How's everyone doing?

Miscellaneous Blather
#1

I wanted to start a discussion just to check in on everyone who wants to talk about how they’re handling the COVID-19 situation or, eventually, just life in general.

I’m in southern New Hampshire, which is largely unaffected at this point, but some people are still losing their minds and emptying the grocery stores. My Facebook feed is a mix of people trying to talk reasonably about “flattening the curve” in the US and others blasting what they see as an overreaction, reinforcing the idea that I should really just delete Facebook for the sake of my mental health.

I teach at a university, one of the many to transition to virtual classes, so I’m scrambling to figure out the “best” way to do my job online in the hopes my students don’t lose too much.

I’m irrationally (I hope) worried about my one son with asthma, because I’m sure he’d be hospitalized if he caught the virus. He and his twin brother spent 10 days in Boston Children’s Hospital when they were little with an unidentified respiratory virus (my wife suspects it was H1N1, which hadn’t yet been widely identified), and I have no desire to repeat that experience.

And, I know there are literally millions of people in much worse shape than I am at the moment and hope they all come through this OK.

So … how’s everyone else doing?

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#2

Doing ok so far up here in Vancouver, BC. I’m trying not to worry too much, but some days are better than others.

I work at a university too (though I don’t teach), so there’s all the talk about moving online and whether we’re going to be closing, etc.

Thankfully (maybe a Canadian thing), we’ve been told that if we feel we have to self-isolate for precautionary reasons, we won’t have to use our sick time or vacation time and we will be paid. And if we do get sent home because we’re closing, we will still be paid.

My wife works at the hospital so she says she’s always at risk. Not much she can do right now, she has to go to work. So we have kind of a fatalistic “whatever happens happens” feeling about it.

We’re still fairly young (right around 50), so if we end up getting it, we’ll just isolate ourselves (or go into quarantine or whatever) and hopefully just be done with it at that point once it has run its course. Make sure we don’t infect others.

Right now, we’re feeling fine so no signs of it.

But who knows? Things are changing almost on an hourly basis, so you just have to wait and see.

And try not to worry.

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#3

My wife works in a hospital so we are bound to get it at some point. Just trying to stay as healthy as possible. My big concern right now is that my kids’ schools are going to close and spring break will be a month long.

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#4

Trying to stay healthy. The recommendation to keep 14 days of supplies predates the recent situation, so fortunately I’m not in a situation where I’m in dire need of toilet paper. In the past I used to keep just one roll as an emergency spare, but I’ve gotten better about keeping a spare pack of rolls now. :slightly_smiling_face:

More concerned about my father, than myself. He lives in Florida, and is diabetic. For many, the symptoms are mild, but it’s more dangerous for the elderly, especially those with underlying conditions like diabetes.

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#5

We don’t like to go to the big Superstore where we buy our toilet paper, so we always buy a lot so we only have to go twice a year.

We did that the weekend before we flew out to Dice Tower West, so we have something like 70 rolls now. :slight_smile:

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#6

In Germany currently, it is a mixed situation.
The Southwest were I live is rising fast in new cases in the past couple of days, mostly by vacation returnees from Italy, which has the second-highest case number after China. Its been a month since I saw toilet paper on sale on our local store but everything else is pretty stocked up aside from hand sanitizers.
But people didn’t care much for the situation until start of march and now after prolonged phases of inaction, the gears are starting to churn. Stuttgart (Capital City of Southwestern Germany) has issued a forced closure of museums, bars and the like, Public transportation is starting to shut down and Schools are being closed all over the country starting next week. I believe the groceries will be finally hit hard as well as resupplying will get more infrequent as supply chains get strained.
On a personal note, I have difficulties setting up interviews for a job since companies go into hibernation/home office maintenance mode.

I am less scared of the Virus than of the economic ramifications short/mid and longterm right now.
Also pissed of about the “it will all end well soon enough” non-response on the political side until
the very end.
https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/ Shows for example that Japan, a country practically on the doorstep of china is handling the situation comparatively well in direct comparison to Germany. The prime minister there closed down all schools nationwide 2 weeks ago despite getting hit hard by criticism over that decision. While the last two, three weeks all you heard from our “leaders” it is fine, no we don’t have to close down anything. We are pretty preparedyaddayadda, meanwhile, Italy goes on a nationwide lockdown.

Anyways I am ranting.
TL,DR: Still fine, slightly pessimistic what the next weeks will bring to light.

Edit:

Exactly. All the conspiracy theorists and “Its fine it only hits “old and weak people”” forget about their parents, grandparents and that “weak” in this case means a WIDE range of people because of widespread Diabetes, Asthma, Heart and Respiratory diseases and hypertension in our current race demographic.

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#7

In northern NJ here, about 10 miles west of NYC and it’s full on panic mode. Grocery stores are pretty empty of everything, not just essentials; public schools and houses of worship are closing, and large scale events are cancelled.

They closed my eldest’s elementary school for “planning” today with “an update to follow this weekend.” I’d be surprised if they opened come Monday, with the anticipation of a closure through spring break. If that occurred, we’d probably pull my youngest out of daycare too - at least they can entertain (translated: kill) each other.

I’ve been in training all week so haven’t been to work, but have been in multiple phone meetings, etc. This is going to be a public safety mess, as if we all weren’t aware of that already. We’ve cancelled all leaves and restricted out of state travel for our personnel, but if our members start getting sick we’ll be faced with a personnel shortage very quickly. May have to go to a longer work shift and no days off if that occurs, but hopefully not because of the morale considerations in that equation.

Definitely worried about the kids catching it, although thankfully they’re both healthy. Big concern is my folks and in-laws, as they’re all late 60’s, and my father is a lifetime smoker.

Silver lining in all of this is that the Governor ordered that any public employees (my wife Is an assistant prosecutor) forced to stay home for childcare will still be paid without using sick or vacation time.

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#8

UK here.

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#9

Idiot that I am, I forgot to include my concern for my parents and in-laws … but they are all pretty isolated, so hopefully they won’t be exposed. Heck, each of my parents have lived alone for almost 20 years …

That’s a concern for me as well. Not sure my wife and I have stockpiled enough alcohol to get through that situation.

Hmm, that sounds familiar …

:flushed:

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#10

You gotta love the Brits, they’ve seen it all …

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#11

Thanks for starting this thread. Here in the Bay Area, it’s been full-on loopy nutburgers for a month at this point. I mean, more so than usual.

Grocery stores are hit or miss as far as whether they have anything, but most things seem available if you go in the morning on a weekday. People seem to be escalating in their panic-mindedness, however, and I expect another round of empty shelves soon.

Just yesterday my son’s preschool sent out a message saying they were staying open, yet this morning I got the distinct impression that they are about to announce today that they will be closing (for at least 3 weeks, by my guess). I work from home, and my wife’s org told everyone to work from home as of last week, so it will be a crowded house for a while (and not in the “Don’t Dream it’s Over” way).

From everything I’ve read, kids are either not getting sick or getting such low level symptoms as to be undetected, so I’m not very worried about my son in that regard, but I’m friends with some older folks and am worried about them and my wife’s parents.

Some things I’ve learned from medical friends to keep in mind: Stats from South Korea, the country with perhaps the most comprehensive testing program, give some hope: how many people there under 30 have died? Zero. How many people under 40? One. How many under 50? One.

Also, the current case number in the US is likely much higher than what is being assumed since we are testing very sparsely (for idiotic reasons I won’t get into). Conversely, since all deaths attributed to the virus are very widely reported, the mortality numbers among infected are close to accurate and therefore the percentage rate of mortality is much lower than we’re estimating.

And what little testing we are doing is in no way statistically representative because it is not random, but focused on people who show symptoms (and their contacts). Severe cases are therefore over-represented in the data we have.

One last thing to keep in mind in the coming weeks–no matter what stats people start throwing at us, we will not be able to distinguish between an actual increase in cases and the results of improved testing. This is because both will be happenning in parallel. With better and more widespread testing, we’ll certainly detect more cases, but we won’t know whether that equates to more actual existing cases in three weeks than the number of existing cases we have right now. So it’s going to begin to look like case numbers are rising, and they might be, but not at the rate widespread testing will suggest (because our current baseline is so inaccurate).

I don’t know if any of that is helpful to you, but it made me feel somehow better : /

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#12

I am very much not an alarmist, so I have my own opinions about some of the hysteria. That said, my opinions don’t really mean much when everything else around me is shutting down.

We got a call from my 1st grader’s school yesterday that they planned on staying open, but we got a call today that informed us they will be closed until April 6. So hooray for that.

My wife went shopping today and I feel like I should have been there to keep her in check a little. We have enough toilet paper to last a decade and enough bleach to kill every bacteria on the planet. The worst part is that she completely forgot all the bourbon I will need being cooped up for three weeks with my kids. Plus, you can kill germs with it.

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#13

We should start a whiskey thread…

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#14

In Brooklyn here. My work went full remote at the beginning of the week, but I already worked remote about half the time anyway. My wife was at the grocery store today and she said it was busy, but not crazy.

We have been slowly stocking up on canned foods and freezing meats and bred and stuff since Jan. just a little at a time, so by now I think I have a month or more of food saved. That was really my only concern.

NYC schools are open next week as of now, but, they sent a note home today talking about having digital homework and other resources available online. So it looks like they are preparing to shut our school district down sometime soon.

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#15

I’m in the South Island of New Zealand, and there’s been no confirmed cases here. There were 5 cases on the north island from people returning from virus hot spots, and now hundreds up there in self isolation. My family is somewhat prepared as we are on a earthquake fault line but we are stepping up our supplies. I can work in a solitary way, and if the schools close my partner will be at home for the kids as she works at the school. I can’t make any promises for what her mental health will be like with the kids at home though.

The government and community groups have been proactive in shutting down gatherings. My work cancelled it’s biennial family day. Some sports are still being played, but in front of empty stadiums. The Pasifika festival has been canceled, a wise decision considering how devastating covid-19 would be to otherwise isolated islander communities. A very hard decision has just been made to cancel the 1st anniversary commemoration of the 15th March mosque shootings. I don’t envy the decision makers but I think theyve done the right thing.

On a personal note, while I’m sure my immediate family unit will be fine, I worry for our other close loved ones. My partner works one on one with a girl with a compromised immune system. Likewise, my father is immune compromised, needs regular hospital treatment, and lives in Spain. There’s many covid-19 cases there. If one thing doesn’t get him, it’ll be the other. I might not ever get to see him again, so…yeah. Just keep fighting old boy.

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#16

Yeah, those with compromised immune systems I really feel badly for.

But one thing I think is cool with this thread is that we’re finding out where everybody is! While some people were obvious (I think I’ve said I’m from Vancouver a bunch of times), I had no idea you were in New Zealand.

I’m really liking that aspect of this thread.

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#17

Northern Illinois, since I’m sure I didn’t hint at it at all.

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#18

Hesen, Germany. Not the most affected state, but next door is Nordrhein-Westfalen, which is rather sniffly and virus-y. I was due to travel for work to Austria and Switzerland next week and that’s been very firmly cancelled. So far so calm here, no reports of panic buying locally, although it was much quieter than usual in our local town last night when I went to collect our Friday-night sushi takeout.

I am fully expecting work-from-home instructions to come in early next week. Everyone with a laptop has been told to take it home every night and support staff who normally use desktops have been given laptops.

On the plus side, the first 14 infectees in Bavaria have officially recovered, which makes the whole thing slightly less apocalyptic.

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#19

And, as expected, the town in which we live closed public schools for two weeks with some other districts closing through spring break (mid April). My wife is fortunate enough to be able to work from home without repercussions other than perhaps her sanity.

Made the mistake of going to Costco yesterday, as we actually needed food and laundry detergent, etc. It was like nothing I’ve ever seen before, even including Hurricane Sandy a few years back. Empty shelves, lines for bottled water, and checkout lines to the back of the store. On the plus side, people seemed more polite than usual and there was no one parking their cart in the middle of the aisle to shove a sample in their face. Small victories, I suppose.

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#20

I’ve not seen people buying like this before. It’s not panic per se, but people are definitely stocking up.

Shout out to the chap yesterday with 72 tins of beans in his trolley.

Everyone’s buying more and shelves are getting emptied. Events are cancelling now, and some places are closing for the duration. I think for the majority of this country this is the first actual serious event they’ve ever faced, and apart from some idiots giving it the “In my day we had Spanish flu.” crap, it’s a jarring experience and they’re taking it seriously.

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