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

Not to panic you, but a loss of smell-sense has been one of the symptoms.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.nytimes.com/2020/03/22/health/coronavirus-symptoms-smell-taste.amp.html

good luck onimo :(

also I get phantom smoke-like (or overheating plastic/dust/petrol-like, in my case) smells sometimes, interesting that it turned into a sinus infection for you. for me it generally means either I'm going to get a migraine, maybe within an hour or maybe the next day, or it's the day before my period </TMI>, but before I worked that pattern out it felt like I was going crazy and all the Google results for phantom smells were a bit scary

anyway I guess that's a good tip that if one's sense of smell/taste starts to fade one should maybe start self-isolating, thanks just1n3

Anosmia!

Not to panic you, but a loss of smell-sense has been one of the symptoms.

― just1n3, Monday, 23 March 2020 22:42 (fifteen minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

Thanks just1n3, I saw that but I'm fairly sure this isn't covid-19 as I don't have a temp and my regular persistent cough isn't more persistent than normal. I've also had all the symptoms before so this feels familiar.

I will panic all the same as it's the end of days- it's working wonders for my previously managed hypertension :/

Also phantosmia! xp

Just went for a long walk. It was such a ghost town out there I didn't have to be worried about being close to anyone.

Very much so--maybe seven or eight people in a half-hour walk, most dog walkers (and one car at the small grocery store). I made eye contact with one of the dogs and wondered what he was thinking. "Where the fuck is everyone? How come no one comes up and pats me anymore?"

So what set this all in motion? Was it the death of Bowie, or the Cubs winning the World Series? Probably Bowie right? Killed Prince, then the Cubs clinching elected Trump, and ... here we are.

https://www.cnn.com/2019/10/19/middleeast/egypt-discovers-coffins-mummies-trnd/index.html

Loss of smell is a common symptom of a lot of cold/flu things. That’s why food is often bland when you have a cold; smell is a huge part of taste.

As a Houstonian, I’m bewildered that we haven’t shut down yet.

I broke my leg right before this started having an impact in the US. So I’m used to being stuck at home. Finally got off narcotic pain meds yesterday and it is a new strange reality to get acclimated to. Our kids have been at my parents place in the country for a couple of weeks and they come back soon. I miss them but don’t look forward to home-schooling and wrangling a 5 year old while in crutches. AND my mom keeps taking the kids places.

I hardly ever post but I’ve been lurking for years. You folks are great, I really appreciate this community. Thanks for being here. It’s been especially valuable lately.

So what set this all in motion? Was it the death of Bowie, or the Cubs winning the World Series? Probably Bowie right? Killed Prince, then the Cubs clinching elected Trump, and ... here we are.

― Josh in Chicago

it was the cubs, bowie died of cancer, prince died of a drugs overdose. those are both normal things that happen.

pandemics are also normal things that happen, otoh. really the only _truly_ fucked up thing at all about this timeline is the fact that the cubs did, in fact, win the world series.

my theory is that the world did in fact end on December 21, 2012, it just wasn't an instant apocalypse so much as a point of no return

Looks like Texas cities are sheltering at home, Austin starts tomorrow, can't wait.

by Thursday we'll be sweltering at home too, highs are going to hit the 90s

henrys handball lads

I'll be here all week

pandemics are also normal things that happen

The fact that we've mostly forgotten this is kind of a good sign.

hi cow_art! Post more imo

^^^

I broke my leg right before this started having an impact

I just read an apocalyptic novel where that happened to the main protagonist just as a global virus started to spread.

I just read an apocalyptic novel where that happened to the main protagonist just as a global virus started to spread.

legit i am surprised just how much fiction concerns global pandemics. i started reading ‘station eleven’ and stopped because i lost interest, but it’s about a pandemic. i thought it would be fun to watch zany comedy ‘medical police’ on netflick, but it’s about a pandemic. i tried watching the movie ‘world war z’ which is about zombies, but why are they zombies? pandemic.

yeah I watched the very stupid Medical Police two months ago, which did not help me understand this pandemic at all

Loss of smell is a common symptom of a lot of cold/flu things.

Yes, because of stuffy nose, etc. To reiterate, I think it is more unusual for it to be the *only* symptom. That is, per reports:

"Anosmia, in particular, has been seen in patients ultimately testing positive for the coronavirus with no other symptoms," reads to a statement on the academy's website.

As a Houstonian, I’m bewildered that we haven’t shut down yet.

The way I understand it is Houston hasn't had enough cases reported per capita (compared to other shutdown US cities), but now that there's more tests and testing sites that'll rise and then there will be a shutdown.

But that'll probably change now other big Texas cities are doing it.

hi & welcome Cow_Art! hope the leg's on the mend, good luck wrangling the 5y/o, and post more imo

san anto just announced shelter in place

Inslee ordered WA to stay home for two further weeks, which is the finest possible distinction from the state of affairs that previously obtained but pressure was mounting for him to do it so fine. I've already been told I'm working from home until June 12. My fancy chair arrived just now, so that's nice.

I'm so relieved WA got the stay at home order. It's been a constant struggle trying to get my housemates (not all of them, mostly just one) to do some basic social distancing, and they keep pointing to the lack of order as a reason why they don't have to.

that’s the same reason we got a (moderate) lockdown order, some people were doing whatever the hell they wanted until they were told not to

Lily I’m glad u can now beat your dummy roommate over the head with this

Thanks!

anosmia is fucking weird; I've gotten it as a symptom of regular colds, and you don't realize how destabilizing it is until you go and sniff something you know can be smelled from 50 feet away and get nothing

I will say it made a huge impact on me a week ago. I think I even lost a couple of pounds, because there was no pleasure in eating or drinking! But the real reason it intrigues me is that it happened to me for the first time in my life in the middle of a highly contagious epidemic where it has since been reported that loss of sense of taste and smell with no other symptoms may itself be a symptom, and unlike many of the other symptoms associated with covid, I commented on it and complained about it before I or anyone had any idea it could be related. At minimum a really weird coincidence!

The first person stories I've heard are so fascinatingly inconsistent. Families where likely everyone had it and no one knew. Households where one person has a terrible case, and another person has a mild case. Young people with terrible cases and old people with mild cases. And so on. It really makes you wonder about all the things we may be carrying with us all time without showing symptoms. After all, why would you test for something if it wasn't bothering you?

I've had a bad sore throat and a deep chest cold that has gotten worse over the last 5 days, but it seems to have bottomed out and it is not unlike other colds I’ve had. I am being vigilant but my level of worry has gone down

For me it's standard on like days 6-7 of a cold... can't smell anything, food has no taste. I prefer it to a sore throat, honestly.

Houston apparently will be getting Shelter In Place orders tomorrow morning that will go into effect on Wednesday.

after today the all-encompassing fear of losing my job has now been combined with guilt for being afraid of that , because it involved the economy, which I am not supposed to worry about

or. OR! you could not worry about what others think you're supposed to worry about

there’s the economy as in “the government is in surplus and it’s trickling down through the sweaty fingers of the rich”, and there’s the economy as in “how the hell am i going to eat tomorrow”

i really wish we had different words for these

The DJIA is fake. The GDP is a little bit fake and a little bit real. The deficit is fake. The national debt is mostly fake. Needing money to buy food is real.

oh yes, beautifully said

always good to fake stock at times like these

"furlough" and "layoff" are words I'm starting to hear spoken close to me

same, I just don't know what the morally correct amount to be scared for my job is

there’s the economy as in “the government is in surplus and it’s trickling down through the sweaty fingers of the rich”, and there’s the economy as in “how the hell am i going to eat tomorrow”

― karmic blowback for dissing pip and jane baker (Autumn Almanac), Tuesday, March 24, 2020 12:00 AM (six hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

i really wish we had different words for these

― karmic blowback for dissing pip and jane baker (Autumn Almanac), Tuesday, March 24, 2020 12:00 AM (six hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

Macroeconomics versus microeconomics? (I didn't even take Econ 101.)

Good news: I will be getting out of the house next week. Bad news: It will be the first day of 5 weeks being on call for grand jury duty. It should be...interesting...going into downtown DC.

australia just got told

* max 5 people at weddings
* max 10 people at funerals
* max 10 people at fitness boot camps
* schools to continue with a billion kids squished into a tiny room
* hairdressers max 30 mins, no colouring
* nail salons & tattoo parlours to close
* no house parties
* no auctions
* REMAIN INDOORS

Also the Queensland border closure doesn’t apply queensalnders going out and coming back in.

is that a tweed heads thing?

also, “don’t leave home unless absolutely necessary” but shopping centres will stay open