Coronavirus prep

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  • Duck_Puddle
    Duck_Puddle Posts: 3,237 Member
    kshama2001 wrote: »
    Duck_Puddle wrote: »
    I would think the concern and urge to accumulate supplies is (possibly) less about the pending apocalypse or a global pandemic wiping out massive portions of the population, and more that even now there are supply chain issues (In some sectors) due to the number of ill and quarantined workers overseas (particularly, but not exclusively in China).

    Even aspirin becomes a commodity when the factories that make it are closed and local supplies dwindle and can’t be replenished.

    I live in a state that is still shell shocked from multiple periods where grocery stores & gas stations were inaccessible for weeks after storms (no power) and nobody here is making a run for those kinds of supplies (yet).

    Ya, a few days ago I was looking for an item to get my walmart.com order up to the free shipping minimum of $35, thought of the ibuprofen I get from Walmart, and that was OOS. Might be a coincidence, might not.

    No idea if it’s a coincidence or not, but the current lull in manufacturing of many medications (as they are made in regions of China where workers are either ill or quarantined do production happening) was raised as an example of possible impact even if we never see any real outbreak in the US. My Walmart was looking stark in the medication section as well-but there are at least 10000 possible reasons for that other than a supply shortage. I did not notice a shortage of toilet paper. Yet.

    I am not panicking about anything, nor am I really concerned about developing the virus (not more than a multitude of other illnesses anyway). But I do think there are possible practical concerns due to multiple supply chain disruptions. Or rather-disruptions in multiple supply chains.
  • kshama2001
    kshama2001 Posts: 28,052 Member
    WinoGelato wrote: »
    If anyone is interesting in a fascinating dystopian fiction book that seems eerily relevant right now, Station Eleven, about a global pandemic that wipes out >99% of society is really good, it's about what happens 5 years later with the survivors and all the ways you would have to rebuild technology, culture, etc.

    I read it a few years ago and it haunted me then, now with this COVID19 situation I am reminded more and more of that book.

    Thanks! My library had it and it is now on my Kindle. Will start it after I get back from Walmart tonight, at which point I will ask myself why I didn't buy more toilet paper :lol:
  • leggup
    leggup Posts: 2,942 Member
    moonangel12 wrote: »
    I currently have 4 children knocked out with flu like symptoms... it’s been days of high fevers, crazy coughing, etc. I “joke” that it could be coronavirus, but we’ll never know since they can’t test for it yet! (Although I am seeing headlines that tests are making their way around). We are on the outskirts of DC, a “bedroom community” for people that work in the city, so lots of potential to bring it in. Haven’t been to the doctor, we homeschool so no need to expose them to anything else if the symptoms are treatable at home (we have been often enough to have the needed meds for her croup) so not 100% sure what it is.

    Wednesday is when it started, I thought my daughter was reacting to some bags of soil I bought - her cough started within minutes of being in the car with them. Super sensitive lungs, at age 8 she gets croup that shuts down her airways with any airborne irritant (no longer able to even swim in indoor chlorine pools). I went to buy a mask for her since we still had 45 minutes in the car to get home and found the supply wiped out... at multiple stores. Didn’t know what was going on, until the guy at the hardware store told me why the shelves were cleared.

    We would be ones that would need to stock up on water, our well water is awful to try and drink... something I took for granted when we lived in NC with well water so good we could bottle and sell it.

    You can buy masks online. Coordinate with your pediatricians so that you can get the tests.
  • psychod787
    psychod787 Posts: 4,099 Member
    kshama2001 wrote: »
    psychod787 wrote: »
    kshama2001 wrote: »
    puffbrat wrote: »
    DancingMoosie wrote: »
    We just got some extra dry beans, rice, and gallon jugs of water. We aren't really afraid of the virus, but more of the panicked shoppers that might clear the shelves, lol.

    Same for us. I'm not terribly concerned about the virus but of the surrounding panic that will cause empty store shelves and panic about people going out in public. We haven't bought anything yet, but we are going to stock up on things like oats, frozen fruits and veggies, frozen meat, boxed macaroni and cheese, and crackers. And probably flour and sugar so we can still make cookies :D

    Flour for making bread is at the top of my list :lol:

    I'm also going to buy canned tuna, peanut butter, rice, beans, shelf stable fruit, etc.

    As for P&G products, they make my brand of toilet paper, so I'm definitely buying a big thing of that.

    All my friends thought I was crazy when I invested my money in canned food and shotguns after the "crash". Who's laughing at me now? B)
    P.S. Has anyone else noted that this is how many zombie apocalypse movies start?

    I'm more a fan of apocalypse books (zombies not required), my favorite being "The Stand" by Stephen King. That did indeed start out with flu-like symptoms.

    Read the original "I am Legend", the "sickness" that turned people into vampires was from China.....
  • moonangel12
    moonangel12 Posts: 971 Member
    edited March 2020
    cmriverside wrote: »
    moonangel12 wrote: »
    I currently have 4 children knocked out with flu like symptoms... it’s been days of high fevers, crazy coughing, etc. I “joke” that it could be coronavirus, but we’ll never know since they can’t test for it yet! (Although I am seeing headlines that tests are making their way around). We are on the outskirts of DC, a “bedroom community” for people that work in the city, so lots of potential to bring it in. Haven’t been to the doctor, we homeschool so no need to expose them to anything else if the symptoms are treatable at home (we have been often enough to have the needed meds for her croup) so not 100% sure what it is.

    Wednesday is when it started, I thought my daughter was reacting to some bags of soil I bought - her cough started within minutes of being in the car with them. Super sensitive lungs, at age 8 she gets croup that shuts down her airways with any airborne irritant (no longer able to even swim in indoor chlorine pools). I went to buy a mask for her since we still had 45 minutes in the car to get home and found the supply wiped out... at multiple stores. Didn’t know what was going on, until the guy at the hardware store told me why the shelves were cleared.

    We would be ones that would need to stock up on water, our well water is awful to try and drink... something I took for granted when we lived in NC with well water so good we could bottle and sell it.

    They CAN test for it, the test gets sent to CDC in Atlanta. Those symptoms sound the same as COVID 19 symptoms are...I do hope they are okay. The cough and fever are the main thing, and having trouble breathing.

    In the Seattle area (according to the press conference today) the government labs are up to 200 tests per day, University of WA just today came online to do 200 more, they hope to gear up to a total of 2000 tests daily between the two labs within a couple days. Turnaround time on the test appears to be about one day.

    If you want you can go to KOMO News and watch the King County news conference.

    We're up to six deaths now. :(
    leggup wrote: »
    You can buy masks online. Coordinate with your pediatricians so that you can get the tests.
    Definitely something to check into then! I will call in the AM and see what I can find out. My husband and I have tried to “quarantine” ourselves the best we can in a small house with 6 people. Just waiting for that ball to drop for either one (or both!) of us...

    I hate the vicious cycle - go to the doctor for one thing, bring home strep, another visit for the strep, home with a stomach virus. One year, when they were little, we had 6+ weeks of back to back crud and it was awful!

    ETA: looking up symptoms, they definitely fit the mold based on what I read. Thankfully, my two children with the most susceptibility to lung/breathing issues are on their way out of it (there was a day or two of watching and listening very closely for anything more than what we are used to dealing with, and we have a pulse oximeter at home from when my youngest was on oxygen as a baby). The article I read said to call ahead, they may or may not have you come in based on symptom severity... and if so might have you come in a side door or something to avoid unnecessary exposure.
  • Hollis100
    Hollis100 Posts: 1,408 Member
    lemurcat2 wrote: »
    GaleHawkins wrote: »
    While is is mainly on the West coast today in the USA one article said it will be spreading the month of March and April to the rest of the country. Thankfully spring time is coming.

    What does spring have to do with it?

    Somebody has probably answered -- I haven't read all the comments. Viruses survive better in cold temperatures. Here's one source about the flu virus:


    https://www.nih.gov/news-events/nih-research-matters/flu-virus-fortified-colder-weather

    "The researchers discovered that at temperatures slightly above freezing and below, the virus's lipid covering solidified into a gel. At about 70 degrees Fahrenheit, much of the lipid was still in gel form. At warmer temperatures, however, the gel melts to a liquid phase. At temperatures of about 105 degrees and higher, the coat was all in liquid form.

    The virus's rubbery outer coat, the researchers believe, allows it to withstand cooler temperatures and travel from person to person. In the respiratory tract, the body's warmth causes the covering to melt so that the virus can infect the cells of its new host.

    “Like an M&M in your mouth, the protective covering melts when it enters the respiratory tract,” explained Dr. Joshua Zimmerberg, chief of NICHD's Laboratory of Cellular and Molecular Biophysics and the study's senior author. “It's only in this liquid phase that the virus is capable of entering a cell to infect it.”

    The liquid phase, presumably, isn't tough enough to protect the virus against the elements, and so the virus loses its ability to spread from person to person in warm air. As the weather warms in spring, the flu viruses dry out and weaken, and the flu season wanes."

  • mkculs13
    mkculs13 Posts: 677 Member
    My shelves are stocked with healthy foods I never want to eat, and I told my daughter last fall that we should eat everything before going shopping again--I could probably easily go 2-3 weeks without buying food. BUT it's mostly certain types of things, dinner-related (to make things with TVP as the protein source). Not a big dairy user, so we could go without that. We'd get bored, probably, but that's ok. Mostly it has piled up b/c I really hate to cook. So if I am forced to, I am at least ready. Not worried, though.
  • whoami67
    whoami67 Posts: 297 Member
    As always, my pantry and freezer are pretty well stocked. If I get exposed and have to quarantine myself for a couple weeks, I have enough food. Or the grocery store and restaurants deliver. If I'm home sick with it, i have the makings of chicken soup, Kleenex, advil and decongestant. I'm not especially worried.
  • T1DCarnivoreRunner
    T1DCarnivoreRunner Posts: 11,502 Member
    cmriverside wrote: »
    I don't trust the aseptic milk.

    P&G...what products do I buy of theirs?

    Why are we panicking about Covid19? Isn't it just a little bit more virulent than a cold? Why are we panicking?*






    *I looked at the WHO site about it, and I just am not feeling the fear about this...I'm more worried about people not vaccinating their kids against the flu to be honest. We've had zoonotic diseases forever...I don't think it's even possible to contain something like this now that people travel. I had a friend return from overseas and they wee encouraged to use hand sanitizer as they left the plane.

    Yep, agreed. It is tough to get a very good R0 value this early, but definitely agree that the media hype is a big influencer on behavior. I just wish the media would put more emphasis on things like handwashing every single day with or without Covid-19. These are things we should do always regardless.
  • nutmegoreo
    nutmegoreo Posts: 15,532 Member
    pinuplove wrote: »
    snickerscharlie wrote: »
    I'll just be over here in the corner, wiping my butt with leaves. :D
    Just make sure they're not the itchy kind.

    So, not from the pine trees in my yard?
  • lynn_glenmont
    lynn_glenmont Posts: 10,091 Member
    leggup wrote: »
    I'm not stocking up on anything here in the US in a state with no reported cases. That said, I always have ample dried goods and shelf stable foods. We always have costco-quantities of soy milk (no refrigeration needed), quinoa-rice packets, meal pouches (tastybite), ramen, cereal, granola bars, dried fruits (craisens), oatmeal, nuts, baking ingredients (bread, cookies, pie), and soylent. I always keep the pantry full so I'm not tempted to eat out and because I love to bake.

    It's not about whether there are reported cases locally (unless all the products you depend on are grown, processed, and packaged locally). It's about whether the supply chain for the products you depend on breaks because the factories involved are closed as a public health measure or because so many of the people who work there are sick or caring for those who are sick that they can't function.
  • lynn_glenmont
    lynn_glenmont Posts: 10,091 Member
    cmriverside wrote: »
    But...


    Okay. I don't have TV and I don't look at the news.

    Ya'll - WHY are people stripping grocery shelves? Are we being locked into our houses? Do they think it is going to blow over in a week? Are all the food supply chains being shut down by the government? I don't understand...you guys are kind of freaking me out but I don't really know why.

    giphy.gif

    I started to think about responding but got distracted because the dog in that gif is just too cute.


    I think some of it is panic by irrational people. I suppose some of it may be people who because they are retired or telecommute or are independently wealthy can plan to just stay home for weeks or even months (which also seems like an overreaction to me).

    But from what I've seen in the news there have been factories shut down in China. I have no idea what they produce. And investors seem to expect some impact in most sectors (both due to decreased demand if consumers are staying home much more and due to decreased supplies from factories closing down temporarily).
  • earlnabby
    earlnabby Posts: 8,171 Member
    Just like Y2K, I took stock of my current situation and figured I would be fine for about 2 weeks if all went to hell. I have meat in the freezer, pasta and rice in the cupboard, some canned tomatoes and sauce in the basement, and enough flour and yeast to bake a half dozen loaves of bread. I am not going to do anything else.

    I suspect the "order online, pick up at the curb" services grocery stores are doing will get even more use so people can stay in the protective bubble of their car.
  • Nony_Mouse
    Nony_Mouse Posts: 5,646 Member
    lynn_glenmont wrote: »
    leggup wrote: »
    I'm not stocking up on anything here in the US in a state with no reported cases. That said, I always have ample dried goods and shelf stable foods. We always have costco-quantities of soy milk (no refrigeration needed), quinoa-rice packets, meal pouches (tastybite), ramen, cereal, granola bars, dried fruits (craisens), oatmeal, nuts, baking ingredients (bread, cookies, pie), and soylent. I always keep the pantry full so I'm not tempted to eat out and because I love to bake.

    It's not about whether there are reported cases locally (unless all the products you depend on are grown, processed, and packaged locally). It's about whether the supply chain for the products you depend on breaks because the factories involved are closed as a public health measure or because so many of the people who work there are sick or caring for those who are sick that they can't function.

    It's also about ensuring you have everything you need, before you need it. Enough to get through if you get sick yourself, and enough to get through if you come in contact with someone who has it and have to self isolate.

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