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

Irrational but I would prefer it if people didn't run / jog on narrow pavements, especially when there's a park and actual running track very nearby with a lot more space. But generally I wish some people would have more than no consideration for personal space.

I haven't been to the shops in days, will need milk tomorrow. I've got some disposable paper face-masks but am thinking of putting my old work-ppe double filter respirator on just for the lols, although it might be asking for a happy slapping with all these little scamps off school now!

#BeKind etc.

https://www.brightonandhovenews.org/2020/03/17/tesco-removes-food-bank-trolley-after-its-raided-by-panic-buyers

The only masks we’ve got are the respirator I bought for my wife during the bushfires or a Keffiyah, the later being the best I can probably do and recommended by my GP as better than nothing when I did a phone consult about my sore throat the other day.

My order for masks got cancelled in favour of sending them to someone who actually needed them which is fair enough.

I went to the Heath on a wild garlic mission very early this morning. All people out keeping a respectable distance, including not fussing other people’s dogs. Then a quick stop at Camden Sainsbury’s which was carnage (but with good stocks of veg, bread and milk). From what I gather, eggs are particularly hard to find atm so if you are affected by the concerns raised in this episode, I recommend shopping at local farmer’s markets - they are staying open as an essential service. Locations and traders here:

https://www.lfm.org.uk/what-can-i-buy/

Local farm shop has lots of eggs luckily. Also lots of loaves of bread, in no packaging, sitting open on the shelf next to where people queue, cough, sneeze etc. Avoided those...

If anyone is bored, on the ILX Sewing thread lily dale was working on a homemade face mask pattern she found. I haven't tried to make one yet (spent the day looking for a sports mask with activated charcoal filters that I suddenly remembered I had, and also found another 3m mask!). There was the nyt column she posted about how even homemade masks are better than nothing.

im going with I don't need a mask if im not sick

i guess it's the you won't know if you are sick and keeps you from touching your face and is a visual reminder to people to keep a distance.

I was trying to ride this out in a (basically desolate) beach town, but circumstances have worked out in such a way that I am staying in an apartment in Manhattan with my partner. Really hate being here

It’s a creepy seeing New York City all shuttered, with people trying to avoid close contact. I’ll try to stay inside as much as I can.

Feel like The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch might offer us some helpful tips on dealing with extended lockdown. Just need some Can-D and a Perky Pat layout and I'm set for the duration.

Hey, bring that over to this (so far unloved) thread: TS The Caves of Steel vs. A Pail of Air

Maybe ketamine and an occulus rift in a oinch.

*pinch (an oinch is not some Dickian doohickey).

xxxp morbs you don't know if you're carrying the virus or not and neither does any one else

I mean I'm not wearing a mask yet either, but not because I'm not sick...and anyway yr health is already compromised!

I don't know, the cw on masks from even just a week ago is making less and less sense by the hour. Seems like if you have or can make your own mask...why not wear it?

because it's not spread in the air!

that's not the only reason to wear a mask, it prevents us from coughing onto surfaces, closes the mouth to our own hands, etc.

oh, i just something something where a GA hospital is sewing their own masks out of surgical sheeting because they are running out.

they are putting it over the n95s so they can reuse them https://us.cnn.com/videos/us/2020/03/18/georgia-hospital-sewing-masks-together-vpx.cnn

Apparently people touch and fiddle with their masks so often they run the risk of becoming vectors themselves.

All these weeks later and the initial recommendations remain sound: wash your hands really well, keep your distance, please stay in if you have symptoms, get help if they're serious.

personally, I am not letting my partner out of the house (if he has to go) without a mask and he has to wear his glasses or sunglasses the entire time he is out. He said he would wear goggles if I wanted him to but I think as long as he stays 6 ft away from people that is unnecessary. I set up the downstairs bathroom as a decontamination zone. Might as well get into the habit.

it seems the initial advice about not *buying* masks should stand to the extent that it depletes the supply for health care workers, etc.

but if wearing a mask you already have or making your own reduces the odds of catching this thing by even .1% and/or eases your anxiety abt going out for groceries etc. I'm not clear on the downside

I look forward to streets full of Purge-looking motherfuckers

yeah, i did but some facemasks in january but they were just on the regular shelf in a japanese grocery store. and then I found some (and I have an israeli gas mask that I am not wearing outside). I might make some though to give out in case people need them. I have a shitload of quilting cotton.

Local restaurant chain just laid off 1100 people.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/ea/Paul_F%C3%BCrst%2C_Der_Doctor_Schnabel_von_Rom_%28coloured_version%29.png

i almost got a plague doctor mask on etsy last year. I could've made some new friends right now.

Am I right in thinking that going to, say, a typical counter butchers shop is a bad idea right now?

I don't see why it would be worse than anything else, honestly. Sushi is a bigger question, but ironically such a hands on, uncooked food probably requires more stringent food safety in the first place.

i think it's fine if you're cooking it

Yeah i trust my butchers wrt cleanliness

It’s a good point about a mask stopping the face-touching

anyone remember that film Right At Your Door?

No, but I've been thinking of The Survivalist and It Comes at Night.

xpost Like I posted, though, it's counterintuitive but I've heard masks often lead to as much if not *more* face touching, because people are constantly readjusting them.

Currently my son is going to his usual babysitter three days a week. We thought a lot about this, and consulted closely with her about her comfort level. He is the only kid she watches, and it is pretty much her only source of steady income.

If he's at home when my wife are trying to work, work is legitimately impossible. He's not the sort of kid who can be handed an iPad or "go play." He requires almost constant supervision and care. If I am on a phone call, he doesn't just gurgle cutely in the background. He prefers to grab my face and scream wordlessly at me for a half an hour. Or he may decide to redecorate the house using poop.

We do have a yard and the bike trail and parks, and nice weather coming up, but still. Even with a M-W-F daytime sitter, this is gonna suck. We're barely a week in. If it lasts longer than the currently planned month, he's not getting the services he used to get from school (not just friends and education, but speech therapy, occupational therapy, physical therapy).

Yes I'm cooking it but I'm also leaving it in my fridge for a while first.

I hate the fact that even the most mundane activity has to be carefully weighed up for the risks of catching a potentially lethal infection.

where my fellow compulsive and incorrigible nail-biters at?

noticed my tj's was trying to do the right thing by limiting the number of people allowed in to shop yesterday. but there was a line of about 50 people outside all standing within a foot or two of each other. i did not wait in the line.

as far as i can tell wrt sushi/sashimi, California food code calls for the rice to be at or below a certain pH (4.6, i think), to prevent food borne illness, and sushi grade fish to be treated in a manner to kill parasites while maintaining the integrity of the product (Sushi-grade- Freezing and storing seafood at-20°C (-4°F) or below for 7 days (total time), or freezing at-35°C (-31°F) or below until solid and storing at -35°C (-31°F) or below for 15 hours, or freezing at -35°C (-31°F) or below until solid and storing at -20°C (-4°F) or below for 24 hours). Since sushi places are usually a small operation with a single chef or two doing most of the prep i would think it would be pretty safe to consume. maybe that's just me missing it and wanting some.
xposts

One brother was laid off the other day (manager at a restaurant/brewery, absolutely certain they'll rehire him when they reopen but who knows when that'll be), other brother was doing rotations for med school and just learned last night that the program was being very abruptly ended with no indication of what his next steps will be, sister afaik still being forced to come into the office despite ability to WFH (a privilege she was recently stripped of and which led to her giving notice a while back, was supposed to start a new job very soon but ????), mom is thankfully on lockdown out in the sticks with enough food for a year, uncle with advanced ALS was vacationing in relative isolation in FL until his stepdaughter and family decided they absolutely could not postpone or cancel their plans to come down and stay with them (third-hand accounts suggest that they're carrying on with life as normal, basically bracing myself for the possibility of never seeing my uncle alive again at this point).

Thought I was doing well all things considered until, in the midst of WFH, my laptop suddenly went black and shut down and wouldn't turn back on and I had a mini panic attack until I realized that the switch on the power strip had gotten flipped by accident and I'd just run out of juice. God damn, everything is just teetering on a knife's edge right now.

where my fellow compulsive and incorrigible nail-biters at?

― Paul Ponzi, Thursday, March 19, 2020 2:03 PM (eight minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

I wash my hands first and I made sure to pack my cuticle clippers before I went into isolation. o___O

well there are N95 masks in stock across the street

do I get or not

I do have to get to chemo tomw morning; sposed to be dry, I think i'll do the hourlong walk

virtual elbow bump, treesh

You should get one, yes?

yes, get

lol you want me to get a spacesuit, io! <3

I dunno, im naturally skeptical.

just realised that my little daughter must have been playing with the dial on the front of our freezer at some point in the last few days, turned it all the way off, and now all our frozen food is fucked

yay

Wear a damn mask, you're one of the ppl who has the most reason to try to be in the final "didn't get it before the vaccine" category.

Get a mask Morbs, it really does help. Much of the dissuasive discourse is aimed at people who don't really need it or who don't understand how it works at all.

ok but im not gonna wear it in my apartment, OK? thatd feel like a living death.

io I guess youd also be in the pro-"leaving all my stuff behind and fleeing to Connecticut" camp

i don't think anyone is wearing them at home unless they have a sick person in the household.

also this is going to be a long event, you need to get one.