COVID-19 Novel Coronavirus pandemic

[KimTisha]

This is one of the things that gives me nightmares. <snip> But what about the folks in your position? The self employed, the part timers, the ones with no leave or insurance? Apparently many cases are mild a little fever, a cough. You going to tell me people are going to trot down to the ER and pay for a test out of pocket? Gonna self quarantine just in case? No. They're gonna keep soldiering on and infect everyone at the early bird special...

As badly as Ron Regan botched the AIDS crises (and he did botch it) it's a hard disease to catch, you've got to share bodily fluids... But this is much easier to spread with casual or no contact.

Honestly, I'm really not worried about COVID19 - I'm worried about the overreaction to it. Our fanatically detailed preparations are directly related to geography and career choice (old habits and all that), not from any fear of a viral apocalypse. That said, I'm a huge proponent of personal preparedness plans for any emergency and heartily endorse the suggestions here. When chaos ensues, the only person you can really depend on is yourself, so you better have a plan (however simple) to do it.

I'm immunocompromised, so me + any virus = whether it's Corona, the flu, or "The 24 hr Bug." COVID19 is just another cootie I have to avoid, and I avoid cooties like, well.... like that other famous pandemic, The Plague.

I'm also old enough to have worked (at the federal level) on the government's response to SARS/H1N1/MERS/Avian/Swine/[insert latest pan(dem)ic here]. So while the general public might feel unprepared and vulnerable, I find comfort in knowing that every level of our government (fed/state/local), along with the medical/business communities, have been thinking about this for decades. There are Plans - tens of thousands of pages of plans that have been written, coordinated, exercised, executed, and rewritten to incorporate lessons learned. As we speak, thousands of people are operationalizing those plans. Are they fool-proof? Absolutely not. Will people die? Probably, there are no absolutes as evidenced by our inability to prevent an estimated 30k+ influenza deaths a year. But every year our emergency management capabilities evolve and increase with advances in science/medicine/technology. We've learned so much and we've come so far. I feel a helluva lot better about the government's ability to provide critical services for COVID19 in 2020, than I did about SARS in 2002 or H1N1 in 2009. I don't anticipate supply shortages much worse than hurricane/blizzard season - mostly caused by hoarding, not actual need.

I should add that it might not be readily apparent that your community/school/health dept/hospital is operationalizing their plan, even if you work there yourself. Plans aren't only executed by people in HazMat suits. Emergency response consists of detailed action sets that address escalating and triggering events from the mundane to the dramatic. Something as seemingly random as awareness campaigns, Travel Warnings, or "10 Things You Should Know About COVID19" blog posts on a hospital's website, are evidence of plan execution. Don't think for a minute that it's 'all they're doing.' Everybody has a role, some roles are more visible than others.

My Advice: Keep Calm, Wash Your Hands, Prepare for Annoying Disruptions

[puzzld]

Yeah, I think this is one of the times living in hurricaneville helps us.

Honestly, I'm really not worried about COVID19 - I'm worried about the overreaction to it. Our fanatically detailed preparations are directly related to geography and career choice (old habits and all that), not from any fear of a viral apocalypse. That said, I'm a huge proponent of personal preparedness plans for any emergency and heartily endorse the suggestions here. When chaos ensues, the only person you can really depend on is yourself, so you better have a plan (however simple) to do it.

I'm immunocompromised, so me + any virus = whether it's Corona, the flu, or "The 24 hr Bug." COVID19 is just another cootie I have to avoid, and I avoid cooties like, well.... like that other famous pandemic, The Plague.

I'm also old enough to have worked (at the federal level) on the government's response to SARS/H1N1/MERS/Avian/Swine/[insert latest pan(dem)ic here]. So while the general public might feel unprepared and vulnerable, I find comfort in knowing that every level of our government (fed/state/local), along with the medical/business communities, have been thinking about this for decades. There are Plans - tens of thousands of pages of plans that have been written, coordinated, exercised, executed, and rewritten to incorporate lessons learned. As we speak, thousands of people are operationalizing those plans. Are they fool-proof? Absolutely not. Will people die? Probably, there are no absolutes as evidenced by our inability to prevent an estimated 30k+ influenza deaths a year. But every year our emergency management capabilities evolve and increase with advances in science/medicine/technology. We've learned so much and we've come so far. I feel a helluva lot better about the government's ability to provide critical services for COVID19 in 2020, than I did about SARS in 2002 or H1N1 in 2009. I don't anticipate supply shortages much worse than hurricane/blizzard season - mostly caused by hoarding, not actual need.

I should add that it might not be readily apparent that your community/school/health dept/hospital is operationalizing their plan, even if you work there yourself. Plans aren't only executed by people in HazMat suits. Emergency response consists of detailed action sets that address escalating and triggering events from the mundane to the dramatic. Something as seemingly random as awareness campaigns, Travel Warnings, or "10 Things You Should Know About COVID19" blog posts on a hospital's website, are evidence of plan execution. Don't think for a minute that it's 'all they're doing.' Everybody has a role, some roles are more visible than others.

My Advice: Keep Calm, Wash Your Hands, Prepare for Annoying Disruptions

Well I hope you're right, but based on what we've seen so far, I suspect that a whole crapton of people will get sick, most only mildly sick, like they do from a cold of the flu, but that a bunch of people with immune system problems will be more than just mildly sick and since everyone in my household has immune system problems... I take it a little more seriously than the young and healthy might... and as I said in an earlier post, I've seen the ptb blow responses to epidemics before. HIV for one. Gun violence, Opioids... We also don't bother to treat people for things that are very curable if they don't have the money. We just don't seem to care that people die needlessly. (Not just the government, but the public as a whole. I don't need no stinkin flu (measles, chicken pox, DPT) shot. So what if my reckless disregard harms others. I can't imagine that the waitstaff making $3 per hour, plus tips is going to give up a days pay (still yet 3 weeks) because they have a little fever and I can't imagine the boss is going to hold their job... so they aren't going to abide by whatever grand plan the local authorities try to enforce. And as for expecting the current administration to step up and do the job previous administrations have done with the alphabet soup of previous threats? I don't feel like either Trump or Pence could find their own ass with both hands. And being as they'll can anyone who says anything that reflects badly on them... DOOMED we're DOOMED.

ahem excuse me. No I don't think this is some 1918 level threat, but it's going to do a great deal of harm to a lot of people. I used to have a lot of faith in the CDC and the other governmental agencies, (Mom was a fed for her whole working life) but now? Eh, not much.

[KimTisha]

Well I hope you're right, but based on what we've seen so far, I suspect that a whole crapton of people will get sick, most only mildly sick, like they do from a cold of the flu, but that a bunch of people with immune system problems will be more than just mildly sick and since everyone in my household has immune system problems... I take it a little more seriously than the young and healthy might...

I'm old and have autoimmune problems as well, so I can certainly appreciate this. In a strange way, I feel like it gives me a slight advantage in this situation because I already take more than basic precautions to avoid cooties, and I'm much more aware than your average Joe. It isn't something I have to train myself to remember to do, I don't get careless - it's deeply ingrained habit. So if there's a silver lining to AI problems, I guess that's it.

Your concerns are all valid, of course and I share many of them, although I don't think we're DOOMED (maybe lower case doomed, or maybe even domed). I do expect we will see many, many more cases and possibly, many deaths. I guess I'm just not afeared of the new threat because the world has always been a teeming mass of communicable disease in my eyes. I've been giving coughing waitresses and runny-nosed cashiers the side eye long before corona and hope to be doing so long after.

Besides, I have important things to worry about. Did you hear my neighbor stole my garbage can? Didja? Huh, didja?

[puzzld]

Besides, I have important things to worry about. Did you hear my neighbor stole my garbage can? Didja? Huh, didja?

You should have called "solid waste enforcement." Seriously, it's a thing here. Within the last 10 years or so the city garbage dept (sorry, Solid Waste Division) switch to an automated pickup system where you are issued one of several standard sized containers. All your trash, not including yard waste must fit in your standard can. If you have too much you will be billed extra, too little and you can ask for a smaller can (with smaller bill). Fine. So my friend all of a sudden started getting billed for overfilling her can, which she was not. Shortly before this started, she had been considering requesting the small can because she seldom more than half filled her can. So she had her housebound son start watching the can on garbage day and sure enough, her scummy neighbors were sneaking over after she left for work and adding trash to her can and to several other cans in the neighborhood. Well! So she called SWE and asked what they could do about this. Next week a man showed up just ahead of the garbage truck and inspected all the cans in the neighborhood. Apparently found bills, junk mail etc., belonging to scummy neighbors in many of the cans. That very day, SN got a new very large (the biggest residential sized can) delivered to their house along with a corresponding increased bill. The Garbage inspector called my friend and thanked her for her assistance as garbage scoff laws are taken seriously.

[KimTisha]

You should have called "solid waste enforcement." Seriously, it's a thing here. Within the last 10 years or so the city garbage dept (sorry, Solid Waste Division) switch to an automated pickup system where you are issued one of several standard sized containers. All your trash, not including yard waste must fit in your standard can. If you have too much you will be billed extra, too little and you can ask for a smaller can (with smaller bill). Fine. So my friend all of a sudden started getting billed for overfilling her can, which she was not. Shortly before this started, she had been considering requesting the small can because she seldom more than half filled her can. So she had her housebound son start watching the can on garbage day and sure enough, her scummy neighbors were sneaking over after she left for work and adding trash to her can and to several other cans in the neighborhood. Well! So she called SWE and asked what they could do about this. Next week a man showed up just ahead of the garbage truck and inspected all the cans in the neighborhood. Apparently found bills, junk mail etc., belonging to scummy neighbors in many of the cans. That very day, SN got a new very large (the biggest residential sized can) delivered to their house along with a corresponding increased bill. The Garbage inspector called my friend and thanked her for her assistance as garbage scoff laws are taken seriously.

Holy crap, that's some serious enforcement right there! If we had something like that I wouldn't have to resort to the passive-aggressive desecration of my trash can with paint and permanent markers to make it less attractive to my thieving neighbor.

[puzzld]

Holy crap, that's some serious enforcement right there! If we had something like that I wouldn't have to resort to the passive-aggressive desecration of my trash can with paint and permanent markers to make it less attractive to my thieving neighbor.

Jerry takes things seriously. I'm sure he'd have done DNA and fingerprints if it had been necessary to prove his case. But to be fair scummy neighbors were lazy and just put their trash on top. If they'd had the sense to bury it or to throw things with addresses in their own can they would have been harder to catch.

HMMM I wonder if we could put him in charge of coronavirus testing and quarantine enforcement?

[curiouscat]

I got an ivermectin Facebook group removed. Yay!

[Boston Babe 73]

I got an ivermectin Facebook group removed. Yay!

[Nic B]

I got an ivermectin Facebook group removed. Yay!

Dammit I just started that one!