Coronavirus info, facts & updates

[otocolobus_manul]

I live in Texas. Austin cancelled SXSW, Houston (where I live) cancelled the Rodeo, and San Antonio (where I go to school) postponed Fiesta until November - from what I understand Fiesta hasn't been cancelled since WWII, and I don't think the Houston Rodeo has ever been cancelled in history. Colleges in all 3 cities (and other cities, I'm sure) have been canceling in-person classes for varying lengths of time; my school has only pushed spring break back a week so far, but at least one other San Antonio school closed campus for the rest of the semester.

In Waller, where a friend of mine lives, supermarkets are empty and convenience stores are not far behind, and in Cypress, where I live, my dad reported lines to the back of the building when he went shopping today. Also people are driving even worse than usual, and the hospital I was at today for a psych appointment had a checkpoint, complete with a scanner, for people trying to access certain floors.

Some pictures a different friend sent, from Denver:
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[Ponybookworm]

Got an email from Tesco saying not only will it be harder to find slots for online deliveries, but also the drivers are taking (wise) precautions, checking if you're self-isolating due to illness before even opening the door. They also have limits on a lot of items, but warn they may still sell out & be unavailable. All due to COVID-19

[BlackCurtains]

I found this, linked on my local news site -

Desktop version - https://www.arcgis.com/apps/opsdashboard/index.html#/bda7594740fd40299423467b48e9ecf6

Mobile version - https://www.arcgis.com/apps/opsdashboard/index.html#/85320e2ea5424dfaaa75ae62e5c06e61

[freezestime]

Update to my info.

14 cases for all of Western Australia. Public transport authority has implemented a more intensive cleaning regime for buses and trains.

My birth mum said there's now a dedicated covd-19 section of the hospital my grandma's staying in.

My small local post office is the most packed I've ever seen it. Restaurants are having lower attendance, the grocery stores are super duper packed and people are filling up their cart to the brim.

I admit, I did spend like an extra $20-$40 on my groceries yesterday and I might stock up on a few more things today.

[Thimble]

Exactly, Rybett.   When someone pointed it out to me I was like....waaaaait. *eyes coat suspiciously*

Oh, and for anyone wondering if it's a good a idea to stock up, allow me to point out that a shortage is a shortage, whether it's artificially created or not. If you already have a month's supply have toilet paper or laundry soap or whatever, you probably don't need to go buy more.  However! If you're getting low on a vital supply, do your best to get it when you can, because with the nutters buying everything in sight, you may not have a chance later. Just sayin'.
It took me 3 weeks to find a package of toilet paper on the shelf in my town, and we have no confirmed cases at all. Don't make trouble for everyone else by taking more than you need, but don't wait and get stuck without, either.


Oh!And possibly the best, most underrated preparation you can do in the event of a lockdown or overreacting government is get all your financial (etc.) business taken care of ASAP, so that you don't get stuck with important payments or paperwork hung up in closed offices, waiting for them to reopen.

Basically, stay calm folks, but be aware that a lot of the world around you is...a bit anxious...and try your best to think of ways that you can help yourself and others by not adding to the chaos. We'll get through this, it's gonna be fine. 

[Minty_Magic]

1. I live in the southwest United States, Arizona specifically. So far we don’t have may confirmed cases here, under 10. I think we did have one of the first confirmed cases in the US about a month ago. Thankfully so far everyone seems to be recovering here, no deaths in my state yet.

2. The climate here is crazy, though it sounds like it is everywhere. The stores are ALL picked over and packed full everyday. The store I used to work at has put a limit on sanitation supplies like hand sanitizer and toilet paper to keep inventory up, but it doesn’t seem to be working. I’m thankful I quit that job and don’t have to be in the middle of all this. I work at a huge call center and they’re taking pretty massive steps to keep us healthy. It’s mostly rumor at this point, but it sounds like, they’re going to maybe let us take their computers and equipment home so that we can work remotely. We just downloaded software tonight that will allow us to access the intranet remotely, so it’s a rumor with some credit. I’m frankly shocked, but really appreciate the effort to keep us safe at the office. Schools have either extended spring break by a week or won’t be resuming for the semester.

3. The news coverage is causing way more panic than it needs to imo. I mostly watch CNN and I feel they’re doing a very poor job covering this. Local news is much more tame and informative, so I have switched to that for now.

I hate to sound stupid, but can someone tell me WHY this virus is causing such a panic? I know it’s pretty fatal to those with pre existing conditions and the elderly. I don’t want to downplay that. But the quarantines and shutdowns of Disneyland and other major businesses that normally never close down is like nothing I’ve ever seen before. This isn’t the first weird illness I’ve lived through. I remember some panic but never anything even close to this. I feel like there is some really important fact about this illness I’m not getting.

[Zapper]

I hate to sound stupid, but can someone tell me WHY this virus is causing such a panic? I know it’s pretty fatal to those with pre existing conditions and the elderly. I don’t want to downplay that. But the quarantines and shutdowns of Disneyland and other major businesses that normally never close down is like nothing I’ve ever seen before. This isn’t the first weird illness I’ve lived through. I remember some panic but never anything even close to this. I feel like there is some really important fact about this illness I’m not getting.

This is all just my opinion but to me it looks like manufactured fear mongering.
Sars2 is a "newly discovered" virus or more like a mutation of a preexisting virus. Coupled with the reported cases in China that's great newsfeed fodder.
The virus is potentially deadly to older people with preexisting conditions but - unlike the flu - is hardly lethal to young kids.
So far in my country more people have died of the flu than Sars Cov-2. But we have accepted the flu as a "normal" virus cocktail. "Corona" is one specific virus with a fancy name so anyone can talk about it like it was the new black plague.

Imo, it's best to not rely on news outlets but listen to single virologists that are not affiliated with big news outlets.
Here, most virologists agree that a face mask wont prevent you from catching it but people still bought them up like mad because they saw Asians on the news walking the streets wearing them. Not knowing most wear these masks due to air pollution in the big cities.

I have already heard older people say they won't go to Fridays for Future anymore because they are afraid of catching the virus. So I see this as anyones new scapegoat to avoid public protests, public involvement in general. If you said that about the flu people would laugh in your face and call you a coward. Despite - again - the flu killing more people.

Precautions are neccessary to keep the spread at bay. But I wish people would act that way towards the flu and not sneezing directly at me. So far I've had it each year and it is horrible each time. But people don't care if they contaminate you with germs that don't have a cool and dangerous story behind them.

[Taffeta]

I saw some of CNN's footage last night after we were talking about it here and they did seem to be unhelpfully encouraging people to stockpile, and talking about it as a war and so on. I mean, yes, there are challenges for everyone, but there's no point in creating panic.

I mentioned it in shoutbox the other day but BBC had a segment a few days back talking about how your mental health and your immune system are linked and so it's just as important to take care of your mental health as to take sensible precautions. Our advice here is to continue as much as normal as we can with the things we enjoy because right now in most areas there's not much reason not to do it. I don't know how good or otherwise that advice is for people with compromised health, especially since our govt/health advisors have openly told us they're going for herd immunity, that they need a % of us to get it to achieve that and that there won't be a vaccine for over a year. But at least it's less sensationalised. Panic breeds panic after all.

I'm not going to downplay the severity of the actual condition because it's easy to say it's not that deadly to most people with no preexisting conditions/younger etc, but or a lot of folk those are their parents and other loved ones, not just distant statistics. And I said before, I am very worried about my parents and to a degree my sister (who has just recovered from glandular fever, and who may now have to self-isolate given her immediate boss just went off work with suspicious symptoms having come back from Thailand just over 2 weeks ago).

On the other hand, my mother genuinely had something identical to this last year, with the cough and the persistent fever and the pneumonia and all the other watchword things we'e told about. So I agree that it's not an entirely new disease, it's related to other diseases that have prior circulation here and probably in other places too. Although there is also the possibility that it's not as new as they think and is a mutation of something in circulation here...and that some of these community transmitted cases that they can't explain are actually cases just in the population because of prior infections similar to this. NObody has ever tested cases for Covid19 prior to the apparent discovery of Covid19, so we'll never know for sure.

For me the difference between this and Flu (and the most recent comparative example is Swine Flu in 2009) is that we innoculate vulnerable people against Flu to try and prevent them getting it as much as possible, and that is not an option here.

All we can do is take it as it comes in our particular country or region.

[Loa]

So, 6 cases total for my whole country. We went nearly a week without any new cases, but then someone came back from Texas and brought it with him.

My work has a game plan for what happens if the virus reaches our island, our county, our town and then the mine itself. The closer it gets, the longer I have to stay at home working, as I'm immuno-compromised. /sigh.

My plans for travel this year have been put into status until I have better news.

[Griffin]

@Griffin, on the subject of the Skype Viva, I had to do that last April because one of my examiners relocated to Japan before my Doctoral School got themselves sorted out, but it worked out fine and was very smoothly coordinated. BUT ours are not streamed or public events, so I don't know how they might handle that. Just that Skype does work for the viva and you shouldn't worry about that if it comes to pass.

(Also, good luck).

Thank you! I'm sure it will be okay. And there will be many vivas before mine so I'm quite sure by the end of May they'll have figured out all the technical aspects. It's bound to be much more stressful for those who are defending in the next couple of weeks.

I didn't go shopping yesterday. I may wait until Monday morning with the supermarket/PO visit and stock up on cat food today. There's only one pet store I use as one of our cats is sensitive, and I have to walk there so I can never carry large amounts, I rarely have more than a 2-week supply of wet food at home and currently I'm almost running out. I hope the hoarding phenomenon hasn't reached pet stores yet!

I hate to sound stupid, but can someone tell me WHY this virus is causing such a panic? I know it’s pretty fatal to those with pre existing conditions and the elderly. I don’t want to downplay that. But the quarantines and shutdowns of Disneyland and other major businesses that normally never close down is like nothing I’ve ever seen before. This isn’t the first weird illness I’ve lived through. I remember some panic but never anything even close to this. I feel like there is some really important fact about this illness I’m not getting.

As far as I know, the massive shutdowns are intended to slow down the spread of the disease and ensure that it doesn't hit a certain area all at once. If too many people fall ill simultaneously it will put too much pressure on hospitals and they can't treat all the severe cases at once - this is precicely what has happened in Italy. Since nobody is vaccinated against this virus, there is no herd immunity at all, and doctors and nurses aren't protected from it either (unlike the flu). So not enough equipment or staff to take care of everyone who needs hospital treatment. And since some who catch it only have mild symptoms, they can spread the disease without knowing it. Avoiding social contacts even if you're seemingly healthy is intended to prevent that and protect those who are more vulnerable.

As for the panic, well that's just people being people (and the media won't help). All the experts say that soap is much more effective than hand sanitizer, but what do people do? The sanitizer is all gone while shelves are fully stocked with soap (well this is what I hear anyway).

[Taffeta]

Our shelves are not majorly stocked with soap but weirdly people are leaving behind the bars of soap and buying the stuff in bottles instead. We have been able to get soap though, it just meant thinking laterally about where it might be in stock rather than just raiding the supermarkets.

The stupid thing with hoarding sanitiser is that you are only going to use that when out. If you are trapped at home you would use soap, right? But if you can go out, you would be able to buy sanitiser and not need to hoard it. Yet people are hoarding it anyway...vicious circle.

TBH I think public transport is a higher risk than mass events are at the moment. And one reason for cancelling games etc rather than playing them behind closed doors here is that they worry about people gathering down the pub to watch (where there is more risk of contact infection than at an open air stadium, even though there may be fewer people).

Italy's biggest problem is the number of cases in that one small area, rather than them being across the whole of the country IMO. There's no way even the most sophisticated health system in the world (and I believe Italy's is pretty decent generally) could cope with that. I think this is what all countries are trying to prevent with all this curve-squashing rhetoric, but if they torpedo their economies at the same time we'll all be facing a much longer battle even if the disease falls back.

[Thimble]

To agree with several other people- yes, that's exactly it. The big, overblown measures are to prevent another Wuhan, where cases in a single area rapidly outgrew the system's ability to handle them. Resulting in a higher number of deaths. Places that have fewer critical cases also have more recoveries, because they get proper care. The WHO has been saying from the start that the main concern for them is protecting the areas with weak healthcare systems, because those places will be hit much harder.  The initial alarm was from the lack of viable treatments, but they've got a few things that are working now, so it's not as dire as it was. China's all-out measures helped the rest of the world tremendously, by giving time to find treatments, because it could have been so, so much worse from the start. Unfortunately, the major news outlets are fanning the flames of the public's alarm, and creating panic and a lot of unnecessary stress for everyone. They make money on views, so they need new things to talk about...but the bare facts don't change that much, so you end up with endlessly restated quotes and misquotes, in a big media feeding frenzy. 
There is no need to panic, and unless you are actually ill, or caring for someone who's at higher risk, you can probably just avoid the news if it's stressing you out. Maybe check for local closures and things that affect you directly once a day or so, and just let the rest wash on by.
The hype is mostly carry-over from the initial days of the infection, and the media trying to make a buck off your alarm.

[banditpony]

You worded it so great Thimble.

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Tossing in the curve for Minty_Magic. If anything makes sense to me, that does. If we don't slow down the infection rate, then we will overload our hospital systems. Remember, China had to build a hospital to deal with what was going on, and the rest of China went on extreme lockdown.

I am getting my information from my state and I'm also reading a local sub-reddit.. which is like playing with fire. But it gives updates on closings and inside information as well. I don't see the need for big news outlets, as I'm only concerned with local at this point since it's here.

Two of our big hospitals have already banded together to do drive through testing.. which is good.

Oh also,
I did stumble across this, about how Singapore, Hong Kong, and Taiwan dealt with this. Travel bans by Feb1, understanding of social distancing, 3x the amount of testing... etc.
https://time.com/5802293/coronavirus-covid19-singapore-hong-kong-taiwan/

[Zapper]

As of today there are 41reported cases in my city. That roughly makes 10 new people per day. No deaths. Some earlier cases already in recovery.
All events overseen by the city are cancelled until May, clubs closed, schools closed until after Easter. But the zoo is still open so guess what people are doing now with their kids.

Once again, after the news got out, people stockpiled toilet paper and spaghetti. But only the discount brands.
So people can't be that panicky if they still watch the prices

[tikibirds]

Where do you live?   CHINA

2. What is the current climate like where you're at? we have been restricted since January 25th, some areas more strict then others. Many residents could only have one family member leave every 3 days to buy necessities. You need to have a temp check to leave and return, sign in and out, all complexes have guards to in force these rules (not armed guards, most complexes here are like gated communities with guards 24/7 anyways.) Temp checks on highways/to enter or leave your residence/ to enter supermarkets, ect. IF you are under official quarentine at your residence because of suspected cases then you CAN NOT even go into the hallway. You need to order all food via an app and it will be delivered directly to your door. All schools/stores, ect are closed except supermarkets and they were only open limited hours. No taxi/uber/delivereis of any kind. No public transport. YOU MUST WEAR A MASK AT ALL TIMES OUTSIDE

Now most places have only a small number of cases if any at all. Everything in my area has reopened, Public transport has been reinstated. You now have a code that ranks you infection rate. Green for low risk, orange for med risk and that means self quarentine and red which means high risk and mandatory gov't quarentine. You need to scan the QR code which checks your phone info to see where you have been the last 14 days and that is how u get the color code. Mine is green since I never left Shandong, when most foreigners were bailing out - my passport was with the government for residency renewal so I was stuck here. 

now they are worried about infections from abroad so people from infected countries are automatically sent to mandatory quarentine upon arrival - either a hotel or hospital if you are showing symptoms/have a fever. I have a friend who flew back yesterday from South Africa and she was sent directly to a hotel for quarentine upon arrival.

We never had a shortage of  TP, soap, food here. The only items that ran very low were instant noodles like ramen and pork products. Only once was the supermarket low on certain items and that was right after the Chinese New year when everybody returned. There were lots pf pallets that needed to be unpacked so it might of been a case of being short staffed and not actually a shortage of food.


3. Are news reports coming from your area accurate or no? What is going on? I don't know. All the info comes from the communist party and their goal is to maintain social order but I feel that with the massive restrictions put into place on 1.4 billion people the number of infections has to be going down. But at the same time, many people never developed fevers or had mild symptoms so they never got caught by the system, so wouldn't they be spreading the virus and new people would be getting infected -  yet they claim 0 new cases for well over 2 weeks now. Is the gov't trying to save face or are there really no new infections here?
They say it came from a lab, They say it came from wild animals, they say it was from the US military who participated in some war games back in October...who knows.