When is it time to panic

John Welsh said:

In reply to RX Reven' :

There is a complex piece to that and it is income based free and reduced lunches (and breakfast)

In simplified terms, if schools closes a lot of kids don't eat. 

Understood.

Also, the parents of the public school kids will have a harder time making accommodations for their kids not being in school.

Having said that, all of my capitalistic instincts vanish when the E36 M3 starts getting real. First class should get zero priority over third class for lifeboat seating on the Titanic, etc..

Makes you think, what kind of world is it where kids are going to starve if they don't go to school? Maybe there should be some sort of fallbacks or safety nets in our society.

In reply to slowbird :

The school lunches are already a safety net. 

Now we need a net for the net?

It's complex. A long time ago we left the idea of "only the strong survive." 

My wife and I have been talking a lot about whether all of this is an over reaction. Maybe this sickness isn't bad enough to justify all this hullabaloo. What occurred to me is that we haven't had a major pandemic in modern times. So even if it's not that bad maybe a sickness containment dry run isn't such a bad thing. So when the big one does hit we have some idea how to handle it.

In reply to gearheadmb :

Yeah, could you picture the E36 M3-show we'd have going on if this was Ebola/Marburg/Morningstar?

Panic buying is officially here - just back from Walmart & Publix for normal shopping. NO toilet paper, even with rationing. All bleach is gone. Paper towels are almost gone. Kleenex is out also.

My wife asked the Publix manager why the run on toilet paper. He said a lady told him if she was going to be quarantined at home she wasn't going to run out of the essential paper of life.

I never knew people were so obsessed with their butts.

Went to Walmart......no TP, no soups, no real canned items, no beans and I got the last 4 bags of rice in the store.

Really E36 M3ty vibe, very quiet and everyone frantic too

For some reason a lot of people were panic-shopping here in Ontario today. I bought some extra TP a while ago because I was worried all the people buying extra TP could cause a TP shortage, and I keep some more food than usual in the house...that's enough for now I think.

Also I've already got a huge backlog of video games, movies and TV shows to consume so there's plenty for me to do indoors.

Part-time remote work is the only job I've had since late January so I'm ahead of the crowd there

In reply to Shadeux :

If you have a hand held showerhead, you don't need all that much toilet paper for sanitary purposes.

I just missed out on a silver 2014 f150 with dark blue leather interior. Total panic when they said, "sorry it just sold". 

Fun times... getting sent home early from work when you're 350 miles away and can't really prepare.  I'm pretty sure I'm fine on TP and whatnot at home.  What I don't really have at home is food.

Well... I'll be home for at least a week, so I'll have time to clean my house in between emails.  Not sure how much actual work I'll be able to do without being able to go into the construction site... 

Fun times... 

I got the same thing today at Walmart.  The entire shelf complex of TP was empty, as were all the cleaning products, virtually nothing left of bread, and the breads were scattered through several aisles.  We got the last 4 pack of paper towels, and there were like 10 half-crushed boxes of kleenex left.  They were in the process of reorganizing the entire grocery side of the store, which was actually a bit creepy.  No prices anywhere, things were several aisles away from where they have been the past ten years. 

All schools in OH are closed til April 3.  I'm predicting an impressive increase in vandalism and other such crime by teenagers with nothing else to do.  Kind of like about 15 years ago when the city quickly shut down basically all extra curricular activities due to budget issues. 

Not to mention the massive issue of what the parents of all these kids will do with their work/childcare balance being blown out of the water.  So do 35% of the nursing staff (made up number) just call off now because their kids are off with no childcare available? 

I'm thinking things may get sporty this weekend. 

In reply to Knurled. :

If I have some water, I'm good. I'm not gonna pass out touching my bunghole. 

gearheadmb said:

My wife and I have been talking a lot about whether all of this is an over reaction. Maybe this sickness isn't bad enough to justify all this hullabaloo. What occurred to me is that we haven't had a major pandemic in modern times. So even if it's not that bad maybe a sickness containment dry run isn't such a bad thing. So when the big one does hit we have some idea how to handle it.

That's a point I had not thought about! I doubt most will learn much, though, or they would already thought about such things.

Won't affect me as bad as some; don't live in the city, and I'm close to the "traditional" family... Mom is a "housewife", and Dad earns the income. We have our own water source, although loss of electricity would be tough. I wouldn't expect this to get that far, but wouldn't have expected long term school closings either!

I do agree that the single parents and dual income family's are going to have a hard time through this, and It's almost impossible to survive our economy in a "traditional" style home, but that's a whole 'nother can-o-worms.

Folks. Please. We are all friends on this forum, and I love all of you. Please take a break from this thread. Do something else. Have dinner. Have a beer or two. Watch a movie. Browse other threads on this forum. Just take your mind off it for a bit. So, after dinner at Fresco's in West Warwick, Annie suggested a movie tonight. So we watched JoJo Rabbit. Good movie, and it made me think that although we think we have a problem now, others have had it much worse. But at least it put things in perspective for me. Please, take a break.

pres589 (djronnebaum) said:

What I don't get is that these bans of so many people don't seem to extend to workplaces, just... concerts and parades?  I imagine the clamp will tighten but to what degree I don't know. 

In the meantime I'll be commuting on the MARC train as usual because driving here after work is a source of anxiety.

I suspect the driving is going to be a lot less of an issue with less traffic.....

And through all this the preppers aren’t looking so crazy now?

This thing is aerosolized and it lasts a while. If my anecdotal evidence wasn't enough they are releasing a study showing it.

https://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/487110-tests-indicate-coronavirus-can-survive-in-the-air

A study awaiting peer review from scientists at Princeton University, the University of California-Los Angeles and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) posted online Wednesday indicated that the COVID-19 virus could remain viable in the air "up to 3 hours post aerosolization," while remaining alive on plastic and other surfaces for up to three days.

In reply to drainoil :

Don't exactly need a fallout shelter, nor is this the zombie apocalypse, or the actual failure of society- just that we are all being asked to stay home and not interact with each other for a few weeks.

Even with the worst scenarios, while a HUGE amount of people, relative to the total population, it's still not a lot.  

It's not the end of the world.

We just cancelled our Phoenix spring break trip.  I'm personally prone to anxiety and worry but my wife is level headed.  Even she admits that Driving 30 hrs away from home with a complete unknown of what society will do after 10 days of no entertainment is concerning.  Our school district says the kids will be back March 23rd unless the governor puts rules in place that forbid it.  We will see how it goes.  Strange times.  We have 3-4 weeks worth of food/supplies but I need to go get perishables if available as we were planning on leaving so Milk/fruit/bread run attempt will be made tonight.  

Plan is to make a big Menards run Saturday morning and spend spring break building a playfort with the kids so we will make limeaid out of this yet.  I'll probably buy some Corona to throw them a bone.  This has not been good to their bottom line.

My GF and I are still driving up to Maine week after next, barring full-blown plague apocalypse. We're both introverts, so spending a week with each other and minimal other human contact was the plan anyway. Much lower population density up that way too.

I did some grocery shopping today. Plenty of TP was available, but prices for everything, from bread to frozen food was up a little from the last time I shopped. I paid more attention to people than I usually do. Things like the woman who habitually licked her fingers before reaching for items on the shelf. The person ahead of me in checkout that wiped her nose, then used the keypad for her debit card. I did notice more people using the sanitizing wipes on their carts.

Pay attention to where your hands go. Clean them before you pick your nose, or rub your eyes, then clean them again after.

Like a lot of people, kids are going to be at home. They extended spring break by another week and there is talk of not doing any in person classes for my daughter at college and I suspect they don't want them in the dorms at all. Weird way to finish the year. They sent my coworker home (without pay) because he had contact 10 days ago with someone who tested positive yesterday. Is it loose in the shop? Maybe. We'll see. 

I'm just curious about 2 things.  I'm not trying to scare anybody or freak out.

1) is this possibly a manmade illness?

2) when you recover from this are there any long term side effects?  Will people turn into zombies like 6 months down the road?

It's weird that there is no information for how to handle this if you get it and what to do after.

This account matches up with what the infectious disease expert on Rogan was saying two days ago.

Italy’s Health Care System Groans Under Coronavirus — a Warning to the World https://nyti.ms/3cQroLw