Preparing for Coronavirus?

[nebo113]

We canceled a spring break trip to the Domincan Republic where our students would be in the remotest corner far fropm any population centers, in a country with 1 case (an Italian who was napped at the airport upon arrival) in the opposite end of the island in the tourist trap area.

But our spring break trip to Florida, which has declared a state of emergency over the pandemic, is still on.

Yea for logic and reason!

It's common knowledge that any foreign country is a poverty-stricken, disease-filled shit hole, whereas USA #1!

All those brown people in the DR.....and 45* needs Florida voters.

[alto_stratus]

Starting to see low stock on things, like disinfectant wipes and zinc lozenges (can't get them online either). 

I picked up tissues, a big container of the off-brand disinfectant wipes (all they had left), a couple jars of pb, crackers, Gatorade, pudding, and broth. 

I might pick up more stuff tomorrow after work.  We typically only buy a week's worth of food at a time, so we don't have a ton of backstock in our pantry or fridge.

[Puget]

I haven't done anything in particular to prepare (I think the individual risk is still very low), but I figure I have at least a couple weeks of food just with the pantry staples I normally have-- beans, lentils, grains of various kinds, pasta, potatoes, onions, ingredients for making bread and baked goods (I make all my own bread etc. anyway), plus the normal stuff in my fridge and freezer. It might get a bit boring, but there would be plenty to eat. Plenty of food on hand for the kitties too.  I think most middle/professional class people have more food in their house then they think, unless you primarily eat out.

I should stock up on coffee though-- that would be truly dire if it ran out!

[ergative]

I've been making a point of washing my hands more than usual (easy), but I cannot make myself touch my face less. There's not many cases in my area yet, though, so now's the time to start training.

[scamp]

I've been making a point of washing my hands more than usual (easy), but I cannot make myself touch my face less. There's not many cases in my area yet, though, so now's the time to start training.

I have a bad astigmatism in one eye and even with the best contact fit possible it sometimes moves, so I am rubbing my eyes unconsciously all the time. I have trained myself a little to reduce this simply because of vanity and not wanting to increase fine lines around my eyes, but I still do it way too much.

I have been more conscious of washing my hands more frequently and I did buy some rubbing alcohol for disinfection (this is definitely marked up on amazon now!). But otherwise we have plenty of food in the pantry and another large bag of dog food just came in the mail (and we just opened the current one) so I think pooch will be fine as well.

But coffee!!!! I didn't think of that. Buying extra next time I am at the store!

[spork]

Bought my usual 80 lb of rice at one of the local Vietnamese markets today. The market was fully stocked.

[FishProf]

Well, yeah.  That rice is probably contaminated.
/s

[magnemite]

There is a high level of angst manifest by hoarding-like behavior here. Local Costco has been out of bleach and TP for a week, for example. But, Pokemon Town is within 100 miles of the USA virus epicenter...

[pigou]

I'm perplexed by people who are panicked when their local Walmart/Costco is sold out, but don't think of ordering from Amazon (or Walmart's online store!). Not aimed at you, magnemite and clean -- just prompted by your reports about sold-out stores.

It's like people standing in line at Costco waiting for shopping carts to be returned, so they, too, can stock up for the apocalypse. If you're genuinely worried about a viral infection, why would you go to a store that is packed with (potentially infected) people? That's exactly when you want to shift to delivery.

That is, people's behavior is not at all consistent with their ostensible motivation. If they were worried about viral spreads, they would avoid crowds at all costs. But they aren't. Rather, I think they actually get enjoyment out of the hoarding behavior. Being part of a group that is "prepping" seems like it'd actually be pretty fun. It's like how standing in line for the latest iPhone is fun, too, because you get a community of waiters.

[scamp]

I'm perplexed by people who are panicked when their local Walmart/Costco is sold out, but don't think of ordering from Amazon (or Walmart's online store!). Not aimed at you, magnemite and clean -- just prompted by your reports about sold-out stores.

I can report that Walmart is sold out of rubbing alcohol online (when I tried to buy it this morning). I bought a bottle from Amazon for $10, which is ridiculous as a two-pack was $4 on Walmart (when not sold out).

[apl68]

There is a high level of angst manifest by hoarding-like behavior here. Local Costco has been out of bleach and TP for a week, for example. But, Pokemon Town is within 100 miles of the USA virus epicenter...

I've heard that some items are getting scarce at our local Wal-Mart, and we're in a distant corner of a state which has yet to record a single case.  There's speculation that that's because of knock-on effects from the runs at stores in more populated regions.

Our state library just did a poll of virus-related plans at libraries around the state.  Sounds like they're mostly doing just what we're doing--keeping up with standard flu-season precautions involving hand sanitizer and disinfecting things that patrons touch.  In our region we're surely at more risk from seasonal flu than from anything else.  Hopefully the seasonal flu has finally peaked locally.

[magnemite]

It is really perplexing. The one I cannot figure out is bottled water- that too is sold out at our Costco. Lot's of odd behavior, and the amount of panic-like behavior as compared to what is really going on is kind of disturbing, and makes me wonder what crazy stuff will happen if this gets much worse...

[Thursday's_Child]

It is really perplexing. The one I cannot figure out is bottled water- that too is sold out at our Costco. Lot's of odd behavior, and the amount of panic-like behavior as compared to what is really going on is kind of disturbing, and makes me wonder what crazy stuff will happen if this gets much worse...

Since history shows that crazy stuff always happens when people panic, I'm not even going to speculate what we'll see this time.  I just hope it stops short of actual mob violence.

[clean]

I'm perplexed by people who are panicked when their local Walmart/Costco is sold out, but don't think of ordering from Amazon (or Walmart's online store!). Not aimed at you, magnemite and clean

t is really perplexing. The one I cannot figure out is bottled water- that too is sold out at our Costco. Lot's of odd behavior, and the amount of panic-like behavior as compared to what is really going on is kind of disturbing, and makes me wonder what crazy stuff will happen if this gets much worse...

I did buy toilet paper online a week or so ago. NOT because I was 'CV19Shopping'.  Consumer Reports a few years ago picked a White Cloud brand, and I used to be able to get it at Walmart.  Over a year ago, Walmart stopped stocking it. I was able to get it at Amazon, but I had to buy 4 twelve packs at a time. It was a little cheaper than what I was paying at Walmart, so I did. Well, it was time to reorder.  My Amazon account reported that it was last ordered in Jan 2019, so it looks like I buy about a year's worth at a time. My case just came in last week. 

Water??  I KNOW!  WTF?  Same with canned soup? Why? You will not lose electricity!  You can still cook! Why buy such things? Frozen foods will not defrost, IF you decide to stock up on food, WHY go with the canned stuff?

AS for shopping online for other things, I dont think that there is much that I need. I have been trying to find Zest soap (coco butter and shay).  It is currently sold out at walmart and my local grocery store. I dont think that it is related to the CV19 as there are plenty of other bar soaps available.  Perhaps the manufacturer is discontinuing it.  On Amazon it is selling at a premium, as it is on Walmart.  The Walmart site was indicating that it would be shipped by someone else! 

I will need to buy alcohol soon, as I take allergy injections and it is about time to restock.  IF they are sold out of the correct strength of liquid, I can get the pouches of pre-soaked gauze pads. 

Anyway, I was posting earlier to report the nuttiness found in my neighborhood stores and wondering if it is wide spread. It looks like it is! Im not really shopping for the things that are sold out.  I have added to my frozen stocks, but certainly not Water, canned soup, Clorox (other than my cleaning lady reporting that I was running low and would soon need some).  Im certainly not buying batteries for my emergency radio!  BUT dont let people think that Netflix will be overwhelmed and no one will be able to stream their shows if everyone is quarantined at home, or there WILL be a run on batteries  too!!

[Hegemony]

Well, I bought some water because we're advised to store one gallon of water per person for at least 14 days, because we're in an earthquake zone. I have a couple gallons of water, but clearly not as much as the official sites suggest for an earthquake. So when I was in the supermarket loading up on various supplies, I thought, "While I'm at it, I should get some of that water I'm always meaning to get."  At my supermarket I was apparently the only one who thought this, as there was plenty of bottled water.