The law claims CBD products can only contain a minuscule amount of THC, but try telling that to your boss when you fail a drug test.
CBD is so popular that it’s easy to forget that it comes from marijuana, a federally illegal drug despite all the talk and hype that surrounds it. While companies advertise CBD products as safe and risk-free, some users have reported that their CBD medicine is making them fail drug tests, creating problems at work and even getting them fired. Why is this happening?
“I was shocked. I couldn’t believe it. How could this happen to me?” said 72 year old Lester Garbicz to WJLA. “I don’t use drugs. I was doing something I thought was perfectly legal, something that would not trip a positive THC test.”
Garbicz was using CBD to treat his arthritis and glaucoma. He was employed at Specialty Tires and was fired after his test returned positive.
One unlikely thing that could cause CBD users to fail a drug test is the fact that THC, which drug tests screen for, is capable of accumulating in your body’s fat cells. So, depending on your diet, activity levels and amount of CBD consumed on a daily basis, you might cross the THC threshold by accident and trigger a positive. This limit is usually 50ml.
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“To hit 50 ng/mL of THC, you’d probably have to consume upwards of 2,000 mg of CBD products that contain 0.3% or less of THC, which is much higher than the average person is likely to take. Even in clinical trials and research studies, people are usually only administered 100-800mg/day,” explains CNET.
While legally CBD products should contain no more than 0.3% of THC, these guidelines are not strict, with product makers and the FDA not knowing how to handle the topic. Penn Medicine conducted a study that proved how inaccurate this system is, purchasing different CBD products online and testing their THC content. One in five of them contained up to 6.4ml of THC, more than enough to cause impairment and to trigger a drug test.
Despite all of this, results like the one reported by Garbicz should be uncommon. While it’s clear that there needs to be a better monitoring and testing system for CBD, reputable products and companies shouldn’t cause too much trouble for consumers who get regularly drug tested.
These news continue to prove that despite all the progress cannabis has made, the industry in America remains a lot like the Wild West. How long until things settle down and cannabis can be considered just another mainstream product?
Quarantine envy is the feeling of jealousy people get when seeing others thrive in the pandemic. It’s very common nowadays.
The coronavirus has made us reflect on a ton of things. It’s made us miss our old way of life, the chance to go to movie theaters and concerts, our friends and the strangers at the bar. It’s also made us realize how fortunate some are, those who are able to leave cluttered cities in to find solace in suburbs, or celebrities who post “supportive” videos with their mansions and private pools as backgrounds. Quarantine envy is a new term, and it’s pervasive.
Envy is a common emotion, one with a negative connotation to it, simply reduced to jealousy and craving of what others have. We’re all acquainted with it, experiencing when we’re single and a friend finds a successful and loving relationship or when a coworker gets a job position you’d been after. Quarantine envy is about mansions and money, the comfort that millionaires have when times are stressful and the majority of people are hunkering down in their apartments with roommates, or are staying over with their families.
While it seems like this envy for the rich exploded with quarantine, it’s been building up for quite some time now. Now that things are so dire and that the disparity is so pronounced, there’s enough envy to fuel hundreds of online articles. Essential workers envy those who work from home, those who work from home envy those who work from comfier homes. Those who are single envy those who are in relationships and those who are in relationships envy those who have some time for themselves.
“It’s easier to shrug off others’ good fortune when your life is OK. It’s been a terrible time for many people and the last thing they want to see is a millionaire’s house with a giant lawn,” says Dr. Oswald.
Even though envy is a common and unpleasant experience, one that every person feels to some degree, there is some usefulness to it. Some research has shown that envy is helpful in pushing people to look for better options for themselves, becoming a motivator. While this is tough when in a global pandemic, you can always strive for short term goals that will make you feel less alone and better. Tend to your needs and put your phone down. Watch a movie or reading a book instead. Plan a social distanced gathering with friends and family. Invest time on your personal relationships and hobbies.
While these fixes might not be able to completely patch the wound of seeing that one person in your timeline who’s thriving in the pandemic, they will make you feel better and remind you of all the good stuff that you have going on in your life.
Public transportation is very convenient, even if it’s become a complex issue due to the pandemic. Here’s how you can stay as safe as possible when using public transportation.
Public transportation, one of the best features of big cities, has been severely challenged over the past couple of months. Though convenient and cost effective, buses, subways and trains aren’t known for their health measures and distance between passengers. Those are just some factors that make them tough to navigate when living in a pandemic.
Offices, schools and all sorts of businesses are working out plans to reopen, and while these might take a while or may be plagued by false starts, at some point people who need to move around are going to have to go back to using public transportation.
Here are some tips that can help you stay as safe as possible when using public transportation:
Weigh your options
Different modes of public transportation have their risks and perks. Consider your travel time and whether you’ll be spending time indoors or outdoors, generally leaning towards the option that’s briefest and that allows you to have some fresh air. No matter what you’re using, try to avoid peak hours, that way you’ll ride the bus or the train when it’s as empty as possible.
If you’re riding the bus, try to find a window seat and crack it open if possible. If you’re taking the subway, be sure to use escalators and stairs over elevators, avoiding cluttered elevators whenever possible.
Limit your touching
When using public transportation, it’s important to remember the rules that were first established in March: hand washing is vital. Wash up before you leave your house and the minute you get to your destination, avoiding touching your face and interacting with high touch surfaces, such as subway and bus poles and rails on the ferry deck. Avoid interacting with touch screens and elevator buttons. Do some research and try to always use contact less payment options.
Public transportation departments have developed guidelines and rules to follow during the pandemic, posting signaling stickers and notices informing people where to stand and reminding them to wash their hands, use hand sanitizer and stay 6 feet apart from others. Be on the lookout for these postings and mindful of other people’s spaces.
Avoid eating and talking
Scientists believe that Japan’s capacity to contain the coronavirus spread is due to the fact that they… are very polite while riding the subway. The Japanese aren’t used to talking loudly while using public transportation or having their breakfast there. They respect other people’s commute. That’s certainly not the case in America.
Eating asks us to remove our masks and to handle our food in a space where there’s a lot of factors to account for. When it comes to talking, the act of it sprays saliva that can carry virus droplets, with the louder you speak the more likely it is for your particles to travel long stretches of space.
Cannabis has shown promise for relieving Alzheimer’s Disease, chronic pain, poor appetite, and other issues that affect seniors.
The older we get, the more demands and care our bodies require. One estimate claims that by the year 2030, the current statistics on senior diseases will be doubled, resulting in 15 million adults that will suffer from some sort of ailment. With this in mind, can cannabis improve the life of seniors? If so, how?
A positive development in all of this is that cannabis remains a newcomer to the health field, transforming it into a well of untapped potential. You can expect a lot of studies about cannabis and its effect on seniors in the near future. Here are 6 ways in which cannabis can make things easier for seniors and their family members:
Cannabis improves their quality of life
As we age, our bodies start to deteriorate in every way, leading to some pain and discomfort. Seniors are more prone to experience inflammation, mental and bone health issues and high pressure. Luckily, there’s anecdotal evidence and some studies that say cannabis is a good way of providing some relief.
Without messing with chemicals that may do more harm than good (especially in a deteriorating body), cannabis relies on its natural properties, treating patients with gentleness and care. The plant is multidimensional and has a variety of consumption methods, affecting a wide range of diseases, and effectively managing their symptoms in the least invasive way.
There’s no need for seniors to get high
Even though a little high has never hurt anybody, there’s no reason why seniors using medical marijuana need to get high as well. Experts have started to develop effective medicinal CBD strains that contain small amounts of THC. These strains focus their efforts on the therapeutic side of the plant, producing little to no psychoactive effect.
It’s safer than prescription drugs
Opioid related deaths are one of the most serious crises Americans face, and a well regulated plan of medicinal cannabis could help diminish that. While it’s believed that opioids affect younger people, statistics claim that over 2.8 million seniors have abused prescription drugs within the last year. Opioids pose a threat for seniors and increase their chances of falling, which is one of the main reason why they end up on nursing homes. A steady and well managed dosage of marijuana can drastically reduce these risks.
Loneliness is something that greatly affects seniors and that can act as a gateway for depression, diseases, and even death. Cannabis is considered a mind enhancing substance, which could help seniors develop their creativity, improve social skills, and promote their relaxation.
Cannabis and healthcare
After enduring stigma from many years, the U.S. is getting closer to accepting cannabis as official medicine, hopefully making the drug available for healthcare programs, reducing costs and improving the lives of many.
A medical marijuana case questioning the constitutionality of the DEA’s scheduling of medical marijuana had included both former AG Jeff Sessions and current AG William Barr as defendants.
The cannabis industry has never been a favored industry by U.S. Attorney General William Barr. His predecessor, former AG Jeff Sessions, also had issues with the industry, rescinding the Cole Memo in January, 2018, (“a return to the rule of law”) that provided the only source of protection against federal interference in the cannabis business.
Recently, Barr’s displeasure surfaced during a House Committee on the Judiciary hearing on June 24, where John Elias, a career employee of the Department of Justice working as an anti-trust division prosecutor on such issues as price-fixing schemes in the pharmaceutical industry, testified as a whistle-blower about Barr’s involvement in full-scale reviews of mergers in the cannabis industry, including the messy MedMen and PharmaCann merger.
Some speculated that Barr’s unusual interest in mergers that didn’t meet the criteria for any anti-trust investigation reflected what he said in his confirmation hearing in Congress that the current marijuana situation is “untenable” and really has to be addressed. “It is almost like a back-door nullification of Federal law,” he said.
Nine other cannabis business mergers were investigated. It was beginning to look like Barr was just harassing the cannabis business, spooking owners with subpoenas from the DOJ, with the rationale that the justice department “had not closely evaluated this industry before.”
The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) has been immovable on any positive movements to help the marijuana industry, tossing about ideas about rule-making for growing marijuana and enabling more scientific research that most industry watchers know are just bogus stall tactics. In a press release last March about expanding marijuana research, the DEA noted that there are more researchers registered to conduct research on marijuana, marijuana extracts, and marijuana derivatives than on any other schedule I substance in the United States. “More than 70 percent of DEA’s total schedule I research registrant population is registered to conduct research on these substances.”
Photo by Denise Hasse/EyeEm/Getty Images
But the DEA holds the ultimate trump card, holding firm on any change to their scheduling of marijuana as one of the worst, most abused drugs on the planet with no currently accepted medical use.
Now things are getting interesting, and Barr may be getting backed into a corner.
A medical marijuana lawsuit questioning the constitutionality of the DEA’s scheduling of medical marijuana was filed July 2 in the Supreme Court in a case which, at different times over the last three years as it moved through different courts, had included both Sessions and Barr as defendants.
The case was first brought by NFL pro Marvin Washington’s challenging Sessions and DEA’s scheduling, and was shot down by the district court of the southern district of New York on February, 26, 2018.
Then Washington along with five others — including Jose Belen, a decorated Army veteran using medical marijuana for PTSD — challenged Barr on the same issue, losing that case on February 3, 2020.
The defendants may have just enough pedigree and social firepower to get the attention of the justices. Washington has advocated for using medical marijuana for concussions, and is an investor and co-owner of a number of cannabis ventures. He is also a NFL league ambassador for Athletes For Care, advocates for the health, safety and wellbeing of more than 2 billion people of all ages who compete annually in sanctioned sports globally. Belen is the co-founder of Florida Mission Zero, a nonprofit organization dedicated to combating the PTSD and the suicide epidemic plaguing U.S. veterans.
Maybe the issues these plaintiffs represent will have an impact on the justices.
In an interesting coincidence, the Florida Supreme Court is working on a nearly identical case about a 2017 Florida constitutional amendment to legalize medical marijuana in the state. In a rare move, the justices in that court recently asked for more information and a second round of hearings, scheduled for October 7, 2020
As of this reporting, the U.S. Supreme Court has yet to decide if they will take up the Washington et. al. case. But when reviewing other cases they ruled on so far in 2020—three of which named Barr as defendant, all of which he lost — and considering the two pending immigration-related Supreme Court cases naming Barr as defendant, it looks like the court will have Barr on its agenda for the next year or so. And that may make a difference in how they perceive him, his motivations, and the medical cannabis businesses who are challenging him.
Medical marijuana has long been used for pain relief. A new study says that, unlike opioids, marijuana doesn’t increase patients’ pain sensitivity.
Though opioids can be useful medications that provide strong relief, their negative side effects can outweigh their positives, contributing to America’s growing opioid addiction problem. Unlike opioids, a new stuidy found cannabis doesn’t increase pain sensitivity when used over long periods of time.
The study was conducted by the psychology department of UBC Okanagan and was trying to highlight the differences in pain tolerance that exist between people who use cannabis regularly and people who don’t.
“Recent years have seen an increase in the adoption of cannabinoid medicines, which have demonstrated effectiveness for the treatment of chronic pain,” says Michelle St. Pierre, lead researcher of the study. “However, the extent to which frequent cannabis use influences sensitivity to acute pain has not been systematically examined.”
Photo by K-State Research and Extension via Flickr
Cannabis has long been used as medicine for pain. In recent years, data has shown that pain management is one of the principal reasons why people consume medicinal cannabis.
“This study should come as good news to patients who are already using cannabis to treat pain,” explains Zach Walsh, one of the study’s co-authors. “Increases in pain sensitivity with opioids can really complicate an already tough situation; given increasing uptake of cannabis-based pain medications it’s a relief that we didn’t identify a similar pattern with cannabinoids.”
Authors of the study initially speculated that frequent cannabis users would demonstrate greater pain sensitivity, but this wasn’t the case.
“There is a different effect from opioid users; sustained use of opioids can make people more reactive to pain. We wanted to determine if there was a similar trend for people who use cannabis frequently,” says St. Pierre. “Cannabis and opioids share some of the same pain-relief pathways and have both been associated with increases in pain sensitivity following acute use.”
Frequent opioid users run the risk of developing hyperalgesia. The conditions causes pain tolerance to be lowered and patients have to consume more opioids in response, increasing their risk of developing an addiction.
The opioid pandemic has taken many lives in America, over 450,000 between the years 1999 and 2018. It’s a serious problem that has grown difficult to manage, with the CDC trying to raise public awareness and trying to minimize the amount of risk that people are exposed to. While more research is necessary in order to see how cannabis could impact the opioid addiction, studies like this one show that the plant holds some promise in pain management and that in some cases it could provide a better option for patients.
The money was supposed to fund veteran programs but instead Missouri is burning through cash to defend itself in court.
In 2018, Missouri voters approved a ballot measure to legalize medical marijuana in the state. Two years later and licensed sales have yet to occur. Instead, businesses that applied for a license and were rejected have filed more than 800 lawsuits against Missouri. To date, 785 of the cases remain unresolved.
Missouri regulators have spent $1.3 million in court fees defending themselves against the 853 appeals filed. Lisa Cox, the Department of Health and Senior Services (DHSS) spokeswoman, said these were a one-time fee associated with getting the program off its feet. There were 2,270 facility applications sent to the state, but only 348 licenses were awarded.
“The number of appeals is not an indication of flaws in the process, but rather the high number of applicants,” Cox told The St. Louis Dispatch.
Funds generated from the program support operating and administrative costs. Whatever is left over gets deposited into a newly created Veterans’ Health and Care Fund. Although business application and medical card fees produced $19 million as of December 2019, the Missouri Veterans Commission, which determines how to spend allocations, has yet to receive a penny. However, a state release announced the DHSS had transferred $2.1 million to the Veterans’ Fund over the weekend.
Critics argue those legal costs defending the lawsuits, which constitute about 7% of the total medical marijuana program fund to date, amount to wasted dollars that should’ve gone to the Veterans Commission instead.
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Chuck Hatfield is a lawyer representing eight different clients who filed the lawsuits. He compared scoring documents from approved applications and those that were declined. They delivered similar answers, but a third-party agency rated his clients’ applications lower. The lawsuits are about understanding why.
“They answered verbatim the way other applicants answered, because a lot of the applicants shared common consultants on certain issues,” Hatfield said. “And so our answers are identical to the word, to the way other applicants answered, and yet we got a different score.”
Representatives state medical marijuana sales should begin this month, should everything go according to plan. But worries over supply chains and testing protocols remain.
“The biggest challenge that we’re seeing now is the ability to have product for those dispensaries,” said CAMP Cannabis president Susan Griffith.
“We also have to factor in testing facilities as well as transportation [licenses],” she added. “There are a lot of different license types that are all under their own timelines to get operational. At the end of the day, we’re going to need all of them to be able to get dispensaries their product.”
New Mexico Gov. sees legalization as funding stopgap for government programs like Medicaid, and will campaign for it.
New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham expressed regret this April the state did not legalize recreational cannabis before the coronavirus pandemic. Lawmakers were discussing ways New Mexico’s economy could recover and avoid budget deficits.
“If there was ever a time for wishful thinking, I wish we had passed recreational cannabis because that was $100 million,” Gov. Grisham said at the time. “Those are pre-COVID-19 estimates, but $100 million in the budget. And I am very sad about that.”
Grisham renewed this lament during a press briefing last Thursday, responding to a question about how the state will fund programs amid the pandemic. Federal lawmakers remain locked in a months-long stalemate over the next round of coronavirus stimulus package. Sen. Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Friday “it doesn’t look that good right now” that a deal will happen soon.
Photo by Braden Collum via Unsplash
The lack of new funding affects programs at the state level as well and Grisham acknowledged that New Mexico must “look for innovative ways to increase economic activity.” She used the opportunity to again “plug” marijuana as a potential solution.
“Recreational cannabis is one of those areas where that’s $100 million,” she said. “It doesn’t fix it, but it plugs one of those holes. It potentially would be enough to do a whole lot in the Medicaid gaps.”
She made similar calls of recreational cannabis as a potential economic solution back in May. A survey found nearly 3 in 4 New Mexicans favor adult-use marijuana legalization, but lawmakers failed to pass legislation ending state prohibition earlier this year. Grisham hinted she may campaign against those legislators the blocked the cannabis bill, which has become a focal point of her administration.
“We have an opportunity,” she said. “I think all of our policymakers need to think clearly—and they should expect me to be supporting in the next general election—we have to pass recreational cannabis in the state. We need to diversify our economy, we need to increase opportunity for recurring revenue and we have to rebuild an economy that has suffered dramatically during this public health crisis.”
Disclaimer:The views expressed in this article solely belong to the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Fresh Toast.
Our Middle Eastern wars seem to be finally ending and we all hope that a vaccine will end the current pandemic. But what will our “new normal” look like?
Altucher is a New Yorker who loves his city, so this was not the slightest bit of schadenfreude. Of course, many New Yorkers were outraged, but his points were based on real numbers that paint a very grim picture, especially for Manhattan, the heart of the metropolis.
Although the pandemic is the immediate cause of the city’s problems, the fundamental threat is simply “bandwidth.” As Altucher explains:
“In 2008, average bandwidth speeds were 3 megabits per second. That’s not enough for a Zoom meeting with reliable video quality. Now, it’s over 20 megabits per second. That’s more than enough for high-quality video. There’s a before and after. Before: no remote work. After: everyone can remote work.
“The difference: Bandwidth got faster. And that’s basically it. People have left New York City and have moved completely into virtual worlds. The Time-Life building doesn’t need to fill up again. Wall Street can now stretch across every street instead of just being one building in Manhattan.
“We are officially AB: After Bandwidth. And for the entire history of NYC (and the world) until now, we were BB: Before Bandwidth. Remote learning, remote meetings, remote offices, remote performance, remote everything.
That’s what is different.”
Obviously, “bandwidth” is more or less the same in all major cities, so while the problems may be greatest in Manhattan, “bandwidth” is going to have a similar impact everywhere in America, including Los Angeles and San Francisco.. and around the industrial world. In Los Angeles the greatest visible impact may be reduced traffic, long the bane of the city. San Francisco may return to its old culture of art and eccentricity.
So the 2020s are going to be a decade of resetting all aspects of our lives driven by technology and its cultural impact. Consequently, it might be helpful to look back one hundred years to another decade of rapid social changes driven by new technologies… after a pandemic.
Photo by Adrianna Calvo via Pexels
Sometimes decades are clearly defined. The 1920s really did begin in 1920 after the “Great War” (WW1) and the “Spanish Flu” pandemic, and then came to a crashing end with the stock market crash in late 1929. The 1930s then began with the Great Depression and ended with WW2 in September, 1939. Other decades were not so neatly defined, but right now I am fascinated by the possible parallels between the 1920s and the 2020s.
Our Middle Eastern wars seem to be finally ending and we all hope that a vaccine and/or testing and/or treatments will end the current pandemic. But what will be our “new normal”?
We can find some clues looking back a century.
In 1920, women finally got the right to vote, and a century later it looks like they really meant it. Four years ago, Hillary Clinton ran for President and won the popular vote by a wide margin, and this year Kamala Harris may well become the most important Vice President ever. Of course, we know that having a nominal right does not per se create equal opportunity. It takes time, hard work and persistence, something women have always needed, and women of color even more so. But women finally have a major presence in almost every part of our business and politics.
In perhaps the most important parallel between then and now, the 1920s were also a period of major technological advances that had an enormous cultural impact. First and foremost, mass electrification made the modern world possible for everyone except the very poor.
The new automobiles made it possible for women to travel without a man to handle the horses. The telephone made it possible for women to communicate on an equal basis with men. Zooming just takes that to a new level.
Similarly, we have already come to take “smartphones” for granted, but they have had a major impact on the drive for minority rights and criminal justice reform, by making the problems impossible to ignore. Without them “we” would have no idea what is really happening on “the streets.”
In another parallel, in 1919 alcohol prohibition became federal law, via a constitutional amendment, and it was almost immediately defied by several states and cities, most notably in New York, and most notoriously in Chicago.
“Speakeasy” entered the language, and “flappers” could actually have a drink in public, so long as it was private, but the culture was permanently changed by prohibition. A few of the speakeasies survived, most notably 21 Club, a wonderful place.
Today, marijuana prohibition is still federal law, but it is being successfully resisted by more and more states and cities. Alcohol culture still shows the influence of “prohibition” (until recently the very word still seemed to apply only to alcohol), but we finally see it being used for contemporary marijuana policies. Unfortunately, the same stupidity that made a mess of “repeal” is making a mess of “legalization.”
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Of course, “repeal”, the end of alcohol prohibition, was hastened by the Great Depression, just as the Pandemic Depression is hastening marijuana legalization. But the politicians should be focused on cannabis policies that create jobs and not just a source of tax revenues… or social engineering.
The Great Depression was especially devastating to farmers and coincided with the Dust Bowl, a major environmental disaster aggravated by bad agricultural practices, especially growing crops not suited to the land. Hemp is actually good for the land, and hemp seed is highly nutritious, and hemp fiber has many uses.
The storms that are ravaging the Midwest are a reminder that corn, as a monoculture crop, may be untenable, literally. If the DEA would get out of the way American farmers may be able to avoid bankruptcy by having a real market for hemp.
Now women are finally taking leadership roles in the cannabis business in what was a mostly male world. Women will also play a key role in developing legal on-premise consumption venues, semi private “clubs” where women will be comfortable. The best prototypes would be the Cannabis Social Clubs in Barcelona, or Barneys Uptown Bistro in Amsterdam.
Interestingly, the Spanish Flu pandemic did not seem to make any lasting impact on the 1920s. It almost seemed forgotten. People crowded into big parties. Baseball drew huge crowds. Ocean liners were popular with the rich and famous. I think that this bodes well for next year. We are social animals, and I think there will be some great parties… Eventually…
Speaking of “Ocean Liners”, cruise ships may or may not come back, but tourism in the 2020s is apt to be much more expensive than previously, because the pandemic has devastated the travel industry and has also demonstrated the problems with “over-tourism.” Paris may not be Hemingway’s “Moveable Feast” again, but at least we will be able to move.
Just as smart phones and the Internet changed the world in the last two decades, technology changed life in the 1929s. “Between 1923 and 1930, 60 percent of American families purchased radios. Families gathered around their radios for night-time entertainment.”
Photo by Macau Photo Agency via Unsplash
And radios really strengthened the family because it offered a shared experience without leaving home. It also created a “shared experience “ in a huge nation. Decades later, television reinforced that trend. Now as families get smaller, and the population is aging, technologies are facilitating living alone, and we are drifting apart.
By 1920, silent movies had become a major art form creating the first international celebrities, including women, and “movie palaces” were jammed. Again, movies were something that could be enjoyed by the family. By the end of the decade the “talkies” had taken over, and musicals would make major “stars” and really took the “celebrity culture” to another level. We still marvel at The Wizard of Oz.
Today, “Hollywood” is both the victim and the beneficiary of the new technologies. Computers are making “films” (an old technology word) easier to make, but a combination of streaming and huge high definition television screens is devastating the movie theater business. Streaming has become a major catalyst for social change. Even after the pandemic, streaming will provide new ways for artists to communicate with new audiences.
In transportation, Henry Ford’s technologies dominated the 1920’s just as Elon Musk’s will dominate the 2020s, but it is worth remembering that General Motors overtook Ford by the end of the decade. Will GM be the new GM? Possibly. In fact, every industry is being forced to change faster. “Future Shock” seems like an understatement. All change, or all fall down.
In the meantime, fasten your seatbelts, it’s going to be a bumpy decade.
Some activities are safer than others when it comes to avoiding the risks of COVID-19. Here are some situations you should be wary of.
The coronavirus asks us to constantly weigh the pros and cons of different situations. Although throughout the year we’ve developed an awareness as to what constitutes as safe and what doesn’t, there’s still a lot we don’t know. The virus is novel and easy to spread, making it very important for us to be careful and stay informed.
Every situation is different and there’s a ton of variables up for grabs, but generally, some activities are deemed less risky than others. It’s why indoor and cluttered settings are more stressful than outdoor and open spaces.
CNET spoke with several experts and compiled a list of the highest risk situations you can walk into during coronavirus times. Here are 5 of the most common ones:
Air travel
One of the most painful entries on this list is air travel, which is considered a high risk activity even when taking all the necessary precautions. Airports are high stress places, making it likely for people to forget social distancing guidelines and proper sanitary measures. They’re also places where people from all over the world gather, potentially exposing you to thousands of variables that are impossible to control. It’s just as risky once you’re in the plane. While many airlines are blocking out seats and sanitizing more often, you can only hope they enforce face masks and social distancing measures.
Another setting that makes it hard to social distance are bars, which are generally crowded. Also, once people are drinking, it’s tough for them to wear their masks consistently and maintain social distancing, especially when hanging out with friends and trying to speak over the sound of loud music. Bars are also kind of dirty, so not a good spot for a pandemic.
Visiting the hair salon
Sadly, getting a haircut is also a high risk activity. These visits tend to last well over 15 minutes and close proximity with your stylist is unavoidable. Still, if you want to go to the hair salon because it’s been months since you’ve tended to it, you can minimize some risk by booking an appointment ahead of time and by keeping your session short (do you really need a balayage right now?). The least amount of time you spend there, the better.
While this all depends on the number of people that get together and their attitudes towards the virus over the past several of months (maybe not hang out with your friend who thinks it’s a hoax), most health authorities are warning against indoor gatherings with people outside of your bubble. The smaller the gathering, the better, especially since people tend to relax when they’re having a good time and are surrounded by loved ones.
Going to the gym
Gyms expose you to a medium amount of risk, especially if the space is large with few people around. You should be extra careful with classes and group training, since this can expose you to others more easily. Putting yourself near a window or somewhere where there’s air can eliminate the risk of transmission. Some gyms are requiring members to reserve a spot in advance while putting a time limit on their workouts so as to make it easier to social distance.
