The Covid-19 Thread: News, Preparation Tips, Etc

Chromia

Well-Known Member
I give it two weeks and we are going to be like italy. I had neighbor kids ringing my doorbell for my kids to play. I was like omg people aren’t taking this serious at all
2 People were going door to door in my neighborhood yesterday, canvassing for signatures to put 2 people on the ballot for a local election! :nono:

I saw 2 people get out of a car as I was taking groceries inside. Next thing I know, I go back out to get more bags out of my car and one of them was standing at my door, much less than 6 feet from me, with a pen and a clipboard! :mad:

I hate it when I'm caught off guard by people I wouldn't answer the door for as I'm loading or unloading my car!
 

Transformer

Well-Known Member
My spouse just banned the grandkids from coming over. He’s saying they are little carriers since the are still attending their preschool and we’re old. I’m not having it. In have no intention of depriving myself of their company for weeks. I going to their house tomorrow and going to snuggle/huggle with them.
 

Crackers Phinn

Either A Blessing Or A Lesson.
My phone sex voice saved the day again! I finessed two vendors into selling me a box of 90 rolls of their finest toilet paper stash each and guess who has a 12 pack case of 18 oz hand sanitizer coming tomorrow?

THIS CHICK RIGHCHEA !!!!

I woke up in a cold sweat the other night tryna figure out what I was going to do with an office full of people and no way to get toilet paper. The hand sanitizer was a bonus because I'm like wash ya dango hands!
 

Bette Davis Eyes

The "OG" Product Junkie
I just want to be paid to stay home for two weeks not including the weekends. ... okay...3 weeks.


I wanna not leave my house unless it’s to pick up food once. I’m tired of almost cussing folks out for entering my space

get THEE every lasting heck away from me. You adjust yourself in front of me!!! I knowwwwwwww you don’t wash your hands.


Sigh.
 
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B_Phlyy

Pineapple Eating Unicorn
Thoughts ?



I believe them and that's why the world is screwed now. They know who patient zero is and they are hiding something that would blow the lid off how to track and treat COVID-19. I'm not really into conspiracy theory, but I truly believe that when all is said and done, there was a simple solution to this and the Chinese already know they looked past it on how to keep the viral spread contained.
 

guyaneseyankee

Well-Known Member
I worked from home today for the first time successfully. This afternoon, we had a conference call with them talking bout Skelton crews
I’m not going to work tomorrow either, but I’m thinking about making a call to Human Resources. Is that unrealistic?
 

Black Ambrosia

Well-Known Member
Anyone know how this is impacting regular doctors and nurses outside of the ER? A friend is a psychiatrist. She's married to an Ob/Gyn. My dermatologist is a doctor. Do they continue with their regular jobs or are they somehow called to action? They're all doctors but none of them specialize in the systems impacted.

Sorry if this is a dumb question. Just wondering what the front lines look like when this didn't even exist a few months ago. There aren't any real experts.
 

Black Ambrosia

Well-Known Member
@yaya24

This article mentions that American journalists are losing their press credentials in China as a result of tension between our countries related to the virus. It doesn't specifically say anything about their reporting but all the major outlets carried stories on the whistleblower doctor who passed last month. I bet they got rid of them because they indirectly supported the free speech the people desperately want.

Tensions between China and Trump administration over coronavirus escalate with expulsion of U.S. reporters

President Trump speaks with his coronavirus task force during a White House briefing Tuesday.
China’s expulsion of American reporters from three major news organizations on Tuesday marked a major escalation of a proxy war between the world’s two largest economies over the origin and global spread of the novel coronavirusthat President Trump has called the “Chinese virus.”

Chinese authorities announced Tuesday that U.S. journalists from The Washington Post, the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal must hand over press credentials, effectively meaning they must leave the country. The move is in retaliation for recent restrictions on U.S.-based Chinese state media put in place by the Trump administration, but the newly hostile public posturing also comes as the health, economic and social costs of the virus are skyrocketing in the United States and have already taken a toll on China.

At a time when public health experts say the world needs clear communication and cooperation to contain the pandemic, two of the globe’s leading powers are butting heads as part of a nationalistic tit-for-tat over the coronavirus — accusing each other of mishandling the outbreak and misrepresenting one another’s roles in its rise.

“It seems to be we’re still in a free fall, looking for the bottom,” said Bonnie Glaser, a China expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. “It’s really amazing that in the face of a global pandemic, the United States and China are playing the blame game, pointing fingers at one another rather than looking for some ways to cooperate.”

China has accused the United States, and Trump in particular, of racism for trying to label the virus Chinese or Wuhan, the city where it first appeared. The Trump administration has accused China of disinformation and slander.

Trump and political allies in and out of the administration frequently describe the crisis as Chinese-made, something public health professionals say is meaningless outside the lessons that can be learned from China’s experience in responding to the outbreak.

It is part of an effort to shift blame and characterize the outbreak as a foreign invader that has persisted even as Trump has shifted from dismissing the virus as a passing inconvenience to treating it as a threat to the nation.

“The world is at war with a hidden enemy,” he tweeted Tuesday. “WE WILL WIN!”

Trump and his allies have said that using the term “Chinese virus” is not aimed at exploiting xenophobic fears among some Americans. They say it counteracts self-serving propaganda from Beijing.

“China was putting out information which was false that our military gave this to them. That was false. And rather than having an argument, I said I had to call it where it came from. It did come from China,” Trump said Tuesday during a news conference at the White House. “So I think it’s a very accurate term.”

A Chinese state television outlet had admonished Trump in English on Monday night.

“Shall we call H1N1 ‘American flu’? No, we’d rather focus on saving lives,” @CGTNOfficial tweeted, adding the hashtags “#ChineseVirus? and #FightTheCOVID19.”

The Trump administration accuses China of covering up the extent of the initial outbreak in Wuhan and making it worse for the rest of the world. The administration has angrily denounced official statements in China suggesting that the virus originated in the United States or was spread to China by the U.S. military.

A spokesman for the Chinese foreign ministry, in a series of tweets last week, amplified a conspiracy theory that the virus did not originate in a Wuhan market, as experts believe, but rather was weaponized deliberately by U.S. troops taking part in an athletic competition in that city last year.

A separate conspiracy theory circulating in the United States holds that the virus is a Chinese plot against the United States, and some Trump supporters have accused Democrats and the news media of engineering a fake crisis to make Trump look bad.

The State Department summoned China’s ambassador in Washington on Friday for a heated confrontation, and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo complained again Monday in a phone call with his Chinese counterpart.

Asked whether there is a “stigma” attached to labeling a global pandemic after a country or ethnicity, as Trump had done twice in a span of several hours Monday night and Tuesday morning, the president doubled down.

“No, I don’t think so. No, I think saying that our military gave it to them creates a stigma,” he told reporters.

He spoke before news of the journalists’ expulsion in China, but Pompeo addressed the development a short while later.

“They suggested somehow that the actions that we had taken here in America prompted this. This isn’t apples to apples,” Pompeo told reporters at the State Department. “I regret China’s decision today to further foreclose the world’s ability to conduct free press operations, which frankly would be really good for the Chinese people.”

Pompeo also used his variant of “Chinese virus” as he accused the Chinese government of attempting to “shift responsibility.”

“There will come a day when we will evaluate how the entire world responded. We know this much. We know that the first government to be aware of the Wuhan virus was the Chinese government,” Pompeo said.

White House national security adviser Robert C. O’Brien said last week that China cost the world time to deal with the virus, setting back the global response time by weeks or months.

China’s foreign ministry said the three U.S. outlets, as well as Voice of America and Time magazine, will be designated as “foreign missions” and must report information about their staff, finances, operations and real estate in China.

The statement did not mention pulling credentials for Time and VOA, but it was unclear whether China would take further action.

The escalating blame game comes as Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping have faced widespread criticism for their handling of the pandemic. China’s Communist Party failed to disclose early reports about the virus, intimidating local doctors who tried to sound alarms, and party leaders have blamed the Trump administration for spreading unnecessary panic in its decision to shut down flights from China in January.

Trump played down the scale of the virus in the United States for weeks and offered contradictory and at times inaccurate information to the public, before only recently shifting to a more robust government effort to scale up testing.

The finger-pointing occurs as China and the United States are supposed to be moving toward an omnibus trade deal that tests Trump’s strategy of applying tariffs and then negotiating to remove them.

Trump insisted Tuesday that an initial U.S.-China trade agreement is intact and China will buy U.S. farm products as promised.

“We have a good relationship with China. I have not received anything to that. No, we have a signed agreement. They’re going to be buying, and they have been buying a lot of product,” Trump said.

As Trump and Xi play to their domestic audiences, analysts see competing incentives that are likely to exacerbate bilateral tensions, which have been on the rise for years, despite the announcement of a “phase one” trade deal in early January.

Glaser said Beijing is not only attempting to shift the blame for a domestic audience, but also eager to exploit the global uncertainty and bolster its argument that “China is a model for developing countries to copy and China should be a leader of global governance reform and portraying the United States as having failed in its governance model.”

Trump had touted the trade deal as a sign that his personal relationship with Xi was paying off in tangible economic wins for the United States, an argument that was shaping up as a core of his 2020 reelection message. Before the coronavirus began to make headlines in late January, the president had touted a possible upcoming summit with Xi to begin talks on a “phase two” deal.

On Jan. 15, Trump played host to a handful of senior Chinese officials in the East Room at the White House to announce the trade breakthrough in celebratory remarks with U.S. business officials. Yet Gordon Chang, a China hawk who appears frequently on Fox Business Network, pointed out that by then, Xi already knew about the spread of the coronavirus in Wuhan.

“These guys send their delegation into the East Room interacting with a good portion of the American leadership, and they were not even telling us they were potential disease carriers,” said Chang, who also questioned whether Beijing is prepared to abide by the terms of the trade package that was announced that day.

In the news conference Tuesday, Trump said he expects Beijing to follow through on its to pledge to purchases $250 billion in U.S.-made goods despite the negative impact that the coronavirus has had on China’s economy. He added that Beijing has “every incentive” to ensure that supply chains on pharmaceuticals to the United States remain intact.

Hudson Institute analyst Michael Pillsbury, who informally advises Trump on China and trade, said he does not view Trump’s stepped up rhetoric about the “Chinese virus” as signaling that the president is ready to dramatically escalate tensions with Beijing.

“I think it all depends on the implementation of the phase one agreement,” Pillsbury said. “It has a lot of deadlines in it.”

Others are advising Trump to dial down.

“The #ChineseVirus? Resist the temptation to demonize or scapegoat people or groups, especially in times of stress or shortage,” Jesuit priest and author James Martin tweeted. “The #COVID virus is no one’s ‘fault.’ And as Jesus reminds us with his life, there is no one who is ‘other.’ There is no us and them. There is only us.”

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization kept it short.

“Kind quick reminder: viruses have no nationality.”
 

rayne

Well-Known Member
Anyone know how this is impacting regular doctors and nurses outside of the ER? A friend is a psychiatrist. She's married to an Ob/Gyn. My dermatologist is a doctor. Do they continue with their regular jobs or are they somehow called to action? They're all doctors but none of them specialize in the systems impacted.

Sorry if this is a dumb question. Just wondering what the front lines look like when this didn't even exist a few months ago. There aren't any real experts.

Not a dumb question, I was wondering the same thing. I had to get bloodwork done for my upcoming endocrinologist appointment on Monday and this Saturday I have an appointment with my regular doctor. I was expecting both of them to get cancelled or rescheduled but as of right now they haven't. So it seems that it'll be business as usual...at least for now. But I plan on asking both dr's about their role, if any, in this.
 

cocosweet

Well-Known Member

As the coronavirus pandemic grows, gun sales are surging in many states

Kurtis Lee, Anita Chabria
,
LA Times•March 16, 2020



David Stone closes a sale with a customer at Dong's Guns, Ammo and Reloading in Tulsa, Okla. (Ian Maule / For The Times)

David Stone snagged a cardboard box of .223-caliber ammunition from the shelf and slid it across the glass countertop, offering his go-to sales pitch: "Welcome to the biggest selection of ammunition in all of Oklahoma."

“I’m not sure I can keep on saying that,” Stone said, explaining that the supply of goods at Dong’s Guns, Ammo and Reloading has been seriously depleted over the last few days.



Boxes of ammo sit on shelves at Dong's Guns, Ammo and Reloading in Tulsa, Okla. (Ian Maule / For The Times)

“When I say sales have been booming,” he said, “it’s an understatement.”

Gun sales are surging in many U.S. states, especially in those hit hardest by the coronavirus — California, New York and Washington. But there's also been an uptick in less-affected areas, with some first-time gun buyers fearing an unraveling of the social order and some gun owners worried that the government might use its emergency powers to restrict gun purchases.

Stone's packed store shares a small strip of road with a church, a cemetery and another gun shop, and in recent days he has sold several firearms to truckers traveling along Interstate 44 here in Oklahoma. One trucker, who was headed to Arizona, bought $2,500 worth of firearms and ammunition, and another trucker, who was headed to Illinois, dropped $200 on ammunition alone.

“You got to be protected for all sorts of stuff,” Stone said. “Seems like the world has gone mad.”


A line at the Martin B. Retting gun store in Culver City on Sunday extends out the door and around the corner. (Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times)

In California, would-be customers formed a long line outside the Martin B. Retting gun shop in Culver City over the weekend.

“Politicians and anti-gun people have been telling us for the longest time that we don’t need guns,” said John Gore, 39, part of the crush of customers in recent days. “But right now, a lot of people are truly scared, and they can make that decision themselves.”

Ammo.com, an online retailer of ammunition, has also seen a recent increase in sales. According to the company, from Feb. 23 to March 4, transactions increased 68% compared with the 11 days before Feb. 23, a day when Italy reported a major outbreak of the coronavirus that causes COVID-19.

Some gun control groups have raised concerns about children out of school for the next several weeks, which could result in more children and teens being killed in homes with unsecured guns.

"The unintended consequence of these panic-induced purchases in response to the COVID-19 pandemic could be a tragic increase of preventable gun deaths for the loved ones these individuals are trying to protect," Kris Brown, president of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, said in a statement Monday.

The National Rifle Assn. and other 2nd Amendment advocates have been applauding the uptick in firearms sales. "You don't need it, till you need it," Donald Trump Jr. tweeted recently.


Donald Trump Jr.

✔@DonaldJTrumpJr


The irony of it all is that it’s my Democrat friends reaching out to me now asking me which guns they should buy just in case... in particular which ARs.

I guess they’re ok with the 2A now???

You don’t need it, till you need it. https://twitter.com/JackPosobiec/status/1238890240108044288 …

Jack Posobiec

✔@JackPosobiec

Illegal! https://twitter.com/DonaldJTrumpJr/status/1238835353806680065 …


32.3K

5:09 PM - Mar 14, 2020
Twitter Ads info and privacy

32.1K people are talking about this



According to various reports, the surge in gun sales started several weeks ago in states such as Washington and California, and included large numbers of Asian Americans, some fearful of anti-Asian backlash over the coronavirus.

At Laguna Guns & Accessories in Elk Grove, south of Sacramento, the shop's owner said he has seen a recent run on his inventory, with many Asian customers stopping into the store, but others too. Over the last week in Elk Grove, an elderly woman died of COVID-19 in a senior care facility, and the area's school district — one of the largest in California — was one of the state's earliest to close.

"It’s panic,” said George, the shop owner, who would consent to the use of only his first name.

For weeks, customers have been crowding into Arcadia Firearm and Safety, a gun store in the heart of Southern California's Chinese American community. The store's owner, David Liu, said it was the busiest he'd ever seen, and not just because of his Asian American clientele.


A customer looks at parts for his turkey gun while shopping at Dong's Guns, Ammo and Reloading in Tulsa, Okla. (Ian Maule / For The Times)

"It's everybody," said Liu, adding that his major suppliers are out of stock, making it impossible to reorder. "It's not only California, it's the whole nation that's cleaned out. ... It's like toilet paper."

Three minutes before the store's closing Sunday, first-time gun purchaser Anna Carreras was one of the remaining customers, waiting to see what inventory was left.

"It's not like an active panic, more a preoccupation with making sure everyone is adequately prepared, myself and family and friends," she said. "Better to be prepared and not need it than need it and not have it."

In Tulsa on a recent afternoon, the click of magazines jamming inside handguns reverberated off the cinder-block walls of Dong’s Guns. Dozens of people — many of whom seemed utterly unfazed by warnings to stay home and practice social distancing — filtered in and out of the shop.

When approached by a reporter, one man refused to answer questions if he couldn’t first get a handshake. Nearby, another man walked the aisles in search of a scope for his bolt-action rifle.

Brandon Jay, 37, said his interest in the gun shop had nothing to do with the coronavirus. He was here to protect himself from a neighbor who has made threats.

“It’s the flu 2.0,” he said, shaking his head. “People all scared of this — it’s the flu. It’s some made-up stuff from the coasts.”

With seven confirmed cases of the coronavirus and no deaths, Oklahoma — unlike California or Washington — hasn't experienced the hour-by-hour updates of the pandemic's spread. Though Jay is skeptical of the risks, he said he was encouraged to see more people buying guns.

“If this hysteria is helping the cause, then that’s great,” he said. “Strap up.”

Less than a mile down a two-lane road from Dong’s, Bryan Pratt grabbed an AR-15 pistol from the back of his pickup truck in the parking lot of 2A Shooting Center. Pratt, who likes to shoot his firearm for sport most weekends, said the parking lot was unusually packed.

“There’s no sports games on,” he said, “so I guess people want to shoot.”


.45-caliber guns sit in a display case at Dong's Guns, Ammo and Reloading in Tulsa, Okla. (Ian Maule / For The Times)

Pratt said he wasn’t yet worried about the virus — maybe when there are more cases in the area, he said.

“I’m not there yet,” he said, gripping his gun case and jogging inside.

He had reserved a lane for an hour and didn’t want to waste time.

Lee reported from Tulsa, Okla., and Chabria from Sacramento. Times staff writer Louis Sahagun in Los Angeles contributed to this report.
 

oneastrocurlie

Well-Known Member
Anyone know how this is impacting regular doctors and nurses outside of the ER? A friend is a psychiatrist. She's married to an Ob/Gyn. My dermatologist is a doctor. Do they continue with their regular jobs or are they somehow called to action? They're all doctors but none of them specialize in the systems impacted.

Sorry if this is a dumb question. Just wondering what the front lines look like when this didn't even exist a few months ago. There aren't any real experts.

Not exactly what you asked but my dentist office closed. My brother needs a wisdom tooth pulled and they tried to push it back but he's in pain so they are considering it emergency and are going to keep his original appointment date.

My mom foot surgery was canceled. My counselor moved to virtual appointments.
 

InchHighPrivateEye

Well-Known Member
I’m honestly thinking about taking my son and going to stay with my parents for the next week. I’ve been working at home for the last two days, but my husband hasn’t and says he won’t and ppl in his office insist on cruises STILL. one person just got back from England and another person is planning a cruise and really it doesn’t matter I guess Bc things are here now.

All I know is that I don’t want to pick up anything and transmit it to my folks. They watch my son, and honestly I just like to see them every day and if things come to a point where we have to stay home and I know they are the most vulnerable then that’s where I intend to be :look: so I need to keep myself and my son healthy. Obviously, that’s not the only incentive i have for keeping my son healthy.
I did this :look:
 

Jmartjrmd

Well-Known Member
Anyone know how this is impacting regular doctors and nurses outside of the ER? A friend is a psychiatrist. She's married to an Ob/Gyn. My dermatologist is a doctor. Do they continue with their regular jobs or are they somehow called to action? They're all doctors but none of them specialize in the systems impacted.

Sorry if this is a dumb question. Just wondering what the front lines look like when this didn't even exist a few months ago. There aren't any real experts.
A lot of hospital treat nurses as " a nurse is a nurse" meaning they will float you out of your specialty to help in other departments. They usually keep it in a grouping meaning if you are a pediatric nurse they wouldn't send you to cover adult oncology but would send you to say the nursery if needed. Or if you do pediatric icu they may send you to the neonatal icu or pediatric cardiac icu and vice versa.
However when I was in management for something like this we closed the NICU completely meaning no float nurses could come in and we would not float our nurses out. And visitation was parents only. Our babies are so vulnerable I could see this wiping out a whole unit of tiny babies.
Hospitals have a disaster plan where if push came to shove nurses would go help out where needed. Right now though they are offering insane amounts of money for registry and travel nurses to come and fill in where needed. But the patient ratios are high and the hours long. Some boards of nursing are processing licenses in a day..I know Massachusetts is....whereas normally it would take 2 months to endorse their license so they can get more travel nurses in.
The patients come through ER but if they are sick enough they go to the floor exposing more nurses, xray techs, kitchen staff. doctors, housekeeping, nurse assistants, lab personnel and on and on.
That's why I wish more people understood why trying to control and contain this is crucial beyond "well I'm healthy so im not worried if I get sick I'll be ok" or "it's just the flu" and I dont get why everyone is freaking out.. Not everyone will be that lucky and our hospitals do not have the personnel to run all of them at capacity.
As I said above nurses can float outside their specialty but with limitations. A med/surg nurse doesn't know how to manage a ventilator and a icu nurse doesn't know how to take care of a laboring woman. It could get real ugly out there fast.
Just look up hurricane Katrina and how it devastated this one hospital...cant remember the name but it was disastrous.
 

Ganjababy

Well-Known Member
This right here...Our training and experience is really specific to our areas.
. A med/surg nurse doesn't know how to manage a ventilator and a icu nurse doesn't know how to take care of a laboring woman. It could get real ugly out there fast.
Just look up hurricane Katrina and how it devastated this one hospital...cant remember the name but it was disastrous.
 

Dellas

Well-Known Member
https://me.mashable.com/culture/947...arket-shows-the-ridiculousness-of-bulk-buying


Sad, if you can't buy in bulk stores are not selling to you. America is so cruel to the working class. I wanted to buy something that they told me to buy a case for 90 dollars. This was a food item. No one wants a case of bacon. I just wanted one super pac. I thought Costco was crazy.
I don't know if every store is doing this. Crazy! My heart goes out to her.
 

B_Phlyy

Pineapple Eating Unicorn
Anyone know how this is impacting regular doctors and nurses outside of the ER? A friend is a psychiatrist. She's married to an Ob/Gyn. My dermatologist is a doctor. Do they continue with their regular jobs or are they somehow called to action? They're all doctors but none of them specialize in the systems impacted.

Sorry if this is a dumb question. Just wondering what the front lines look like when this didn't even exist a few months ago. There aren't any real experts.


My clinic is family medicine and preventative care. We're still open but not really seeing 'sick' patients. If you're a stable diabetic or have hypertension, you can come in and get your labs and refills. Newly developed fever, cold or flu symptoms need to call and will likely have to go to urgent care. You can get STD testing done and we're doing some minor procedures.

They are sending our HR, PI, and coordination teams home today though.
 

discodumpling

Well-Known Member
I got mad love for my LHCF sisters. Y'all are keeping me sane as the world descends into madness.
For those of us who have ever wondered how home schooling as working parents would work...here we go!
Online schooling doesn't officially begin until next Monday for NYC kids. But the amount of prep and info is outrageous. Good luck to us all. Tips and tricks are welcome!
Grocery shopping is more like hunting now. We make careful lists and stick to them cause we're not about that panic buying life. But its challenging getting our usual groceries like juice, eggs, meat, poultry. I'm learning to utilize alternative sources like our local little meat markets and any supermarket with the word Food or Farm in it! Lol!
 
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