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

i'm afraid that if i join i'll never be able to get anything else done ever again

i have an ilx addiction :(

and i don't want to quit

My mom lives in a small town about an hour and forty-five minutes outside of Chicago. Thankfully she's taking this really seriously, but she calls me with constant updates about all the people around her that aren't. Their neighbors across the street have two college kids that are now home and have thrown at least two parties in the last week, at one point she counted thirteen cars in their driveway/parked in their yard.

Also, one of the teachers at a local school that lives in her neighborhood decided that the best way to deal with bored fifth and sixth graders stuck at home is to invite them all over to her house for trampoline gatherings every afternoon. It's this type of shit that infuriates me so much and makes me fearful that we'll even have this under any semblance of control.

funnily enough, I had a bone marrow transplant over 7 years ago, and followed just some of those protocols (ie the major ones)

it's just really difficult for some people to grasp this threat when it hasn't "hit home" yet

didn't have a utility room tho

I have a room, a half-kitchen, and a small bathroom

xp

sp I will grant them that it is a really bizarre thing! Something that you need a friggin electron microscope to see has basically shut down the entire planet.

I am so thankful that my parents and the people in their street/community/various activity groups are taking this pretty seriously, from the sound of it.

my bf thinks it's real but he's a lot more laid back about it than I am and still going to the shop for nice-to-have things instead of doing our best to make do. we may end up fighting about it but tbh I know I could work myself up over little things which in the end may or may not make much difference, so as long as we're isolating ourselves to a reasonable extent - not seeing anyone, staying in except for groceries & occasional careful walks, plus lots of hand-washing - then maybe it's better to just... go with it, and let it be a weight off my mind that someone else made the judgement call

(speaking of shops, I went for the first time in days today and felt kind of down at seeing them still so bare-shelved and now with tape markings everywhere to enforce distancing. one of our neighbourhood's two supermarkets now has bouncers in the doorway - who took up half the doorway so I had to walk right past, good job there, and the cashier coughed without covering his mouth while serving me, so that probably didn't help my nerves)

morbs I would be more concerned about groceries if there were other people around. but as long as only you are handling the groceries and you wash your hands each time you handle it, you should be fine.

Well there are the delivery people, and the friends who are ferrying them to me. I just soaped up 4 reusable bags and theyre hanging on a (cleaned) doorknob to dry.

Extra housework is the worst way to go.

Now I'm going to use the basement laundry. Gonna burn another pair of my dwindling disposable gloves supply I guess...

My parents (late 60s) ticking up to 3 weeks with whatever they've had (i.e. almost certainly coronavirus) - latest report is 'slightly improved, still coughing'. This disease does not let go lightly

I'm starting to get annoyed thinking about all the careless fools taking little or no precautions against this thing who will inevitable become infected, most likely be mildly or only semi-seriously ill, and then saunter around immune and probably spreading it even further by touching infected surfaces etc - all while I'm cowering at home following isolation advice. Grr.

An employee of the supermarket where we do our groceries just tested positive and they shut the whole place down until tomorrow morning. Suddenly my mom's insistance on disinfecting the shit out of every item seems less insane.

I'm starting to get annoyed thinking about all the careless fools taking little or no precautions against this thing who will inevitable become infected, most likely be mildly or only semi-seriously ill, and then saunter around immune and probably spreading it even further by touching infected surfaces etc - all while I'm cowering at home following isolation advice. Grr.

... well, yeah! This is what a large proportion of the country has been raging at for at least the past week.

In terms of groceries, it's stuff like plastic milk bottles I'm careful about as they go in the fridge and I'm touching them all the time.

Now that school's been closed for a week, if I get it it's gonna be from the supermarket. Took the kids out for a walk around the neighbourhood today, avoiding anyone I saw. 2yo crying 'not home' when we had to go back, 5yo said it felt spooky.

i just talked to my mom in tidewater virginia and she's still going out to run errands, going to the military hospital, pharmacy, grocery store. She said no one is wearing masks. I told her to slap hers on because it will keep her from touching her face and it will keep people from coming near her.

i think the only thing i am nervous about -- the same thing i am always nervous about -- is the point where people start turning on each other. the scary tipping point where the cooperation ends. the TP hoarding was the tip of the iceberg when it comes to ugly hurtful human behavior. :(

that is back-of-my-mind concerning me but i am trying to focus on helping others for as long as i can. the administration at my school is being SUPER dumb about getting faculty onboard with teaching online. absolutely not enough time in the world for me to type out the details.

on that note:

Please remember: The idea that when disaster strikes people panic and social order collapses is very popular. It is also a myth. A huge research literature shows disaster makes people *more* pro-social. They cooperate. They support each other. They're better than ever. 1/x

— Dan Gardner (@dgardner) March 26, 2020

yeah. I mean, in a way it's good you can't get near people right now (hopefully lack of violence), but we also have stuff set aside in case people need food or inhalers. and i want to make as many masks as possible to give away and I know a lot of other people doing the same.

for now...the time i am thinking of comes later

idk who is dan gardner? i can't really be soothed by a stranger named dgardner telling me that this is fiction -- people turn on one another all the time under normal circumstances. under dire ones, under stress, it can get ugly. dan gardner can't change that.

in the meantime, i am going to try to keep the cooperation happening and hope for the best. i just wanted to vent my concerns.

the danger is that if i am in real need from illness, i don't know that my neighbor will help me and i don't know that i blame them

but yes, humans are terrible and it is not unreasonable to be scared of some of them doing terrible shit

at one point we kind of discussed people turning on each other (during the protests against the govt) but then I was like "oh well, what can you do. at least we have super heavy furniture to barricade the doors."

yeah that doesn't make me feel better
i am trying VERY hard not to catastrophize (even as a "joke"), to stay in the moment, to keep my eye on what's important
that is my #1 challenge atm

I've been more or less social distanced for ... it's been a while. Well over two weeks. Hanging around here with the exception of taking my daughter for driving lessons (streets are empty!), going for walks or going to the store ... twice? But I don't include that as a reset of the clock, per se, since I'm never really around anyone, washing my hands, etc. Anyway, a friend asked if I might be up for beers around a fire pit in a couple of days, and I said yes. We won't be that close to one another, we've both been socially isolated, and there will be a fire between us. I think I'm as good with that as I will ever be.

my neighbours (next flat along) are having a big house party today, forever going in and out of the building, like the pandemic never happened

Surprisingly people seem to be behaving themselves in London - mind you I haven't been outside in 4 days.

LL, that twitter thread cites research

I'm trying to think of things that will make me more positive if they happen.
Photos of deserted streets etc - are actually quite reassuring to me.
Data in 3 weeks or so showing that distancing has had an effect.
Supermarkets/delivery working out some kind of system that reduces panic-buying, repeated shopping trips, helping the vulnerable.

I didn't know until today that the UK daily data (numbers of deaths etc) "do not represent the number of deaths that occurred in the past day but the number reported to NHS England in a 24-hour period. Two of the deaths, reported by Basildon and Thurrock university hospitals NHS foundation trust and University hospitals of Leicester NHS trust, occurred on 14 March." Not that this is particularly positive but it helps me reframe things.

yesterday i remembered that we have access to the roof though our landlord asked us not to use it when we moved in.
i think this might help get me through. it's sunny and open and airy and occasionally people shyly come up from the adjoining buildings and wave and stay way the fuck away from me.

picturing you standing, arms outstretched as you exit the roof door, then spinning slowly in the sun

i can't really be soothed by a stranger named dgardner telling me that this is fiction

The basic pattern seems to be that people come together during local disasters because they see that this choice usually leads to the best outcome, including for themselves. People will often take personal risks on behalf of others, if the risks seem broadly acceptable in terms of their own survival. For example, searching an unstable building for survivors after an earthquake or forming a human chain to pull someone out of flood waters. When the danger seems too great, they are likely to retreat, regroup and try to think of a safer way to accomplish their goal. But they don't often volunteer for 'suicide missions'.

Historically speaking, pandemic diseases with high mortality rates severely test this pattern of being willing to take risks for others. The more deadly, the more reluctance.

when I was on my metal cruise this year, every time we went to the cafeteria, there was a guy playing a guitar and three other hospitality staff members and they were all singing Cranberries' "Zombie" but changing the lyrics to "Wash yooooo haaaaaands, wash yo haaaa-iii-aa-aaaaaands", and people were listening

can't help but think if we'd had them at that podium in January, we'd all be past this

i am beginning to suspect some people don't ever wash their hands unless they are showering.

for some people even that is incidental

"hey I was washing my taint and water got on my handsies! neat!"

praxis question (perhaps too political for this thread? so'z) - supporting artists/labels/publishing houses (all of which will be struggling) by buying stuff online vs minimizing online shopping so couriers and mailmen don't expose themselves to unnecessary risk?

(I don't use Amazon, ftr)

Been mulling that one over a lot too. Maybe its time to finally relinquish physical copies of things and just get the digital version? Or perhaps write a note on your order and ask them to hold on sending it until the crisis is over?

xxp Remembering the girl in You're teh Worst's policy about bits she doesn't wash in the shwoer and wondering to what extent that reflects reality for some people.

Have noticed that there were some pretty counterproductive washing spaces in places I'd use the toilet in when in town and they would tend to have electronic hand dryers instead of any other individual method of drying.
So probably just as well they're closed and can't be hotspots for spreading whatever pathogens they shouldn't be.

I'm starting to get annoyed thinking about all the careless fools taking little or no precautions against this thing who will inevitable become infected, most likely be mildly or only semi-seriously ill, and then saunter around immune and probably spreading it even further by touching infected surfaces etc - all while I'm cowering at home following isolation advice. Grr.

... well, yeah! This is what a large proportion of the country has been raging at for at least the past week.

Not really though? As I understand it, the virus doesn't stay dangerous long outside humans, it's people catching it and spreading it that's the current main line of danger.

it can stay on hard surfaces for three days.

good article that calmly answers a lot of questions about this sort of thing eg how long are you infectious after you’ve had it etc


https://www.caltech.edu/about/news/tip-iceberg-virologist-david-ho-bs-74-speaks-about-covid-19

read that as "violinist" and was briefly startled that ex-man welsh rocker deke leonard's other band had featured a violin, mvmnic

tracer thanks for the link

that's the clearest overview I've yet read

praxis question (perhaps too political for this thread? so'z) - supporting artists/labels/publishing houses (all of which will be struggling) by buying stuff online vs minimizing online shopping so couriers and mailmen don't expose themselves to unnecessary risk?

― Daniel_Rf, Saturday, March 28, 2020 7:06 AM bookmarkflaglink

I'm strictly a digital buyer at this point so that's how I've been doing things.

Amazon, at least right now for deliveries to where I live, isn't shipping anything ordered until mid to late April, and has a disclaimer about ensuring the safety of their employees and customers.

only took like 8 employees getting infected for that 'compassion'.

mordy informed me that a private electrical contracting firm is an essential service but i wish they’d still stop requiring the people in their administrative office (cf. my roommate) to come in, as they are fucking endangering everyone. but it’s essential! sure

xpost That was a really clear overview, thanks, though of course already a week old. Inevitably there have already been developments, like the point of care tests being reported on, which is good news.

There's a circular walk along (mostly) farm tracks pretty much on my door-step. I walk it a lot and every day at the moment. The track is probably 2.5 metres wide. I've found it a bit distressing when I've been clearly keeping to one side of the track and/or obviously swerving and people have still stayed close. I must admit, at this point, my distress is probably around "How can you be so stupid/disrespectful" rather than a belief that someone walking past in the countryside presents much risk (though it may?) Anyway, I have discovered that a fake coughing fit gets people to keep away.

x-post: the idea that people might turn on each other has crossed my mind to the point that the flat has a heavy iron gate installed by the previous owner - I'm guessing to keep deer out rather than people, as she seems to have adored the garden - and I have to admit that I've thought about buying a lock!

I find I am resenting what seems like hoards of hoards of lycra-clad joggers. Also whole families on bikes spaced across the paths and weaving erratically. It may be unreasonable and irrational but I have a few square meters to move about indoors and all I want is a half hour walk around the park.

Hoards²