Coronavirus, Covid 19 Discussion and How It Has Affected Your Daily Life Chat Thread

[David61]

I'm not sure hand sanitizers will kill a virus. Bacteria, yes but that's not what we are dealing with.

Yea, beach or Lysol wipes 99.99 germs and viruses

 

[drumstick diva]

They are just set in their ways. Also the one I've known for over 11.5 years on the senior bus is the tightest tightwad around. Her social security check is more than twice what mine is. She gets her late husbands benefit. I've never been married and never made much grooming dogs and selling puppies etc. The majority of her money goes to buying shoes - shoes she never even wears - she really just collects them.

Her house was paid off many, many years ago. She doesn't fix up anything but, her outdoor garden. She has gorgeous flower and plant displays. But wouldn't spend a dime for a fan - until a neighbor told -the dog was screaming from the heat. Her two house chickens where laying like they were dead, when she found them. We were having a terrible heat wave.

She lives in the dark - too cheap to have lights or a light on. Frugal is okay I guess when you don't have much money. But she does have money. I think she is more than a little daft.

I have given her very nice items for her birthday & Xmas. She trades them in at the thrift store and buys yet another moth eaten coat - she has several - even a down coat. She also told me she has more than 100 decorated t-shirts in the garage and piles of newspapers - and the mice are chewing on all of them.

 

[drumstick diva]

My son and his girlfriend both were told they could work from home thru the 29th. of this month. Both live near the HOTTEST spot in the state - where several have died already.Son had his GF move in with him. I doubt that much work is getting done. The only smart thing they did was decide NOT to go to Florida Disney whatever I told them it would be crawling with tourists from all/any countries. As far as that goes, I think the airlines are cancelling flights there and other areas.

I didn't have gray hair till my son was born - I was 38. But it quickly took over and now just have snow silver hair. I do like the look and color though.

 

[ChocolateMouse]

We have a TP shortage in the area but not extreme. Like if you really need TP you can go places and get some. Some certain canned and dried goods too, namely rice, beans, pasta and tomatoes. We shop at Costco for those kinds of products and they didn't have any brands but the most expensive for most when we went, but they had it. Hand sanitizer too, just all gone. Partner works at a high end grocery and people are asking to buy the hand sanitizer they keep at the registers. 9_9; Pretty sure facemasks are gone too but we haven't been looking for those - which is especially frustrating because they're useless if you're not sick because it can enter your airways through your eyes. But now people who ARE sick won't have them. We have one whole face mask left in our house. XD

It's a problem tbh, not for us specifically (I mean, we buy our animal feed every 3 months, and we have 2 weeks of food in the house at all times, and we don't live paycheck to paycheck so we CAN isolate if we need to) but is for other people even people close to me, and I mean I also get why it's happening. I live in a low income city. Most people don't have enough food for 3 days in their house in case of an emergency and live paycheck to paycheck and suddenly they're being told they better get it and they're risking their rent money to comply. A huge number of people fall into the medicare gap. Once it hits these people are trying to live & deal with it on their own the way we as Americans have been taught how - pick yourself up by the bootstraps, you get yours or else, hunker down prepper style. (Which it has hit, 3 confirmed cases in our county, schools are shut down.) And that means trying to stock up on things they really can't afford to try to stay indoors to stay healthy so they can go to work to pay their rent.

But it's not going to work out. Like you don't stop the spread of a disease by hoarding soap - you stop the spread of disease by making sure everyone has soap - ESPECIALLY anyone who is at risk of catching it or already has it. As it stands my immune compromised sister who takes care of my elderly (70+) post-stroke father can't go and get the things THEY need to avoid getting sick because other, likely healthy but broke, people have taken it out of misguided self preservation. But that means those two are more likely to catch it. And that means they're more likely to spread it. Etc etc.

The reality is people are scared cause we live in a country without sufficient safety nets to deal with a pandemic systemically. I mean, 30/47 pandemic response centers that the USA was running internationally got closed in the last few years and our entire federal pandemic response team got fired about a year ago too. Currently tests for CORONA cost $1000+ without insurance. That's a lot of money. State medicaid does NOT cover CORONA tests unless they feel like it. And insurers that have hospitals in-network might not cover out-of-network lab costs. (citation) And given that the fatality rate for healthy young adults is less than .5% and it's got flu-like symptoms as we walk into our second flu season (it picks up again in spring here) and the start of allergy season I can 100% guarantee that most low-income workers who handle every single day-to-day service in our lives won't be going home when they get sick, let alone to the doctor. They will lose their homes and won't be able to afford food if they do. (This is already happening too. My sister works 20 hours a week at our local college tutoring math. Her work is closed for a month and she has no idea how she's going to afford the rest of the next couple months. Luckily her husband recently got a new job two days before it closed so they SHOULD be OK if HIS work doesn't get shut down but she's not the only one working there wondering how they're going to eat next month either. About 4 people in that tutoring center out of 20 relied on that job exclusively for their grocery bills and rent every month and now they have no income. That high income grocery my partner is worked at is short staffed and they refuse to hire more people cause it cuts into the profit margins for their parent corporation/shareholders, etc. so if people who work there need time off they may need to shut down despite being profitable and having room to bear the financial burden of more hires.) So they'll go to work, sick if they can, and exposing themselves if they need to, just to get by.

And I think that's where a lot of the concern is coming from. Humanity isn't going to die out from this. We'll live and move on. But with a 2-20% fatality rate for seniors (55+), a 10% mortality rate for immune compromised individuals and how virulent it is we're going to see some very human losses. I don't think anyone doesn't know someone with a compromised immune system. So people are scared and they feel very much on their own for dealing with it, they KNOW other people won't be able to stay home from jobs even if they get sick, so shortage-inducing fear levels aren't surprising at all.
(citation)

There's also some sketchy stuff in the bigger picture. Like you can't order Purell hand sanitizer off of amazon right now, they're sold out. But you sure can buy an 8oz bottle on ebay for $40. And I have it on good authority that major tissue brands are actually holding back stock of their product creating a bigger shortage issue.

All in all it's wack. I will (probably) be fine and so will my household. But dang I am spooked for my sister. :T And I can't even get her the stuff she might really need cause a bunch of other people bought it all already. You know, it's like, I have the money, but you can't eat money.

 

[rosemarythyme]

Can't find hand sanitizers anywhere. Target had a sign that you could only buy so many BUT
all the shelves there were empty.

Got toilet paper (extra) which don't really need, have a large pkg not opened - bought it b-4 Xmas.

I truly don't get the panic over toilet paper, of all things. Like paper towels, bleach, or hand soap I can understand... No issue getting soap at all, but toilet paper? Yeah stores are cleared out of toilet paper and have been for last two weeks. SOAP is more useful, not sure why people aren't buying that?

The item I really need is rubbing alcohol, not as a sanitizer but I'm currently dealing with an unrelated health issue and doc said I should get some. I pointed out to him that it's pretty much impossible right now, sigh. Thanks to people panic-stockpiling it, people who actually need it can't get any.

 

[drumstick diva]

Some folks think when the weather gets warm/hot it will kill the bacteria off. All I know is a lot of bacteria accelerates in heat.

 

[drumstick diva]

I have one half used bottle of rubbing alcohol - I've had for years. I don't know if its still any good or not. I have one bottle of hydrogen peroxide - that still bubbles up, so I guess it still works. Also had it for years stored away from light. I don't stock up. I just have available for other reasons.

Have some sanitizer wipes I got not so much for the virus but, for Arby's messy tables when we go to eat there. Or some restaurants have become very lax in cleaning tables. I get tired of doing their work for free. I don't know if these places are under staffed or they just don't care.

 

[rosemarythyme]

Pretty sure facemasks are gone too but we haven't been looking for those - which is especially frustrating because they're useless if you're not sick because it can enter your airways through your eyes. But now people who ARE sick won't have them.

It's a problem tbh, not for us specifically (I mean, we buy our animal feed every 3 months, and we have 2 weeks of food in the house at all times, and we don't live paycheck to paycheck so we CAN isolate if we need to) but is for other people even people close to me

Yeah I have a friend who mentioned a couple of weeks ago that she was having trouble finding masks for pollen season, as she has terrible allergies. Guess she gets to suffer through her allergies then...

And I can't imagine how impossible this is to deal with for someone who is living paycheck to paycheck. Worse yet, even if they aren't sick and aren't having to worry about quarantine, they're already seeing reduced hours and reduced pay because the economy is stalling with people not going out shopping or going to eat or traveling, etc.

 

[rosemarythyme]

some restaurants have become very lax in cleaning tables. I get tired of doing their work for free. I don't know if these places are under staffed or they just don't care.

I've always avoided touching tables, chairs, etc as much as possible eating out. I know restaurant staff only do the most basic wipe down of tables! I keep my hands in my lap and when food comes, I don't rest my arms against the table.

Meanwhile my hubby puts his hands and arms everywhere (and gets sauce all over his sleeve). He's always got his hands on the table. It's such a hard habit to break him of! I tell him I won't touch his hands until he goes and washes them. He used to roll his eyes at me for saying that. Nowadays he doesn't complain and goes and washes up without being asked, so that's like his one concession.

 

[getaclue]

Before going out, pour 2 1/4 cups of water, and 1/4 cup of bleach in a cake pan (10% bleach solution). Now tear off a paper towel, and lay it flat in the solution, then another on top of the first one, then another. When you have a sufficient quantity for that day's outing, take them out of the bleach water, and gently wring them out a little. Now, put them in a zip lock bag, and don't forget to take them with you. You've just made sanitizing wipes.