Has the Coronavirus affected your daily life?

[SG89]

I am not looking forward to my next grocery store trip...don't want to see what stupidity awaits

[Wartstein]

.......
I'm a lot more worried about the human hysteria than the actual virus. If we all just stay calm and take a couple weeks off, things are going to go a lot better.
.......

Well said, + 1!

Here in Austria they are taking more and more drastic steps: Come monday, only grocery stores and pharmacies will be open any more, other shops closed. All hotels are closed. Skiing season is cancelled early, as are the Salzburg easter festival, almost any sports events and so on. Schools are mostly closed. Everyone who can shall work from their homes.
Rumors are, that in the near future people are required to not leave their homes come evening. And so on...

Now, I am all for protecting the vulnerable, weak, old people who might be really at risk from Corona virus! And if the spread of the disease can be slowed, it´s more likely that hospitals will have enough capacity at the peak time of the virus...

But then... One of my brothers is a Physician, he thinks that everbody is totally overreacting. He is of rhe opinion, that if "we would not know about Corona virus we would not know" - meaning, that without all the dark scenarios and the hype, the Virus would just blend unnoticed into the regular flu... he also says, MORE people will die from all the restricions than would from the Virus WITHOUT the restrictions... I can´t tell what´s true. I am really not worried for myself or other rather healthy, strong, not too old people. But sure a bit for my old, and weakened mother.

[Mike Blue]

This is but another test to see how deep the thin veneer of Civilization really goes.

[Ankerson]

Lol, I keep hearing this over and over and I don’t get it. What’s the obsession with toilet paper???

I have no idea... I normally keep a good bit of it on hand all the time... So it's something I don't have to think about.. :confused:

Went to the store today (Food Lion) and the whole paper isle was completely blown out, no TP or paper towels.

Cleaning supples were wiped out too for the most part. I was just looking for some Pinesol that I use to clean the tile floors, just my normal stuff I buy.

Well it was out too so I went with another cleaner to do the tile floors, I wasn't out of it, but was getting low.

As for the rest of the store, the shelves looked like a war zone, just about anything in a can or in a box (Dry Food) was either low or blown out.

Bottled water, there wasn't any in the whole store...

People also buying up sodas and Gatorade....


Has it effected me?

Nope, except for the floor cleaner I needed...


Just went today to get a few minor things, lunchmeat, Pinesol, Orange juice, Pretzels, and air freshner.

[bearrowland]

My son is off school for the next 2 weeks since our Governor closed all of out public schools until the end of the month. He's thrilled!

[Sumdumguy]

Perched high upon my bidet, I laugh at the peasants beneath me, as they scramble for butt paper.

Oh, how foolish they seem!

[TkoK83Spy]

Hahahha, totally winning right now!

[The Meat man]

Hahahha, totally winning right now!

On the other hand, he's going to be broke when the national currency is switched to toilet paper. :D

[legOFwhat?]

Perched high upon my bidet, I laugh at the peasants beneath me, as they scramble for butt paper.

Oh, how foolish they seem!

all hail the mighty bidet!

[SG89]

I went to the grocery store tonight and the lines were insane. They were sold out of cleaning supplies, toilet paper, napkins, paper towels, ground beef, ramen noodles, and bagged russet potatoes. Which was hilarious as the unbagged russet potatoes sat untouched. (can people not put their own potatoes in a bag? WTF) I was just doing my regular weekly grocery shopping so I was unaffected by the idiocracy.

[Halfneck]

I work in hospital admissions/registrations in a small hospital at the diagnostic center. Some of our scheduled patient numbers have been down, but walk-in x-rays & labs have been up. Mostly annual screening type tests have been getting rescheduled till a later date. We've been told our hours could be cut if our numbers are low, yet conversely we've been told we could have staffing shortages that might cause overtime. Especially true for employees that are able to work in different departments. Basically my bosses are like "**** if we know yet".

Fear of the unknown is driving the hysteria.

COVID-19 is deadlier than the Flu, but more people die from the flu annually. **** more people die from the side effects of obesity annually, but KFC just started offering fried chicken between donuts. Additionally it might be less deadly than we think due to not being able to effectively test for it. More people might be positive which could drive the statistics down. Thing is you can go to almost any Dr's office in the U.S. and they can do a flu test and know the results in 5 minutes. Negative, go on about your day. Positive, here's a prescription for Tamiflu, go home and ride it out.

Not so with COVID-19. Do you meet these criteria (been out of the country, exposure to someone who was, experiencing upper respiratory issues & a fever?) then go to this designated testing spot, get tested, and get the results in 5 days.... Or get a CT scan & have the radiologist make a judgement call (Per our chief radiologist it's hard to tell apart from standard URI issues). You're also quarantined for some such period of days/weeks. Sounds pretty scary, and at the least very much an inconvenience.

The Chinese govt. is to blame for downplaying the seriousness of the virus and not doing a better job at containment. That said, the powers that be (AMA/CDC/AMA) in the U.S. did a poor job at getting in front of this virus and formulating an effective response. Doesn't help that there's an election coming up and both parties, along with the media, are fueling the panic.

Personally i think at this point we are just going to have to ride it out and hopefully learn from it. Hopefully we can get some fast & accurate test kits out to start testing as many people as possible. We especially need to start testing all medical, law enforcement, fire fighters, and teachers.

[z4vdBt]

It's not like you're going to easily avoid someone that is contagious. It takes 4 days to get sick after you are exposed. Once you are exposed you are sick and can pass it on with every breath you exhale.

I've thought about this and have resigned myself to the fact that either my wife or I will get sick and then both of us will be sick. We both exercise daily (Concept2 Model D rowing machine - bought this for myself and she rows more / longer that I do, every day - something totally unexpected!) and try to eat healthy.

Something like this is beyond anyone's control. Why worry?

[bearrowland]

Exactly

[wrdwrght]

If you are not taking steps to flatten the curve, you are doing more damage than panic-shoppers.

[Ankerson]

I went to the grocery store tonight and the lines were insane. They were sold out of cleaning supplies, toilet paper, napkins, paper towels, ground beef, ramen noodles, and bagged russet potatoes. Which was hilarious as the unbagged russet potatoes sat untouched. (can people not put their own potatoes in a bag? WTF) I was just doing my regular weekly grocery shopping so I was unaffected by the idiocracy.

I think the TP shopping will slow down soon.

But once the mitagation steps start they will be buying food even more than they are already.

I just think reality has set in for a lot of people, reason we are seeing this rush now all of a sudden.

[wrdwrght]

A worthy read. https://www.reddit.com/r/preppers/comme ... ame=iossmf

[TomAiello]

Which was hilarious as the unbagged russet potatoes sat untouched. (can people not put their own potatoes in a bag? WTF)

We are normally huge bulk bin shoppers, but my wife started avoiding them last week and buying pre-packaged stuff instead. She's worried about possible transmission from the (unknown number and type) various shoppers with the opportunity to handle (and potentially cough or sneeze on) the bulk items.

My wife is _very_ not prone to panic, and she's also an MD. Take it for what it's worth.

[Ankerson]

A worthy read. https://www.reddit.com/r/preppers/comme ... ame=iossmf

The sad and true part is most people are not prepared for anything that happens. They don't think past a day or two in the future, or at most a week and that's just what to do on the weekend.

That's most of the reason why we are seeing so much panic now. Or when they call for snow, that's a perfect example really....

I never really understood it myself, but then I am normally prepared in case something does happen.

Being aware is a very important thing.

Not that people should go nuts and build a bunker and stock it with 10 years of supplies or anything like that.

But having a month or 3 of supplies on hand isn't a bad thing.

This is not an end of the world situation, life as we know it will change for a short time and then it will get back to normal.

[soc_monki]

Well, after next week I may be off work for 2 weeks. So now it is affecting me and my family. We will see how it goes. I have plenty of food, my freezer is full to the brim. No worries here. Also have plenty of butt paper... We tend to get the huge pack from Sam's haha!

[TomAiello]

But then... One of my brothers is a Physician, he thinks that everbody is totally overreacting. He is of rhe opinion, that if "we would not know about Corona virus we would not know" - meaning, that without all the dark scenarios and the hype, the Virus would just blend unnoticed into the regular flu... he also says, MORE people will die from all the restricions than would from the Virus WITHOUT the restrictions... I can´t tell what´s true. I am really not worried for myself or other rather healthy, strong, not too old people. But sure a bit for my old, and weakened mother.

I think the concern is the impact on the elderly, when we run out of hospital beds and especially when we run out of ventilators. In the USA, projections are that the hardest hit areas (even after sharing ventilators between patients) will end up with something like 5-7 extra patients waiting for each ventilator. That means the doctors will have to do battlefield triage, and essentially give up on the people who are least likely to recover and abandon their care. That's a really hard position to put a doctor in, making them choose who to let die. There are credible firsthand report from physicians in Italy (not just internet rumors) that they are pretty much just not providing ventilators to patients over 62 years old, essentially letting them die. It's terrible, and unfortunately necessary, but if we all just stay home and don't freak out we can greatly reduce the chance of that happening here (by which I mean the USA). We have fewer hospital beds (per person) available than Italy, but we also have a younger population that's less likely to need them.

If we're all locked down for a month, then people who have inadequate food supplies are going to need help from their neighbors. Fortunately, I live in an area where the dominant religious group requires their members to stockpile a year of food, and most of them are willing to share with their neighbors, so I think that here (rural Idaho, one of the latest points on the curve, and also a place with a lot of normal personal space and a low population density), we are unlikely to see panic.

I definitely think that panic is the real enemy here. Stay calm, take reasonable precautions, and don't lose touch with your own humanity when others are in need. :)