The COVID thread

[Fether]

With the mad dash for toilet paper, I came up with a plan to buy up all of some random product in my home town and hopeful it will start a mad dash for another weird non-disease related product.

I am debating between drain-o or “I can’t believe it’s not butter” like products.

[askandanswer]

I had my own COVID 19 scare about half an hour ago. After travelling in some Asian countries for about 2 1/2 weeks, I got back home last Thursday, several days into a persistent cough. I got myself tested on Monday afternoon and got my all clear results yesterday afternoon, after approximately 48 hours of self isolation. About 40 minutes ago I read a news report that the first case of the virus has been detected in the area I live, and that the person with the virus had been tested at the same clinic, on the same day, that I was tested. That kind of worried me because I'd spent more than 3 hours in a small room with several other people who were also waiting to be tested. I called the hotline and they assured me I'm ok, so I'll stop worrying about it for now. 

[NeuroTypical]

Nasty flu, sometimes followed by nasty pneumonia.   Stay safe folks!

[anatess2]

Swiped from another forum:

 

Update: CDC has slightly modified the risk assessment. It now reads that "there is not widespread circulation in most communities in the United States."

However, CDC has still not declared COVID-19 a "pandemic," unlike the WHO.

"Mitigation strategies" have been released for Santa Clara, CA and Seattle, WA.

https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/index.html

"Risk Assessment
Outbreaks of novel virus infections among people are always of public health concern. The risk to the general public from these outbreaks depends on characteristics of the virus, including how well it spreads between people; the severity of resulting illness; and the medical or other measures available to control the impact of the virus (for example, vaccines or medications that can treat the illness). That this disease has caused severe illness, including illness resulting in death is concerning, especially since it has also shown sustained person-to-person spread in several places. These factors meet two of the criteria of a pandemic.As community spread is detected in more and more countries, the world moves closer toward meeting the third criteria, worldwide spread of the new virus.

It is important to note that current circumstances suggest it is likely that this virus will cause a pandemic. This is a rapidly evolving situation and CDC’s risk assessment will be updated as needed.

Current risk assessment:

For the majority of people, the immediate risk of being exposed to the virus that causes COVID-19 is thought to be low. There is not widespread circulation in most communities in the United States. People in places where ongoing community spread of the virus that causes COVID-19 has been reported are at elevated risk of exposure, with increase in risk dependent on the location. Healthcare workers caring for patients with COVID-19 are at elevated risk of exposure. Close contacts of persons with COVID-19 also are at elevated risk of exposure. Travelers returning from affected international locations where community spread is occurring also are at elevated risk of exposure, with increase in risk dependent on location. CDC has developed guidance to help in the risk assessment and management of people with potential exposures to COVID-19."

https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/summary.html#risk-assessment

[LewisC]

Hello, this is maybe not relevant to this thread so please feel free to delete it or remove it. I was wondering if anybody knows what advice is being given to missionaries? My son is London so not a massively infected area but the threat seems to be slightly worse in Europe. 

[askandanswer]

16 hours ago, Vort said:

The world has gone insane. That insanity began in China and entered the US via Seattle.

 

Maybe it just bounced back into Seattle?

[askandanswer]

1 hour ago, LewisC said:

Hello, this is maybe not relevant to this thread so please feel free to delete it or remove it. I was wondering if anybody knows what advice is being given to missionaries? My son is London so not a massively infected area but the threat seems to be slightly worse in Europe. 

https://newsroom.churchofjesuschrist.org/article/coronavirus-update-february-27-2020

Missionary Work

All missionaries, regardless of where they are serving, have been reminded to follow basic preventative health practices to avoid illness. It is important to note that young missionaries are not generally considered to be at risk for serious complications from the coronavirus.

Missionaries who remain in those countries where COVID-19 is of particular concern will take precautions to stay healthy, including staying in their apartments as much as possible, avoiding personal interaction with other people and teaching through phone calls or other technology. Mission Presidents are communicating with families to let them know of these precautions and keep them updated on local circumstances.

The Church is taking steps to reduce the number of missionaries in areas where the virus is of particular concern. These steps will give mission presidents more flexibility to ensure missionaries are effective and safe and that there is adequate space to house missionaries if they are moved out of cities where there are greater concerns about infection.

These steps apply to the following missions:

• Cambodia Phnom Penh Mission
• Italy Milan Mission
• Japan Fukuoka Mission
• Japan Kobe Mission
• Japan Nagoya Mission
• Japan Sapporo Mission
• Japan Tokyo North Mission
• Japan Tokyo South Mission
• Korea Busan Mission
• Korea Seoul Mission
• Korea Seoul South Mission
• Mongolia Ulaanbaatar Mission
• Singapore Mission
• Thailand Bangkok Mission

Cambodia, Singapore, Thailand: All prospective missionaries preparing to serve in these missions or who come from those countries will either postpone their start date or receive a temporary assignment. Additionally, all missionaries serving in these missions who were nearing the end of their service have returned home early. All senior missionaries and any young missionaries with chronic health problems have also returned home or haven been temporarily reassigned to a mission in their home countries. Some senior missionaries will continue to support the mission remotely.

Japan: All missionaries preparing to serve in Japan will either postpone their start date or receive new temporary assignments.

Korea: All missionaries who are not native to Korea have left that country and returned home before departing for new temporary assignments in their home countries. This is in addition to those missionaries who were nearing the end of their service and those who had chronic health problems, who had already returned home early. All missionaries leaving the country had already been in self-isolation for some time and had avoided contact with others outside their apartments. Prospective missionaries preparing to serve in Korea or who come from that country will either postpone their start date or receive a temporary assignment.

Mongolia: All missionaries who are not native to Mongolia have been temporarily transferred from that country. Those who are nearing their scheduled release date have returned home early, while the rest have received new temporary assignments.

Each missionary who returns home will be asked to self-isolate for 14 days following instructions from the World Health Organization and the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

 

[NeuroTypical]

I worked from home yesterday.  Last night, our site manager said someone in my area started having flulike symptoms, is being tested, and was advised to self-quarantine.  Today the whole site is shut down.  That's the closest I've come to it, unless I or my family already have it and are just not symptomatic. 

How about you folks?

[anatess2]

25 minutes ago, NeuroTypical said:

I worked from home yesterday.  Last night, our site manager said someone in my area started having flulike symptoms, is being tested, and was advised to self-quarantine.  Today the whole site is shut down.  That's the closest I've come to it, unless I or my family already have it and are just not symptomatic. 

How about you folks?

My office headquarters is closed down.  One guy came home from work travel to Germany last Monday, tested positive yesterday.  The entire campus got shut down today.  I had conflicting things fly through my head when I read the notice - 1.) "Man!  If I was not a home office worker I'd have 2 weeks paid time off!", 2.) "Home office for the win."

Edited March 13, 2020 by anatess2

[Fether]

28 minutes ago, NeuroTypical said:

How about you folks?

There is a rumor that 11 students of the local college came back from an Italy trip with the virus. Not sure where it started, but it’s causing a bit of a fuss.

[anatess2]

35 minutes ago, NeuroTypical said:

How about you folks?

Oh, and my son is in the Manila MTC.   He's supposed to leave for his mission area next week but Manila is going to be on lockdown by Sunday so, unless they leave now, he'll be in the Manila MTC for a month.

Edited March 13, 2020 by anatess2

[Colirio]

1 minute ago, anatess2 said:

Oh, and my son is in the Manila MTC.   He's supposed to leave for his mission area next week but Manila is going to be on lockdown by Sunday so, unless they leave now, he'll be in the Manila MTC for a month.

Due to government complications with visas, I was in the Provo MTC for 13 weeks. Granted, it was years ago. But I can definitely empathize with his concerns. 

[JohnsonJones]

Well, I now am going to have some extra time with all the Corona virus responses going on.  Today, with that extra time I went to the store.  I was surprised, ALL the toilet paper was sold out.  Every single bit of it.  There was nothing there.  Hopefully we have a supply we can use at home.  We normally have pretty decent storage, so probably at least some for a while.  If it goes on for months where there are none on the shelves...that could be problematic though.

What struck me odd was everyone had carts full of bottled water.  Am I missing something here.  I don't see this as the end of the world and I would think utilities going off would be one of the last things to go.  If water and electricity are suddenly lost I'd imagine something much worse is coming up (complete breakdown of society and such at that point).

We have food storage but I did see a lot of people buying a ton of food all of a sudden.  Grocery store was chaotic this morning.

 

[JohnsonJones]

Well, it looks like I have to learn how to do video stuff in the next few days/weeks and more on the internet.  It should be interesting. 

I suddenly seem to have nowhere to go on Sundays as well...as of yesterday evening.  Of course, the rest of you will probably join me in that matter. 

[Guest Scott]

[Guest LiterateParakeet]

Two Women Fell Sick From the Coronavirus. One Survived.

https://nyti.ms/3cTgswF

This is a different story that what I had heard previously. 

[Guest Scott]

On a serious note, my son (17 years old) is working at a laundry place that does all the dirty laundry for the ski resports, hotels, and hospitals in this region. Aspen is the most affected/infected part of Colorado right now and the postives are from the hotels which my son washes the laundry for. A lot of people where my son works are quitting their jobs. We're hoping he doesn't get it (which means we could get it too).   He's thinking of quitting too.

I think it is reasonable that workers such as this would be scared and want to quit.   What happens when all or most of the workers in fields such as this quit their jobs?     Who's going to do the dirty laundry from infected hotels and hospitals?   

[Guest LiterateParakeet]

8 minutes ago, Scott said:

I think it is reasonable that workers such as this would be scared and want to quit.   What happens when all or most of the workers in fields such as this quit their jobs?     Who's going to do the dirty laundry from infected hotels and hospitals?   

I think its reasonable too.  Good question! 

[Guest Scott]

You have got to be kidding me:

Don't drink bleach to prevent coronavirus, poison control center says.

The Blue Ridge Poison Center in Charlottesville is asking people not to drink bleach to try and prevent COVID-19 infections.

They said there is a lot of confusing, incomplete and inaccurate information circulating about how to prevent coronavirus from spreading, including drinking bleach which is dangerous and could cause serious injury. Moreover, it will not prevent a coronavirus infection.......

https://cnycentral.com/news/offbeat/dont-drink-bleach-to-prevent-coronavirus-poison-control-center-says-03-13-2020?fbclid=IwAR3UlZnOCLq6215n27jgxwet6lMX-FXHcXa6czqYPRi1gJbIRElGGTuPcYs

Edited March 13, 2020 by Scott

[Vort]

I would laugh, but it's more scary and pathetic than funny.

[askandanswer]

3 hours ago, Scott said:

On a serious note, my son (17 years old) is working at a laundry place that does all the dirty laundry for the ski resports, hotels, and hospitals in this region. Aspen is the most affected/infected part of Colorado right now and the postives are from the hotels which my son washes the laundry for. A lot of people where my son works are quitting their jobs. We're hoping he doesn't get it (which means we could get it too).   He's thinking of quitting too.

I think it is reasonable that workers such as this would be scared and want to quit.   What happens when all or most of the workers in fields such as this quit their jobs?     Who's going to do the dirty laundry from infected hotels and hospitals?   

Medical commentary here suggests that cross-contamination usually requires being within a meter and a half of a contaminated person for 15 minutes.  

[Grunt]

We had three people sent home because they were sick.  The rest of us are still showing up.  We are starting a pool to see who the last person standing is.

[Vort]

This just in.

[Guest MormonGator]

I don't think I've seen this much widespread social unrest/mass cancellations since 9/11. 

[Vort]

One of my sons and I were talking yesterday, and I mentioned the irony of this COVID-19 hysteria taking place in The Year of Perfect Vision.