Novel Coronavirus COVID-19

[carhill]

So, Lysol won't work.

[elaine567]

According to Lysol it will - specific Lysol products listed here.
https://www.lysol.com/healthy-home/understanding-coronavirus/

[serial muse]

1 hour ago, gaius said:

The WHO director gave a press conference yesterday and upped the death rate to 3.4%, along with playing down the comparisons to influenza.

"This virus is not SARS, it's not MERS, and it's not influenza," Ghebreyesus said in a press conference on Tuesday. "It is a unique virus with unique characteristics." 

The most crucial difference between the flu and the coronavirus is that the latter is far more deadly. Whereas approximately 0.1% of people who get the flu die, the coronavirus' mortality rate is about 3.4%, the WHO confirmed on Tuesday.

Yeah but this is not a number written in stone, so we don't really know yet, largely because there may be a lot of milder, undetected/unconfirmed cases. I feel that "confirmed" is maybe not the best word choice here. Per the NY Times on the WHO statement yesterday: 

Quote

Dr. Margaret Harris, a W.H.O. spokeswoman, said the figure was a “crudely calculated” snapshot of the disease’s death rate globally, and was expected to “change over time, and vary from place to place.”

The figure does not include mild cases that do not require medical attention and is skewed by Wuhan, where the death rate is several times higher than elsewhere in China. It is also quite possible that there are many undetected cases that would push the mortality rate lower.

 

which is not to deny that it's more deadly. But I think it's important to be transparent about the ongoing uncertainty. There are likely a whole lot of undetected/unconfirmed cases in the US right now, not to mention other countries such as Indonesia, India, etc where testing isn't yet common. 

Edited March 4, 2020 by serial muse

[carhill]

1 hour ago, elaine567 said:

According to Lysol it will - specific Lysol products listed here.
https://www.lysol.com/healthy-home/understanding-coronavirus/

Cool, my can says SARS. Was about to break out the hydroflouric acid 👍

[NerdGoneWild]

Just avoid drinking Corona and you'll be fine. 

 

Hydroflouric Acid... been working around swimming pools of the stuff. Fun place. 🙄 Touch it and your bones start to melt. 

Edited March 4, 2020 by NerdGoneWild

[Ruby Slippers]

I'm working on a project at work right now to plan and communicate what we'll do if the virus comes to town and things get dodgy. I work at a nonprofit that serves a wide community, so if it gets bad, we'll all go to 100% remote work. I'm hoping to be starting a new job in about a month, so it might not apply to me, but kinda surreal to be discussing that plan.

At Costco last night (my boyfriend's favorite store - I swear he's in love with Costco), many staples were cleaned out - water, sanitizing stuff, and the like.

Edited March 4, 2020 by Ruby Slippers

[Ruby Slippers]

I'd guess people are stocking up on essentials including toilet paper in case there's a lockdown and everybody has to stay home.

My boyfriend was concerned we might run out of water, also suggested we stop eating at restaurants for a while.

My saving grace is that my parents out in the country have a spring-fed well, and before any potential calamity my mom fills a ton of giant bottles with spring water. She stockpiles everything and my dad sometimes makes fun of her for it.

If there's a disaster, that's where you wanna be. She has enough food, water, medicine, and supplies to take care of a small army for a while. She gave me and my boyfriend two big bottles of hand sanitizer on our way to New Orleans, much to his delight.

[RecentChange]

I rode the train and subway into San Francisco today. Ridership was definitely down.

I overheard that Twitter had requested that their employees work remotely rather than come into the office.

Made a point to not touch anything, especially on the subway (practiced my standing and "surfing" skills).

Meanwhile a grown woman on the platform while we were waiting for the subway proceeded to cough and not cover her mouth. WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH PEOPLE?

I gave her a dirty look and fled from her vicinity as if she had the plague. 

Good thing I have a heavy duty hand moisturizer because I have been washing my hands like crazy. 

Edited March 4, 2020 by RecentChange

[RecentChange]

2 minutes ago, Ruby Slippers said:

My boyfriend was concerned we might run out of water, 

This is the one I don't understand.

Is it because you don't own a water filter like a Britta? Fear that tap water is going to be contaminated with a virus? Why would one "run out of water". Do you buy all of your drinking and cooking water from a store?

[basil67]

Perhaps there's drought where Ruby is.  Running out of water in arid, drought areas is a very real issue down here.  

[Ruby Slippers]

I keep water from my parents' spring-fed water well at my house. It's been tested and the testing guy said it's the purest water he's ever tested. You can taste the difference. It has minerals and just tastes clean and fresh.

But my boyfriend buys his in bottles from Costco. It's only like $2.50 for a huge pack of them. Neither of us uses a filter. I suppose we could get one - but I've read that only the high-end filters really do much good.

Yes, where we live, I'm guessing water contamination is a higher risk.

[RecentChange]

I have seen people buying water in bulk in my area - hence the head scratching.

We are in an urban area with no threat of the municipal water supply being cut off. If there was some sort of Armageddon scenerio where the water was contaminated - well then you wouldn't be able to bathe etc - and boiling would take care of drinking water. 

I almost forget that people buy bottled water to use on a daily basis - our office building for example is green certified, which means no plastic bottles water due to how wasteful they are. 

I have a good water filter installed at home, that is what we use for our drinking and cooking.

As for those on wells - in a winter drought, again - at least when I lived off the grid in an extreme drought year we had water delivered by tanker truck. Certainly can't flush your toilet with bottled water. 

I can understand bottled water if a flood, or huge storm was coming. Something that would threaten city water systems 

But I really don't understand stocking up on bottled water because of a flu scare. 

[Piddy]

Was in the Tampa FL airport today and there was quite a few people wearing masks.  Then we were in a store today and my nephew paid the cashier and she started coughing and not burying her cough in her arm.  He was thinking of telling her to keep the change.

[sothereiwas]

1 hour ago, Piddy said:

Was in the Tampa FL airport today and there was quite a few people wearing masks.  Then we were in a store today and my nephew paid the cashier and she started coughing and not burying her cough in her arm.  He was thinking of telling her to keep the change.

Intentional? She makes extra money that way ...

[Woggle]

If this does become a pandemic with a massive death toll then services will suffer. If people keep dying there won't be enough people run power plants or water treatment plants and anybody alive will hole up and worry about their own survival. In that case it pays to stock up on water and food. There was a special on the History channel a few years ago called After Armageddon which shows what can happen if a pandemic decimates humanity. You can find it on youtube. I am not saying it will get to that levels but people are scared and taking percautions.

[RecentChange]

8 minutes ago, Woggle said:

If this does become a pandemic with a massive death toll then services will suffer. If people keep dying there won't be enough people run power plants or water treatment plants and anybody alive will hole up and worry about their own survival. In that case it pays to stock up on water and food. There was a special on the History channel a few years ago called After Armageddon which shows what can happen if a pandemic decimates humanity. You can find it on youtube. I am not saying it will get to that levels but people are scared and taking percautions.

History channel also has a show called ancient aliens. 

If you need enough drinking water to get you through the collapse of modern society, you are going to need a lot more than few cases of water from Costco. 

 

[Woggle]

Just now, RecentChange said:

History channel also has a show called ancient aliens. 

If you need enough drinking water to get you through the collapse of modern society, you are going to need a lot more than few cases of water from Costco. 

 

This is true but most preppers don't really think long term. They panic. If society does collapse the people who know how to hunt, grow food and live off the land will be the ones who do the best. Us city dwellers would be up a creek.

[NerdGoneWild]

19 minutes ago, Woggle said:

If this does become a pandemic with a massive death toll then services will suffer. If people keep dying there won't be enough people run power plants or water treatment plants and anybody alive will hole up and worry about their own survival. In that case it pays to stock up on water and food. There was a special on the History channel a few years ago called After Armageddon which shows what can happen if a pandemic decimates humanity. You can find it on youtube. I am not saying it will get to that levels but people are scared and taking percautions.

That isn't going to happen with a 2-3% mortality rate. Pandemics happen and sooner of later one is going to come along and kill a lot of people. But this doesn't have the earmarks of a virus that will do that.

Most of the people who have died have been elderly and have compromised health already. Those people aren't in the workforce anyway. 

Airborne, highly contagious with many infections of others per sick person, high mortality rate, long incubation period and contagious long before symptoms appear, that is the nightmare scenario. 

Ebola, with a 90% mortality rate, was closer to the nightmare scenario. 

Edited March 5, 2020 by NerdGoneWild

[RecentChange]

5 minutes ago, Woggle said:

This is true but most preppers don't really think long term. They panic. If society does collapse the people who know how to hunt, grow food and live off the land will be the ones who do the best. Us city dwellers would be up a creek.

"us city dwellers" speak for yourself! I grew up in the country, 6 years ago I was living on 90 acres, off the grid (solar, spring and creek for water, no TV etc) surrounded by thousands of acres of open space.

 I am not a great shot, but shot guns up your chances, I know how to butcher an animal and grow produce. 

Always joked about how we were more than ready when we lived on the mountain - that property sits vacant today, purchased by Chinese investors. My husband joked if s*** really hit the fan we would simply go back and take the property over. 

But honestly - I give the coronavirus a 0.00000000000001% chance of causing armeggedon. 

Edited March 5, 2020 by RecentChange

[Woggle]

Just now, RecentChange said:

"us city dwellers" speak for yourself! I grew up in the country, 6 years ago I was living on 90 acres, off the grid (solar, spring and creek for water, no TV etc) surrounded by thousands of acres of open space.

 I am not a great shot, but shot guns up your chances, I know how to butcher an animal and grow produce. 

Always joked about how we were more than ready when we lived on the mountain - that property sits vacant today, purchased by Chinese investors. My husband joked if s*** really hit the fan we would simply go back and take the property over. 

Then I guess my wife and I are up a creek. I do own a boat so maybe that would help somewhat. Speaking of water any island nations that have not been affected yet should close themselves off for at least a few months if not longer.

[basil67]

36 minutes ago, Woggle said:

If society does collapse the people who know how to hunt, grow food and live off the land will be the ones who do the best. Us city dwellers would be up a creek.

We could all go and live with @major_merrick   I always thought she'd be handy to have around during a disaster.

[K.K.]

25 minutes ago, basil67 said:

We could all go and live with @major_merrick   I always thought she'd be handy to have around during a disaster.

I’ve thought this a hundred times !! 😁 ! 

[gaius]

Coronavirus might not be the perfect pandemic but it's our pandemic. 

Let's all just ride the wave the best we can and not get caught up in pandemic envy. It is what it is.

 

[RecentChange]

42 minutes ago, basil67 said:

We could all go and live with @major_merrick   I always thought she'd be handy to have around during a disaster.

 

16 minutes ago, K.K. said:

I’ve thought this a hundred times !! 😁 ! 

But.... Would it require clitoris piercings and lesbian sex?

Again, in a joking kinda sense - like when my husband and I were talking about fleeing back to the woods I grew up in if things got crazy to a level that north America has never seen...

Someone said "what about stocking your supplies" and he joked, I'll just steal my neighbor's, I am ruthless like that. 

"Prepper" cults etc, aren't stock piling weapons and supplies to support the masses - they have weapons to keep anyone that may want their supplies at bey. 

[Woggle]

I admit I am getting scared. I love where my life is right now and I am not ready to die. I am not religious but I pray they stop this before it gets to apocalyptic levels.