Coronavirus prep

WOW!

Leave work Friday and come back to a whole different world Monday morning!

I work at the hospital, so no WFH for me, which is okay, because right now? I feel like I am sitting in the safest place in the county!

Friday afternoon they tightened the visitor restrictions system-wide for the second time last week. Shortly after I got home I learned about our county's first case (and as of this moment the only one).

The halls are basically empty, today. Usually they are bustling with staff and visitors. Zero patients lining the walls in the diagnostics areas.

No self-serve of any kind in the cafeteria, and silverware is sealed in plastic instead of in the dispensers. The ice and water dispensers are being manned by gloved employees. The dining area where I usually have lunch with friends was a ghost town. I ate at my desk.

Places like Radiology and our Information Desk have blue painter's tape on the floors six feet away from the nearest contact person behind the desk. Nobody should be stepping over those lines.

The entrance I use is now badge access only. We were, up until today, just pulling it open. Visitors are directed to the main entrance.

I went up to the vacant 7th floor, that we had been in the process of turning into observation rooms, and see walls going up around the nurse's station. Seems they are building isolation rooms.

I am happy and relieved to see our organization being so proactive about getting ahead of this!

One of the guys I work with told me his wife is packing her stuff (computer, files, etc) and will be working from home, effective tomorrow. This is at the county level, if I understand correctly.

It's definitely a different vibe here, today. Cheerful, but cautious. With one positive case, I think we are all just kind of waiting for the other shoe to drop.

Where I work in Florida, if you have the ability to work from home - then that is what they are requiring. In my building, that is basically just upper management and project managers. The rest of us are considered essential employees and have to show up to get the work done.

I work at a bank. In normal times, regulations require us to remain open and service clients. The Texas Department of Banking sent out a notice that for TX-chartered banks, that regulation is suspended. Now, I don't believe for a second that my bank would actually close it's doors entirely. However, I do think we could get to a place where we close our branches and only leave our HQ open with a skeleton crew and everyone else working from home.

Things are quite... tense here though. Trying to set up a situation where the majority of our workers can work from home is a feat in itself. We recently switched to a virtual environment, which makes it much easier to work remotely, but the logistics of that when we only have a certain number of laptops available is interesting. I'm in the IT department (information security), and our staff is being inundated with people wanting to know how they can work from home if they need to and how their phones can get routed. I'm glad to say that our management has been extraordinary in their communications. I'm sad to say that not all of management is taking the situation as seriously as they should (and some are being panicky...).

We now have 4 cases in San Antonio, all travel-related, but one of the cases is a doctor, and he and a dozen other medical staff are now in quarantine for 14 days. It's only a matter of time before we have a community spread case identified (I'm sure we have them already, just untested).

I see a ridiculous amount of posts on fitness sites about people angry about not being able to swap sweat at the gym temporarily. Where is the disconnect from reality at this point?? Defiance of social distancing is not some admirable display of rebellion, it is sad and selfish.

MikePfirrman wrote: »

Bry_Fitness70 wrote: »

I see a ridiculous amount of posts on fitness sites about people angry about not being able to swap sweat at the gym temporarily. Where is the disconnect from reality at this point?? Defiance of social distancing is not some admirable display of rebellion, it is sad and selfish.

Governor of KY had to place a police officer at the door of someone that refused to self-quarantine.

Good! Afraid there aren’t enough police officers to go around.

MikePfirrman wrote: »

Potential great news but it's too early to tell if this will work. I'm hearing of rapid potential treatments, not vaccines. One is the one Snowflake mentioned around a week ago -- the RA drug which slows the progression in the lungs. This other one, which slows the replication of the virus, might show a lot more promise. It was developed for Ebola.

https://www.biopharmadive.com/news/coronavirus-remdesivir-gilead-antiviral-drug-covid-19/573261/

There's also another strategy I've heard of as well. They take the antibodies from those that have had it and recovered and administer them to people that haven't had it yet. That would be a longer term play, though.

It's not they won't find a vaccine, I think they will, but these are strategies meant to minimize deaths until we find a vaccine. World wide, pharmaceutical companies are working hard to find solutions.

The RA drug is hydroxychloroquine, otherwise known as Plaquenil. I've been on it since 2004. The data coming out of China and S Korea as far as the impact of the drug on COVID-19 is very encouraging, both as a treatment to lessen severity, and as prophylactic. They really need to speed up the evaluatory process of that one. Hydroxychloroquine is generic, cheap, and widely/easily available - a paradigm shift from the whole "18 months to develop a vaccine" mantra, although it is not a vaccine.

The notion that something good might come from having the disease process that led to being on the drug all these years is so twistedly ironic and bizarre I can't even describe it. I've got family members hounding me for a handful or two of those things.

corinasue1143 wrote: »

Beka3695 wrote: »

My 71 year old mother with multiple health issues refuses to stay home. Even after I told her how serious this was to the point she was crying... still she will not stay at home.

Any advice?

She’s a grownup.
I can’t say why she’s going out, but I am a stay-at-home 70 year old. When I get lonely, I get depressed. I know there will come a time when I’d rather take a chance then get any more depressed.
Try things to lift her spirits. E- mail her jokes. Think of a funny story to tell her before you call. Can you FaceTime her? Or something similar? Get her interested in Facebook? Words with friends? Books on tape? Or whatever it’s called now. Anyway, interaction with people from home.

Suggest she organize a phone chain for her single friends?

I understand she is an adult and can make her own decisions. She is married, but my dad is in the hospital with Flu and pneumonia.... She was going out today to get milk and take her taxes to be prepared. Her sister lives next door - so she has a companion. She reads books, but does not use any electronic device.

I must take this day by day for my sanity.

Chef_Barbell wrote: »

I never thought I would see NYC like this...

I half expected to see Charlton Heston strolling down the street in that pic.