Mostly Apolitical Thread for Discussing/Venting our Rational/Irrational COVID-19 Fears and Experiences in 2020

People online are talking about wiping down each item from the store before bringing it inside. That might seem like a lot right now but in your case may count as reasonable precaution?

There are no cases announced up here yet and we're on day 2 of back from the city, so it's a countdown for us as to whether we'll be sick in the next week. If not, the game changes to "Decontamination Station!" which my bf is going to haaaaate.

Saw some advice from a microbiologist and it was lab-standard: Shoes stay outside, strip on the porch (if possible) so outer clothes stay outside in a quasi "airlock," shower on arrival to home, obv hand sanitizer and wiping things down that you touched to get home, such as steering wheel, car door handles, door handles, your wallet, your keys. Launder your coats. Disinfect the bottoms of your shoes. Cook all food, no raw veg for now. Wash your hands. Wash your hands. Wash your hands.

I'm sorry. It sounds like a lot of work though who knows what the new normal will look like in a month? Maybe outside clothes like utilitarian jumpsuits will catch on and we'll dress like the cast of The Expanse.

xp lol oh dear

I keep accidentally grabbing things, it’s a nightmare to change lifetime dyshygiene habits xp

my mum is 70+ and chronically ill, meeting at least one more of the govt's "high risk" criteria, so she's preparing to lock herself down for the foreseeable. my dad is 70+ too and is still going to go out for some (limited, quick) shopping runs but not otherwise.

their neighbours have been good tbh - the street has formed a volunteer group to keep up supplies and phone conversations to the vulnerable, but I know my parents don't want to exhaust everyone's patience too quickly and feel less deserving of help than those more frail. (also there is a suspected case in the street which may be putting them off a bit...)

they sounded cheerful enough on the phone, but it's going to be hard for them. I wish I could help but am far away and I guess I shouldn't even visit. I'd like to send my mum books etc through the post/from Amazon to keep her busy, but again, a little scared of accidentally doing something unsafe.

my granny is 94 and I know they feel bad about not visiting. they live near her and visit(ed) often and that'll be odd for them. it'll be a bit odd not knowing when I'll next see them, too. it's my birthday in a month, a somewhat dauntingly numbered one as well (argh), and I know they'll feel bad about not coming up. but, that's how it is. weird times, etc.

thanks IO that's really helpful and definitely some of that stuff we can do without too much hassle xps

coworker of mine is using her time off to fly to New Mexico tomorrow with her boyfriend to stay at a house full of their friends and I’m like good great excellent idea

must be fun to be 24 I guess?

aps can they skype? My mum was supposed to visit earlier this week but due to aforementioned dopey twat at relative's work, the risk is there so I guess we won't see her for a while.
Hate to say it but we are both glad for once we don't have any grandparents still alive.

Was meant to meet up with a friend I've barely seen for years this weekend, she's been stuck at home with an injury for months and was getting very bored of it. I'm not going, obv. :(

Feel extremely lucky that my sister already basically lives at my parents' house and can shop for them.

For what it's worth, and keep in mind I have no special insight unavailable to anyone else, I just watch TV and read the internet like everybody else - I heard something last night that had the ring of truth to it, on some rolling news channel -

That social distancing will NOT stop you from ultimately getting it. That's not what it's for. Over time the same amount of people will end up getting it. What the social distancing does is slow it down. Which is critical, obviously. We're all playing a numbers game, trying to game the curve with a million little changes in behaviour, which will hopefully add up to a result that will save the lives of people who need hospital care that we don't have the capacity for. But it's not actually a result that winds up with fewer people getting it. If fate means you to get it, you'll get it. But social distancing will mean that you get it a few months from now, maybe, instead of in six weeks. As a representative example from the aggregate result. Anyway I took a weird kind of comfort in the thought that it's kind of impossible to dodge it forever. You're just doing your part. It's not really about you at all.

I know my parents don't want to exhaust everyone's patience too quickly and feel less deserving of help than those more frail

yeah that mindset is for life tbh, it's going to be so hard to break out of that for them and ask for help, think you'll need to nag them extra hard on that one! kind of thinking we might drive up to see mine at some point and just wave through the glass at them and then drive all the way home again. which will be nice.

it's my birthday in a month, a somewhat dauntingly numbered one as well (argh)

yeah me too! it's my fiftieth in april. we did have a holiday booked to celebrate/commiserate and were taking my parents with us. none of us can go now obv, can't get a refund either - have cancelled my leave and will just do more work instead. sounds like a right laugh!

That makes sense and I was saying that at the beginning of the wave of realization. I guess somewhere in the last week the horror stories from Italy and the equipment shortages stuff got to me and I started to feel more like, "take all the precautions!" I also just scratched my face so. (Although I did just wash my hands and I've disinfected my keyboard several times.)

Interesting side note: On an Antique Houses facebook group someone said she's been using spray Lysol on her doorknobs and it's stripped the varnish off the wooden doors. So maybe don't do that (unless you hate your varnish).

Sorry that was an xp to Tracer.

I was happy today to have a brief chat with my son's teacher and get it in the open that I was keeping him off school on false pretext, because i don't like lying and he said loads more parents have been giving him the same bullshit. But when you have immune compromised partner with MS and a son with autism who touches his own face about a thousand times a day while he is stimming/self-regulating - i'm not fucking about with those odds of transmission!

xxxpost: that seems true, tho assuming we ultimately get a vaccine then presumably some ppl will never end up getting it?

thanks tracer, that does put it all in perspective

yeah io, I won't be doing hardly any of that (much of which is impossible in Brooklyn of course)

"take all the precautions!" (you) vs "not doing more housework" (me)

thinking of you and yours calzino

Launder your coats. Disinfect the bottoms of your shoes.

After each use, eh? A poor use of my last months, at worst.

xp

aw nick you are a sweetie, same to you pal!

If anyone wants a peek at the surreal life, the Hoffman forums appear to be operating as normal, the only concession to the pandemic being a lot of speculation about what will happen to RSD items if the event is canceled and how this might affect the release of the new Neil Young album

lmao

one by one the food delivery service websites are conking out

― strangely hookworm but they manage ream shoegaze poetry (imago), Saturday, 14 March 2020 18:07 (five days ago) bookmarkflaglink

i wasn't kidding

an audible audiobook wouldn’t download in the app. i went to the audible custhelp site, but their live chat is out of action because of the coronavirus. no zombie film has ever anticipated this iirc.

honestly i think the main difference between this current reality and zombie fiction is that fewer people are trying to bite you when you go to the supermarket

all the best nick

and everyone else

Just a matter of time before we hear about grocery store shootouts

I’m about ready to murder my idiot parents for not taking this seriously. They can risk their own health, fine, but they’re gonna kill my sister

social distancing will mean that you get it a few months from now, maybe, instead of in six weeks. As a representative example from the aggregate result. Anyway I took a weird kind of comfort in the thought that it's kind of impossible to dodge it forever. You're just doing your part. It's not really about you at all.

This is mostly otm.

It's not entirely inevitable that everyone gets infected with it. If trying to outwit it long enough that your odds of getting it diminish greatly as (one hopes) new cases have peaked and a goodly percentage of the population has acquired immunity is motivating for you, then by all means dodge it with a will. Coming out the other end uninfected is not a false hope. It's all about odds and percentages.

Yeah it's true you might be one of the 20-40% who don't get it before a vaccine exists. Doing the right thing probably increases your chances of being in that group - particularly if it goes beyond just 'social distancing' to really locking your shit down tight.

And that is probably a good way for oldies to think!

best piece of advice ive seen is not to focus on not getting it

its to presume you have it and don't want to transmit it.

I haven’t left home since Saturday and don’t expect to go further than the grocery store up the hill before, oh, May.

now that I'm playing games on Twitch, the hours fly by.

and then the best part of the day, sleep.

it's where I'm a viking

actually maybe we should revive that ILX debate, that'll get things going

if yr having trouble remembering not to touch yr face and u have a fitbit ionic, check out the app my old professor of interface/mobile design just released:

https://www.hawaiitech.com/apps/dont-touch-your-face-wearable-app/

pretty limited for now cuz who has a fitbit ionic, but it's gonna be on apple watch soon for apple watch people ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Cheltenham Festival punters and staff have been struck down by symptoms consistent with coronavirus, sparking fresh fears that hundreds of racegoers could be infected and spreading the illness.

Housemates Andrew Maclean, 24 and Scott Saunders, 25, have quarantined themselves inside their home after coming down with a fever, cough and shortness of breath.

Mr Maclean and Mr Saunders, from Cheltenham, developed symptoms when they were working at a restaurant and bar, respectively, at the festival - at first thinking they only had colds - and now fear they passed their infection on to others.

The pair have questioned why Cheltenham went ahead despite the worsening crisis and the calls for it to be cancelled to prevent the spread of Covid-19.

Mr Maclean told Mirror Online: "I'm pretty certain we all have coronavirus in this house. I've never had anything like it before.

The housemates sought medical advice and were told that they wouldn't be tested and to self-isolate for two weeks.

Mr Maclean added: "By the second day of the festival we had symptoms. We had the dry cough."

He and Mr Saunders didn't suspect that they had coronavirus.

Mr Maclean said: "The Jockey Club said that it could just be a common cold so not to worry, so we took their advice and came back in."

fuck the Cheltenham festival and British horseracing in general. All involved should be subjected to the sterophonics until death.

This is minor compared to lots of issues people are dealing with, but my dentist has just closed their office until further notice, and I had an appointment to get some fillings and a crown replaced. Hopefully my (lousy) teeth will be able to hold it together until they reopen.

and fuck those two idiots for having a new dry cough and taking medical advice from the fucking jockey club

the bartender and the chef are coughers

*every health expert in the entire world* - ONE UNIFIED MESSAGE, DIS WHAT CORONAVIRUS IS

everybody else...

"it's just a mutated seasonal flu"
"it dies outside in the hot sun"
"bleach will kill it"
"no it won't, idiot. but lots of Vitamin C will"
"we'll have a vaccine in two weeks, so fuck it, I'm going outside"
"nah, you don't got it, you only have mild symptoms, you'd know if you had it"
"it's better if we just get it and build our immune systems"
"unless you're a health risk, go out, socialize, live your life"
"essential oils will get rid of any COVID"

best piece of advice ive seen is not to focus on not getting it

its to presume you have it and don't want to transmit it.

― BSC Joan Baez (darraghmac), Wednesday, March 18

agree with this

like there are literally people I know who believe that the virus is dying, wicked witch style, out in the heat rn

yeah I am avoiding my parents until i know for sure i don't have it xpost

xpost Also: "I bet we've all already had it, remember that cold that was going around two months ago?"

My roommate has a key to his friend's gym, and is there right now. It's closed, but I'm sure he's not the only person using it. He's also planning to go through with a weekend getaway with friends this weekend. My parents are having a friend over for dinner. I am going to murder everyone.

so what's the opinion about being around someone that you've already been around a ton in recent weeks if neither person is spending any other time with anybody else in the outside world?

I would think that would be fine; if you're both self-isolating then it would basically be like hanging out with members of your household.

i'm i allowed to see two of my friends today?

*am i

with a periscope, sure

This is minor compared to lots of issues people are dealing with, but my dentist has just closed their office until further notice, and I had an appointment to get some fillings and a crown replaced. Hopefully my (lousy) teeth will be able to hold it together until they reopen.