Hope you’re all safe; hope you’re all washing your hands; hope you’re all hunkering down. Our federal government (here in the US at least) has failed in pretty much every way it’s possible to fail and to a large extent we have to rely on our state and local governments — and each other.
In some ways the most horrific thing I’ve learned in the last few days was this: Trump, who hits new lows as a president and as a human being on a daily basis, has been trying to basically buy a German firm working on a vaccine that he wants to be available exclusively in the US.
Here are some other articles I’ve found useful in making sense of all this. Some of them are disturbing, but we can’t successfully confront what we don’t understand.
The Quiet Terror of Coronavirus, by Talia Lavin, GQ
Cancel Everything, The Atlantic
Social Distancing: This is Not a Snow Day, Medium
These simulations show how to flatten the coronavirus growth curve, Washington Post
The Worst-Case Estimate for U.S. Coronavirus Deaths, NYT
Infected people without symptoms might be driving the spread of coronavirus more than we realized, CNN
Please post any other articles and resources you’ve found to be helpful.
–DF
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Here in Switzerland everything is shutting down from tomorrow until April 19th. It’s going to be a very long tedious month, but I am glad the government took action. There were way too many people not taking this seriously.
I’m in lockdown in a small island in the Canaries.
I’m not tour guiding, obviously, so there’s a sizable financial hit. OTOH I was expecting to be underemployed at this time of year and I was abole to save extra plus my husband still get a paycheque and we’ll be OK. Besides, about 1/3 of my income comes from writing and that’s what I’m doing.
We’re not allowed outside for sport; just work or food /pharmacy shopping. I believe the damn virus will survive for 9 hours on asphalt. It does seem a little OTT for people on the edge of a village like us, probably sensible in a big city. I just put on music and dance for a bit.
Most people are being great, at least on this little island. People are playing musical instruments, singing and dancing on the balconies for each other. Lots of uplifting memes and similar going around WhatsApp. (“Our grandparents lived through a war. We’re being asked to stay home for 2 weeks to save our grannies.”) Every evening at 7 pm we come out onto our balconies and applaud the health service professionals . People are buying extra, but not emptying the shelves. Somewhere on the mainland a hospital said they were low on masks and could local people with sewing skills help? (Presumably the amateurs would produce something a whole lot better than nothing) and it wasn’t long before they were sayng, “Stoooop! You’re wonderful, but we have enough now.”
National and local govenments are working out how they’re going to help small businesses and self employed people cope, and how to help people who live alone.
The general mood seems to be, “Yeah, let’s DO this!” But it’s only day 2.
@Sheila Crosby
I saw videos of this from Italy (specifically I rather liked this one of someone playing some Slayer riffs). I would do this if I had a balcony, but I don’t currently have one (I have a porch, but that doesn’t have the same effect).
Here in Massachusetts, schools are closed until April 6 at least. No gatherings above 25 people. Bars closed. Gyms closed. Movie theaters closed. Restaurants takeout only. I work at a veterinary clinic. No hand sanitizer for employees until we are sure we can get more – it’s for the clients when they walk in. We are offering drop off and low-contact appointments. Sanitizing doorknobs and chairs and everything multiple times a day. Payment for medication refills and food taken over the phone when possible so client can pick up and go. And we had a client today who needed her dogs’ vaccination records because she was driving to Ohio to visit her elderly parents.
I have never had hands this chapped this late in the year.
Macron said 15 days of lockdown at least (possibly more, of course). He did not say the details of how it would be enforced (but see : APC being sent in the Paris area, so we have some clues). There’s a ton of other reliefs measures announced, including creating new temporary hospitals with the help of the Army in the most impacted part of France, allowing people to not pay rent and utilities, and make sure small business don’t die.
Frontiers are closed. A work friend who is A – technically not french and B – in Malte currently is *SUPER* in trouble, since she cannot get back in France anymore where all her life is.
Overall, compared to Trump he look like a real leader, but I don’t trust much him with exceptional powers. There’s a good deal of actually useful measure tho.
@Moggie
The best part is that the box was opened, but only about half of them were gone. People are snapping up 36-packs of toilet paper, but one Dude Wipe is plenty for the apocalypse.
Here in Maine, schools are closed through March 30th, but I have a feeling they aren’t going to reopen this spring. COVID-19 is likely to be peaking here around early to mid May. Even then, it’s not just going to go away. We’re probably facing several cycles where everyone resumes life as usual, then there’s a new outbreak, then everyone goes back into isolation to flatten the curve. It will be interesting to see what happens in China as people recover and start going back to their regular activities.
@Ledasmom
91% isopropyl alcohol, add about ten percent baby oil. You’ll have to shake it up before using. Keeps the hands smooth after use, and that should be enough alcohol to kill bad stuff. It is liquid, not gel, so you’ll have to cup your hands when dispensing. That ought to get you through a shortage of sanitizer.
@Buttercup
It’s just that manly, that you only need one pack for a Real Man! /s
That reminds me: I wonder how Alex Jones’s product sales are going right now. IIRC he sold tactical butt wipes or something like it.
Guys I’m already going stir crazy. They closed the library, what if I run out of books?
Idris Elba has tested positive. I guess he’s likely to get through it ok.
@Lainy
There are lots of websites on the Internet that can be entertaining. Or you could try to do an art project of some sort (though materials might be limited by what you have on hand).
@Naglfar
I do have a lot of plastic bottles that have been needing to go to recycling but I could make an owl or something out of them I suppose. It would go nicely with my owl made out of pop cans.
Does your library have any online resources? I borrow ebooks from mine all the time from the comfort of my own cave. 🙂
@Lainy
You could use this time, to work on your art. Currently working from home. These state of emergency has created a lot of legal questions related to work, taxes, deadlines, etc.
@Lainy, Project Gutenberg has a lot of free e-books online. You don’t even need an e-book reader. For example, you could read Poe’s The Masque of the Red Death there, if that’s not too on the nose.
Me, I’m working my way through Blender tutorials, learning 3D modelling. Maybe I’ll work my way up to animation eventually!
@Viscaria
It has some, sometimes I get auto books there but I don’t have an ereader
@Diego
Yeah I’m thinking about seeing if there is anyway I can get fabric delivered to my place and I might start working on a new skirt or dress or something.
@moggie
I’ll have to look at it.
Beep boop from Finland!
Our govt has declared a state of emergency on Monday and we’re essentially shutting down now.
https://yle.fi/uutiset/osasto/news/finland_closes_schools_declares_state_of_emergency_over_coronavirus/11260062
Regarding my status — my mother-in-law is now semi-quarantined due to her age, so we’re not going to see her this week or next week; myself and Otter are fine (I got a bit of snuffles and snot in my nose; a minor cold, it seems), and of course both kitties are fine, though Carisma was exercising her capability for yowling in heat, because of course, this is exactly the right time to get into heat when I can’t take her to meet his future date.
Since both Otter and I are used to work from home (me: 100%, Otter ~95%), to us this is not a big change to anything and we’re not that social either, with our social lives being a whole lot in the internet.
We’re isolating, especially because of Otter’s mom/my mother-in-law and I’m also in high-risk group, what with diabeeeeetus and cardiovascular dilemmas and I suspect my immunity is actually in class of “well this sucks”.
We got food, we got TP for our bunnngggholes and we’re also in the middle of a massive apartment complex renovation! Basically, the plan is that everything except internal walls (mostly) gets renovated. Ooof. Yard (pathways, lights, drainage, kids’ playground etc etc), trash collection system, apartments (all rooms, bathroom, sauna, closets, floors…) hallways, public spaces… All this got started in early March (was supposed to last ’till the end of the year) and now coronavirus shutdown is giving loads of ????? if this is gets stalled.
Siiiiiiigh. We’ll see. I don’t want anyone to get sick. 🙁
tl;dr: Skiriki & co are fine, well-prepared and braced to weather what comes.
So, an update on me.
But first, Podunk, Ontario and the virus. There are no known cases yet here, though the nearest large city, Ottawa, now has ten. Those ten all caught it traveling. With any luck, there’s no community transmission in my area yet.
I was out Saturday, to top up some supplies (I now have two weeks of nearly everything). Businesses generally seemed to be open their normal hours. Restaurants are eschewing trays in favor of disposable paper containers and wrappers, apparently in some effort to reduce the risk of transmitting the virus on surfaces. No other changes were apparent to “business as usual” but I expect that to change soon, especially if community transmission is reported anywhere nearby.
The worrying thing is I will likely have to go out at least once every week or two even when this thing is at its peak. Partly that’s down to limited storage at my home for supplies, and partly to shelf life (in particular, it’s nigh impossible to find bread that won’t expire in two weeks or less). Having stuff delivered is presumably only an option for people middle-class enough to a) have a credit card and b) be willing to pay 10 or 20% extra, or something like that.
I also still don’t have a doctor. AFAICT, that “Health Care Connect” someone here recommended a while back doesn’t actually health-care-connect you; presumably it just exists to get people to sit around waiting rather than kicking up a fuss, at least for a while. No doctor = I assume potentially worse situation if I come down with the virus (or anything else).
I do now have about two months’ supply of anti-heartburn meds — strangely enough it’s ranitidine, which now seems to be in less-scarce supply than famotidine. The brand name product (Zantac) remains absent, but some generics are back, while generic famotidine is missing and the name brand Pepcid products are rare as hen’s teeth. I really don’t know what is going on with that stuff. But neither heartburn nor those *#%! cramps should trouble me until at least late May now, come hell or high water.
My attempts to figure out what exactly my condition really is have led to a strange thicket of interconnected, though nominally-separate, conditions. First, what I’ve been formally diagnosed with:
A OCD
B Asperger’s syndrome
C The heartburn, which is of comparatively recent vintage
A round of clomapramine in childhood apparently cured the OCD. As in permanently, even without ongoing meds. I don’t know how that happened either. If it still exists it’s much less significant (and subclinical) now.
What I’ve clearly got, but not been formally diagnosed with:
D Free-running syndrome aka Non24 circadian rhythm disorder
E Restless leg syndrome
F Cramping fasciculation syndrome
Both ranitidine and famotidine appear to treat (but not cure) C, D, and F at a typical dose indicated for C. E, which you’d think might be tied to F, is not affected. All of these are of comparatively recent origin: in early adulthood I increasingly had benign fasciculation syndrome, which started to include cramps in my early 30s, and these gradually got more frequent and severe; and I had what may have been some variant of delayed phase sleep disorder, but typically showed up in practice as what you might call “demi-phasic” sleep: about 12 hours asleep and 36 awake in a 48-hour cycle(!) for much of my 20s. That turned into free-running with an about 25 hour cycle later on.
What is very weird is that some online research points to links among a bunch of these things. To wit, the following are often comorbid in pairs:
ASD (of which Asperger’s syndrome is one) and OCD
ASD and sleep phase disorders
Sleep phase disorders and heightened insulin
Heightened insulin and leg cramps
ASD and something called IED, which it looks like I might also have
IED and sleep phase disorders
Heightened insulin and overweight
Overweight and heartburn
The last time I had myself checked for diabetes was 10 years or so ago: fasting glucose and the like tested. Those tests came back normal. So I don’t know if I have non-normal insulin now, but it looks like it would have been normal then, by which time most of the rest of the above were present (excepting the heartburn).
Several of the above things also tend to be comorbid with ADHD and bipolar, neither of which I was ever diagnosed with, but I sometimes have wondered if I have those to some subclinical degree. I bore easily and am capable of hyperfocus, and have had what might have been mild depressive and mild manic phases at times. But maybe not outside the range of “normal”, whatever that is. Without living multiple lifetimes in multiple bodies like the Doctor I have no basis of comparison for such subjective feelings.
I haven’t really got anything like a conclusion here. Maybe there’s something-something-gut-flora that pulls on a lot of metabolic puppet-strings and fiddles with a lot of different endocrine and neurotransmitter knobs. I get a distinct sense that there’s a whole batch of disorders, some physiological (CFS, metabolic syndrome, non24 and other sleep phase disorders) and some currently classified as psychological (ASD, IED, bipolar, ADHD), that are all a case of “the blind men and the elephant”: miscellaneous symptoms of some single underlying endocrine-disturbance thing yet to be described, where some subset of the symptoms may be absent (or just subclinical in severity) in any individual case. It’s probably endocrine, possibly autoimmune, possibly tied to the microbiome in some way (or at least modulated by it), and possibly also connected with IBS and celiac (neither of which I have, but close relatives do, along with diabetes).
If anyone here knows anything that might make a clearer picture out of all of this, I’m all ears.
Same if anyone has a useful suggestion for getting the more-perishable kinds of supplies while minimizing exposure (or, especially, if I were to come down with the damn virus myself, so I can then avoid exposing others) and also minimizing extra expenses or hoop-jumping (no credit card!).
For some reason, I’ve been thinking of this series of Mitchell and Webb sketches.
My employer is finally doing work from home.
I don’t know for how long. Contractors will still be going to the office. If they have to close the physical office, it’s not going to work to have 7 associates handle 6 phone lines plus web chat. At least I hope they wouldn’t try that!
@Katamount:
You don’t have a VPN?
@Surplus
This may or may not be an option for you depending on what supplies you have, but have you tried making your own bread? Flatbreads like chapati are fairly easy to make if you have flour, water, salt, and oil.
You’re joking, right? I don’t have the equipment for that. And a quick check at Amazon says it would set me back anywhere from $80 to over $400 to change that. Plus tax. Since I was worrying about a few bucks extra delivery surcharge it stands to reason that I’m not about to plonk down a whole extra C-note to deal with the same problem …
I also don’t know the first thing about it, so a) I would not be in a position to make an informed choice about said too-expensive-to-risk-fucking-it-up hardware purchase, b) would probably be in “plan to throw one away” territory when first using it, etc.; all told I would not be surprised if I didn’t have a reliable supply until I’d spent hundreds of bucks and weeks of time. If this had been suggested as a self-reliance good-idea a year ago it might have been viable, with some saving up and some time spent learning as I went without any urgent need to produce a viable output on short notice yet.
I’d still also need one trip to a store to get the machine and a few weeks worth of the ingredients. The ingredients would be at grocery stores, but the machine is probably only available either online (and we’re back to needing a credit card) or at the sort of stores that would close if they close “non-essential businesses” here. I’d likely have to jump up out of my seat and go out now to get it to have any certainty of having one by the time that happens, since it’s entirely plausible that that happens tomorrow morning.
Please don’t take this the wrong way, but I’m wondering why anyone would suggest a solution predicated upon buying expensive hobbyist tools and then learning how to use them in response to a fast moving emergency. Or is there some unexamined assumption being made here? Perhaps you thought I already had one for some reason? Some misattributed comment, or by another user who used a similar enough handle, perhaps? Or maybe you just were not assuming that I didn’t have one already, and knowledge of how to use it well. OK then.
@Surplus
The reason I suggested that bread in particular is that it doesn’t need a machine. A skillet and mixing bowl is the only equipment you’d need. I’m sorry if my suggestion isn’t possible, I was just suggesting an idea.
SURPLUS, YOU ASKED FOR HELP. BE NICE TO THE PEOPLE WHO HELP YOU!!! You are being a huge ass, to someone who honestly was trying to help.
Especially when they are new enough that they DON’T know to preface any advice given to you with the problems you might have.
@Naglfar, it was kind of you to try. Surplus is just abrasive AF, and always finds a way to say that whatever thing you’ve offered isn’t a perfect, magic wand solution, because of X, Y, and Z(ed) reasons that you were apprently supposed to intuit.
Back to @Surplus – bread freezes very well, if you have the space. I KNOW you probably have a small freezer.
Also you can make bread with your hands, some bowls, a tea towel, and an oven.
The recipe linked takes a skillet. Cool your damn jets, and don’t lash out at people here because you’re upset. We don’t deserve that.