I've been working 13ish hours a day since this thing kicked off..

I'm starting to get a bit burnt out

Natural, not Bio-weapon
https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/...cientists-say/
https://www.studyfinds.org/coronavir...ists-conclude/

Moms can't give it to child at birth, maybe.
https://www.studyfinds.org/how-about...n-study-finds/

Millennials
https://nypost.com/2020/03/18/millen...official-says/

Sick map
https://www.arcgis.com/apps/opsdashb...23467b48e9ecf6

Not sure closing the beaches to youth on spring break will have any impact on overall infection rates. After all it's salt, sun and breeze. Is it any better or worse then going to store or getting take out food?

May have already been noted in this thread.

Good idea, or at least people/companies trying to do a right thing.

Stores have limited hours, for instance 24 hour stores now close, to clean.

They have special hours for elderly customers only now.

They're limiting people buying large amounts of stuff. I don't think it's like stopping someone from buying 3, 4, or 6 of something, instead like 20 or so.

Yes, it's overkill and over-reaction not only on the part of the government but especially on the part of the public which has been infected with mass hysteria fueled by an irresponsible sensationalist media that is no longer any different from tabloids.

Part of this problem is the media creates the hysteria, the public responds to the hysteria then the government is forced to respond to the public's demands. In this scenario if the government does nothing then every death according to the media is on the hands of the politicians etc... Couple this with an election year in the USA and its a recipe for madness and irresponsible decisions from the national down to the local levels.

Look at the annual seasonal flu numbers (infected and deaths) and there is no hysteria created. On average 10% of the population gets the flu, around 60,000 die from it, 90% either don't get it, or are mild enough where they are not officially counted (did not go to Dr.'s or ER etc...). This virus will come and go, but the economic and social damage will last longer.

People simply need to get back to the basics, live simply, grow some food (at least some veggies), learn how to be more independent, reduce your debt, WASH YOUR HANDS, try to stay fairly healthy etc... We had an entire generation survive WWI and WWII and we are acting like this virus is going to wipe us out. Have people really become this weak?

PS: Well this is very interesting, there was an Emergency Pandemic exercise in October 2019 regarding a mysterious coronavirus that comes out of Asia and has a 3% death rate. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/artic...e-u-s-response

Meh. Getting along OK.

Some of the grocery chain stores have been completely cleaned out of TP and other paper products, hand sanitizer, and other disinfectants. Some food is pretty much cleaned out. For example, if you like soup, one store only had the really weird kinds (Corn Chowder? Nope.) I went to a Target one morning when the doors opened and was able to find TP. They were limiting purchases to quantity one of whatever you bought. Not all stores seem to be doing that---they should be (IMHO).

Officially? No. A nearby nursing/rehab center (a couple of miles away) just announced ~40 cases, up from 22 last night. We're keeping an eye on that development in case it turns out someone brought the virus onsite who may shop at the same stores as we do. (Fortunately, we have a lot of options---not like we did years ago when we lived in SE Ohio.) We're staying in as much as possible. As of late last week my in-laws cannot have visitors. My mother's senior-living apartment hasn't restricted access. Yet... but I expect that might change. That's going to be a tough situation as she no longer drives and will need groceries, etc., periodically so my sister and I will be pitching in to shop for her and deliver them.

I'm noticing far fewer cars hitting the nearby expressway. Traffic reports on the radio reflect the reduction; morning commute times are wa-a-ay down. Apparently a lot of people are working from home. (Or, $DIETY-forbid, laid off.)

I read something earlier today that stated that the virus has already mutated since it was first detected in humans. Great... the little bastards are going to give the epidemiologists and the vaccine researchers moving targets to hit. The scariest part is that the public may be getting kept in the dark about much of what may happen. (See the PDFs linked to in this article. Whew!)

Stay safe, y'all...

It's my understanding that we weather the flu fairly easily as it originated in humans and many have a natural immunity to much of it. The "novel" viruses came from animals and we have zero immunity to any of them. That makes them really nasty.

Bars of antibacterial soap were in short supply the last time I went down that aisle at one local grocery store.

Sounds interesting. I've been to a few Lebanese restaurants and always had good meals. I could go for doing some cooking with their ingredients... broaden the ol' palate a bit.

The Coronavirus Distraction...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kn_CcepTgaM

I gave up on television news a long time ago, but I subscribe to two newspapers and read many newspaper websites. I've generally found the newspaper coverage reasonable.

I think "social" media (an oxymoron as far as I am concerned), particularly the twits and zuckerborgians, are doing far more to feed hysteria, misinformation (such as, a hair dryer can kill the coronavirus), and falsehoods than the legitimate press.

Just one person's opinion.

Stunning insights into the Corona-panic by Dr. Wolfgang Wodarg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p_AyuhbnPOI

Covid-19 as far as I know is a variation on the common cold. It seems to be natural and somewhat common.

The expensive stores still have just about everything. Hording has a way of hitting a wall. Soon the horders will have no more room to store or money to buy.


"Is it safe to take ibuprofen to treat symptoms of COVID-19?

The World Health Organization (WHO) advises against using ibuprofen (Motrin, Advil, many generic versions) for COVID-19 symptoms based on reports of otherwise healthy people with confirmed COVID-19 who were taking an NSAID for symptom relief and developed a severe illness, especially pneumonia. your doctor for advice."

Copper was suggested years ago for hospitals. Stainless actually grows bugs.

"COVID-19 coronavirus can survive up to four hours on copper, up to 24 hours on cardboard, and up to two to three days on plastic and stainless steel. "

Kind of had a discussion about the amount of information flow these days.

And we realized that say back in the 60s or 70s, you only had 3-4 TV channels.

Say the Olympics were going on. That's all you could watch, and there was tons of coverage about them. One could discuss it at home, work, with neighbors, at the store, etc.

Clearly there's more ready information these days, and more distractions, but ultimately if someone's the type who gets pulled into large news stories, then they are. Some might have been bored with the Olympics, so they went out or read books, and turned a deaf ear towards conversation about it.

Same thing for this, the moon landing, big sports events, big disasters, and etc.

And also if people hear, read, or otherwise get a juicy bad rumor, some will chatter about it endlessly, others may see it to be fake, and argue against it, or instead hold their tongues. It's a sort of still the same with society, years ago and now.

I'm willing to bet the level of hysteria, while having a bit to do with social media as news sources (sheesh!) has far more to do with reported deaths. For example I'd say the odds there is more hysteria in the state of Washington where, as of today almost 50% of the 114 US deaths occurred exactly because of the opposite, under appreciating the differences between Covid-19 and seasonal flu. In 2 days the number of cases doubled and then doubled again in the next 2 days and then doubled again in the next 2 days. Stay clean. Avoid touching your face and exercise social distancing to achieve a quicker flattening of the exponential infection curve. I suspect some of the closings, like of common Spring Break beaches, is to get the message out to younger people who think they have only to fear a runny nose and a headache.

There is no reason nor value in freaking out but there is wisdom in being cautious.