You guys ready for the coronavirus?

[edwardmurphy]

I'm going to steer clear of politics and just talk about life for a bit.

So Governor Sununu and President Trump have both declared states of emergency, and everything seems to be in the process of shutting down. My kids are the ones with the most stuff scheduled, and it's all cancelled - no gymnastics (practice or meets), no swimming lessons, no birthday parties, no soccer, the library is closed until further notice, and schools are closed statewide until April 6th.

I tried to get some toilet paper on Thursday and discovered that hoarders had bought up every [love] roll in New England, along with all the hand sanitizer, most of the hand soap, and for reasons that elude me, all the bottled water. Since my rational decision not to panic-buy toilet paper bit me in the ass I decided that I'd best join the herd and get to stocking up on essentials. My youngest and I shopped hard on Friday, which is good because on Saturday the pickings were slim and today the shelves are bare. I can't decide if we need that much food or not, but it's mostly frozen or shelf stable. People panic-bought all the canned soup and Spaghettios and so forth, but there was plenty of butter, flour, eggs, sugar, and the like. In other words you're all set if you can cook, which I can.

I found it odd that people went all in on canned junk but then my wife made the point that, as New Englanders, we really only know how to prep for blizzards. Blizzards mean no power, so you're sitting in the candlelight eating canned food you warmed up with your camp stove. Nobody bakes cookies or makes spaghetti and meatballs in a blizzard unless they have a generator or they're on the same grid as a hospital or something. I think that's why all the trash food is gone but the good stuff remains. Or maybe it's just that nobody cooks anymore. Anyway, I think we're more than set for food. It might even be overkill, but I'm not entirely confident that supply chains are going to hold up over the next few weeks, and it's better to be safe than sorry.

My wife is a school principal, so she's been on the computer 'till midnight every night for the last week trying to plan for the possibility of 3+ weeks of remote learning and fielding literally hundreds of emails from panicked parents and teachers. We're also working on a daily schedule for our family, so I can basically teach preschool/kindergarten until at least the first week of April. I'm not worried about it - I know my shapes, colors, sight words, and math facts - but this whole thing is completely surreal.

And I guess that brings us to the scary part. My immediate family is fine. There's a pretty good chance that we've all been exposed to the coronavirus, but we're fit and healthy so it's not that big a deal. But I also have 3 sisters-in-law with weakened immune systems (one from CP, one from celiac, and one because she just had a double mastectomy), my father-in-law has emphysema, my mom is recovering from pneumonia, my dad's been smoking a pack a day for 60 years, and I have a ton of aunts and uncles in their 70s and 80s. My nuclear family is just fine, but we're likely to lose a loved one before this is over.

And then there's the other scary part - the Dow has dropped about 6,500 points since mid February. It rebounded in a big way on Friday, but only to recover from a massive loss on Thursday. The Fed dropped interest rates to 0 and pumped another $700 billion into the economy (for a one week total of $2.2 trillion, if I remember right), but as we speak the futures market is down 5%. That means that tomorrow trading will open with a 1,041 point drop. That's very bad news. The Fed is about out of options for stabilizing the economy. They've dropped interest rates and bought Treasury bonds twice in the last week, and each time the market has taken it as a sign that everything is going straight to hell and they should panic. And that's just the Dow. My wife was talking to an airline pilot a couple of days ago. He said that the airlines don't have a lot of cash in reserve, and if they shut down for several weeks or more a lot of them are going to go bankrupt. Several cruise lines might well go down as well. Then there's the disruption to the economy from so many people being forced out of school and work weeks. People in the service industry and retail are going to have a hell of a time making rent, and who knows if supply chains will be maintained. I think we're looking at a major financial catastrophe. And that's not even counting the impact if tens of millions of people get infected and overwhelm the hospitals. Which could happen. We've barely begun testing, and we have literally no idea how many people are currently infected.

This could get really, really ugly.

Get small, my frenemies, and stay safe.

[Philip]

Ed, obviously, virtually every generation faces some sort of major crisis. Worrying does little good - often, a hard thing to avoid. But my anxiety - while I do experience it - is GREATLY tempered by my faith. And after once facing possible death and five years of a very serious illness and financial ruin, I learned to trust God to give me peace in whatever crisis must be faced. But before I understood to do this - and how to - I was totally freaking out as I considered the horrifying possibilities. And yet it was precisely those extremely trying years that built my faith far beyond my previous, mostly, intellectually based faith. We're not promised THIS life won't have serious trials, but we're promised those of faith will not have to face them alone, and that we can trust God in that. Do I understand God's purposes in what He sometimes allows us to endure - often, I do not. But having also experienced great peace and strong sense of guidance, even in the midst of unthinkable suffering, I've learned He is trustworthy and reliable, if we will only seek Him.

[Fliegender]

I’m not worried...but a lot of people obviously are as people seem to be on a Christmas-like buying spree...except the presents seem to be mostly packages of arsewipe. I’ve never seen so many empty store shelves outside of the former Soviet block countries. I was at Walmart today to buy picture frames and people had carts full of paper towels, toilet paper and canned goods. It’s just stupid. I suppose that covid-19 gives you a raging case of diarrhea, hence the massive sales of toilet paper. I hope this madness is over by June because I’m supposed to visit Poland during that month. Poland’s border is closed at the moment...

[edwardmurphy]

I'm not freaking out, Phil, I'm just working through the implications of what's going on and attempting to properly tune my threat detector. It seems to have been set a bit too low, else I wouldn't be down to 3 rolls of toilet paper in a house with 3 females. Oh well. It'll be restocked eventually, but I was hoping not to have to resort to chopping up a beach towel or bedsheet and doing laundry every night. Anyway, I'm glad your faith gives you comfort, but I'm doing just fine without any. You're right that worrying isn't much good, but I've got all of my preparations sorted out so now I have some time to process recent events. I like to do that by writing, and I figured here was as good a spot as any.

[Philip]

You're human, Ed. And the realities are scary and uncertain.

[1over137]

And this all came before Easter....

(Here in Slovakia starting today everything is closed except groceries, petrol stations... things needed for daily life)

[1over137]

Have to write another post as have been thinking about you Ed...

You can help your loved ones with weaken immunity.
As is known, stress weakens our immunity and our body, so, maybe if you offer your loved ones some support, encouragement, hope, jokes, whatever they like and will feel happy and thankful about.... it may raise their chances.
And what more, may strengthen your family

Have no worries Ed, this is time for our humanity to show up. Time for thinking, for lent, ...
(Ok, am Christian, and would also say, do not worry Ed, Our Father knows what he is doing.)

[Nessa]

We have lots of toliet paper at our house, if any one wants to make the long trip to NZ in their private jet as others seem to be doing..

We have 8 confirmed cases so far

There's a good 60minute documentary with the Asian expert that led the Sars crisis and he didn't have the 'Don't worry' attitude at all... In fact, the opposite.

Noah built the boat while others laughed....

[Nessa]

What really can piss a person off, is one of the people who has the virus was tested before coming to NZ and didn't wait for the results first before jumping onto the plane

All because he had no symptoms and was sure he wouldn't test positive for the virus

[RickD]

I work at a hospital, so you can imagine the paranoia caution, around here.

We’ve already seen states that the governor has closed all public and private schools, all restaurants are closed, and any gatherings of 50 or more people, have been canceled.

This is getting ridiculous.

Next step, I’m guessing, is some haphazard vaccine is invented, and we’ll all be forced to get it, without knowing side effects of it.

[Philip]

Rick, I'll definitely be praying for your health safety and peace of mind!

[PaulSacramento]

It will get worse before it gets better.
The "incubation" period is the main problem.
When it spreads, it spreads like wildfire.
The reason the Koreans were able to deal with it so well was they did NOT hesitate in isolation and quarantine methods done ASAP.

[Philip]

Paul: The reason the Koreans were able to deal with it so well was they did NOT hesitate in isolation and quarantine methods done ASAP.

Yes, this would seem to have been a massive anticipation, planning, and required execution failure by the CDC. And we MUST get our on drug manufacturing independent of China or elsewhere!

[edwardmurphy]

Yes, this would seem to have been a massive anticipation, planning, and required execution failure by the CDC. And we MUST get our on drug manufacturing independent of China or elsewhere!

The CDC is part of the DHHS, which is part of the Executive Branch, and...



It's also worth noting that NSC used to have a pandemic response team that was responsible for all of the things that you listed. The team was disbanded by the Trump Administration in 2018. No, Trump didn't directly fire the team, and it doesn't even seem like he knew about it (or cared), but...



Anything that's the CDC's fault is also the Administration's fault, and anything that's the Administration's fault is Donald J. Trump's fault. That's the way it's always worked. Fast and Furious was Obama's fault, even if he didn't know about it. Iran-Contra was Reagan's fault, regardless of his level of involvement. Operation Eagle Claw was Jimmy Carter's fault, even though he wasn't even there. That's the deal. Donald Trump doesn't get a pass. He takes credit when things go right, and when things go wrong...

[1over137]

We have lots of toliet paper at our house, if any one wants to make the long trip to NZ in their private jet as others seem to be doing..

We have 8 confirmed cases so far

There's a good 60minute documentary with the Asian expert that led the Sars crisis and he didn't have the 'Don't worry' attitude at all... In fact, the opposite.

Noah built the boat while others laughed....

Nessa, maybe my post was not that clear.
I did not mean - do not worry - do not stay home, do not take precautions...
My aim was to calm down the mind (oh my English..)

We here in Slovakia took hard measures right from the start. Quarantine, mouth protection....
It is expected this will be for 2 months or so till the virus takes its peak.
We do worry about our elders, that is why people do the food shopping for them put it at their gate and leave.
I hope this explains better my attitude.

in italy, sadly, doctors are faced with the situation when they have to choose between dying persons, who to rescue - younger one or older one - it is tough