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

I don't directly work with him and I haven't been in his company for well over a month, so it could be worse.

Haven't been for a few days, but apparently the freezer aisle at our local Trader Joe's was literally cleared out. We know someone who works there, and their usual average daily sales are around $65,000, but they doubled that yesterday. We popped in to a different store yesterday, just to check it out, and they were out of TP and some cleaning stuff, but mostly seemed stocked. A Target I was at wasn't that bad (yet) either.

Oh, I just heard through the grapevine that the manager in the department directly behind me, who was here at least through like Wednesday, was sent home sick at some point in the last day or so. Don't know what 'sick' means but can't wait to find out. Caaaaaaaaan't wait. Caaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaan't wait.

All employees (about 30k) at my company advised to work from home for the foreseeable.

In keeping with my company's general state of bumblefuckery, they're apparently making decisions here on a department-by-department basis. So a department on the other side of our floor has already been told that they'll be working from home starting Monday and for at least the next three weeks. Whereas our department is sharing the dribs and drabs of information that each of us has learned from our respective managers, as we're each apparently only privy to certain information pertaining to the near future of our work situation. It's fun! Like a scavenger hunt!

same here at my job. a bunch of vague emails about preparing to shift to offsite operations, documents about how to work from offsite, but no communication about who is going to be working from home or when it will start

Apart from anything else, presumably there's no work getting done in this situation?

i am working from home (and hence posting) as i normally do, very extremely unsure when and how i'm going to get paid for much of it and thus ardently wishing my various editors and their finance departments the best of all possible health wherever they may end up doing what they do, and swift communications to all inc.uninterrupted BACS activity

5:30am email: Normal operations; everyone report to work
6:48am email: The university is closed; stay home

After 36 hours of searing chest pain, shortness of breath, and a battery of tests, a friend was just told by her doctors she "probably" has it, but no COVID tests are available in our area and no likelihood of getting them soon, and no likelihood of her even being allowed to take one since she hasnt left the country or had a proven contact with a confirmed case. She is recovering from a splenectomy a couple months ago and freaking out.

Just had a jolly-hockeysticks email from the higher-ups saying in v rallying-the-troops tones that nothing has changed but we're all ~thinking very hard~ about the serious changes that we may eventually get round to deciding on.

Apart from anything else, presumably there's no work getting done in this situation?

Aargh, I spent months refreshing Brexit news constantly and having it fill up all my available brain space that I was supposed to be using for other things and now I'm back in that place. I don't really understand how anyone else is not, and one colleague made tentative noises re similar earlier, but apparently everyone else was happy to Just (Let Someone) Get On With It re Brexit, so maybe it's just me...

(and this thread. Thank you, this thread)

The most popular route to Mount Everest is shutting down as Nepal seeks to check the spread of the pandemic.

Priorities!

Wanted to link this quickly while I'm still thinking about it - one question that has been vexing me was determining how long a surface can be contaminated.

― Elvis Telecom

This is one of the things that frustrates me most about COVID response. While I understand wanting to avoid panic, a lot of people recommended - and in fact are still recommending - measures to prevent COVID despite not knowing how, exactly, COVID spreads, and in some cases directly counter to the emerging knowledge of how COVID spreads. If COVID can remain viable on a plastic surface for up to 72 hours, how on earth are we supposed to believe moving to shift work will be an effective means of containment?

There are costs to well-intentioned falsehoods. I feel like the best thing I can do here is not assume people's intentions and to not map my assumptions about panic and social dynamics onto other people's actions, so I will just say that whatever the reason, when supposed experts recommend measures to prevent the spread of disease that turn out to be utterly inadequate, it erodes the level of trust in those experts, erodes anybody's attempts to keep people from panicking. I am suspending any further judgements on the topic for the present moment.

Mt Everest is closed??

Went to Target this morning. It opened at 8 and at 7:45 there was a line forming at the door. Not full-on Black Friday, but surprising. As we all shuffled in the door, one employee said jokingly to his manager, "Maybe they're all here for Animal Crossing!" Later, as I was in the (largely empty) toilet paper aisle, a different employee said to another, "It's like a Prada boutique."

We got everything we needed except for Clorox disinfecting wipes, which were completely gone, and honestly it wasn't that crowded or frantic inside. Now I'm wondering how it will be when I go to my regular grocery store on Sunday morning.

Man, you got my hopes up that Animal Crossing released early, would have made my kid so happy while she's stuck at home.

I was planning mt everest as my quarantine location :(

Speaking of which, just because we'll be stuck together for a while, more or less, we did some meal planning last night and absolutely no one in my household was the least bit helpful.

Me: Since who knows what's up and when it won't be, we should probably think of some practical staples we need.
Family member one: we should get the cereal with red berries.
FM#2: Ugh, I hate that one, get the one with green berries.
FM#3: Why don't you get one of each?
Me: OK. Will you eat either of those?
FM#3: No, get me the one with blueberries.

And so on across all categories.

I dunno, sounds like they have their priorities in order to me. Whereas I failed to get any berry-adorned cereal whatsoever.

Since I'm back downtown again today anyway, I'm thinking: fuckit, another Target trip wouldn't hurt. When I finally batten down the hatches, I'm just planning to not leave my building at all for the foreseeable future (except for going to vote, which is probably when the bug will likely strike me down).

I still had some stuff left over from the no-deal Brexit prepping so the biggest immediate expense has been loading up on cat food / cat litter.

I went to the doctor this morning to get my asthma prescriptions refilled so I will be set for the year and he also prescribed me a flu shot ( so I can jump the queue) because I guess they are going to make an announcement on Monday that tit's mandatory (chile)? I don't know how they make it mandatory. But my spanish is also trash. ( I feel kind of bad about this but I think this will be the first flu shot I have gotten in ??? I don't recall my last primary physician ever giving me the flu shot, unless she snuck it in. I am sorry).

I have not left the house since Tuesday for any reason other than going to work or the grocery store or pharmacy. I stocked up on staples, and paid out-of-pocket for a prescription refill my insurer would not cover, so that I can avoid the stores for the next couple of weeks -- as I see it, the risk is only going to increase as the infection spreads, while the reward decreases with the many predictable out-of-stock goods.

I am also a single man, living alone, with some money in the bank, no dependents, and a job I can do remotely. I don't expect everyone to do what I am doing; I do it because I'm one of the ones who can.

The hardest part is going to be missing the 3 or 4 AA meetings per week I usually go to. But my sponsor has been able to stay sober for the past 10 years despite being partially paralyzed and unable to attend meetings, so I have a good example to follow.

I am also a single man, living alone, with some money in the bank, no dependents, and a job I can do remotely. I don't expect everyone to do what I am doing; I do it because I'm one of the ones who can.

Yup this is gonna be me in a week or two I suspect, depending on how fast it ends up spreading here in Toronto. I'm not ruling out some very limited (4-5 person) hangouts just to break up the isolation / ward off insanity, though.

Xposts to rusho

This is what enraged me so much about de blasios statement earlier this week that HIS scientists have found it only persists on surfaces for minutes.

my spouse's university sent out an email that they have 5 liter cans of alcohol gel that faculty can buy. I told him to find people to split it with because there are only so many places you can put that.

my friend tried to ask me if I was busy and wanted to hang out last night and I made up an excuse because I just was feeling too miserable to hang out. i told him maybe on the weekend.

i'm in a similar place of privilege and tbh now that pretty much any concerts I had tickets for are cancelled, I was only going to leave the house to go to the movies anyway, and tehre's plenty of that I can watch at home.

Has anyone grappled with how much to walk the dog/whether to let the dog play with other dogs

NB he is a puppy but big (6 months 55 lbs) and while he could probably ‘remember’ how to pee inside on pads, it’d be hard from a sheer volume perspective

Went ahead w/ meeting a friend I hadn't seen for a long time yesterday, and am still having dinner out tonight w/ my bro. But after that I don't have a lot of one-on-one's planned, and the bigger meetings (some book presentations etc) will be cancelled anyway.

jon not jon where are you? I remember walking my dog during Katrina for what ended up being 10 times because I stayed up all night to make sure there was no flooding and any break in the wind/rain I ran him outside because I was so worried we would be cooped up (he was 75lbs).

I would totally not let my dog (if he was still around) socialize with other dogs right now. Because that means you will also be socializing.

ugh, I meant Hurricane Sandy in ny.

I still had some stuff left over from the no-deal Brexit prepping so the biggest immediate expense has been loading up on cat food / cat litter.

Cat food and cat litter is a worry as it's so damn bulky/heavy and there isn't really room to stockpile much of it.

The other half told me off for Brexit prepping and is still in "everything will be fine" mode so we just have a couple of extra kgs of rice and cereal (not actually sure how long those would last if they were the only food left) and a lot of extra soap. Will try to sneak some tinned goods home if there are any left - beans, soup, some tinned milk wouldn't go amiss for the cereal. Local shop is already empty of loo roll so not sure if there'll be tins left.

We have a small fridge/freezer which is permanently almost full despite having basically nothing useful in, so not much use stockpiling anything not canned or dry.

Sent a message to my dad to see how they're doing and if they curtailed their travel plans, and he responded "Mea culpa...we're in Israel". Coming back today I think.

Still having to go into work, but on the upside, traffic is great??

Seat to yourself on the bus *thumbs up*

saw a guy at Trader Joe's buying
* four boxes of cereal
* four boxes of frozen rice
* ~ 50 protein bars

I am going to lose my mind with this social distancing business. After class yesterday I realized just how much I enjoy being around people! Aggghhhhhh

hope all my erstwhile pen pals are ready for a revival of correspondence :)

I went into my dark classroom at my closed school to empty out my little mini refrigerator. I ran into one of my students, who was cleaning his locker. We stood ten feet apart from each other and said “be good!” and it rang really hollow. The biggest source of my happiness is my students, and... I can’t do anything for/about them right now. Feels super helpless.

sweet innocent phone SMS dictionary that still knows not the word "coronavirus"

TS: coughing into your sleeve vs opening door handles with your sleeve

I feel it's unwise to do both

Need sleeve's opinion on this obv

maybe door handle will have an opinion too

I told my spouse there is no way i am doing the cheek kiss or hug or dancing with anyone other than him at this wedding we have to go to on saturday. He was like "what will you do if they try." I told him I would give them the shaka in front of their face and then do the ps4 spiderman off the wall attack.

yes, agree soda!!
i haven't been feeling despair -- in fact, I feel like my pandemic personality is weirdly lighthearted and my sense of humor seems alive and well. if I can make people lol my existence isn't entirely pointless. I'm anticipating at least a few bouts of loneliness though.

my partner already works from home so nothing has changed for him; I'm sure I will annoy him more than once.

LOL so I have on-off problems with insomnia during normal times anyway but I am now running on about > 3 hours of sleep in as many days. I haven't been up all night spinning doomsday scenarios in my head, it's more just like my body/mind is just on general High Alert. Of course I end up thinking about how lack of sleep depresses your immune system, and the spiral continues...ugh. Just glad I can work from home.

Xpost to yerac
Williamsburg Brooklyn

oh yeah, i was in williamsburg near graham during sandy. I think everyone will be staying away from each other though. Some people are just bad dog owners and will totally invade your space even if you have no desire to talk to them or their dog and are slowly backing away the entire time. Dogs can catch covid supposedly, so I would be careful.

i would probably even wear a mask while walking the dog just to signal to stay away.

so has anyone spoken to Purell or their parent company to find out exactly wtf is the deal with the shortage? I get that there was a run on these products for a week or so but do they have any idea when they're going to be able to stock back up?

Dogs can catch covid supposedly

― Yerac, Friday, March 13, 2020 8:08 AM (nine minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

i thought the who just confirmed the other day that they can't

! did they disprove it? I am looking again and still only see reports of a dog with a "low level infection" from someone who had it.