Pandemic preparation? ?

[mike carey]

[MEDIA=twitter]1238419691267223559[/MEDIA]

 

(Coles and Woolworths are the two major supermarket chains in this country. I assume that Aldi has a similar reputation in the US as it does here, and from the thread also in the UK, of selling some odd merchandise to get people into their shops.)

[+ ArVaGuy]

I'm leaving on Saturday, March 21st for Puerto Vallarta and will return on Saturday, March 28th. Three months ago I paid $522 for the round trip fare and was pleased with the price. Today I could buy a ticket on the same flights for $267. Who would ever have guessed?

 

Mexico is considering closing it’s borders to Americans to contain the virus. Be sure to check on this before you depart.

[MikeBiDude]

[MEDIA=twitter]1238419691267223559[/MEDIA]

 

(Coles and Woolworths are the two major supermarket chains in this country. I assume that Aldi has a similar reputation in the US as it does here, and from the thread also in the UK, of selling some odd merchandise to get people into their shops.)

one of my local mini-warehouse stores put similar restrictions on water and hand sanitizer. The clerks are afraid to enforce the rules because customers are so testy and panicking ?

[mike carey]

one of my local mini-warehouse stores put similar restrictions on water and hand sanitizer. The clerks are afraid to enforce the rules because customers are so testy and panicking ?

I may have mentioned it before, at least one of supermarkets has taken sanitiser off the shelves and you have to ask for it at the service desk.

[+ Pensant]

Is that the NATO star?

[+ Pensant]

I did a Costco trip Monday morning. No tp. People were loading up on bottled water and paper towels, while I loaded up on frozen vegetables, steaks and ground beef. Also protein bars and drinks, and ibuprofen and bottles of Clorox, for which there were no buying limits. Why water? This won’t affect the water supply.

 

also, I noticed that Whole Foods and other higher-end natural markets still have hand sanitizer and tp. They don’t attract the panicky tp hoarders.

[mike carey]

Why water? This won’t affect the water supply.

Exactly.

[LivingnLA]

Is that the NATO star?

 

It's a picture from the series that explored Mussolini's bunker.

 

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5170995/Mussolinis-10-MILE-bunker-largest-Europe.html

[Beancounter]

Mexico is considering closing it’s borders to Americans to contain the virus. Be sure to check on this before you depart.

OMG...the irony of that happening. I’m literally rolling on the floor laughing.

[+ Charlie]

A friend who was at local Costco yesterday said that an employee was stationed at toilet paper area and was handing out no more than two packages per customer. I am beginning to think I may eventually have to dip into my earthquake preparedness supplies.

 

BTW, if everyone is supposed to stay home and self-isolate, who is going to manufacture and transport all the stuff to re-stock the stores?

[rvwnsd]

...I noticed that Whole Foods and other higher-end natural markets still have hand sanitizer and tp. They don’t attract the panicky tp hoarders.

Speaking of pains in the ass, have you ever used that recycled paper TP?

 

But seriously...the Whole Foods brand lavender hand sanitizer wipes are the best. They actually smell like, wait for it, lavender!

 

...I should have offered to give him a couple of rolls in exchange for letting me give him a blow job.

Price gouging!

 

Price gouging? Hold on a minute @FreshFluff !! He gets a long blow job, an orgasm, my "mean people suck, nice people swallow" guarantee, AND two of my seven remaining roles of toilet paper! That's a DEAL!!

 

OK, I'll throw in a package of wipes, 30 minutes of deep rimming, and an 60 dual armpit clean-out.

 

If the M-F was an apartment block and we were all locked down, what would we sing?

 

[handiacefailure]

All the grocery stores here are out of eggs, bread and bananas and onions and some are out of milk.

 

Why would people horde that stuff? Milk and eggs have a short shelve life so even if there is a shortage you can't freeze eggs.

 

Fortunately the farmer's market vendors I like to buy bread and eggs from anyway (i've gotten spoiled by farm fresh eggs and try to eat hers instead of store bought) and both were there. The lady that I buy eggs from had a limit of two dozen eggs. She told me a lady from a small city about 50 miles away was pissed off because she wanted to buy 25-dozen eggs to take back to give to neighbors LOL. She thought since she drove that far they should make an exception to the limit and she refused to budge and say it was a two dozen limit per customer.

[Guest]

Peoples' reactions to this pandemic have been a bit nuts. You'd think it was some sort of zombie apocalypse like from the Resident Evil movies, or the World War Z movie. If ever you've been thinking of getting into the stock market but haven't yet (and you won't need your money for a while), boy is this ever a good time to get into the market.

[Epigonos]

Just spoke with the owner of the condo I rent in Puerto Vallarta. He is there right now. Says everything is very normal, restaurants, bars and beaches are full and nary a face mash in the place. He is returning home through LAX today. As long as my flight isn't canceled and/or the Mexican Government doesn't close the border to gringos I'm still a definite go.

Thank god I shop regularly at my local Smart & Final and know all of the employees. I simply tell the assistant manager what I want and he puts it aside, for me, in the back. It also help that it is very clear, from what I'm buying, that I'm not hoarding

[MikeBiDude]

Peoples' reactions to this pandemic have been a bit nuts. You'd think it was some sort of zombie apocalypse like from the Resident Evil movies, or the World War Z movie. If ever you've been thinking of getting into the stock market but haven't yet (and you won't need your money for a while), boy is this ever a good time to get into the market.

I shouldn’t have watched “Contagion” last night

[MikeBiDude]

Just spoke with the owner of the condo I rent in Puerto Vallarta. He is there right now. Says everything is very normal, restaurants, bars and beaches are full and nary a face mash in the place. He is returning home through LAX today. As long as my flight isn't canceled and/or the Mexican Government doesn't close the border to gringos I'm still a definite go.

Thank god I shop regularly at my local Smart & Final and know all of the employees. I simply tell the assistant manager what I want and he puts it aside, for me, in the back. It also help that it is very clear, from what I'm buying, that I'm not hoarding

I’d be on my way to PV in a heartbeat, without a second thought. About 100 of my acquaintances are down there now wrapping up a sailboat race.

[+ ArVaGuy]

Sorry about that. The post of mine you copied is part of an ongoing discussion about Lemon in the politics forum. I accidentally posted it here.

 

I deleted and moved the post to politics. Can you delete yours @ArVaGuy ? That completely wipes it out in this forum. My error. Sorry.

 

Done. Thanks ?

[+ stevenkesslar]

Done. Thanks ?

 

Thank you.

[+ Reisr30]

Peoples' reactions to this pandemic have been a bit nuts. You'd think it was some sort of zombie apocalypse like from the Resident Evil movies, or the World War Z movie. If ever you've been thinking of getting into the stock market but haven't yet (and you won't need your money for a while), boy is this ever a good time to get into the market.

I have been thinking the same thing. It's like the walking dead. The only good thing is that all the zombie movies that I have watched have prepared me if it ever comes; now gotta go stock up on baseball bats and maybe find a katana.

[+ E.T.Bass]

[MEDIA=twitter]1238419691267223559[/MEDIA]

 

(Coles and Woolworths are the two major supermarket chains in this country. I assume that Aldi has a similar reputation in the US as it does here, and from the thread also in the UK, of selling some odd merchandise to get people into their shops.)

 

An Aldi arrived here. I should stop by and check it out.

 

I made my own hand sanitizer.

 

• Alloe gel from Trader Joe's. (Finally found a use for!)
  
• Tea tree oil, Trader Joe's
  
• Vitamin E oil, yup Trader Joe's
  
• Iso propyl alcohol
  

 

The soothing ingredients spare the skin from cracking that comes with Purell overuse

Edited March 14, 2020 by E.T.Bass

[+ stevenkesslar]

Peoples' reactions to this pandemic have been a bit nuts. You'd think it was some sort of zombie apocalypse like from the Resident Evil movies, or the World War Z movie.

 

Actually, it's the opposite.

 

If you believe in democracy, you believe in the wisdom of crowds. If you believe in the wisdom of crowds, what people are now doing is rational. It is rational to prepare. It is rational not to deny.

 

What is irrational is to fight in a supermarket aisle over toilet paper. So there will be some examples of that. So far, though, Americans as a people are acting like they did after 9/11, as far as I can tell. Everybody wants to pitch in.

 

Some neighbor in NY brought a sick guy to the hospital. He had the virus, and the helpful neighbor got the virus, and then the helpful neighbor's whole family got the virus. So that right there tells us two things. First, human nature is on our side. People want to help each other. Second, we absolutely need to plan this out. We need to have well thought out plans to minimize infections, and help the people who do get sick without hurting ourselves.

 

There should be off-site (non emergency room) testing facilities that people can go to when they start to feel sick. My health care provider, Kaiser, is emailing out clear and simple protocols. Call first. Going to an emergency room may get you sick if you just have the flu. If you have COVID-19, just going to the emergency room without calling first may get other people sick. This is not rocket science.

 

The things that are going to matter most about preparedness are completely beyond our control as individuals.

 

The fact is that right now in Italy they are actually running out of hospitals beds. Doctors are following WHO protocols and making decisions about who lives and who dies. The WHO ethical standards are that when there are not enough ICU beds to go around, the youngest and healthier win the lottery. The oldest and sickest lose the lottery. It has nothing to do with meanness, or cruelty, or politics. It's just math, and science. How many hospital beds do we have? How many people need them?

 

Two months ago, the sunny beaches in the south of Italy were no doubt full. As were the restaurants and museums and grocery stores. Nobody thought about it. Nobody prepared, in part because nobody understood what was happening - even in China. That is why the hospital beds in Italy are now full, and region by region they are reaching triage limits. That's why preparation means understanding what we can do now to flatten the curve of how this epidemic plays out.

 

The math is simple. The swine flu virus infected 60 million Americans. The death rate was 0.02 %. That was very low for any flu in any season, thankfully. There were approximately 274,304 hospitalizations and 12,469 deaths.

 

What seems unique about COVID-19 is that it spreads quickly, but is way more fatal. So now the CDC is projecting a 1 % death rate. Even though in Italy of the 21,527 cases there are already 1,441 deaths. It's an older population. But as bad as 1 % sounds, it could be optimistic. Again, this is not politics. This is math and science, and good-natured people trying to individually and collectively prepare.

 

Just take the CDC's numbers and do the math. 1 % of 60 million infected people is 600,000. In Italy about 10 % of people infected get severe pneumonia and may require hospital treatment. 10 % of 60 million is 6 million. We have less than 1 million hospital beds in the US. This is why in Wuhan they had to urgently build makeshift hospitals, literally overnight.

 

What seems a bit nuts to me is to focus only on the present moment, and not do the simple math and the basic science of where this is going to be in a month or two. Especially if we do nothing to collectively prepare.

 

Italy was picture perfect two months ago. COVID-19 sounded like some weird shit out of Zombie Apocalypse. Now they are simply running out of hospital beds for severely ill people. Within the US borders, there are so many infected people in the US (2000 diagnosed yesterday, 2500 diagnosed today, God knows how many undiagnosed) that we can't stop some version of Italy from playing out here. It's just too late. All we can do is try to flatten the curve so we don't get to the point where people - seniors mostly - who urgently need life saving care can't get it.

 

Coronavirus ‘tsunami’ pushes Italy’s hospitals to breaking point

Crisis highlights challenges other European countries could face if containment fails

 

In Bergamo, a town in the foothills of the Alps north-east of Milan, Dr Daniele Macchini used a short break in the fight he and his colleagues are waging against the novel coronavirus to issue a warning to the world. “The war has exploded and the battles are uninterrupted day and night. The cases are multiplying, we have a rate of 15-20 admissions per day all for the same reason,” he wrote on Facebook last week. “There are no more surgeons, urologists, orthopaedists — we are only doctors who suddenly become part of a single team to face this tsunami that has overwhelmed us.”

 

Giorgio Gori, Bergamo mayor, tweeted: “It seems that the increase [in the number of cases] is slowing down, but it’s only because we have no longer beds in intensive care (few are added with great effort). Patients who cannot be treated are left to die.”

 

I've been to Bergamo, several times. Lovely place. I would not wish to be there now, though.

 

The world will get back to normal. But right now, it is anything but normal.

 

Not being able to get eggs or pasta or onions when you want them is a minor pain in the ass. Not being able to get a hospital bed and a respirator when you need it is a whole different thing. This is not Resident Evil. This is the entire country of Italy, March 2020.

 

Here's some easy math ways to think about this.

 

During the COVID-19 epidemic, you can get in your car and drive to the store. Your chances of dying in a car crash are roughly 1 in 10,000. I'm not worried about driving to Stater Bros., my local grocery store.

 

It would actually be safer to fly to a grocery store in Mexico or Italy. My chances of dying in a plane crash are 1 in 100,000 or so.

 

Whether the grocery store is in Palm Springs or PV, somebody could cough near me, and I could get COVID-19. My chances of dying now become 1 in 100. And that is based on optimistic projections about our willingness to collectively prepare. In Italy, due to being one of the first to be hit and the lack of preparation in a country with an older population, it's more like 1 in 10. Call me a bit nuts, but those numbers scare me.

 

In those B grade horror movies, the plot usually involves some fatal error. It is usually a simple thing somebody important overlooks. But everybody in the audience gets it. So we can literally see it coming.

 

That's probably a good way to think about this. Because as fun as movies are, now is not a good time to be going to cinemas. And this is definitely not a movie you want to be in.

 

I've been mostly hanging out in the politics forum, where I can say political things. But this is not political. This is math, and science, and straightforward proven facts about public health.

 

The really good news is that we are all getting back into 9/11 mode. Everybody wants to pitch in, and help out.

 

And this is not a sneak attack that came out of nowhere and killed 2,996 people - including many of the professionals trying to save lives - in a few hours. We know what's coming. We can stop the horror movie none of us really want to see.

Edited March 14, 2020 by stevenkesslar

[+ Pensant]

I have been thinking the same thing. It's like the walking dead. The only good thing is that all the zombie movies that I have watched have prepared me if it ever comes; now gotta go stock up on baseball bats and maybe find a katana.

Maybe a slingshot?

[+ FreshFluff]

If the M-F was an apartment block and we were all locked down, what would we sing?

 

 

[down_to_business]

https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/books/2020/03/09/stephen-king-decries-comparisons-between-coronavirus-and-the-stand/5002066002/

 

And yet I can't help but to go there as this is exactly what I think about every time something comes out about coronavirus. So that's my latest prep... reread and re-watch Stephen King's "The Stand". For those not familiar with it:

 

From Wikipedia

 

The Stand

Author Stephen King

Publication date

October 3, 1978

The Stand is a postapocalyptic horror/fantasy novel by American author Stephen King. It expands upon the scenario of his earlier short story "Night Surf", and presents a detailed vision of the total breakdown of society after the accidental release of a strain of influenza that had been modified for biological warfare causes an apocalyptic pandemic, killing off over 99% of the world's population.

 

Edit: fixed original link

Edited March 15, 2020 by down_to_business

[+ purplekow]

I[MEDIA=twitter]1238545438476730369[/MEDIA]

Glad I was not trying to get some rest in that neighborhood