Is it time to talk about coronavirus? (1 Viewer)

[David Weicker]

I’m curious about something.

If someone is sick, maybe diagnosed, maybe not, how are they supposed to get supplies?

They aren’t near death, where they would be hospitalized, but they do appear ill. Obviously, they still need food, and toilet paper, and medicine. How do they get it?

Based on some of the responses in this thread, if they leave their homes, they are monsters who should be shot, thrown in jail, and driven back with 6 foot pitchforks.

Despite that last paragraph, I am asking this seriously.

edit: for the record, this is a hypothetical question. Fortunately I am not sick, just curious.

 

[Walter Kittel]

That certainly is a good question. If you have friends or relatives who can shop for you then that would be the way to go. There may be some pharmacies and grocery stores that have delivery services. I would definitely research that option.

If you are on your own, and you simply cannot arrange delivery; I would suggest washing yourself as well as you can, wear a face mask and gloves (after washing your hands thoroughly) and do a one time shopping trip at off hours and stringently avoid contact or near encounters with anyone you meet. Sure you don't want to spread the disease, but as you reasoned you still need to eat. I think that would be acceptable considering the circumstances. Just be really careful around everyone else when you leave your residence.

Seems like a common sense approach if you just have to go out; but you have to limit your exposure to others.

- Walter.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

David, that’s certainly a hole in our care system. In a perfect world, delivery services would provide first priority to those who are ill. In the world we live in now, best case scenario, you have friends, colleagues or family who live nearby and can drop things off for you in a contact-free fashion. In reality, some people may need to go out, but I see that need more as a societal failing than a desirable plan.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

So what does everybody think the likelihood is that the movies and TV shows that we get post-COVID-19 will be an improvement over the movies and TV shows that we would have got had COVID-19 never reared its ugly head?

Movies that were able to finish shooting have months of extra post-production time. Projects that hadn't yet started shooting, or had to pause midway through shooting, will have extra time to work on the script and make it the best it can be.

 

[Carlo_M]

I’m curious about something.

If someone is sick, maybe diagnosed, maybe not, how are they supposed to get supplies?

They aren’t near death, where they would be hospitalized, but they do appear ill. Obviously, they still need food, and toilet paper, and medicine. How do they get it?

Based on some of the responses in this thread, if they leave their homes, they are monsters who should be shot, thrown in jail, and driven back with 6 foot pitchforks.

Despite that last paragraph, I am asking this seriously.

edit: for the record, this is a hypothetical question. Fortunately I am not sick, just curious.

That's a gross mischaracterization.

If they are sick and go to work vs. calling out sick, they as I said "show a stunning lack of common sense" and I would also add a disregard for your fellow human (you may be "good enough to go to work" but thanks for endangering your coworkers who may be elderly or immunocompromised, or have friends and family who are both).

But if you need medicine, you need it. First, obviously, delivery is a thing (and based on your hypothetical you live alone and don't have someone with you who can get your medicine). If you truly can't do that, then as Walter said, "kit up" (gloves, mask, etc.) and head out to your drugstore. Go directly to your medicine's aisle (this is not the time to window shop around the whole store), get the item(s) you want without touching much of anything else. If you can avoid approaching other humans closer than 6' do it. Keep your kit as sterile as possible (i.e. once you put your mask and gloves on, don't touch any part of your body that could have infected droplets (i.e. just about any part of your face, and don't cough/sneeze into your hands/gloves). Go to self check if possible, avoid touching anything if possible (i.e. if you have contactless pay that would be best. If your drugstore is doing their job correctly, they should be wiping down those stations regularly.

That's not 100% guarantee you won't infect anyone but you did your level best to minimize risk to others while getting the medicine you need.

Showing up to work while sick, in the era of COVID...unacceptable.

 

[Robert Crawford]

I don't know enough specific information to explain this manager's actions nor do I have enough information to criticize him in certain terms like many in this thread. He deserves to be criticize, but I'm not sure to the extent posted in this thread.

 

[SamT]

New Zealand's coronavirus lockdown has resulted in only one death

 

[Robert Crawford]

New Zealand's coronavirus lockdown has resulted in only one death

Much easier to do with only about 5 million people. With that said, some countries response to this pandemic crisis will be a case study across the world for universities, think tanks and government agencies to analyze on "what you shouldn't do" during such crises, especially at the beginning. Too many costly mistakes were made and should never be repeated again.

 

[jcroy]

So what does everybody think the likelihood is that the movies and TV shows that we get post-COVID-19 will be an improvement over the movies and TV shows that we would have got had COVID-19 never reared its ugly head?

It would depend on how long/chronic the virus lasts.

Probably not much of a difference if this is just a short lull.

If it lasts for many years and becomes another "great depression", then all bets are off.

 

[Mark Booth]

I’m curious about something.

If someone is sick, maybe diagnosed, maybe not, how are they supposed to get supplies?

They aren’t near death, where they would be hospitalized, but they do appear ill. Obviously, they still need food, and toilet paper, and medicine. How do they get it?

Based on some of the responses in this thread, if they leave their homes, they are monsters who should be shot, thrown in jail, and driven back with 6 foot pitchforks.

Despite that last paragraph, I am asking this seriously.

edit: for the record, this is a hypothetical question. Fortunately I am not sick, just curious.

This is exactly why the recommendation has been to keep a two week supply of food at home. It’s why grocery store shelves got cleaned out at the start of stay at home orders.

Mark

 

[Sam Posten]

Completely infuriated.
One of my best friends and his wife have had Coronavirus for about a week. Up in NJ. They have been living apart and in isolation (why, I don't know, it's dumb) and she posted a 'heartwarming' story about her heroic husband leaving quarantine to come bring her vitamins. Fucking vitamins.

I texted him asking if he was out of his goddamn mind. Her posting that is evidence of a fricking crime. He WAS out of his mind and is showing all signs of being sick on the phone. He was like 'well nobody else could bring them to her!'.

They removed the post.

But this is what we are dealing with.

STAY THE FUCK HOME. Especially if you are sick!

 

[Winston T. Boogie]

Manufacturers have said again and again that there is no shortage, but stores here are empty of toilet paper. People have made such huge stockpiles they have enough for years.

This is one of those random things that runs through my mind when I am at the store...how much toilet paper can people buy and where are they putting all of it? I think of the empty bedroom in my house and I wonder "Did people just fill any empty room in their house with toilet paper? Are there houses around the country where if you went in them there is just toilet paper stacked everywhere? People now watching TV through a ceiling high alley of Charmin?

I can honestly say that I have not bought a single roll of toilet paper since this all began. I can also say since March I have not seen any toilet paper in stores except one time. A market I was in had small single rolls which they were limiting to one per customer due to the frenzy. In the time I was in the store they sold all but 3 or 4 rolls. Again, I didn't need it so I did not panic buy a roll of toilet paper.

There is a young guy that is my neighbor who works for one of the big local grocery chains and the other day some of us were outside on a sunny day and he walked by with his mom while they were walking their dog and I asked sort of laughing where all the toilet paper is and if those empty aisles are ever restocked and if they are how often. He said they restock them nightly and each morning a mass of people come in and by about 10am all the toilet paper (paper towels, tissues, paper napkins) is gone. I was truly amazed. He said I should for the hell of it get up early some morning and go to a market and see what happens. People all head first for the TP aisle, strip it and then do the rest of their shopping. And the employees do say that often some of the same people come every morning, buy as much toilet paper as they can, only to return the following day.

I'm standing there thinking but not a lot of people have a huge house or even extra space in their house to store ridiculous amounts of TP. Some people live in apartments, condos, share living spaces...there is no room for massive amounts of anything.

I think of my wife and when we go to visit her brother in Manhattan. She always gets annoyed because they are always out of everything, milk, eggs, tissues, napkins, toilet paper you name it. And every time we go there they ask us to make 15 trips to the grocery store always to get one item, only to send one of us back again to get another item. They never stock up on anything because...well...because they are New Yorkers and they wait until something runs out before they go get more...and they buy one or two rolls of toilet paper at a time. They have a 2 million dollar apartment and it has one bathroom, not some giant bathroom, so all that they have is one roll of toilet paper in the place at a time and it is the one on the holder. They might "splurge" and buy a second roll if guests are coming but most times we are sent to the store to get "a roll" of toilet paper. His wife once yelled at my wife because she brought back a 4 pack and she screamed "Where are we going to put all that?"

So, during this toilet paper craze of 2020 I am just dumbfounded as to what people are doing with it all.

Is it a thing now to post pictures of your toilet paper collection on the internet?

 

[Mark Booth]

Just out of happenstance, my wife and I shopped at Costco during the third week of February. We were running low on toilet paper, disinfectant wipes, napkins and paper towel so we purchased all of those items. If I'd have known what was coming, I *might* have considered buying two of all of those things. But, as it was, we feel fortunate that our timing of a NORMAL trip purchasing NORMAL amounts worked out so well.

In early March, right about the time that panic buying started in earnest, I spotted some disinfectant wipes on the shelf of the grocery store. I briefly considered buying some but thought better of it, deciding to leave them for people that might need them more than us. We still have about 2/3rds of the Costco disinfectant wipes left.

But we were getting low on TP and paper towel again. It's been almost 2 months since that Costco purchase. On Monday, I stopped at Target to get some things on my wife's list that aren't available at the grocery store. I wandered back to the paper products area (this was around noon, not first thing in the morning) and was surprised to find several choices for TP and paper towel. I purchased a 24 pack of Charmin (at a cost of $25!!!!) and a 6 pack of Bounty paper towel.

I plan to visit Costco again in the coming few days. Who knows what I'll find but now we are low on facial tissue too.

Mark

 

[Tino]

So, during this toilet paper craze of 2020 I am just dumbfounded as to what people are doing with it all.

I’ll hazard a guess and say they’re wiping their asses. I know. Crazy right?

 

[Steve Christou]

Surprised to read that US spies detected the virus in China as far back as November 2019.

(CNN)US spy agencies were tracking the rise of the novel coronavirus as early as November, weeks before that information was included in President Donald Trump's daily intelligence briefing, a former US military official told CNN.

While the exact date of the first report remains unclear, sources told CNN that intelligence gathered in November and in the weeks following offered multiple early warnings about the potential severity of the pandemic now surging in the US.
Intelligence is often only elevated to the highest levels of the government once analysts and officials reach a certain threshold of confidence in their assessment. That day came on January 3, the first day the President's daily briefing included information the US intelligence community had gathered about the contagion in China and the potential it had to spread, including to the US, according to a person briefed on the matter.

https://edition.cnn.com/2020/04/08/politics/intel-agencies-covid-november/index.html

 

[DaveF]

Completely infuriated.
One of my best friends and his wife have had Coronavirus for about a week. Up in NJ. They have been living apart and in isolation (why, I don't know, it's dumb) and she posted a 'heartwarming' story about her heroic husband leaving quarantine to come bring her vitamins. Fucking vitamins.

I texted him asking if he was out of his goddamn mind.
...

 

[Wayne_j]

You don't leave quarantine to pick up vitamins. Surely they could have found a friend who could have picked it up and dropped it off at their door.

 

[Mark Booth]

My wife and I have at least a couple dozen friends that would be willing to pick up groceries or whatever for us and just leave them at the front door. I'd do the same for them, if needed. I feel sorry for people that don't have any friends that would gladly go out of their way to lend a hand. To them I say: Perhaps this time in isolation is a good time to evaluate why you don't have friends.

Mark

 

[Rodney]

Surprised to read that US spies detected the virus in China as far back as November 2019.
https://edition.cnn.com/2020/04/08/politics/intel-agencies-covid-november/index.html

I'm surprised as well, since if you read the article only some unnamed former military official makes the claim, both NCMI and the Pentagon deny any such report, and CNN in a linked article states that they haven't independently verified the existence of the report.

 

[Carlo_M]

Ouch, savage Mark.

But even if you have decided to live "a life apart", unless you live in the most remote parts of the country, delivery is totally a thing now. Even in areas where it wasn't before, it is now. It's a cottage industry that grew exponentially due to covid. Order them in, pay the surcharge, save lives.