Coronavirus prep

Checking in from the bottom of the world. Here are New Zealand's latest stats



We're on Day 8 of lockdown, and as I've said previously, lockdown really does mean lockdown here. Everything is closed except supermarkets, pharmacies, medical centres, petrol stations, and dairies (convenience stores). We are expected to stay local if going out for a walk etc, only go to supermarket when we really need to. Supermarkets have a one out/one in system to limit the number of people in store, markings on floor for checkout to show distancing, shields for the checkout operators, and we pack out own groceries. Dairies can only have one customer in at a time (many are very small). The rules on essential items were relaxed a little early this week, so some things are now able to be ordered online for contactless delivery, mostly it's things like appliances, home office needs, winter clothing and bedding, etc (though I may have just ordered curling mousse to aid my apocalypse project of encouraging my hair to curl I'm not quite sure how that qualifies as essential, but I'll go with it!). Most people are adhering to the rules very well. People who aren't get an initial friend chat from the police to explain the requirements, repeat offenders get to visit a cell (has only happened a few times). I think one person has now been prosecuted for repeatedly being a dick.

I did a supermarket shop this morning, my first trip out other than my usual close to home walks, and it was very surreal with queues at the supermarket, made more so by the fact my little town's testing caravan is set up right opposite one of the supermarkets. I can report that toilet paper was in plentiful supply. Like, overkill plentiful supply. I should have taken photos of the multiple stacks around the place.

It's very interesting reading everyone here's posts. i honestly don't know that NZ's hardcore approach would have a hope in hell of being accepted in the US.

bmeadows380 wrote: »

lemurcat2 wrote: »

Duolingo has it. I don't know if it's good, but worth a try as it's no cost. I've thought about it -- Welsh, Swedish, and German are languages I've considered (I studied French and Russian in school and learned some Spanish and Italian before trips). Ultimately I've done Swedish and German on Duolingo (and now German at a local learning center online), and would love to do Welsh too.

The phrases are often hilarious -- I know how to say, in German, "I am not pregnant, I am a man," and "the duck ran around the pig," among other silly things, but I do think they are teaching concepts in a way.

I might give it another try; I had looked at Duolingo but wasn't having much luck before. I tried a CD teach yourself course once. Just listening like that took me over a month to be able to repeat the phrases. They lost me on the second lesson.

Spanish is one language I've pretty much given up on, because no matter how hard I try, or how many variations of trying to learn how, I cannot trill my r's. I don't think the romance languages period are that easy to pronounce for me. Easier to learn the grammar, sure, but I have a time with some of the sounds. I can do a passible German ch and a somewhat passible Welsh ll, but forget tapped r's and trilled r's. Which is kind of funny because my best french can trill her r's all day long and speaks wonderful Spanish, but she can't do the gutteral sounds like "ch" at all, which frustrated her to no end when she was trying to learn Hebrew.


A classmate of mine from high school lost her husband the day before yesterday in a bad car accident. That's hard enough, but because of the virus and the lock down, they are only going to be able to do graveside rites (neither of hte funeral homes in this area are set up for live streaming). Its sad because they had 2 kids both under the age of 6. The pastor's wife is starting a round to have folks who normally would have been at the funeral to at least send sympathy cards. She would usually also put together a meal and have folks bring food for the family, but with the stay at home orders, I'm not sure if she'll be able to do that.

Hon, I can't trill my "rr's" after 36 years in Italy. They still understand me. I still have an "American" accent. Don't let that hold you back from learning a language. If people can understand you, you're doing great. It's difficult to speak like a native, unless you've learned the language as a child. One thing we've noticed here is that Slavic language speakers, such as Polish, Russian, etc, learn to speak Italian even as adults with no accent. My husband is constantly amazed.

AnnPT77 wrote: »

Another observation about cognitive style:

Everyone here knows that guidance on the usefulness of masks in the general population has been shifting.

I'm interpreting this as a sign of the intensive high-speed research going on, and new results constantly coming out from it, looking at how the virus can be transmitted (theoretically), how it actually is commonly transmitted in practical terms, how long it persists in viable form on varying surfaces under varying conditions, how the human factors affect mask use (like, do people touch their face more because masks shift around, do people shift behavior in a riskier direction with protective gear, do people use masks correctly or in ways that make things worse (reuse, unsanitary handling, wearing until wet from breath, and more), etc.), what the effect of masks is on getting the virus is vs. transmitting it to others, concern about mask supplies if there's a public run on the supply, what implications the viral load question has in this context, and so forth.

Some of my friends (on other social networks) seem to be taking the shifting advice about masks as a sign that experts are flip-floppers who can't agree or even make up their minds, are probably hiding something from us, or - at an extreme, among those few friends who never met a conspiracy theory that doesn't appeal to them - even are tricking us because they want us to get sick and die.

Yes, my friend/relative set is very diverse. Right now, that's even a little scarier than usual.

I think that (1) the importance of trying to ensure that supplies of medical masks were not bought up and hoarded by the general public caused a lot of the messaging aimed at achieving that end to be skewed and obviously counterintuitive ("Wait, they're saying masks can protect doctors and nurses but they don't work to protect the rest of us? What?") which in turn made it difficult for some people to trust that message and (2) despite the importance of flattening the curve, those managing the message that the general public shouldn't be wearing masks completely overlooked the value of masks in helping keep the asympomatic, presymptomatic, and the mildly symptomatic from passing the disease on.

If someone knows better than me, please correct me, but my impression is that medical personnel in operating rooms wear surgical masks to keep from infecting the patient they're cutting open, not generally to protect themselves from whatever the patient might have.

I don't think the prime thing that is changing the message is new evidence that changes the best practice.
I think the prime thing that is changing the message is that those managing the message are finally waking up to (2) above and the fact that we ought to be assuming that everyone, including ourselves, is infected.

amusedmonkey wrote: »

Nony_Mouse wrote: »

amusedmonkey wrote: »

Nony_Mouse wrote: »

Checking in from the bottom of the world. Here are New Zealand's latest stats



We're on Day 8 of lockdown, and as I've said previously, lockdown really does mean lockdown here. Everything is closed except supermarkets, pharmacies, medical centres, petrol stations, and dairies (convenience stores). We are expected to stay local if going out for a walk etc, only go to supermarket when we really need to. Supermarkets have a one out/one in system to limit the number of people in store, markings on floor for checkout to show distancing, shields for the checkout operators, and we pack out own groceries. Dairies can only have one customer in at a time (many are very small). The rules on essential items were relaxed a little early this week, so some things are now able to be ordered online for contactless delivery, mostly it's things like appliances, home office needs, winter clothing and bedding, etc (though I may have just ordered curling mousse to aid my apocalypse project of encouraging my hair to curl I'm not quite sure how that qualifies as essential, but I'll go with it!). Most people are adhering to the rules very well. People who aren't get an initial friend chat from the police to explain the requirements, repeat offenders get to visit a cell (has only happened a few times). I think one person has now been prosecuted for repeatedly being a dick.

I did a supermarket shop this morning, my first trip out other than my usual close to home walks, and it was very surreal with queues at the supermarket, made more so by the fact my little town's testing caravan is set up right opposite one of the supermarkets. I can report that toilet paper was in plentiful supply. Like, overkill plentiful supply. I should have taken photos of the multiple stacks around the place.

It's very interesting reading everyone here's posts. i honestly don't know that NZ's hardcore approach would have a hope in hell of being accepted in the US.

Full lockdown does work. New cases here have been declining for the past few days despite increased testing efforts.

Yep, we're hoping to start seeing a decrease in new cases in a few days.

To be fair, this may just be the result of the few days of full curfew we had earlier and we may start seeing a slight increase in cases later before further decrease. Although not as good as full curfew, a full lockdown is the next best thing.

I wish it would mutate to become less deadly. A large percentage of the infected were elderly and it's sad to see. Some are doing better than others. A woman spread the infection to her family and she lost both her grandmother and her father in one week.

We've been fortunate so far to just have the one death, and two ICU cases (both of whom are now stable).

We had a wee downtick for a few days, but that's been attributed to less testing over the weekend. Not because testing isn't available, but I think people not realising it is. The very clear message now is test, test, test, and all reference to overseas travel or connection to a known case has been removed from the testing criteria. There were people obviously being tested at the facility in my town today.

I suspect our lockdown may go longer than the initial four weeks proposed (and it has been made clear from the beginning that that may be the case), the plan here is very much to keep it as suppressed as possible, so they want to see the numbers right down before easing back to a lower alert level (and different parts of the country may be on different levels from others, depending on numbers of cases in that region). Then if numbers increase, we ramp up again. Effectively, we're going to oscillate in and out of varying degrees of restriction until a vaccine is available. Yes, really. If you look at the chart on the last page of this link, we're going for the squiggly green line. So don't make any plans to visit New Zealand for a while! https://www.parliament.nz/resource/en-NZ/52SCEP_EVI_96420_EP18/1b89a81ce848cbeb471631b68c878304e70b3dc2

amusedmonkey wrote: »

Nony_Mouse wrote: »

amusedmonkey wrote: »

Nony_Mouse wrote: »

amusedmonkey wrote: »

Nony_Mouse wrote: »

Checking in from the bottom of the world. Here are New Zealand's latest stats



We're on Day 8 of lockdown, and as I've said previously, lockdown really does mean lockdown here. Everything is closed except supermarkets, pharmacies, medical centres, petrol stations, and dairies (convenience stores). We are expected to stay local if going out for a walk etc, only go to supermarket when we really need to. Supermarkets have a one out/one in system to limit the number of people in store, markings on floor for checkout to show distancing, shields for the checkout operators, and we pack out own groceries. Dairies can only have one customer in at a time (many are very small). The rules on essential items were relaxed a little early this week, so some things are now able to be ordered online for contactless delivery, mostly it's things like appliances, home office needs, winter clothing and bedding, etc (though I may have just ordered curling mousse to aid my apocalypse project of encouraging my hair to curl I'm not quite sure how that qualifies as essential, but I'll go with it!). Most people are adhering to the rules very well. People who aren't get an initial friend chat from the police to explain the requirements, repeat offenders get to visit a cell (has only happened a few times). I think one person has now been prosecuted for repeatedly being a dick.

I did a supermarket shop this morning, my first trip out other than my usual close to home walks, and it was very surreal with queues at the supermarket, made more so by the fact my little town's testing caravan is set up right opposite one of the supermarkets. I can report that toilet paper was in plentiful supply. Like, overkill plentiful supply. I should have taken photos of the multiple stacks around the place.

It's very interesting reading everyone here's posts. i honestly don't know that NZ's hardcore approach would have a hope in hell of being accepted in the US.

Full lockdown does work. New cases here have been declining for the past few days despite increased testing efforts.

Yep, we're hoping to start seeing a decrease in new cases in a few days.

To be fair, this may just be the result of the few days of full curfew we had earlier and we may start seeing a slight increase in cases later before further decrease. Although not as good as full curfew, a full lockdown is the next best thing.

I wish it would mutate to become less deadly. A large percentage of the infected were elderly and it's sad to see. Some are doing better than others. A woman spread the infection to her family and she lost both her grandmother and her father in one week.

We've been fortunate so far to just have the one death, and two ICU cases (both of whom are now stable).

We had a wee downtick for a few days, but that's been attributed to less testing over the weekend. Not because testing isn't available, but I think people not realising it is. The very clear message now is test, test, test, and all reference to overseas travel or connection to a known case has been removed from the testing criteria. There were people obviously being tested at the facility in my town today.

I suspect our lockdown may go longer than the initial four weeks proposed (and it has been made clear from the beginning that that may be the case), the plan here is very much to keep it as suppressed as possible, so they want to see the numbers right down before easing back to a lower alert level (and different parts of the country may be on different levels from others, depending on numbers of cases in that region). Then if numbers increase, we ramp up again. Effectively, we're going to oscillate in and out of varying degrees of restriction until a vaccine is available. Yes, really. If you look at the chart on the last page of this link, we're going for the squiggly green line. So don't make any plans to visit New Zealand for a while! https://www.parliament.nz/resource/en-NZ/52SCEP_EVI_96420_EP18/1b89a81ce848cbeb471631b68c878304e70b3dc2

Same here. They're even having a single day of full curfew this Friday to facilitate testing (the testing teams are going door to door testing everyone who may have come in contact with any of the current cases). If and once the number of new cases reaches 0, the next step will be a gradually wider area sweep. Currently, all governates are isolated, and certain areas are isolated from the rest of the city. Few people have permits to use cars.

I'm impressed. The country is not rich and this will take a huge toll, but they're prioritizing health.

NZ was fortunately in pretty good financial shape going into this, it will still take a massive toll though - huge amounts of money going to wage subsidies, helping businesses in other ways, funding for infrastructure projects that are 'shovel ready'...the government coffers are going to be running on fumes. But people's lives come first.

NZ is handling this well, so are a lot of US states, but please consider this. The total population is less than most of the large cities in the US with the majority of the cases. Being sparsely populated, which supports the social distancing that’s taking place worldwide) is an advantage in fighting this disease. That’s an advantage NZ, and US states, with smaller, more sparsely populated areas have. It can slow the spread, but no one knows what the end results will show.

The difference is, the enforcing of the policies, and getting people to understand what not complying can do. It’s a selfish attitude. Many people think only of their personal freedom, not believing they are at risk of spreading the disease. They are wrong.

Adam Schlesinger, the guy who wrote all the music for “Crazy ex-girlfriend,” just died of Coronavirus at the age of 52.

amusedmonkey wrote: »

mockchoc wrote: »

missysippy930 wrote: »

NZ is handling this well, so are a lot of US states, but please consider this. The total population is less than most of the large cities in the US with the majority of the cases. Being sparsely populated, which supports the social distancing that’s taking place worldwide) is an advantage in fighting this disease. That’s an advantage NZ, and US states, with smaller, more sparsely populated areas have. It can slow the spread, but no one knows what the end results will show.

The difference is, the enforcing of the policies, and getting people to understand what not complying can do. It’s a selfish attitude. Many people think only of their personal freedom, not believing they are at risk of spreading the disease. They are wrong.

Your last paragraph especially is so very very true. I hope more start to realise how many this is killing over there in USA Thinking of you all. We have very few here so far but I'm sure it'll get worse yet.

The last paragraph is very true. There are people who either don't care, don't believe it's a problem, or think it would never happen to them (optimism bias). These people make things worse, no matter how well a country or a state is handling things.

Ugh, my sister isn't getting out much these days(like everybody else!) so you know her circle of contacts is very small. But she had a tech in to try and fix her washer, and she dropped her car off at the mechanic. Both are calling the virus and peoples' reactions, a hoax. Two people in less than a week, probably out of 4 people(if that) in all. Heaven help us if that percentage doesn't believe this thing is real.

amusedmonkey wrote: »

The last paragraph is very true. There are people who either don't care, don't believe it's a problem, or think it would never happen to them (optimism bias). These people make things worse, no matter how well a country or a state is handling things.

amusedmonkey wrote: »

Sadly, that's not the case here. Although many are acting responsibly, there is a good percentage of people who look at the numbers and think "this isn't bad compared to other places" and don't take things seriously. For example, we have no confirmed cases in our city and that's giving people a false sense of security. Just because we don't have any official numbers doesn't mean there aren't people who are not showing symptoms or people who are showing mild symptoms and not reporting.

I agree completely. I hear a lot of folks (older, not so coincidentally), that chalk the selfishness and defiance up to it being the "me generation". Except its not just the young college kids who are bucking it; its people from every generation. They want to blame it on a sense of entitlement; I think its one of the dark aspects of humanity - inherent selfishness, self-centeredness, and a "you aren't telling me what to do" attitude.

WV is a classic example of the second quote. When it was really starting to spread across the country 2 weeks ago, but WV still had no confirmed cases, people here were not taking it seriously at all and were mocking our governor for taking action before the first case even got here. And even when it was finally confirmed, the people in southern WV still didn't take it seriously because it was up north and far away. Now that it's shown up in our county, people are being much more serious about the social distancing.

Though I would like to point out to those who still think this isn't any worse than the flu, that worldwide, COVID-19 has infected almost 1 million people and killed over 48,000 (as of April 2, 8 am). So it has now killed more people than the flu and did so in a fraction of the time the flu does.

My best friend is still against the social distancing aspects as she thinks shutting down the economy is doing way more damage than the virus is, and thinks that an economic recession or heaven forbid, a full blown depression is going to result in more deaths in the long run. She says "And what are the hospitals going to do when they get flooded with people trying to commit suicide due to losing everything?"

I still disagree with her - economic recession is of course not a good thing, but if we had not done the lock downs, I firmly think the economy still would have tanked because the rate of those being infected would have sky-rocketed out of control - and businesses still would have tanked because of panic and the fact that their workers were sick and all their customer base was sick. And I can't imagine that the deaths that would be caused by the recession (from suicides to folks unable to pay for medical care) would still out number what would have been caused by the virus with no restrictions in place.

Because we've seen that people left to their own don't abide by common sense rules. The governments are having to do this because people won't distance otherwise. Just like how our state parks had to be shut down this weekend because people were congregation en masse in them. *shakes head*

I see attitudes changing in AZ rapidly. Many thought it was a joke at first and media hype (and some still do, unfortunately), but that nursing home that has 20 plus cases changed minds. We also have some friends nearby that the wife has parents down South of the city in the oldest demographic 55 and over active community. They seem to be seeing the first cases there. That particular community, 3000 homes, has an average age of around 75. Some of these AZ communities will be just devastated if this picks up any more steam.

Our governor, in his infinite wisdom, has us allegedly on "lockdown" but nail salons and golf courses are open. Giving something to the old men and older women to keep votes. Just sickening. Nail salons. I kid you not. We will find out soon if the heat slows it here as next week it will hit 90 already here.