.S. ???

??? World Health Organization says 1% ???

Stats also does not provide numbers of the following:

How many people were tested and have antibodies (recovered before being tested)…
How many people weren’t tested and showed little or no symptoms and recovered…
How many people died of the Covid-19 virus that were neither tested nor recorded….
How many people died because of a compromised immune system and other pre-conditions or health issues that were aggravated by the virus (they would probably have died anyway, merely hastened by Covid-19)…

Add your comments and questions here ⇒ Comments & Questions

CORONAVIRUS STATISTICS SOURCES
https://sacoronavirus.co.za/ – South African Coronavirus Statistics

COVID MAP John Hopkins – John Hopkins University Research Statistics for Covid-19

https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/ – World Coronavirus statistics

Related pages on the Genius Within Website

To lockdown or not to lockdown, that is the question – effects on the economy and life in general
Coronavirus pandemic – this too shall pass

Perfection is overrated

May 2, 2020 By Genius_within

The Perfection Myth debunked

Like many operating assumptions and beliefs in our culture, when we take a deeper look, they may make little sense.

Perfection suggests a state of flawlessness, without any defects. To be perfect implies a condition whereby your action or performance attains a level of excellence that cannot be exceeded.

What is perfect for one is not nearly good enough for another. As we increase our standards and do things better, we realise how imperfect we were when we started, yet we thought we were great at the time.

At school we are taught things are either right or wrong, that implies it is an absolute, yet in real life, there are no absolutes – perfection is a human construct and has no actual basis other than the thoughts that created them.

Perfection is the enemy of progress – Winston Churchill

My guess is, that if someone was ever able to achieve this impossible state of perfection, it’s likely that very few people would tolerate him or her. Why?

They are unlikely to be any fun.
They would be ever so predictable.
The perfect individual would be a constant reminder of our shortcomings.
The impossibly high standards would wear most of us down.

We know how we feel about someone who thinks they are perfect, can you imagine what it would feel like if they actually were the epitome of perfection?

“If you wait for perfect conditions, you will never get anything done.” (Ecclesiastes 11:4)

In pursuit of excellence

The search for excellence and pursuit of an ideal is similar, yet different from striving for perfection.

Try it on and experience it for yourself; Imagine trying to be perfect – feel what you feel, really get into it. Now, try on pursuing an ideal of yours – feel what you feel, really get into it. The difference for me is a hollow feeling in the first instance and a feeling of excitement and anticipation in the latter. What was the difference for you?

Striving for perfection comes from a feeling of lack, of not being good, strong, beautiful, young, thin, wealthy, perfect, … enough. This is a never ending quest, because perfection will always remain out of your reach. [This has to do with being].

However, pursuing an ideal or attempting to do something better means you have increased your standards and you are working towards it. [This has to do with doing and can almost always improve.]

Aspire to greatness

Under no circumstances does it follow that we should become proponents of shoddy workmanship, ok service, bad manners or a lackadaisical attitude because we can’t be perfect, we should always do our best, attempt to improve on that, aspire to greatness.

Push boundaries

As humans we love pushing boundaries, it is in our blood to explore, expand, learn, create – unless beaten into submission, forced into a mold, or cowed into blind adherence to rules.

Get used to failing

No matter how long we have been walking, we sometimes trip and fall.
No matter how long we have been in business, we sometimes make a mistake.
No matter how long we have been driving, we sometimes have an accident.
No matter how often we remember, we sometimes forget.
No matter how often we fail, we also succeed. The more often we fail, the more likely we are to succeed, especially if we learn something each time we fail… and we do, organically, even if we do not realise it.

Fear, then do! Everybody does the first few times.

Perfection is overrated

Celebrate your uniqueness

Don’t try to be perfect, just be perfectly you.

Lockdown or NO Lockdown

April 7, 2020 By Genius_within

To lockdown or not to lockdown… that is the question

There is no way the 3-10 week lockdown can be enough to eradicate the pandemic, never mind contain it.

Cons of lockdown

Not all countries have a lockdown strategy

Not all African countries have lockdown. Anyone who has travelled through Africa knows how easy it is to cross borders. Border posts are not the only access points for pedestrians, cars or other larger forms of transport. If poachers and illegal immigrants can get across the borders, then so can others.

Lockdown is counter-productive

When we started off we had less than 100 cases of COVID-19 infected, now we have thousands – so the risk of getting infected is growing by the day.

Economic Crisis

The economy is almost non-existent

Stocks, investments, pensions, medical aids, insurance and the livelihood of just about every individual on the planet is impacted.

Living from hand to mouth

The third world countries will be hardest hit where most of the population live from hand to mouth and have no ‘cushion’ or reserves. This is where famine and a compromised immune system is fairly common.

Government Losses

Government is losing out on income tax because people are being paid less or have lost their jobs.
Less company taxes because hundreds are going out of business.
Less GST on goods sold because we can only buy food and a few other items.
Less transport and travelling which means there is less income from taxes on fuel.
And so on…

Lockdown results

Thousands go to bed hungry. Hundreds of businesses are folding. People lose their jobs, their homes, their families.
The lockdown could cost more lives than the pandemic – we are already seeing suicides, an escalation in domestic violence, clashes with police and army.
Looting, plundering and car-jacking is becoming more prevalent. Housebreaking is likely to follow if we do not address this problem soon.
The government’s income has shrunk to virtually nothing while their expenses are skyrocketing. Soon they will not be able to pay anyone.
Some people work themselves into the ground (health workers, emergency services) while other people take extended vacations and don’t know what to do with themselves.

Prolonging the agony

We might as well write off the rest of the year, if not longer, if the strategy is lockdown – because it will merely prolong the agony not only the pandemic, but the negative impact it has on the economy and the social structure too.

Anarchy

Hungry people will get food for themselves even if they have to beg, steal, borrow, loot, break down doors, and kill others. Let’s hope we can find solutions so this will not to happen.

Scarcity

All things will become more and more scarce and people will become more and more desperate to get ‘it’ [whatever ‘it’ is].

Let’s find fantastic solutions together

Pros of lockdown

Breathing space

This created some leeway.

The health industry has had to come up with solutions to cope with the expected surge in infected cases. To what extent have they?
The government has put in place processes to provide help and assistance, but the coffers are limited, the execution and administration is lacking and they have no long-term solution.
More police and army has been employed and deployed to keep the peace, to make sure the lockdown rules are adhered to, to discourage looting, pilfering and hopefully to ensure the safety of individuals.
People are coming up with innovative solutions to potential and actual problems. And, there are always people who not only take advantage of the plight of others, but exploit it.

What other pros and/ or cons are you aware of? Let us know. Send us your comments and suggestions here ⇒ Comments

THE NATURAL ALTERNATIVE: No lockdown

Should we give COVID-19 free reign, it is very likely to mutate and come round again and again in other forms and this is natural. Some people will build up immunity against it. We might find a vaccine at some stage… Like most pandemics in the past – it will eventually run its course and stop.

Cons of NOT to lockdown

The disease will spread rapidly

The health industry will be inundated with Covid-19 patients: thousands of sick and dying people

It is unlikely the health industry will be able to cope with:

The influx with regard to equipment to help with breathing, beds, health workers, hospital space, quarantine, intensive care, and so on…
The numbers of autopsies to determine the cause of death.
The issue of transport, dealing with and disposing of large numbers of dead bodies safely.
The increased exposure health care workers will have to the virus and the possible virulent spread of the virus when these people have to make use of public transport.

I am sure you can think of many more… Send us your comments here ⇒ Comments

Pros of NOT to lockdown

This too will pass…

Viruses in the past all spent themselves at some point or other. Through the ages, as a human race, we have survived many pandemics before, and we will probably continue to do so for centuries to come if we do not wipe ourselves out in some other way. It is a natural part of life.

People build up immunity

As people build up immunity they still get sick, but fewer people die.

Government income is partly restored

There may still be huge losses due to loss of life and the knock-on effect this has, but at least those that survive will keep things going to a certain degree.

Economic and Social life can go on

Yes there will be many sad and lonely people who have lost someone dear to them and businesses may need to replace the staff they have lost, or they may come up with ways to work smarter, more efficiently, with less people, with more productive people and become more resourceful.

People can feed and support themselves and do not have to lean on the government, enterprises, NGOs, individuals or others for handouts.
Individuals can keep their homes and roof over their head because they can pay their bond/ mortgage/ rent and they can put food on the table to feed their families.
The government will not have to try and find ways to ‘milk’ the working class for more money to make up for the losses incurred during the lockdown period.

Businesses can survive

Organizations can conduct their business, if not as before, then at least generate some income and provide some jobs.
The economy can keep ticking over and businesses can survive the ‘slump’.

Innovative Business Solutions

Let’s work together to find solutions

>>> Sign up to join the Conquer Covid Mastermind <<<

Ingenious Personal Solutions

Let’s work together to find solutions

>>> Sign up to join the Conquer Covid Mastermind <<<

Can the pandemic be stemmed in time?

Unfortunately there are too many unanswered questions, contentious information and the statistics are inconclusive and unreliable so no one can make an educated guess at this point in time.

Links to other pages on the Genius Within Website

Conquer Covid-19 Mastermind – Collaborate to find smarter solutions
Covid-19 Concerns – Most of the information we get is contentious and statistics vary from site to site.
To lockdown or not to lockdown, that is the question – Pros and cons

Conquer Covid-19

April 1, 2020 By Genius_within

Collaborate to find the smartest solutions

I believe as a collective with all our gifts, talents and skills TOGETHER we can come up with ingenious ways to conquer Covid-19 and reduce, if not contain its impact on our world…

Let’s work together to find solutions

>>> Sign up to join the Conquer Covid Mastermind <<<

Who is this for?

Everyone. We all have a contribution to make regardless of status, rank, position or role in society.

We need pragmatic solutions to everyday problems as well as solutions to the range of fiscal, economic, political, social, government, environmental, local, global, health, energy and other issues that have been highlighted by the pandemic.

Post Covid-19 Pandemic

Make the world a better place

Let’s right some wrongs and work together to find inspired and inspiring solutions

>>> Sign up to join the Conquer Covid Mastermind <<<

If you want the world to be a better place, please sign up, air your views and concerns. We need you.

This too shall pass

April 1, 2020 By Genius_within

Coronavirus / Covid-19

As with all things, this pandemic will come and go. How long it will last and how any people will die, nobody knows.

I hope this message will bring a sense of freedom and control in this unpleasant and maybe distressing time.

We have all experienced endings in our life; happy or sad, unexpected, surprising … and even ‘necessary endings’…. and then life goes on

Many beginnings and endings follow a natural, highly predictable progression like the seasons, others are planned and executed, some are sudden and unexpected.

Necessary endings

Necessary endings are the times in all our lives when we stand up, draw a line in the sand and say: “to here and no further…” when the time has come, the season has passed, and at worst… when continuing ‘it’ would be harmful in some way.

These situations require us to:

Put an end to relationships that cause you grief, have no future, that are toxic, abusive, hurtful, unproductive or damaged by e.g. infidelity, fraud, dishonesty, crime, corruption…
Unplug from high-maintenance, drama fueled friends, family, partners.
Purge habits, rituals and behaviors that produce negative, poor or unacceptable results.
Say goodbye to an unattainable goal.
At work
- Let unproductive employees go.
- Stop doing business with ‘unpleasant’ suppliers, customers, service providers. [Replace the word ‘unpleasant’ with a more appropriate word for you – for whatever is bugging you]
- Leave a job that is not aligned with your values and/ or not feeding your soul. [Make sure you have an alternative before you leave. Operating from a disadvantage/ desperation does not put you in a position of strength.]

Easier said than done

Even with clear and compelling evidence staring us in the face… we often find it difficult to do what needs to be done, we make excuses, rationalize, avoid or suppress the issues and continue long after the ‘let go and move on date’ has expired.

Endings are a natural part of business and life, yet we often experience them with a sense of hesitation, sadness, resignation, regret, and sometimes we apportion blame and lament the consequences.

Pursue the positives

The tendency is to concentrate on the negative side of ‘necessary endings’ and forget they have positive contributions.

As long as we concentrate on the negatives, the ‘better’ reality we long for will continue to elude us; opportunities will be lost and misery perpetuated.

Look on the bright side

Our lives will improve to the degree to which we can see endings as a necessary and strategic step to something better.

When we proactively correct the bad and the broken in our lives and replace it with the good, healthy and productive, we grow and there is movement toward a better, brighter future… and there is hope.

Knowing when and how to let go when ‘it’ isn’t working is the smart and courageous thing to do.

With this I encourage you to take inventory of your life and focus on bringing ‘necessary endings’ to the people, places and things that negatively impact your life… that slow you down, derail progress, compromise your character or peace of mind in any way.

Your time has come

It is important for you to decide now so you can completely liberate yourself from contaminating influences, operate at the peak of your potential and achieve a state of moral, spiritual and physical renewal.

Even though ‘necessary endings’ take different shapes throughout your life, the essence remains the same… it creates positive change.

Benefits of necessary endings:

Releases you from burdens (physical, mental, emotional, psychological).
Frees you from bondage.
Renews your spirit.
Revitalizes your energy.
Refreshes your perspective.
Unleashes your greatness.
Gives you opportunity to ‘take stock’ and notice how you are contributing to the situation you are in.

Thrive like never before

In creating this message… my goal is to help you get healthier, wealthier and happier.

The idea is to develop sleuthing and confrontation skills to ‘know’ when the time has come for the next phase of your life, to facilitate ‘necessary endings’ and initiate ‘new beginnings’, and acknowledge the part you have played in whatever drama you have in your life and what you want to do about it.

Links to related pages on Genius Within Website

Unusual Prevention Measures for Covid-19

Join the Conquer Covid-19 Mastermind

Extraordinary times require extraordinary measures

Celebrate Diversity

February 26, 2020 By Genius_within

20 Ways to Celebrate Diversity –

Great ideas to celebrate diversity that go beyond mere tolerance or adherence to rules and regulations.

These activities attempt to create greater affinity and inclusion – the better you get to know the ‘other’ the more normal they appear, and the more we are likely to accept them into the mainstream.

This pdf contains activities to connect and get to know people of other cultures, demographics and inclinations…

Download your pdf

To download your free pdf click the link here ⇒ 20 Ways to Celebrate Diversity

NOTE: On the next page that opens up, just click on the image then save to your computer.