Coronavirus

[Ozlsn]

1 hour ago, indianabones said:

I've been feeling more and more anxious as this week has gone on. It's been affecting my sleep and my focus- it's been REALLY hard to do schoolwork. It's hard to avoid the news, particularly when I keep getting constant emails from my school with coronavirus updates. Every restaurant and coffee shop I've been to has signs reassuring people about how they're sanitizing everything. It's pretty much an ever-present threat at this point, and the rising death toll is displayed everywhere.

You guys seem to be about 3 weeks behind where we are in terms of media panic, if that helps. No idea why your media wasn't obsessing like ours - preoccupied with election drama presumably. I find that thinking of it like I do flu helps. The most affected demographics are pretty much the same, as are the precautions against transmission. If it makes you feel safer to wear a scarf over your mouth/nose (er, climate permitting) or always carry and use hand sanitizer then do it. I am terrible at remembering to not touch my face (she says, scratching her nose without thinking) but ok at remembering to open doors etc without using my hands as much as possible. Avoid the news, do the online schoolwork and hopefully your clients will realise they'd rather take the extremely small risk and get you back on. 

 

[indianabones]

1 hour ago, Ozlsn said:

You guys seem to be about 3 weeks behind where we are in terms of media panic, if that helps. No idea why your media wasn't obsessing like ours - preoccupied with election drama presumably. I find that thinking of it like I do flu helps. The most affected demographics are pretty much the same, as are the precautions against transmission. If it makes you feel safer to wear a scarf over your mouth/nose (er, climate permitting) or always carry and use hand sanitizer then do it. I am terrible at remembering to not touch my face (she says, scratching her nose without thinking) but ok at remembering to open doors etc without using my hands as much as possible. Avoid the news, do the online schoolwork and hopefully your clients will realise they'd rather take the extremely small risk and get you back on. 

 

I'm not really worried about contracting the virus, since I'm in my 20's and in good health. Totally fine with being out in public, too, though I'm also struggling not to touch my face!

My dog walking clients all work for Microsoft/Amazon/Facebook or other large companies that are having all their employees work from home, except for two who are teachers for the schools and universities that are closed. They just don't need me to take their dogs out when they're home already. As for my sitting clients, they're canceling vacations thanks to canceled flights and conferences. I chose a bad industry to be in during a (potential) pandemic! ?

[WineGlass]

I’m in Melbourne and can confirm the toilet paperpocalypse. I’m not a panic buyer, but when every supermarket you go to has empty shelves you gotta do what you gotta do. There are signs up saying limit of 4 packets per transaction. Yesterday I was shopping and saw a woman with a trolley FULL of packets and none on the shelves. I pointed out the sign to her and she said “but we have two people at home!!!”  I said, I have 8, and grabbed two packets out of her trolley (the shelves really were bare). I got to the self-checkout and saw trolleys full of packets. The supervisor said “those are my confiscations!”  And that the machines would not let you scan more than 4 packs. So i didn’t feel too bad because the greedy woman would have been stopped anyway. 
So crazy. If we Aussies are going to die, we are going to go with clean bums!

Edited March 7, 2020 by WineGlass

[clueliss]

Sound like the US, when in doubt, buy TP.  This is a must on the Midwest omg we’re gonna get snow and I have to be trapped in the house with my spouse and kids for two days list.

[Coconut Flan]

I've had a nearly lifelong need to keep excess toilet tissue in storage.  My mother and MIL both were buy only as needed type people for TP.  As a child we routinely ran out.  I swore I never would and so far never have.  It always seemed to me to be such a needless item to allow to run out.  We had tons of storage in the basement and it has no expiration date.  My MIL bought one four pack every Saturday.  Never mind she could buy two for a couple of weeks and have a reserve.  They had a 12 room house with a basement.  Surely the closet in the den could have held a couple of four packs.  

For both families, predicted heavy snow or blizzard always meant remembering to buy the TP.  Both mothers would forget at least once a winter.  Of course, I was that mother  who bought poster board in August when they kids were in middle school because they were going to need it and I wasn't about to go hunting poster board after dinner because some kid "forgot."

[Bethella]

A little humor about the shortages to lighten the mood. 

[WiseGirl]

@Bethella just like this meme. I said in the other thread that I have stocked up on TP and some hard seltzer. It was meant tounge in cheek. However our first case has been confirmed by us and it is a hospital worker.  Will definitely get dog food today then.

Edited March 7, 2020 by WiseGirl
Add text

[Bethella]

1 hour ago, WiseGirl said:

@Bethella just like this meme. I said in the other thread that I have stocked up on TP and some hard seltzer. It was meant tounge in cheek. However our first case has been confirmed by us and it is a hospital worker.  Will definitely get dog food today then. 

Yeah, we’re not panicking but yesterday I bought a turkey and a ham to stick in the freezer. Between straight turkey/ham dinners, sandwiches and boiling the carcasses/bones for soup, I figured  they’ll get us through nearly two weeks.

[louisa05]

So someone returned to Omaha from the U.K. with symptoms 9 days ago and spent 7 days going to large events all over the area before turning up at the ER with pneumonia symptoms on day 8. She’s now at the UNMC biocontainment unit in critical condition. State officials and CDC is trying to trace her contacts. And one city where she spent a weekend at a Special Olympics event with 500 people from all over the state is shutting down schools and large events. 
 

Because one person (or possibly her caregivers didn’t make her—she was apparently a participant in the Special Olympics event)  didn’t stay home with an illness.  

[AliceInFundyland]

If everything wasn't made in the same places, there would be less problems.

Like this toilet paper disaster.

I too have purchased my allotment of 4 packs from the local store.

Then I went to Amazon and bought a bunch of other stuff. (a crap ton of tylenol and ibuprofen, surgical gloves, alcohol wipes, and a few other prep time items I've had desire for)

None of this is getting to me in 2 days. They put a 5-10 day window on all of it.

And this what concerns me.

We have outsourced too much to China. I think that we're seeing effects now and that is going to continue to grow and grow.

Every time a flu breaks there, it'll impact their productivity and that's a global ripple.

Also, it's interesting, if not immediately a "thing" that the first American metro area facing a problem is Seattle.

That means tech. All the big companies have sent their workers home. Good call. But, still.

It's in my county now in Oregon. I hate hand sanitizer so glad I'm not anxious about not having that swill.

It would be reassuring if they could confirm how many people they were testing/numbers of test kits. That kind of thing.

Plus side - "Trump" ? is keeping that cruise ship quarantined off our coast.

Yeah, you're right on top of things buddy!

 

[Maggie Mae]

All day long I talk to pilots coming and going from China, there are at least five flights a day out of FedEx's airport. It's like the people in charge of containment and testing forgot that cargo planes exist. When a passenger jet stopped here with the evacuated people, it was all over the news. 

And if people do have to quarantine in hotels, then hotel workers have to work. Doctors and nurses aren't going to stop working. Babies will still be born. People will still need to go to hospital after being injured. No idea how mass quarantine could even work in my area, with so much tourism. Maybe it's just too cold here to spread 

[AliceInFundyland]

7 minutes ago, Maggie Mae said:

All day long I talk to pilots coming and going from China, there are at least five flights a day out of FedEx's airport. It's like the people in charge of containment and testing forgot that cargo planes exist. When a passenger jet stopped here with the evacuated people, it was all over the news. 

And if people do have to quarantine in hotels, then hotel workers have to work. Doctors and nurses aren't going to stop working. Babies will still be born. People will still need to go to hospital after being injured. No idea how mass quarantine could even work in my area, with so much tourism. Maybe it's just too cold here to spread 

I noticed that there aren't confirmed cases there yet. That is interesting.

[WiseGirl]

People have gone crazy. Views from my local warehouse store where soaps and paper products should be. Glad I didn't come in for that but a bunch of stuff I want is gone.  

 

Spoiler

 

 

Spoiler

 

 

Spoiler

 

Edited March 7, 2020 by WiseGirl
Add text

[AliceInFundyland]

If anyone's interested in the US stockpile of the "good masks"

https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/release-stockpiled-N95.html

 

I'm still good with gloves. They remind me what's going on.

But these types of things are disconcerting, again. People like our health care workers should be able to get these right? Or do they need better ones. Masks are a bit confusing to me. I've heard these are the good ones and then I've hears there are still better ones than this.

Edited March 7, 2020 by AliceInFundyland

[Ozlsn]

So the most recent thing to sell out near me is the 3L tomato sauce. Apparently people are planning to BBQ their way through this...

[SilverBeach]

I went grocery shopping yesterday. No shortages of anything, no lines. Suburban Chicago. I'm not stockpiling any more than I usually do, LOL. 

Edited March 8, 2020 by SilverBeach

[WineGlass]

Yesterday I heard of a DOCTOR here who felt unwell but went to work anyway and later tested positive for the virus. A DOCTOR. What is wrong with people?

[47of74]

No, vodka does not work as a hand sanatizer

Quote

Some people are attempting to counter the spread of coronavirus by making their own hand sanitizer out of rubbing alcohol and aloe.

But vodka? Don't do that.

"Per the CDC, hand sanitizer needs to contain at least 60% alcohol," Tito's Handmade Vodka tweeted on Thursday. "Tito's Handmade Vodka is 40% alcohol, and therefore does not meet the current recommendation of the CDC."

The company was replying to a user who bragged about using the vodka to make a DIY hand sanitizer.

 

[adidas]

24 minutes ago, WineGlass said:

Yesterday I heard of a DOCTOR here who felt unwell but went to work anyway and later tested positive for the virus. A DOCTOR. What is wrong with people?

Political grandstanding is what’s wrong with people.

It was Missy Higgins’ dad. He thought he had a cold and it had almost resolved itself - apologies are being sought because of the way he has been demonised in the media. 

[AliceInFundyland]

Yeah, OK, but guys. Other people are insane.

My grocery store clerk believes that not washing his hands will keep him safe.

I interacted with 2 people in the last 72 hrs. One of them was that moron. The fucker who touches everything hundreds of people eat in a day.

I called his manager. I had to.

One person in my county has the flu. They've not yet disclosed the particulars............

If I was unconvinced before I left the house, I'm hella sure now.

However, bff and I are taking her belated bday trip to the art museum and a restaurant on Monday. Because, values.

 

Edited March 8, 2020 by AliceInFundyland

[indianabones]

I went on a day trip to somewhere with no coronavirus cases yet today. I didn't read the news for like, 12 hours and it was SO GOOD for my mental health you can't even imagine. People at the town I visited were all acting normally, and talking about other things (mostly), and it was sooo nice. Feeling wonderfully refreshed!

[WineGlass]

4 hours ago, adidas said:

Political grandstanding is what’s wrong with people.

It was Missy Higgins’ dad. He thought he had a cold and it had almost resolved itself - apologies are being sought because of the way he has been demonised in the media. 

He’s just been cooped up in a plane, probably the easiest place to catch a virus and he owed it to his vulnerable patients to make sure he was clear especially since he had actually been sick. No apologies here. He should have taken even more precautions than the average Joe. 

[WiseGirl]

[adidas]

13 hours ago, WineGlass said:

He should have taken even more precautions than the average Joe. 

You mean like doing the swab when he wasn’t required to because he didn’t fit the criteria for testing?

He was nearly asymptomatic - his critics acknowledge that this only symptom was a runny nose. After getting off a long haul flight. Haven’t they ever heard of Qantas cough?

Another health worker (who hasn’t been named and shamed like Dr Higgins) was found to have spread it to numerous people after contact tracing showed that this person was the only common factor in all of the patients in that area. The spreader had absolutely no symptoms at all but they were still able to infect numerous victims.

Should every asthma patient in NSW be tested? Because the current humidity (yay for rain) is causing an increase in dry coughs.

Should everyone with hay fever be tested? Because the rain is causing an increase in runny noses and sneezing.

Dr Higgins didn’t even fit the criteria for voluntary self quarantine. He had very few of the symptoms typically associated with Coronavirus - we know that people can be asymptomatic. He followed the guidelines set by the Australian Medical Association, and was tested even though he didn’t need to be.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m being cautious. As I’ve posted here before, I work with people from Wuhan - and I have just cancelled a work trip to Asia next month. Even though I’ll never get this opportunity again, the risks outweigh the benefits. But at the same time we shouldn’t panic about every cough and sniffle. I think we need to be careful about who we vilify and how much we catastrophise.

Lets talk about the guy from Tasmania who tested positive and then went to a concert. That’s the type of person who deserves to have anger directed towards them. Not someone with a runny nose.

[TheOneAndOnly]

18 hours ago, 47of74 said:

No, vodka does not work as a hand sanatizer

 

Vodka that's 60% alcohol or higher is a great sanitizer. Just don't use the 40 proof kind.