The Virus - Are You Affected?

[ruby sparks]

It's hitting here but nothing dramatic so far, unless you were unlucky enough to get the virus. Stern warnings about what's ahead though. No one has yet retracted the official estimate that at least 70% of the population will likely be infected at some point.

My wife was in northern Italy a few weeks ago, came back, had some flu/cough symptoms, got tested and was given the all-clear. Youngest daughter got out of Madrid two days ago and flew home. Madrid is badly hit and may even be closed tomorrow. Eldest daughter is in Melbourne and is staying put.

 

[funinspace]

Amazingly, I still have Trumpster trash relatives still making FaceBook jokes about this on Facebook as of yesterday. And both sides of their family have mothers in their 80's with 'pre-existing conditions' that elevate their risk further... I guess Fox news and other shitbag websites keep them in line...

 

[Politesse]

It's official, I'm an online-only instructor now. My department decided to jump the gun and move all our classes digital before the school as a whole follows suit, though with new reports of infected students, I suspect it was only a matter of a few day's difference anyhow. Will still be going into work today, but just to have a meeting and set up for the remainder of the term.

 

[rousseau]

My parents are also in Portugal right now, cutting their trip short by about four weeks and coming home in the next few days. If there is any genuine concern on my end it's about one of them getting infected, but more particularly my dad. He hasn't been in the best shape for the past year or two so I suspect the virus could hit him hard.

 

[ZiprHead]

For the next few weeks, I'm planning on using the in-store shoppers for our groceries. Both Kroger's and Meijer offer the service. you pick your groceries from their website. Store personnel gather them up for you, you pay on-line. They bring them out to the car and put them in the trunk for you. Easy-peasy. Only costs five bucks.

I suggest others do the same.

 

[TSwizzle]

My parents are also in Portugal right now, cutting their trip short by about four weeks and coming home in the next few days. If there is any genuine concern on my end it's about one of them getting infected, but more particularly my dad. He hasn't been in the best shape for the past year or two so I suspect the virus could hit him hard.

Is that wise ? Depending where they are in Portugal I would have thought it be less risk to stay put rather than travel.

 

[TV and credit cards]

My sister the preemie nurse was going to fly in to visit my 85 year old ailing mother. I was going to ask her to reconsider but thought she might take it the wrong way. She text last night to cancel. Good idea, sis.

 

[rousseau]

My parents are also in Portugal right now, cutting their trip short by about four weeks and coming home in the next few days. If there is any genuine concern on my end it's about one of them getting infected, but more particularly my dad. He hasn't been in the best shape for the past year or two so I suspect the virus could hit him hard.

Is that wise ? Depending where they are in Portugal I would have thought it be less risk to stay put rather than travel.

I couldn't say, but things aren't too bad there right now, and may be considerably worse in four weeks. So it's either get home or potentially get stuck in Europe indefinitely.

 

[Toni]

It's official, I'm an online-only instructor now. My department decided to jump the gun and move all our classes digital before the school as a whole follows suit, though with new reports of infected students, I suspect it was only a matter of a few day's difference anyhow. Will still be going into work today, but just to have a meeting and set up for the remainder of the term.

Lots of universities in my area are doing the same. Some are extending spring break; some are closing in advance of spring break. For many classes, this is doable but I wonder how students with lab courses will manage? Unfortunately, dorms are still open. I say unfortunately because I know how much spit gets swapped in a dorm.

Locally, K-12 schools and I presume Head Start as well, are going to make the call today, after consultation with the state health department about the best course of action. As mentioned in another thread, a huge concern for many children (at least 40 percent in my district) is food insecurity. The other is parents being forced to go to work with no child care. A lot of parents use schools as a child care directly, not including the early hours and post school day care slots.

I noticed a LOT of people in the parking lot of my small grocery store for a week day, mid morning with schools on break. But people aren't going crazy. Someone did joke with me because I wasn't buying toilet paper (I already have a stash).

 

[southernhybrid]

For the next few weeks, I'm planning on using the in-store shoppers for our groceries. Both Kroger's and Meijer offer the service. you pick your groceries from their website. Store personnel gather them up for you, you pay on-line. They bring them out to the car and put them in the trunk for you. Easy-peasy. Only costs five bucks.

I suggest others do the same.

I thought about doing that but figured that people would still be touching all the stuff, so why not just go into the store and pick out my own fresh fruits, meats and veggies. We do have a huge Kroger in town that offers that, but I didn't see a single person waiting for their groceries to be brought to the car today. I'm not worried about catching the virus in the store as everyone was staying clear of everyone else and nobody was sneezing or coughing.

We have given up eating lunch out for now, but I do worry about all the wonderful wait staff that we know who will not suffer. We ate out last week and the usually crowded places were less than half full.

 

[T.G.G. Moogly]

Well, the Governor just closed all our schools for ten days and the Cultural trust called and told me tomorrow's show is cancelled, and no shows for ten days. Bummer.

 

[Loren Pechtel]

For the next few weeks, I'm planning on using the in-store shoppers for our groceries. Both Kroger's and Meijer offer the service. you pick your groceries from their website. Store personnel gather them up for you, you pay on-line. They bring them out to the car and put them in the trunk for you. Easy-peasy. Only costs five bucks.

I suggest others do the same.

AFIAK the only stores here that do that are Target and WalMart. However, Albertsons has home delivery.

One or more of these options will comprise all our grocery shopping for now. Amazon will work for basically everything else.

 

[crazyfingers]

It looks like I will get my mom moved from her assisted living an hour and 15 minutes away to one 7 minutes away just under the wire. Both her current and new have now initiated strict screening of visitors with check of temperature, etc.. and limiting visiting hours and number of visitors to one. Mom moves tomorrow. They are warning of possible quarantines in the future.

We are moving her to be closer so we can see her more. Quarantines may nix seeing her more for a while but the priority is safety.

And my kids are out of school for two weeks.

 

[ZiprHead]

Schools around here have closed. My nephew, a schoolteacher, has offered babysitting services for those who cannot stay home with their children.

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

It looks like I will get my mom moved from her assisted living an hour and 15 minutes away to one 7 minutes away just under the wire. Both her current and new have now initiated strict screening of visitors with check of temperature, etc.. and limiting visiting hours and number of visitors to one. Mom moves tomorrow. They are warning of possible quarantines in the future.

We are moving her to be closer so we can see her more. Quarantines may nix seeing her more for a while but the priority is safety.

And my kids are out of school for two weeks.

Good luck on the move tomorrow!

 

[Don2 (Don1 Revised)]

They told me on the news today that as long as I could sleep well at night, my immune system won't be compromised. I should be fine as long as I can fall asleep.

Now, it's 3am and I can't fall asleep. Why would they say that to me?

 

[SimpleDon]

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.

My brother and his family live and work in Seattle. One of his grown boys is showing symptoms of Covid-19, but he can't get tested. He has been told that he is young and in good health and is not at risk for a serious course of the disease. That there is nothing but palliative care for Covid-19 any way. He should stay in his apartment and not go to work or school, he is a senior at the University of Washington. He shouldn't go to his doctor's or the emergency room unless his body temperature is more than 103 degF.

My son and his family moved to Burlingame California close to the San Francisco Airport. My daughter-in-law went to work for the pharmaceutical company, Gilead, who developed many of the HIV anti-viral drugs. They have a broad range of these drugs two or three of which have passed all of the lab tests for effectiveness against Covid-19. They have convinced the UK and China to begin human testing on these drugs that have already gone through human safety trials in the US. All that they ask that if the drugs are effective that the governments assume any legal liability for use of the drug and a single payment for the drug to cover everyone in the countries, a guaranteed profit of some hundreds of million dollars. I couldn't find any discussion in the media about this other than this in a stock tout web site Real Money.

I was at Emory University Hospital with bronchitis. Any time I have a respiratory disease I go into the hospital as a precaution. They kicked me out of the hospital because of the Covid-19 threat. I had my own respirator and other treatment machines and I was already paying for my own nurses 24/7. My neighbors have helped us by buying groceries and picking up drugs at the pharmacy.

Yes, I have affected by the virus.

 

[rousseau]

My parents are still stuck in Portugal charting a safe way home, currently camped out in a small village with no cases. My concern is primarily with my wife who is 32 weeks pregnant, making sure she's fed and not stressed out. That's going fine, so the only mild concern left are hospitals being under-capacity right around the due date. Accept the things you can't control, control the things you can.

On the bright side the Health Ministry of Ontario and organizations across the province seem to be making genuinely smart decisions, which I think will manage to mitigate the impact. That and my wife just won herself a three week paid vacation, and is effectively off of work for the next year.

I also took a bit of a jaunt around today to pick up some things and see how grocery stores were doing. Plenty of stock left everywhere across the stores, except very specific things with a false scarcity. I surmise what's happening is that people without much money are stock-piling cheap goods. Plenty of expensive food left, and fortunately my wife and I are well within our means to afford that right now. Most people don't seem to be very panicked, and some businesses are still quite busy, but you can sense a kind of tension and unease.

At this point I have to feel for the state of the U.S., if you guys don't vote the bastards out after this all hope's lost.

 

[rousseau]

I also work for the IT department of about 20 hospitals across Southwestern Ontario. Most of the time it's people like me who are stressed out, but in times like this it's our leadership who have to come up with novel strategies to manage patient flow. We've been getting updates this week, and finally yesterday they announced a rough preliminary strategy. Basically they're trying to be pro-active and mitigate impact, rather than waiting for things to hit us. Doing things like prioritizing services if they see a reduction in staff.

I'll probably be forced to work from home until I go on paternity leave and will have pandemic related work prioritized. Although in theory all of our IT systems should be pretty sound to handle it already.

 

[Politesse]

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.

My brother and his family live and work in Seattle. One of his grown boys is showing symptoms of Covid-19, but he can't get tested. He has been told that he is young and in good health and is not at risk for a serious course of the disease. That there is nothing but palliative care for Covid-19 any way. He should stay in his apartment and not go to work or school, he is a senior at the University of Washington. He shouldn't go to his doctor's or the emergency room unless his body temperature is more than 103 degF.

My son and his family moved to Burlingame California close to the San Francisco Airport. My daughter-in-law went to work for the pharmaceutical company, Gilead, who developed many of the HIV anti-viral drugs. They have a broad range of these drugs two or three of which have passed all of the lab tests for effectiveness against Covid-19. They have convinced the UK and China to begin human testing on these drugs that have already gone through human safety trials in the US. All that they ask that if the drugs are effective that the governments assume any legal liability for use of the drug and a single payment for the drug to cover everyone in the countries, a guaranteed profit of some hundreds of million dollars. I couldn't find any discussion in the media about this other than this in a stock tout web site Real Money.

I was at Emory University Hospital with bronchitis. Any time I have a respiratory disease I go into the hospital as a precaution. They kicked me out of the hospital because of the Covid-19 threat. I had my own respirator and other treatment machines and I was already paying for my own nurses 24/7. My neighbors have helped us by buying groceries and picking up drugs at the pharmacy.

Yes, I have affected by the virus.

I was in Burlingame a month ago, it was still bustling with activity. I wonder how quiet it has gotten now; it must be a disaster for the already-imperiled Broadway street businesses.