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

People with relatives in China, including Taiwan, seem to be way more aware of the need to take this seriously. As for TP, we have one more package than usual, but we have squeeze bottles that can be filled with water and squirted directionally, if necessary. <<-- this thought is new to me and I thank ilx for its recent bidet conversation for bringing this to the fore of my mind.

i think the recent bidet conversation was the ilx highpoint of the week.

feeling good about my choice to travel by Greyhound this summer if only because I'll be locked in with 8-12 disgusting strangers as opposed to hundreds

As I understand it, traveling by plane is no worse (and in some ways better, thanks to the HEPA filters) than any other means of transportation. Assuming you are not within 3 or so feet of someone actively sneezing or coughing up a lung, the usual caveats apply: wash hands, don't touch face, and so on.

I was watching SNL last night, thinking, boy, this is so not funny. So my mind started to wander to a parody of Hitchcock's "Lifeboat" where four people are stuck on a tiny raft, and the number of TP rolls stacked in the corner keeps going down and they have to find the cheat secretly burning through all the TP.

I refuse to not touch face!!!

http://healthyinfluence.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/kiss-lady-tramp.jpg

I have always been the "eh I'm sure it'll be fine" person in my family, so it was weird yesterday to be having A Talk with my 67-year-old parents yesterday about how they actually need to take this seriously. I need to find a good all-in-one guide (hint) and email it out to the family. The world is truly upside down when I'm the responsible one.

The bougie grocery store I live near seems to still have everything. Stocking up today. Already secured a significant amount of Dr. Bronner's.

Nhs guide is pretty good, simple sos and don’ts and the common questions section is good, I thought. Uk references but replace with your local, obviously.

Would trust a non-US guide more at this point. Thanks.

https://scontent-ort2-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/89254135_10158107111544281_2827637525147811840_o.jpg?_nc_cat=109&_nc_sid=8024bb&_nc_ohc=o7Xzg3JoZJoAX-k7MEd&_nc_ht=scontent-ort2-1.xx&oh=2146ac8edf449b784e233df4f9175cd9&oe=5E940207

"The Bidet: like a wet kiss for your bottom face."

lool!

Or as I call them: the kitchen and bathroom sinks.

we purposefully removed our only bidet as part of a bathroom renovation last year because our kids kept touching inside of the bowl with their hands

and now I can only buy 20$ sheets of toilet paper from a stranger out the back of his van

run on tp -> tp shortage -> widespread use of the wrong kinds of paper -> plumbers' heyday -> buy chemed stock

Flying to Colombia for a wedding at the start of April and I'm slightly nervous at the prospect of getting off the plane and immediately being quarantined in a strange country. Weirdly this is worrying me more than getting the virus itself.

I need to find a good all-in-one guide (hint) and email it out to the family.

This guide, PSA regarding Covid-19, posted to r/Edmonton subreddit, is the best I've seen anywhere.

xp Yeah my 17 year old daughter is scheduled to go on a youth service trip to Panama in June and this is my main concern—that she’ll get stuck there

I had our CFO tell me this morning that he thinks the entire coronavirus story is overblown and no one will be talking about it a month from now. Too early for I told you so?

people are dealing with this in super strange ways. I don't know if they are trying to soothe themselves but it was annoying me when people would try to talk other people out of doing their own precautions.

For sure, idk if it’s a reaction againsr the panic but the competition to be the most sanguine about this seems to have turned a lot of normally smart ppl on my feed/in my life into quasi anti vaxxers - fortunately less in the sense of irresponsible actions so much as thoughtless statements so far but it still is annoying. No, cancelling some music festival or whatever is not “mass hysteria” ffs it’s a basic sensible precaution and they wouldn’t be doing it at great expense otherwise!

that's the thing that bugs me. the media response and some community response to Ebola *was* ridiculous, people sharing a pic that alleged improper handling of an Ebola patient that was actually well within recommended procedures, people talking about banning flights from Africa, banning teachers who happened to be in the city where 40 miles away from where someone was infected from coming to school. and yet everybody around me was like THIS IS SERIOUS SHIT MAN, THE GOVERNMENT, NOBODY IS TAKING THIS SERIOUSLY.

now this, and they're criticizing the media/community/government for "hysteria" when taking proper precautions(even though the government SHOULD rightfully be blamed for a lot of mishandling of this scenario).

like have they not noticed the size of the events cancelled thus far? many of which have 50,000 or more attendees? Mostly international? that's a no-brainer cancellation.

everybody gets so fixated on the mortality rate of these diseases because they always come at it from a "will I die from it?" focus only.

Yeah it’s like getting your flu jab: not everything is about you, personally, the protagonist of life

Anyway I have a hospital appointment next week, should be interesting - of course this thing cannot touch me because I am super young and healthy but I have a feeling the atmosphere will be very fraught

Also have a staff meeting tomorrow where management will go into detail re their covid contingency plans. Pretty much none of my work can be done from home so any kind of asymptomatic self-isolation would just be a paid holiday for me I reckon - the only downside might be that the business can’t take the impact and goes under, but that’s not worth worrying about at this stage

I've been virtual for 8 years so I'm already at home. but if my students don't show up to the office and can't WFH, that equals no classes for me.

none of our locations are in areas severely affected.....well, ok, most.

Since Friday I’ve developed a powerfully unpleasant dry cough with an accompanying wheeze, which makes it nearly impossible to get a good night’s sleep (including for my family, who have to deal with me waking up every 2-4 hours hacking and scrabbling about for my ventolin inhaler).

I’m 99% sure this is an allergic response to our new cats, especially because leaving the house for a couple of hours seems to be an almost perfect cure, but what if? What if indeed.

The answer is I probably can’t get tested at all, since I’m not running a fever. So I’ll sort of self-quarantine? See above: leaving the house is the thing that helps the best.

I heard moderating ILX for a few hours is just what the doctor ordered

No, cancelling some music festival or whatever is not “mass hysteria” ffs it’s a basic sensible precaution and they wouldn’t be doing it at great expense otherwise!

Surely these events are only getting cancelled because the attendees are canceling and dropping below profitable levels, not because any of the promoters care about public health?

My brother's company cancelled their part of a convention but the organizers asked them to delay announcing it by a day so that they don't tank the rest of the convention. That one day will surely make all the difference.

i saw someone discussing last week how it seems that our economy was totally run on superfluous conventions.
True true.

Do you think it would do any good if I stopped smoking, like, today?

Yes, I have no idea about how it might help you with corona virus, But fuck yes.

in orbit, if I was there I would smack it out of your hand. (and then hand you a drink so maybe I am not the best person to ask)

It's a shame I still have like 5 whole packs. Maybe I can use all these extra cigarettes for bartering after the collapse of the supply chain starves us all in our houses.

Undoubtedly, yes. I smoke when I go out on occasion and have been using this as an opportunity to quit altogether.

xp

Surely these events are only getting cancelled because the attendees are canceling and dropping below profitable levels, not because any of the promoters care about public health?

― change display name (Jordan), Monday, March 9, 2020 5:28 PM (sixteen minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

replace "attendees" with "sponsors" and i think that's it

xpost, you can hold on to them and get them doled out one by one until they become so stale and unsatisfying and you can no longer trade them for nudies.

Read this:

https://tobacco.ucsf.edu/reduce-your-risk-serious-lung-disease-caused-corona-virus-quitting-smoking-and-vaping

tbh i am self-isolating just bc i have a sinus headache, which is not uncommon for me to feel when the weather suddenly changes (it was 70 degrees in new york today and it's been unusually dry all weekend). no fever, but i can work from home so why risk it

on a busy college campus, feeling the fear. just used sanitizer.

All right I guess I'm cancelling the lobbying trip to Albany on Wednesday and figuring out what to do with my hands from 8-12pm. Here goes nothing.

You can start touching your face like the rest of us.

sew? I made a bookstore/library out of a miniature kit last year. It took me almost a day just to make and upholster the tiny armchair. I have a two story japanese house miniature kit all ready for me right now.

Which reminds me, I need to assemble my sake bring equipment before we go into lockdown.

I did see that on the WHO coronavirus prep guide.

I can run out of TP but heaven forbid I run out of Booze.

Speaking of prep, friend of mind put together a shopping list + recipes for 2-3 weeks of lockdown: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1YAwdt5R0bDl-9aBqfYxzTWZYR1-vAKktO9bZZUSYoL0/edit?usp=sharing

er

I usually spend those hours reading and drinking wine, which is great but leaves my hands unoccupied and unfortunately goes really well with smoking contemplatively while turing pages. I already tried cooking elaborate meals every day since I'm not working right now, but that made us both fat so that's out. I tried to get C to take up crochet, maybe there's still a boxed kit around somewhere. I predict desperation.

xpost Booze. I could throw a bunch of dinner parties 10xs over OR have the supplies to do makeshift surgery here. Pick one.

in orbit ,caramelizing a huge batch of onions like 2 dozen takes forever, is worthwhile (it freezes well) and is meditative.