Coronavirus prep

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  • earlnabby
    earlnabby Posts: 8,171 Member
    acpgee wrote: »
    If people are being confronted with empty supermarket shelves, I notice that in London at least, hoarding behaviour hasn't hit the asian grocer's yet. I've been to two this week and they were both well stocked.

    Around here the "mass market" grocery stores were hit first and hard. The smaller "mom and pop" and ethnic ones were not hit very hard at all.
  • lemurcat2
    lemurcat2 Posts: 7,887 Member
    earlnabby wrote: »
    acpgee wrote: »
    If people are being confronted with empty supermarket shelves, I notice that in London at least, hoarding behaviour hasn't hit the asian grocer's yet. I've been to two this week and they were both well stocked.

    Around here the "mass market" grocery stores were hit first and hard. The smaller "mom and pop" and ethnic ones were not hit very hard at all.

    Same here, from what I've seen. My neighborhood meat market (which has a full range of foods) was normal on Friday.
  • pjwrt
    pjwrt Posts: 166 Member
    NicbPNW wrote: »
    I'm in Washington state, pretty close to the confirmed cases and yes, I'm a tad worried. Not in a panic, but being cautious. I have little kids and have asthma myself so I don't want any of us catching ANYTHING that could land us in the hospital.

    I'm wondering why is everyone stockpiling toilet paper?!?! That is selling out as quick as water around here!

    I read that it is a herd-type panic thing. Like chickens flocking together and running thing.

  • snowflake954
    snowflake954 Posts: 8,399 Member
    Athijade wrote: »
    Nony_Mouse wrote: »

    We are actually sick ;) (but I know what you mean). I'm not sure if we're at higher risk of more severe viral symptoms or not, but I imagine the potential for a prolonged worsening of ME symptoms, even with a non-severe case, is high. I've only recently gotten back to a level of 'wellness' that, if I don't recover any further, I'm okay with, I bloody well refuse to be set back. So I totally get you on the wanting to be able to continue to eat well thing. I guess squeeze as much frozen vege into that wee freezer as you can?

    I'm glad I don't have to deal with the level of crazy panic other countries are seeing :\

    I was able to get my hands on some frozen veggies so right now I have 2.5 bags of broccoli, .5 bag of diced peas and carrots, 1 bag of cauliflower, 1 bag of broccoli and cauliflower mix, 1 bag of sliced carrots, and 1 bag of a broccoli/cauliflower/carrot mix. Each bag can last me a few meals. I have some frozen fruit, but not much and it will mostly get used up in oatmeal this week for breakfast. I also froze a loaf of bread and some sauteed mushrooms so they wouldn't go bad. I have a chicken to roast tonight that will feed me all week for dinners. I have plenty of food and will be okay even if I do get sick, plus I have family and friends who I know will help out any way they can.

    My anxiety just makes it hard to handle a change to my schedule (as does my OCD). I am doing the best I can right now and thankfully was able to get an early refill of my meds. I do worry about getting this virus and then having a flare up of my CFS. There is no way I can miss THAT much work.

    I know this is hard for a lot of people. Just take things a day at a time and you'll be fine. It just takes some organizing and you're doing what you can. Do you have a mask? They will be impossible to find and if you absolutely need to go out you should have one. Here in Italy it's impossible to find them and the Chinese experts that arrived the other day say that they see too many people without. You've done your best--you can do no more.
  • amtyrell
    amtyrell Posts: 1,447 Member
    Here in Maryland the governor just closed down all casinos and racetracks and off track betting

    Oh and because this site is owned by under armour i know they also closed down their headquarters starting friday and have moved to work from home .
  • happysquatter
    happysquatter Posts: 91 Member
    On Friday, they shut down all schools, colleges, universities, libraries, swimming pools, daycares and other public facilities up here.

    It is, I think a very prudent response which sadly should be done in more communities. However, I still see IRL people who don’t quite comprehend the scale of what the math suggests this can become and are using this as an excuse to ‘hang out more’ FFS

    As Mike said earlier, for you, our Southern neighbours, it is a good thing there were leaders within the various affected states who acted because nothing adequate was being done prior to that. Quite the opposite.

    I can’t even recommend the CDC website to people for data since there are far better alternatives. That’s just sad 😞

    For those interested, you can download data sets from the European equivalent cdc. Then there’s also worldometer which takes the same data it seems and makes it more visually palatable

  • lx1x
    lx1x Posts: 38,340 Member
    amtyrell wrote: »
    Here in Maryland the governor just closed down all casinos and racetracks and off track betting

    Oh and because this site is owned by under armour i know they also closed down their headquarters starting friday and have moved to work from home .

    PG county government/buildings is closed tomorrow. Will be interesting going to work tomorrow.. probably a ghost town..
  • yuske05
    yuske05 Posts: 16 Member
    The bigger problem is the effect this is having on our farming industry. We're buying this stuff up regardless of the reason which can cause lands to be overused and eventually useless. If/when that happens, we'll just have to chop up more forests, right?
  • lightenup2016
    lightenup2016 Posts: 1,055 Member
    edited March 2020
    Athijade wrote: »
    Nony_Mouse wrote: »

    We are actually sick ;) (but I know what you mean). I'm not sure if we're at higher risk of more severe viral symptoms or not, but I imagine the potential for a prolonged worsening of ME symptoms, even with a non-severe case, is high. I've only recently gotten back to a level of 'wellness' that, if I don't recover any further, I'm okay with, I bloody well refuse to be set back. So I totally get you on the wanting to be able to continue to eat well thing. I guess squeeze as much frozen vege into that wee freezer as you can?

    I'm glad I don't have to deal with the level of crazy panic other countries are seeing :\

    I was able to get my hands on some frozen veggies so right now I have 2.5 bags of broccoli, .5 bag of diced peas and carrots, 1 bag of cauliflower, 1 bag of broccoli and cauliflower mix, 1 bag of sliced carrots, and 1 bag of a broccoli/cauliflower/carrot mix. Each bag can last me a few meals. I have some frozen fruit, but not much and it will mostly get used up in oatmeal this week for breakfast. I also froze a loaf of bread and some sauteed mushrooms so they wouldn't go bad. I have a chicken to roast tonight that will feed me all week for dinners. I have plenty of food and will be okay even if I do get sick, plus I have family and friends who I know will help out any way they can.

    My anxiety just makes it hard to handle a change to my schedule (as does my OCD). I am doing the best I can right now and thankfully was able to get an early refill of my meds. I do worry about getting this virus and then having a flare up of my CFS. There is no way I can miss THAT much work.

    I know this is hard for a lot of people. Just take things a day at a time and you'll be fine. It just takes some organizing and you're doing what you can. Do you have a mask? They will be impossible to find and if you absolutely need to go out you should have one. Here in Italy it's impossible to find them and the Chinese experts that arrived the other day say that they see too many people without. You've done your best--you can do no more.

    snowflake954–Thank you for your updates from Italy. My husband is Italian (living in USA) and has family there near Lago di Garda, among other places. I have a question for you—I feel like the US is closing everything down pretty early on (which I agree with!), with 60 or so deaths in the whole country at this point. Do you think we’re doing better than Italy did in the beginning? Did Italy wait until the cases and deaths were already pretty high per capita before shutting things down? Or do you feel like they did try to catch the spread early on? Thank you for any insight.
  • RCPV
    RCPV Posts: 342 Member
    @kimny72, hahaha! Thanks for that bit of levity. :D
  • mph323
    mph323 Posts: 3,563 Member
    Here's a good (if somewhat dry) read on the mechanics of changing social behavior. The link is to a summary of the chapters. The author is Malcolm Gladwell and the title is
    "The Tipping Point
    How Little Things Can Make A Big Difference"
    Even though it is was published in 2000 it's still remarkably relevant. I read it a few years ago and am planning to go through it again soon.

    http://www.wikisummaries.org/wiki/The_Tipping_Point#Chapter_1:_The_Three_Rules_of_Epidemics
  • mph323
    mph323 Posts: 3,563 Member
    Another one is "Emergence" by Steven Johnson. Subtitled "The Connected Lives of Ants, Brains, Cities, and Software". Again, published in 2001 but still relevant. I freely admit I only got through the first couple of chapters, but I believe the first one explains toilet paper :D

    https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emergence:_The_Connected_Lives_of_Ants,_Brains,_Cities,_and_Software
  • T1DCarnivoreRunner
    T1DCarnivoreRunner Posts: 11,502 Member
    lkpducky wrote: »
    Psychgrrl wrote: »
    I can't help but wonder about the single people with no family or close friends to check on them, in self isolation who get sick.. laying in bed progressively getting worse.. may die there with nobody to know :(

    Sorry, sad thought I know

    Thanks--that's me. Though not in isolation and still going to work. Single and NOT so ready to mingle any more.

    Same here, though I suppose I would be working form home if I were self-quarantined. Someone would eventually notice that I'm not online, no longer responding to emails, etc.

    But then again, this risk is there with or without Covid-19. As a type 1 diabetic, it is entirely possible that I just don't wake up one day due to a hypoglycemic event while sleeping. In fact, this has happened a few times over the years. Last time, a co-worker and friend noticed I didn't show up to work and knows about that risk. Back in 2009 when I was unemployed, this happened once and I "lost" about 2 weeks (but I didn't die at least). Perhaps my less concerned view on Covid-19 is because I focus on data rather than emotions and panic. Perhaps it is because the risk of dying is something that I am more acutely conscious of than most people Even though the risk of dying from Covid-19 is rather small, I get the sense that a whole lot of people believe otherwise. Since that is new to those people, maybe that is what is drawing panic.

    On the other hand, I'm not convinced that I'll care after I die whether I was alone or asleep at the time or with others and/or awake.

    Physicians and scientists such as Dr. Anthony Fauci and the people in this article (UC San Francisco) https://www.ucsf.edu/news/2020/03/416906/why-experts-are-urging-social-distancing-combat-coronavirus-outbreak
    are not advising social distancing on the basis of emotions and panic. Please look at their definition of "reproductive number" and what it means as far as the spread.
    The more it spreads, the more likely that those at higher risk of dying will get it.

    I can believe that more people will die if more people get it. That is basic math. Much of the data I have seen indicates many and possibly most of us will get it anyway. It also isn't clear how long immunity lasts once an infected person recovers (as most do). It sounds like the logical expectation is that most will get it at some point, recover, and eventually get it again. Since that sounds exactly like the common cold, influenza, norovirus, and many other illnesses that spread around; I'm not sure if I can see a lot of benefit from cancelling everything. I can see a small benefit, but it is going to be limited at best. When schools and day carees cancel, a lot of kids are going to end up hanging out at the library or at a recreation center or something. If the goal is to limit person-to-person contact, then it will fail. The underlying result of shutting everything down will become an economic nightmare. And yes, people will die in the future when people become poor and can't afford basic essentials. How many lives are being saved and how many lives are being destroyed and lost in the future because of cancellations that don't actually limit person-to-person contact much, if any, in the end?
  • Katmary71
    Katmary71 Posts: 7,592 Member
    Psychgrrl wrote: »
    On the bright side, Kroger just announced it's restricting number of things that people can buy to stop the hoarding and reselling of items like sanitizer and toilet paper.

    My local Wal Mart did this as well. Thankful for that. However, our supply distributors are running out of stuff. They told us people who normally order 10 cases of soap are ordering 100. Well, almost every other college campus in the area is closed--what are they using the soap for? We're going to have to call other campuses and try and buy supplies before they close and everyone goes home. We still have people.

    Smart and Final did this with dried beans (2 per customer) though bulk beans were either low or sold out. Not sure of other stuff as it was the only thing I bought aside of produce, canned tomatoes, and a few frozen meals.