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The Coronavirus Panic Thread

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  • The ER at my small, rural hospital intubated a presumed COVID patient today. Short of breath for a couple days, cough, unexplained fever. Elderly, so the odds are already not so great. Things are starting to get a little too close for my comfort.
    I am no longer of capable of the emotion you humans call “compassion”. Though I can feign it in exchange for an hourly wage. (Gravekeeper)

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    • The one death in my province due to the virus so far was the uncle of my best friend. And now the aunt has been rushed to the hospital just a few hours ago. Way too close for my comfort.

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      • Oh, I'm so sorry. It is getting real.
        "Is it hot in here to you? It's very warm, isn't it?"--Nero, probably

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        • It's kind of startling how fast this thread went from "people are panicking and overbuying things" to "someone I know has died."
          "I look at the stars. It's a clear night and the Milky Way seems so near. That's where I'll be going soon. "We are all star stuff." I suddenly remember Delenn's line from Joe's script. Not a bad prospect. I am not afraid. In the meantime, let me close my eyes and sense the beauty around me. And take that breath under the dark sky full of stars. Breathe in. Breathe out. That's all."
          -Mira Furlan

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          • My coworker finally got the results back for her daughter. Thankfully negative.
            I am no longer of capable of the emotion you humans call “compassion”. Though I can feign it in exchange for an hourly wage. (Gravekeeper)

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            • Quoth Ghel View Post
              It's kind of startling how fast this thread went from "people are panicking and overbuying things" to "someone I know has died."
              I'm afraid the theme of this crisis is likely to be "my, that escalated quickly!".

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              • Quoth jedimaster91 View Post
                My coworker finally got the results back for her daughter. Thankfully negative.
                A buddy of mine thought he had it. He finally got his test result yesterday. Turns out it was just the flu.
                Sometimes life is altered.
                Break from the ropes your hands are tied.
                Uneasy with confrontation.
                Won't turn out right. Can't turn out right

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                • The outs are peculiar. A couple weeks ago, there was hardly any coffee in the store. Wednesday it was back. No hand sanitizer, but there was a 16 oz bottle of alcohol and 16 oz bottle of aloe gel, both unavailable ten days ago. The grocery store was entirely out of acetaminophen and TP, but Wally-world had both, (though only two brands of TP, and not a lot of either.) Walking into the grocery store, I got one of the three 10 pound sacks of flour on the shelf. The shelves of bread weren't full, but there was plenty of white bread, not so much whole wheat.

                  I'm perplexed about the flour. I'm probably from the last generation of women who had home economics in junior high. Looking at the successive ones, many of which were served a regular diet of convenience foods, I'm surprised that many would even know how to measure flour, much less covet it. I know there are people who love cooking and baking as a hobby, but are there that many?

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                  • Quoth workerbee222 View Post
                    I'm perplexed about the flour. I'm probably from the last generation of women who had home economics in junior high. Looking at the successive ones, many of which were served a regular diet of convenience foods, I'm surprised that many would even know how to measure flour, much less covet it. I know there are people who love cooking and baking as a hobby, but are there that many?
                    They don't need Home Economics classes. They will just watch the You Tube video How To Make Bread.
                    "I don't have to be petty. The Universe does that for me."

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                    • Quoth Ghel View Post
                      It's kind of startling how fast this thread went from "people are panicking and overbuying things" to "someone I know has died."
                      Yeah, in retrospect, when I wrote the OP I didn't imagine we'd wind up in the state we're in now. (The panic-buying is still very silly, though.)

                      The only person I know who's been infected is my mom's best friend / former roommate. My mom has barely left her apartment in weeks because there are supposedly two known cases in the building, and the management isn't allowing any visitors right now. A few of my co-workers have been on self-quarantine, but everyone who's been tested has come up negative so far as I know. Store policy is to keep the identities of anyone who tests positive confidential, so it's not like they'd tell me a specific person was sick, but thus far I haven't heard of us having any known cases.

                      In good news, the Store has finally started giving us hazard pay. Today we're getting a lump sum of $2/hour for all hours worked in March, and we'll be getting the extra pay going forward for the time being.
                      Last edited by Smapti; 04-03-2020, 08:59 AM.

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                      • Quoth Food Lady View Post
                        I don't understand these either. Soup is so basic. But maybe people are making soup. Did you notice the soup bones or stew meat being picked over?
                        Not as far as I can tell. From what I could see, the meat itself has been picked clean of all the good cuts, with the actual soup stuff being left, so I have no clue wtf is going on.

                        Quoth Mental_Mouse View Post
                        IIUC, noodles and rice compete -- for any given regional cuisine (i.e., "Chinese" isn't a cuisine, it's at least six or eight of them), one will be the "go-to" starch. Apparently the folks near you are rice-dominant.
                        Sounds about right.

                        Well, I got an interesting lesson in how my local hospital is handling this. They are set up as the main hospital for covid patients and there's a testing site just in the ED.

                        I ended up burning my hand last night while grabbing some pasta sauce out the microwave (it spilled on my hand), which given the size of the burn overall, merited a trip to the local ED.

                        To summarise:

                        - They made me wear a facemask from the moment I checked in until I left the hospital. The sole exception was when I got given Endone/Panadol orally for the pain, with the nurses telling me afterwards that my freedom was over

                        - They did not temp check me on arrival (my work is), but they did temp check me as part of their standard obs and weirdly enough I came up at 36.6C.

                        - Chairs got separated for social distancing purposes and I was allowed to have one person with me (my work has also implemented this policy, but one nominated visitor for the whole stay)

                        - They also didn't give my partner a facemask

                        And for those wondering, my hand is fine. The doc confirmed it was a superficial burn, I now have a dressing and my hand is wrapped up. I'll be getting it checked on Monday.

                        My work has implemented temperature checking for everyone who comes on site. In a nice turn of events though, since we're affiliated with College of Awesome, the biology faculties are collaborating with our pharmacy to make our own hand sanitiser.

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                        • Quoth LadyofArc View Post
                          Not as far as I can tell. From what I could see, the meat itself has been picked clean of all the good cuts, with the actual soup stuff being left, so I have no clue wtf is going on.
                          We were able to restock on fresh meat not long after the weekend of the 13th, which was when the panic-shopping peaked here. It's nonperishables that we're struggling to keep stocked at this point - canned veggies, canned soup, dry rice and beans, chili, Chef Boyardee, Spam (which is a big deal around here because of the Islander population), flour, pasta, tomato sauce, and the like.
                          Last edited by Smapti; 04-03-2020, 11:57 AM.

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                          • My best friend's aunt is still in the ICU but she's holding on so far. It's still up in the air, especially as she was diagnosed a little over a week ago as having COVID-19. I don't usually pray, but I am right now. That whole side of the family has been diagnosed as positive, and it all started because one of them went to a funeral where an infectious person had also gone to despite knowing that they had the damn virus. I don't know whether to get pissed off or cry my face off, likely both at the same time.

                            My mental state has been fluctuating all over the place. I try to keep busy so I don't focus on all the bad news, but it's hard. Especially while waiting for news of my bestie's aunt. If I were able to work, I would be, but my doctor says that it's not recommended because of my diabetes and asthma. And I can only putter so much around the house before I lose my mind with anxiety and depression taking over again.

                            I've been venturing out, with a mask, long enough to buy groceries and some craft items so I have something to keep busy with. It's odd to think that before this I was more than happy to stay home and not do much, but right now I'm not handling the isolation very well at all. Thankfully I've got my kid living with me still, but he doesn't have the patience to go grocery shopping at all, even with a list, so it saves arguments if I go. I will be so grateful when this is over and I can go back to work...

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                            • Well, poop. I talked to my mom on the phone today. She has a fever and other symptoms, and after a phone consultation with her doctor it sounds like it's Covid.

                              She doesn't want to leave her apartment to get tested because she doesn't want to risk exposing anyone else. She says her doctor told her to stay home, monitor herself, and call an ambulance if she starts having trouble breathing.

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                              • Quoth Smapti View Post
                                Well, poop. I talked to my mom on the phone today. She has a fever and other symptoms, and after a phone consultation with her doctor it sounds like it's Covid.

                                She doesn't want to leave her apartment to get tested because she doesn't want to risk exposing anyone else. She says her doctor told her to stay home, monitor herself, and call an ambulance if she starts having trouble breathing.
                                I hope she'll be okay.

                                The CDC is now recommending cloth face coverings for people who don't feel sick, "especially in areas of significant community-based transmission" which is what they say my area is. So many people don't show symptoms. At the grocery stores it's very hard to distance, even though the stores aren't jam packed, some areas are always high traffic. Produce, meat, dairy. Our stay at home order was extended to May.
                                Replace anger management with stupidity management.

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