Coronavirus prep

I am so mad at the American Red Cross. I am a universal donor and I had an appointment today to give blood. I get there and they are taking temps to get in. They are using the mouth prob. The lady doing the tests is changing the sheathing on the prob but not her gloves. I watched her touch the lips of the person ahead of me and then want to take my temp. No changing gloves no forhead or temple scan. They had doen the call a day in advance thing and had assured me they would not have mouth temp scans but forhead ones . I wasn't willing to let someone touch my lips with a glove that had touched others. I am so grossed out. I am also so mad and sad as I wanted to donate but it has to be safe for the donor as well.

cmriverside wrote: »

Lemur, I'm not attacking you.

I didn't think you were but perhaps for the thing about wanting one's own city to be first. Since I never remotely said mine was first (I said the west coast and then NYC were first), I thought you perhaps had misunderstood my post.

I also thought you might think my posts were referring to you or your prior posts, and they weren't at all.

Just continuing the conversation. I agree with you...but I also think it's been here for a long time and there are thousands/tens of thousands/hundreds of thousands/millions who had mild cases and have recovered.

Re this, I think it depends on (a) what "here" means, and (b) what "long time" means. I think it's possible (but not all that likely) that there were unknown cases here in December. (The reason I think it's unlikely is that South Korea learned of its first case in South Korea on Jan 20, and did not have it spreading uncontrollably around the country before that because they in fact controlled it pretty well.) The first known case in the US (in WA) went from China to the US on Jan 15, so I can believe there were cases earlier in Jan too, but not that it was widespread community spread in all parts (or specifically in more remote parts) of the US by late Jan and early Feb.

And note that this case was identified and they tried to contact trace and test. Similarly, there were 5 more cases by Jan 26 (all connected to travel to Wuhan), and they all were tested and tried to contact trace and test. Obviously they didn't catch everyone (or likely mild or non symptomatic travelers also came and spread it), so this period is probably when community spread started in some areas.

In early to mid Feb, there were a bunch more cases, also identified, also related to people who had traveled to China. Again, efforts to trace contacts were made to some degree.

In late Feb, cases that seemed to be community spread started being identified in CA, OR, and WA.

Last day of Feb, someone dies of it at the nursing home in Kirkland, and that becomes the first big outbreak in the US.

So the idea that it was spreading all over in the US in Dec and Jan by community spread without being identified or causing any spikes at hospitals seems unlikely to me given what's going on now. I don't think it would have passed unnoticed, certainly not in January.

Unless and until we get a good antibodies test that is administered to a majority of genpop, no way to know how many. I don't think that will be a priority - ever. I think effective vaccines and treatment will be the places that Public Health spends its money.

It's hard to know how we go forward before a vaccine (and that could be quite a while), so finding treatments and finding out who has had it (if it does seem to convey sufficient antibodies to prevent reinfection) could be important parts of how to open up again. If someone had it, they could then work and be around others without fear. Probably depends on how easy and expensive it would be to produce. That was supposedly the plan in the UK, I think.

From the WHO:

Virus = SARS-CoV-2
Disease = COVID-19
Wuhan virus = not used by any reputable organization. Used a lot by Fox News, also not a reputable organization.

https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019/technical-guidance/naming-the-coronavirus-disease-(covid-2019)-and-the-virus-that-causes-it

JRsLateInLifeMom wrote: »

cmriver- I keep seeing the SARS Cov2 have they renamed the virus 🦠 again? They need to pick one stick with it I’m tired of typing so many of the past to now names just to look up information I need for Buisness to home!
I heard the new name earlier on the news thought is there another virus? Is SARS Cov2
Still the COVID-19,Coronavirus,Wuhan Virus, etc?? Or is it a new one on top of COVID-19?

SARS-CoV-2 is the name of the virus. It is a coronavirus (family of viruses). COVID-19 is the illness caused by SARS-CoV-2

bpetrosky wrote: »

From the WHO:

Virus = SARS-CoV-2
Disease = COVID-19
Wuhan virus = not used by any reputable organization. Used a lot by Fox News, also not a reputable organization.

https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019/technical-guidance/naming-the-coronavirus-disease-(covid-2019)-and-the-virus-that-causes-it

https://youtu.be/5eZtCq1aj2g?t=13

cmriverside wrote: »

Here = Seattle area.

Long time = Late fall, definitely before January.

Thing is, they weren't testing for this. There have been a lot of deaths due to flu or "flu-like illness" and they are (or were) NOT required to RNA sequence all of them, so many cases of pneumonia prior to mid-January may have been this.

The SARS Cov2 wasn't even SEQUENCED until January. There wasn't even a test in the U.S. for another 6-8 weeks.

I just don't believe a million people were infected all over the country in a month.

https://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/its-just-everywhere-already-how-delays-in-testing-set-back-the-u-s-coronavirus-response/

But that's what happens in exponential growth. It is completely believable.

I agree with @lemurcat2 . This was probably spreading sooner than they thought. But if it was spreading in November or early December, I find it hard to believe we wouldn't have seen severe cases earlier. Look how quickly it happened in Italy.

JRsLateInLifeMom wrote: »

Thankyou guys!
Been researching up a storm but finding some of the information in Spanish conflicts with the ones in English. One in Spanish for Spanish speaking USA article said the virus can be killed by heat . I do not believe this to be true at all the English articles say it’s not killed by heat of 26 or 27c .Its updates in Spanish now are also saying was wrong

The WHO says that with information changing rapidly as this progresses to be ready for changes as they perfect how to treat y handle this. So trying to stay up on it all. I did manage to get baby googles children sized in case he needs to go to a doctor y a mask his size..I’ll put winter gloves on him.

Heat does kill coronavirus. But we're talking heat, not warmth.

That is, heating things to something in the region of 145-165F (63-74C), for several minutes, depending on the exact thing you're heating, is believed to kill the virus on those things.

Warm weather? Unknown for sure what effect it will have, as I understand it. I suspect more outdoor surfaces get hot enough to kill the virus when it's high summer, but that's (1) speculation, and (2) even if true, only a subset of surfaces, so meh.

Nony_Mouse wrote: »

AnnPT77 wrote: »

JRsLateInLifeMom wrote: »

Thankyou guys!
Been researching up a storm but finding some of the information in Spanish conflicts with the ones in English. One in Spanish for Spanish speaking USA article said the virus can be killed by heat . I do not believe this to be true at all the English articles say it’s not killed by heat of 26 or 27c .Its updates in Spanish now are also saying was wrong

The WHO says that with information changing rapidly as this progresses to be ready for changes as they perfect how to treat y handle this. So trying to stay up on it all. I did manage to get baby googles children sized in case he needs to go to a doctor y a mask his size..I’ll put winter gloves on him.

Heat does kill coronavirus. But we're talking heat, not warmth.

That is, heating things to something in the region of 145-165F (63-74C), for several minutes, depending on the exact thing you're heating, is believed to kill the virus on those things.

Warm weather? Unknown for sure what effect it will have, as I understand it. I suspect more outdoor surfaces get hot enough to kill the virus when it's high summer, but that's (1) speculation, and (2) even if true, only a subset of surfaces, so meh.

And given that Australia had community spread in late summer/early autumn (still plenty warm), I wouldn't be betting on that one. Maybe high summer? But the US is months off that yet.

Yup. I expect little/no effect from summer. Hope I'm wrong, but I hope for lots of unlikely stuff.

lokihen wrote: »

A local meat-packing plant has 80 positive employees. Even with high unemployment will they be able to keep up production? We are supposed to be weeks away from peaking.

That's a good question. If it is 80 out of 81 total, my guess is that they will not keep up with production demand. If it is 80 out of 2,000 employees total; they probably can keep up for the most part.

COGypsy wrote: »

cwolfman13 wrote: »

ReenieHJ wrote: »

I have a question............where is the logic of shutting down certain aisles in stores such as WalMart? I'm sure their reasoning is sound, but everybody I've talked with says the same thing. Now they're going to be shoving more people into less room/ Unless they're also limiting number of consumers? And toys? I know adults are on the prowl for new and different things to do; wouldn't it make sense kids might be getting ultra bored too? Wouldn't buying toys be as essential as, oh say,....stocking up on soda, chips, or something?

No disagreeing necessary, just asking a question for opinions.

They aren't doing that here...but my guess would be to curb "joy shopping" and people just getting out of the house to browse around Wal-Mart and such.

What they're doing here as of 8 AM this morning is limiting the number of people in the store to 20% of capacity which means if you need to go get something it's probably actually going to be an essential need because you'll likely be waiting in a line outside the store to get in. I haven't seen much of an issue in regards to large numbers of people when I go to the regular grocery store or even Costco, but I've driven by the Walmart parking lot a few times and it looks like the week before Christmas or something, so I was kind of expecting these people limits to come down the pipe.

I have also heard complaints from other non-essential retailers that it isn't fair that they have to shut down, but Walmart and Target can continue to sell those "non-essential" items.

I'm reasonably sure that "joy shopping" can't be stopped. I seriously spent probably fifteen or twenty minutes looking at baby/kid clothes at Target last week, just to have something to do. I don't have kids. I don't even know anyone who has kids. But it was there, it was retail and it wasn't my *kitten* apartment. Today is going to be liquor store day and I can't decide whether I should walk or drive so I can bring more home. I am also extremely likely to examine every bottle of wine and spirits they have, just to kill an hour outside my prison. And hopefully find every clerk in the store to deeply discuss drink options with. I stay home for as long as I can stand it, but every chance I have to get out where actual living human people are is stretched out to the utmost justifiable limit. They can shut down whatever aisles they want, limit the numbers inside as much as they want, but for a lot of folks, that's our only connection with actual people and I will soak up every single second and then hoard the memory for days. Text and FaceTime are moderately adequate to try and connect, but there's nothing like the feeling of being around PEOPLE. And stores are just about the only places left that have PEOPLE in them.

This is exactly what we are NOT supposed to be doing and why in many countries all non-essential businesses have been ordered to close.

I hate people.

So my doctor suggested that I attend the special early hours at the store this morning because my asthma has been so bad of late (plus other health issues). I took time off of work, got up early, put on my mask, and went. It was horrible. These are all people who should be social distancing the most. The elderly. Those with chronic health conditions. But no. It was like no one knew that social distancing meant! Especially the elderly! They couldn't wait 2 seconds so you could grab an item before they stood right next to you to look at stuff. They would come right at you with carts like a game of chicken. They wouldn't stay to one side of the aisle so you could pass safely. They pushed right past you to get in the store while you were trying to keep distance from those ahead of you.

I am not doing that again. Sunday mornings at opening were WAY better then that.

cmriverside wrote: »

T1DCarnivoreRunner wrote: »

Athijade wrote: »

I hate people.

So my doctor suggested that I attend the special early hours at the store this morning because my asthma has been so bad of late (plus other health issues). I took time off of work, got up early, put on my mask, and went. It was horrible. These are all people who should be social distancing the most. The elderly. Those with chronic health conditions. But no. It was like no one knew that social distancing meant! Especially the elderly! They couldn't wait 2 seconds so you could grab an item before they stood right next to you to look at stuff. They would come right at you with carts like a game of chicken. They wouldn't stay to one side of the aisle so you could pass safely. They pushed right past you to get in the store while you were trying to keep distance from those ahead of you.

I am not doing that again. Sunday mornings at opening were WAY better then that.

Everybody was doing that last time I went to the store a week ago, elderly or not. I do recall seeing something on the news about how the elderly population in my state (maybe other states too) are taking this situation the least seriously compared to other age groups, and are going out and about as much or more than always, and often with zero protection. Of course, everywhere they go is a store, church, or visiting friends and relatives - all things considered "essential" here. So you can't stop them, it's like seeing the train wreck about to happen...

I'm going to touch on something here.


It's not all that easy getting old in general. There's more isolation, more cynicism, more wariness, more financial fear, more anxiety for me by far than when I was younger. I'm 66.

I have said more than once over the past month, "I'm ready any time." Meaning, I'm not fighting death. I think at some point in my late fifties I really came to terms with death and the fact that it could happen at any time - and is far more likely now just because of the numbers. For a lot of us life is difficult at this stage. Lack of close relationships due to trust issues, geography and deaths of family. Lots of people have chronic illnesses they are fighting, and there's a lot of mental illness in general that I see in my acquaintance circle. There is a general sense of being tired of the fight, truly.

I'm not saying I purposely look for trouble. I'm wearing a mask, I'm quaratining food, I'm staying away from all people at all times. It does seem futile at times.

The other thing is that we've been going to the grocery store for five plus decades. The grocery store has habits and routines and it has always been a beehive, but a safe one. It's hard for Me to remain 6-feet-vigilent at the store. Old routines and habits kick in, "Get the stuff and get out quickly," is one that comes to mind. I was saying the other day, "If someone was within six feet of me in my parking lot, I'd be wary. It's difficult to make that mental switch at the grocery store, which is a safe place in my mind."

A lot of this (I'm 65). I remember a few years back when my BIL, a doctor and younger than us, said "I know more people that are dead than alive". That's truer and truer every year that passes.

BarbaraHelen2013 wrote: »

cmriverside wrote: »

T1DCarnivoreRunner wrote: »

Athijade wrote: »

I hate people.

So my doctor suggested that I attend the special early hours at the store this morning because my asthma has been so bad of late (plus other health issues). I took time off of work, got up early, put on my mask, and went. It was horrible. These are all people who should be social distancing the most. The elderly. Those with chronic health conditions. But no. It was like no one knew that social distancing meant! Especially the elderly! They couldn't wait 2 seconds so you could grab an item before they stood right next to you to look at stuff. They would come right at you with carts like a game of chicken. They wouldn't stay to one side of the aisle so you could pass safely. They pushed right past you to get in the store while you were trying to keep distance from those ahead of you.

I am not doing that again. Sunday mornings at opening were WAY better then that.

Everybody was doing that last time I went to the store a week ago, elderly or not. I do recall seeing something on the news about how the elderly population in my state (maybe other states too) are taking this situation the least seriously compared to other age groups, and are going out and about as much or more than always, and often with zero protection. Of course, everywhere they go is a store, church, or visiting friends and relatives - all things considered "essential" here. So you can't stop them, it's like seeing the train wreck about to happen...

I'm going to touch on something here.


It's not all that easy getting old in general. There's more isolation, more cynicism, more wariness, more financial fear, more anxiety for me by far than when I was younger. I'm 66.

I have said more than once over the past month, "I'm ready any time." Meaning, I'm not fighting death. I think at some point in my late fifties I really came to terms with death and the fact that it could happen at any time - and is far more likely now just because of the numbers. For a lot of us life is difficult at this stage. Lack of close relationships due to trust issues, geography and deaths of family. Lots of people have chronic illnesses they are fighting, and there's a lot of mental illness in general that I see in my acquaintance circle. There is a general sense of being tired of the fight, truly.

I'm not saying I purposely look for trouble. I'm wearing a mask, I'm quaratining food, I'm staying away from all people at all times. It does seem futile at times.

The other thing is that we've been going to the grocery store for five plus decades. The grocery store has habits and routines and it has always been a beehive, but a safe one. It's hard for Me to remain 6-feet-vigilent at the store. Old routines and habits kick in, "Get the stuff and get out quickly," is one that comes to mind. I was saying the other day, "If someone was within six feet of me in my parking lot, I'd be wary. It's difficult to make that mental switch at the grocery store, which is a safe place in my mind."

That’s really interesting to read because I came to the same conclusion when I went grocery shopping almost 2 weeks ago (in the U.K.), which is the only time I’ve been since lockdown began.

People were queuing outside quite well at the assigned markings but once inside the sparsely populated store it was quite noticeable that the people struggling most to maintain the 6 feet social distancing were the middle aged to elderly women. I said to my husband when I got home that it looked to me as if, once they got into the shop, a sort of autopilot kicked in because it was an activity they had done so often throughout their lives they were finding it hard to remain aware and were just ‘getting the job done.’

Also, I always go to the same store and I know where everything I need is. Putting me in a new store where I have to wander around and search for stuff makes me crazy.