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

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.

It's only worth wearing at home if you've got someone over. For groceries and the like, delivery and/or pick-up is best, otherwise masks should make a difference when you're in an indoors public place like a supermarket or whatever.

https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/a-zbT--PwmNhGMxcDqvzTIaFciE=/1400x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/9061743/ppJ7fQl.jpg

I mean, your stuff will still be there when you get back? I just packed a suitcase and totebags of food and tools and practical items and got in a car. But I have a good set up here and I know your sister's place comes with trade offs.

Leave the mask at your front door with the disinfectant wipes and your damn shoes.

At? You mean outside in the hall?

Well, the tradeoff includes a private room and my supplies procured for me, presumably.

According to the CDC, 40% of hospitalizations now fall into the 20-55 age group.

Sorry, I don't have context--passing on something I just saw on CNN. I don't know what the window on that is (yesterday, the past week, etc.). I assume it's an American statistic, though.

where my fellow compulsive and incorrigible nail-biters at?

― Paul Ponzi, Thursday, March 19, 2020 10:03 AM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

hi! it's not good! (it also imposes a level of meta-guilt for me, because technically this counts as touching one's face!)

I had been doing very well, the longest I'd gone in months and my fingers were recovering my form

and then a couple nights ago was watching ZeroZeroZero episode 4 or 5 and it all went to shit

Gonna take advantage of WFH and try out a midday run. Luckily there are some good places to do that around here while still respecting personal space.

my eyes water frequently (and I don't take pills for hay fever, cuz itd all be too much; I piss constantly as is from all the water chasers). I've been wiping them with a tissue then washing my hands.

Surely I can calmly take my shoes off outside the door and put them on the rack inside ss I usually do. I assume shoes are covered in ahit anyway.

Just asked our local and very good butcher about how long they will trade and he says as long as possible, with shutdown only occurring in the event he or a colleague catches it.

where my fellow compulsive and incorrigible nail-biters at?

I didn't think I bit my nails all that much, but I guess I was wrong, because one side effect of all this is that my nails are long and presentable-looking for the first time ever.

Dr. Morbius if you get a mask best practice is to remove it before entering your apt (hook your fingers into the straps behind your ears and lift off over your head; don’t touch the mask itself) and place it in a paper bag which you can then store just inside your door (this is per CDC guidelines).

FWIW I’m an ICU nurse and we have our N95s fitted and tested for clinical use by the manufacturer—I have no idea how effective they are otherwise.

I chew mine to the quick and will never be able to stop. I keep my dirty germy hands near my dirty germy bearded face 24/7.

same

thx jack

as I am going to the chemo clinic tomorrow, ill see if they have them and can fit me there.

Supermarket report: wasn't terrible (assuming I have not now infected myself). They had most things I needed except sugar, yeast and ... canned tuna? Some sections more picked over than others, but plenty of proteins, fruits, vegetables. Saw a couple of people with masks, heard only one person on the store cough. Most people seemed to be calm, kind and respectful. They had a spray out to wipe off carts, which people appeared to be doing,

Hot tip: here at least he Mexican aisle was better for things like beans. For example, chickpeas were missing from the rest of the canned stuff, but in the Mexican aisle there were plenty of Mexican brand garbanzo beans. And kidney beans, etc.

Oh and Morbs, you should absolutely do everything and anything in your power to stay healthy. You are exactly who admonishments about people wastefully hoarding/wearing masks are aimed at helping! Please let us know how the clinic goes, and stay safe!

just watched a police check on people walking by. I saw a group of four guys walking together & thought "huh that's not good" and the cops rolled by a few seconds later. they all had their forms ready & no one got fined from what I could see. the cops also gathered people who ducked into a cell phone store when they saw the cops coming, but they all had papers too it seemed. cops also stopped three people cycling by, and after checking their papers, sent the cyclists the other direction. my guess is that they were too far from their home: we're not supposed to go more than 1 or 2 km from our homes (unless for work).

been thinking about you a lot these past few days morbs <3

Mexican aisle completely sold out of chipotle in adobo. There's some good quarantine food being made near me apparently.