Two Headlines That Need to Meet, Marry and Have Children

Ah yes, convergence. What a wonderful tool. The force that brings us together in everything from sexual attraction to agreement on the terms of contracts, including marriage and the forming of families.

That sprang to mind as I read two headlines that recently ran in the same newspaper, one of impending chaos (as if we didn’t have our fill of that) and the other of a solution at hand. The above are not headlines, they’re viruses, but you get my drift. Headlines marrying are hard to create…

World health leaders warn of pandemic 20 times worse than COVID

Ye gods, and here I was, just settling back to concentrate on Trump’s latest convictions, the ghastly war in Gaza and whether or not Taylor Swift would make it back in time from her tour to watch Travis Kelsey play in the Super Bowl.

But there it was: (NewsNation) “At the recent World Economic Forum, the World Health Organization issued a warning to world leaders, saying the world could face a pandemic 20 times worse than COVID-19 in the future. Scientists call it Disease X, a term that recognizes the next global pandemic could come as the result of an unknown pathogen rather than the spread of a currently recognized disease.

“Scientists with the World Health Organization held a session last week calling on world leaders to work together to develop strategies to prevent or manage a Disease X pandemic in the future. Disease X is not real. It is the name given to a hypothetical pathogen that is being used to help plan for future health crises. Global healthcare experts on Wednesday spoke on a WEF panel called “Preparing for Disease X.” The name was coined by the World Health Organization in 2018.”

Hypothetical? You would scare me to death with hypothetical

Apparently. But hang on, there’s hope in the same newspaper that is an actual fact, and has been for some time.

New Type of Ultraviolet Light Makes Indoor Air as Safe as Outdoors

In the nick of time, the cavalry comes galloping to the rescue, bugles sounding.

From Columbia University, Irving Medical Center: “A new type of ultraviolet light that may be safe for people took less than five minutes to reduce the level of indoor airborne microbes by more than 98%, a joint study by scientists at Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons and in the U.K. has found. Even as microbes continued to be sprayed into the room, the level remained very low as long as the lights were on.

“The study suggests that far-UVC light from lamps installed in the ceiling could be a highly effective passive technology for reducing person-to-person transmission of airborne-mediated diseases such as COVID and influenza indoors and lowering the risk of the next pandemic.

“Far-UVC rapidly reduces the amount of active microbes in the indoor air to almost zero, making indoor air essentially as safe as outdoor air,” says David Brenner, PhD, director of the Center for Radiological Research at Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons and co-author of the study. “Using this technology in locations where people gather together indoors could prevent the next potential pandemic.”

I thought you might want to know that, in these times when good news is scarce

The fact is that good news abounds if we chase it and run it to earth, but the money today is in violence and war, beaten women and homeless men. The Media World is mad for eyeballs, just as most movies today that hope to pay their way are chock-a-block full of explosions and car chases and all the big dough is in clicks rather than satisfaction.

The Super Bowl is over, welcome back into the world…