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

BREAKING: Prime Minister Boris Johnson has tested positive for #coronavirus.

The PM is reportedly self-isolating in Downing Street but is continuing to lead the government's response to #COVID19.

More on this story: https://t.co/Pto1iKFuZG pic.twitter.com/8UzcEkYcc1

— Sky News (@SkyNews) March 27, 2020

Wrong thread, sorry

#BREAKING Germany has boosted its #coronavirus test rate to 500,000 a week, with the early detection helping to keep the country's death toll relatively low, a virologist says pic.twitter.com/NbDmif5hld

— AFP news agency (@AFP) March 26, 2020

I'm not a parent, but Tracer does it have to be a podcast? They're a terrible format for providing resources compared to a scrollable searchable web page.

Re: cops. Having lived in both the US (discomfort around cops) and the UK (also discomfort around cops tho definitely less so), it is strange where I live now (Portugal) for the first time in my life that my guard doesn't immediately go up when I see cops. They're armed too, though they really can't be firing them very often

fwiw your guard should still go up. they're not gonna shoot you but they will vote for the far-right parties that want to deport you. and the examples of racial violence coming from them are mounting up too.

Andrew that scrollable webpage will exist! We will be telling people to go it it every day! But it will have a lot of stuff on it and maybe not what you want at 8:30 in the morning with your coffee

def see the value in a conservational/flow bitesize podcast myself, forza th

awesome. Let’s see

my cousin's got it. he lives in Brighton, is in his mid-20s I think and has had it a week or so, not doing too bad apparently. I've only met him once so don't know him really.

I'm a parent of young kids and would not be able to listen to a podcast.

too many distractions about?

Tracer, my sister is in the UK, but her son is too young for podcasts (or school, lol). But my own kids ... I think they would consider an additional podcast, however ostensibly helpful, to be more work, and bristle at being made to listen to it. They'd much prefer a bite sized video piece.

Oh, wait, this is a podcast for parents, to help with homework? That's a bit better, but I still think a visual learning tool for the students themselves would be more effective. For the parents, maybe something more like a printed list of prompts or tips they can utilize, both with their kids but also something that can be left for the kids? What age are you looking at, exactly? If you're talking a 5 paragraph writing assignment, then you're already talking old enough to not need help from parents, possibly, aside from editing and cheerleading.

Creative projects rather than assignments might be a good tool in this strange situation, too, something that doesn't just teach but takes up time and provides some structure to the day. Like, rather than listen to a podcast, give kids a guide how to research and make their *own* podcasts about Mayan culture, etc.

Anyway, my own kids are doing absolutely fine. Granted, they're not little, but they've grown up in the era of active shooter drills and social media. What's being told to stay at home?

Yeah all the actual leaning materials are online. This is just a quick cheat sheet to say what’s available, with a little 10 second clip if it’s a video or whatever. and maybe a joke at the end! 5-10 minutes max.

My throat is sore, but only every other day. Doctors of ILX, am I going to die?

Only on a day that ends in Y.

xp are you a fellow post nasal drip sufferer? I sound like a 200 a day smoker most mornings

Yeah, do you have a stuffy nose? The only time I ever have a sore throat, really, is when I've been forced into mouth breather mode.

It may have something to do with the air conditioning at my parents' place. And yeah, my nose does get runny for no apparent reason.

it could definitely be allergies. I'm allergic to dust, so being inside this much has been problematic, and some AC/heat situations (especially gas-forced air) exacerbate it a lot

AC always fucks me up, so that could def be it.

The heat on / heat off and megapollenation that comes with the vacillating weather has incited a sore throat for me for like three months or so.

No allergies that I know of, and my mom obsessively dusts and vacuums the house on a daily basis to stave off the emptiness within. Most plausible explanation is

I think I'm paranoid
And complicated

jogging yesterday and nirvana came on the mix and i had a reaction to "I feel stupid and contagious" that stopped me flat

And the subsequent line, 'Here we are now, entertain us', is in fact a prescient lyric about how this entire crisis was engineered by the lizard-overlords-that-be.

Thus leading to Kurt Cobain's 'suicide'.

For those suffering from sniffles and stuff, don't forget to change A/C or HVAC air filters (as needed)!

a friend just me this

https://youtu.be/sjDuwc9KBps

and it's like, ugh...really? Is everybody doing this? I haven't been but now I guess I'll start

There are so many things I don't understand. For example the virus has various staying power on all manner of surfaces, depending on the material, but the entire category of "takeout food" (the food itself, not the packagingI is ok? I mean the stuff can live on my fingers, more than on say, plastic...but won't remain on a sandwich someone's made?

in addition to being catastrophic this whole thing is a supreme pain in the ass

Oh yeah that guy is from Grand Rapids! Yeah. I only low-key did this on our last shopping trip but I'll probably get more serious on the next one.

that video was shared with me by a colleague whose daughter is extremely immunocompromised and disabled (to the extent that her getting a cold is potentially fatal) so they were already doing stuff like this. i shared it with my friend with lupus and my uncle in his 80s.

pom we have a thread ffs

xp well I sent it to my parents hoping they'll take heed, but it's just that *I* don't want to do it

I guess a good rule of thumb now is take the same precautions you want your loved ones to take

Tbf pandemics are cross-borad by definition.

xp

My mom systematically disinfects every package received from the GREAT OUTSIDE before use. We're running out of Lysol, though.

On the safety of handling food, I found this article useful, by a professor of infectious disease at a hospital in Paris.

La cuisine, avec ou sans gants ? Les gants ne sont pas nécessaires.

Gros nettoyage des légumes avant cuisson ? Un lavage à l’eau suffit, la cuisson élimine toute trace de virus.

Les légumes crus, c’est OK ? Oui. Vous pouvez les laver et les éplucher comme d’habitude, tant que vous vous êtes lavé les mains.

Torchons, serviettes, éponges… à bannir ? Non, il suffit de se laver les mains en rentrant. Pour le reste, faites comme avant !

Les fromages et jambons à la coupe, c’est risqué ? Pas du tout.

Le pain touché par le boulanger, à mettre au grille-pain chez soi ? Non, c’est inutile.

Les précautions à prendre en cas de livraison ? Les gestes barrières classiques. Et si on a des symptômes, on met un masque pour protéger les livreur.se.s.

Et au supermarché ou dans une boutique ? Au supermarché ou ailleurs, on respecte les gestes barrières. Inutile de porter un masque FFP2 ou des gants.

Cageots, sacs plastique, sacs en papier ? Ne changez rien à vos bonnes habitudes !

CB ou monnaie ? Aucune différence, puisqu’on se lave les mains en rentrant chez soi.

Votre plat de résistance ? Du pangolin rôti… Je plaisante, évidemment.

CB ou monnaie ? Aucune difference, puisqu’on se lave les mains en rentrant chez soi.

this is what I mean though, it's not that simple. Before washing my hands the same fingers that touched the debit card have touched the handles of the bags, etc.

But you'll wash your hands after you put down your bags, no?

yes but isn't it remaining on the bags? Are we washing all the bags?

I guess the observation is that if you don't touch your face when your hands haven't been washed, you're ok.

Get home without touching your face, wash your hands, discard bags, disinfect or wash whatever items you purchased, wash your hands.

If you’re using reusable cloth tote bags, you should probably be washing them even without a pandemic.

AFAIK there's minimal evidence of the virus being transferred via food packaging, and it's killed by cooking anyway. Obviously wash fruit and fresh vegetables before you eat them but do that anyway.

I've stopped drinking beer out of cans though.

Mostly because I found myself cleaning the cans with Flash before opening them and realised this was what a deranged person would do.

AFAIK there's minimal evidence of the virus being transferred via food packaging

Indeed, but go tell that to my terrified 65 year-old mother.

I'm sure I'm not the only one ruminating basically non-stop now about what the cost of this will be in human lives and what it's going to do to the rest of our mental health for the remainder of our own lives.

And how that doesn't really add much of value to the conversations we're having on Zoom with our friends on the day-to-day so, hey, let's talk about what we cooked today!

there's evidence of a link between the virus and allergic overreaction in some: https://www.newscientist.com/term/cytokine-storm/

i took notice of this bcz i've been having unexpected and very mild allergic reactions a couple of times in the last few days (i think almost certainly a result of changed diet) (too many lentils lol), including slight strange tastes and such, and sensitive lips that feels a tiny swollen -- i sometimes also get a sore throat as a mild reaction against some foods (M&S french coffee!) so maybe the change of additives betwen the UK and quebec?

(obv i am not a nutritionist still less a virologist)

stay well everyone!!

Thanks, mark, and likewise!

The easiest thing to do if you have a porch or vestibule (or garage lol America) is just to leave everything that doesn't have to be refrigerated outside for a few days. That cuts way down on the things you would have to clean. Or like he said just take the bags out of boxed goods--the inside hasn't been touched since the factory and tbh was probably bagged and boxed by machine anyway.

Also I've put our fabric grocery bags through the washer 2x already.