The Virus - Are You Affected?

[steve_bank]

I live in the downtown Seattle area.

Pikes Place Market which is usually packed with tourists and locals is reported to be deserted. The streetcar I take for grocery shopping is typically full, not so much now.

In my apartment building the cleaning crew will be periodically disinfecting common areas. All group activities and trips are cancelled. We are asked to limit visitors.

Local reporting is that a point where pro active testing will be impossible due to numbers and then it will be quarantine of cases as they seek atention.

A local school was closed for disinfecting after a student tested positive.

We are being told Searle is ground zero.

 

[Derec]

Three cases in Fulton County, a couple who traveled to Italy and a high schooler. So not much activity.

 

[steve_bank]

We had a news conference with local, state, and CDC officials.

It is thought it will spread beyond capacity to trace infection paths and contacts. At that point people will be isolated as they show up.

A motel has been purchased to serve as an isolation facility.

 

[Trausti]

I live in the downtown Seattle area.

Pikes Place Market which is usually packed with tourists and locals is reported to be deserted. The streetcar I take for grocery shopping is typically full, not so much now.

In my apartment building the cleaning crew will be periodically disinfecting common areas. All group activities and trips are cancelled. We are asked to limit visitors.

Local reporting is that a point where pro active testing will be impossible due to numbers and then it will be quarantine of cases as they seek atention.

A local school was closed for disinfecting after a student tested positive.

We are being told Searle is ground zero.

Heh, and I thought it was because of the crime and lousy city government. The Starbucks on Third and Pike closed. But I guess the virus scare will do.

 

[Politesse]

My relatives in Renton are under an effective gentle quarantine following the discovery of a case in their neighborhood; they live in an assisted living facility, and it is not accepting visitors or encouraging excursions.

Things aren't as extreme here, though my county has now had its first confirmed cases. I do notice a distinct reduction in auto and foot traffic, which is a bit eerie, and I've noticed more hostile treatment of the homeless population in the last few days, as though they needed another burden to bear.

But emptying of shelves, stockpiling, panicking, that sort of thing I have not seen. We've heard nothing at all from health officials or the like. My college has yet to form any kind of meaningful response plan, so I guess they are playing it by ear? My partner's place of work is encouraging work from homes and discouraging business visits for a time.

 

[bleubird]

My city gets over 900,000 visitors every summer.Most come on cruise ships.Princess is one of the major players here.The crews are mostly non US .

 

[T.G.G. Moogly]

I'm over 60 so I scheduled to get a pneumonia vax. No cases yet in my state.

 

[Treedbear]

1,000 Who May Have Been Exposed To Coronavirus Are Quarantining In Westchester

About 1,000 people in Westchester County who may have been exposed to the coronavirus are being quarantined or self-quarantined to combat the rapid spread of coronavirus after a 50-year-old attorney from New Rochelle was hospitalized with the virus.

The quarantines are scheduled to last 14 days, and health department officials are monitoring those involved to make sure they are observing the quarantine.

So the government is already stepping in to enforce quarantines.

 

[southernhybrid]

We don't know of any cases here locally, but that really doesn't mean anything. We shopped at a Publix Grocery store yesterday, which is a bit closer to Atlanta. The store was very empty, but it could have been the weather. We've been having lots of rain here lately. Oddly enough, the majority of shoppers were older people, including us. We washed our hands in he rest rooms before shoo-ins and after we finished shopping. That might be overkill, but we're trying to get in practice, if things get a lot worse.

Oh, I forgot. The senior center was as busy as usual yesterday, and my exercise group was as full as usual. Maybe the women realize that aerobic exercise helps boost the immune system. But, I do sort of wish that my friends would temporarily stop all the hugging. I love their hugs, but maybe we shouldn't be so affectionate while this epidemic is developing. At least nobody touched anyone else's hands. And, nobody coughed or sneezed.

I voted yesterday in early voting. There were only three people in the building, but they had a huge bottle of hand sanitizer next to the machines. I waited till I got home because soap and water is much better and I still had to touch the machine where the ballots go and the door handle. How paranoid will we all become before this thing ends?

 

[TSwizzle]

I haven't noticed anything different in my day to day activities in LA, traffic seems the same. A "state of emergency" has been invoked by governor Newsom in California. Something like three homeless people a day die on the streets of Los Angeles over the past few years and nothing is done. Newsom is a prick of the highest order. But in any event, the California tourist industry will start to suffer soon as places like Disneyland and Six Flags will see fewer people.

 

[Gun Nut]

Nothing happening in Denver.
My wife returned from a business trip in California last week with the Flu. Out of concern for others and our animals we got her tested at the local urgent care facility and it is confirmed it was just Influenza A.

 

[TV and credit cards]

Don’t forget to wipe down your steering wheel and shift knob with disinfecting wipes. You might as well be driving your car with a public toilet seat.

 

[Keith&Co.]

How paranoid will we all become before this thing ends?

I suddenly imagine Grandpa Simpson: "So, we tied jugs of disinfectant wipes to our belts, which was the fashion at the time, plugged our noses with Vaseline, and walked to town, maintaining a Personal Virus Space of one meter between each of us.
"Mike started to sneeze uncontrollably so we set him aflame. Tommy wondered if we should shoot him, but we decided to save the bullets for the looters out to steal our facemasks."

 

[prideandfall]

How paranoid will we all become before this thing ends?

exactly as paranoid as we were when swine flu was going to end the world.
or when bird flu was going to end the world.
or when SARS was going to end the world.
or when MERS was going to end the world.
or when whatever other stupid retarded fucking slight variation on a god damn cold was supposedly going to end the world.

fucking dosequisvirus has like a 20% higher mortality rate than the normal flu. it's literally nothing.
the human race will collectively shit its pants for another couple of weeks until reality continues to assert that nothing is wrong, and then completely forget about it.

 

[Politesse]

How paranoid will we all become before this thing ends?

exactly as paranoid as we were when swine flu was going to end the world.
or when bird flu was going to end the world.
or when SARS was going to end the world.
or when MERS was going to end the world.
or when whatever other stupid retarded fucking slight variation on a god damn cold was supposedly going to end the world.

fucking dosequisvirus has like a 20% higher mortality rate than the normal flu. it's literally nothing.
the human race will collectively shit its pants for another couple of weeks until reality continues to assert that nothing is wrong, and then completely forget about it.

See, you're decrying "stupidity" but also unable to tell the difference between influenza, rhinovirus, and coronavirus...

And also seemingly unaware of just how many people do in fact die from flu and MERS infections...

I think people are just as upset from losing someone to a common illness as an uncommon one.

 

[southernhybrid]

How paranoid will we all become before this thing ends?

exactly as paranoid as we were when swine flu was going to end the world.
or when bird flu was going to end the world.
or when SARS was going to end the world.
or when MERS was going to end the world.
or when whatever other stupid retarded fucking slight variation on a god damn cold was supposedly going to end the world.

fucking dosequisvirus has like a 20% higher mortality rate than the normal flu. it's literally nothing.
the human race will collectively shit its pants for another couple of weeks until reality continues to assert that nothing is wrong, and then completely forget about it.

Actually, I've never seen a reaction like this one when any of those diseases were threatening. The stock market and fears of a global recession were never a worry prior to this particular infection. Plus we haven't had a real pandemic since the 1918 flu epidemic. I'm not suggesting we should all be paranoid and fearful, but the reaction to this virus is unlike anything I've ever seen before. If the number of infections suddenly decreases, I agree we will get back to normal but I don't think we know yet if that is going to happen in the near future. Perhaps, it's just a reaction to the unknown that's making people react like they are.

 

[Loren Pechtel]

A run on the stores. I rarely get into the tourist areas to see what is going on there.

 

[steve_bank]

There does not appear to a run on stores around here, except hand sanitizer and masks.

I just bought a few weeks worth of non perishable food in case I am sick for a while and can't go out.. Rice, beans, canned salmon. And of course plenty of coffee.

I have a ticket to the Seattle Symphony tomorrow night and I can't give it away.

 

[prideandfall]

See, you're decrying "stupidity" but also unable to tell the difference between influenza, rhinovirus, and coronavirus...

And also seemingly unaware of just how many people do in fact die from flu and MERS infections...

and you're seemingly unaware of the concept of dismissive sarcasm, so there's that.

I think people are just as upset from losing someone to a common illness as an uncommon one.

and? people die all the time, it's what people do.

 

[prideandfall]

Actually, I've never seen a reaction like this one when any of those diseases were threatening. The stock market and fears of a global recession were never a worry prior to this particular infection. Plus we haven't had a real pandemic since the 1918 flu epidemic. I'm not suggesting we should all be paranoid and fearful, but the reaction to this virus is unlike anything I've ever seen before. If the number of infections suddenly decreases, I agree we will get back to normal but I don't think we know yet if that is going to happen in the near future. Perhaps, it's just a reaction to the unknown that's making people react like they are.

which is one of the several reasons why it's so hilariously retarded - because this is just another insignificant blip in the history of diseases, and everyone is going ape shit over it.
but i find public panic to be incredibly amusing, so of course i'm dismissive and entertained by the whole thing.

but on a purely pragmatic level this new outbreak isn't any deadlier or more contagious than any of the other strains that popped up in the last 20 years that the human race collective lost its shit over.
if it wasn't for news agencies pushing it constantly nobody would even know it exists. it's not prolific in terms of diseases, and if you catch it it has a risk of serious complications or mortality comparable to that of the flu.
the point being: this isn't something where you catch it and then your spleen slips out of your butt and you die in 3 days, at the absolute worst it's a new flu contemporary, and the level of panic about it is so disproportionate to the threat it's in that sweet spot between staggering and comical.