Coronavirus stuff

[Scott]

The college students next door had a party, apparently. My other neighbors wisely carried on a conversation from opposite sides of the street. A woman came to our door. I looked out the window and motioned for her to move away. She went down the sidewalk and I went out there. She was homeless, lived in her truck and needed gas money. I left money on the table on the porch and went back inside.

I remember buying pollen masks at some point, but where could they be?

[mamabear]

Crazy stuff isn't it? I'm certainly over the whole deal. Not that I'm the type of person who goes places if it's not necessary. Just that when I do have to go places, it feels so much more stressful now and I don't like it. Plus my poor daughter is an avid swimmer and she's going a little crazy without her twice weekly swim lesson.

[Scott]

Good God. I read this this morning:

Dr. Oz (Fox’s go-to expert) really wants to reopen schools, at a cost of only 2 or 3% of the kids, telling a nodding Sean Hannity last night: “Schools are a very appetizing opportunity. I just saw a nice piece in The Lancet arguing the opening of schools may only cost us 2 to 3%, in terms of total mortality. Any, you know, any life is a life lost, but … that might be a tradeoff some folks would consider.” (He didn’t calculate the death rate for teachers, teaching assistants, school janitors, cooks or bus drivers.)

Now he says he "misspoke" but he didn't explain what he was really trying to say.

I assumed he meant it would be a 2 to 3% increase in the number of dead, not that he wanted to wipe out two or three percent of the nation's children, because what kind of monster would say that, but now I'm not sure. That would be 1.5 to 2.2 million.

50 employees of the New York City school system have died of COVID-19 including 21 teachers.

[mamabear]

Eh, I don't trust anything the media tries to feed me lol.

[Scott]

Now the neighbors are having a party again. It would be okay if they stayed inside, but they have the stereo speakers outside so they can share with the whole neighborhood. I want to go out and see how many people are there. Maybe it's just the people who live there. I don't want them to see me looking at them though.

[Scott]

I spoke to the neighbors yesterday. I said "HEY! TURN THE MUSIC DOWN!"

One of them answered but I couldn't hear what they said because the music was too loud.

[Scott]

I may actually be going back to work next week. There won't be much to do since very few of our customers are ordering, but that's okay.

[mamabear]

Sorry for the absence! Work has been super busy. Busy season came, virus or no lol.
Good to hear you may get to return to work, Scott!

[Scott]

Yeah, I don't know if they're expecting me this morning. Only if the money has shown up. I work for my brother-in-law. I could call him but I don't want to wake him up. I could just drive down to work and see if anyone else is there. It wouldn't matter if I didn't show up since there's almost nothing to do anyway.

Oh, and everyone will be happy to know I ordered a Black and Decker RICE COOKER on Amazon. I bought fifteen pounds of sticky rice I thought would be a good survival food, but that stuff has to be soaked for hours and then steamed. You can't cook it like regular rice.

The rice cooker should be here today.

I bought all that rice but I really should have left it for someone else. I've only cooked it twice in the last month. I'll probably regret squandering money on the rice cooker, too. I could have bought a three month supply of ramen for what I spent on that thing.

[Shane]

Good to hear things may be picking up for you, Scott.

[mamabear]

I'm not a big fan of either rice or ramen, so I probably wouldn't have bought either! Lol.

[Scott]

I needed survival food. I was already tired of the ramen. I had started frying it with some vegetables and maybe some chicken and did that for a while.

I need to venture into one of the large, cheap grocery stores where they have big cheap bags of pot stickers, but I'm afraid. I need to make a short list, go in there late at night when there will presumably be fewer people, wear a mask and rubber glovers and get in and out quick.

I already had to go to the drugstore to buy stamps. Bought a bunch of a candy while I was at it. That wasn't so bad. But I don't want to get too cavalier.

[mamabear]

Does your area not offer curbside pickup at stores? Where I live, we can order groceries online, then go park in a designated pick up parking spot, check in on our phone or by calling the number on the sign, and an employee will bring the groceries out to you. Some will even load them into your trunk for you, depends on staffing. Retail stores have picked up on this and have started doing it as well.

[Stormwatcher]

>>I need to venture into one of the large, cheap grocery stores where they have big cheap bags of pot stickers, but I'm afraid. I need to make a short list, go in there late at night when there will presumably be fewer people, wear a mask and rubber glovers and get in and out quick.

Grocery worker's advice here:

1. Going in later at night is definitely the best idea, but most retail stores have a last-minute rush for the final 45 minutes or so, so leave plenty of time. EG If your store closes at midnight, get there between 10 and 10:30 to avoid that.

2. Social distancing in a grocery store is pretty much a myth, even in a store with directional limitations (up this aisle and down that one). Some stores are more stern about this than others. Try to pick one that's stern. Also, try to get to one that *requires*, rather than requests, customers to wear face masks. It's not just that some people won't wear them (I have never wanted to smack so many people in my life), it's that, remarkably, some people do not know how to wear their masks correctly. (Cover the mouth AND the nose.)

3. Use two pairs of gloves. Put one on as you go into the store and do your shopping in them; take them off and put them in a shopping bag before you touch your vehicle or front door. This way any cross-contamination you picked up in-store remains 'quarantined' together. Once at home, use a second pair to manage your groceries. Wiping down anything in plastic and removing anything in cardboard from the packaging is a wise idea. Once you have disposed of all the shopping, wipe down the counter where you sorted and then wash both pairs of gloves in hot soapy water. If you feel particularly concerned, or encountered a large number of people, you may want to take a shower and change clothes as well.

Some of this may seem like overreaction, but the point is to direct and control any possible contamination. The virus lingers for several hours on cardboard and plastic, and there is simply no way to tell who has touched an item before you, nor what state of health they were in. People are reasonably compliant with masks, but I've seen very few wearing gloves- mainly because in my area, gloves are about as hard to get as alcohol wipes and hand soap. (VERY.) 'If you can't tell whether it's clean, treat it like it's dirty' is a good rule of thumb until we get this thing under control, and knowing you took decisive steps to protect yourself will probably help your peace of mind.

[Scott]

Thanks, Stormwatcher! You are truly a Master Analyst!

I checked the place out on Friday and the parking lot was full. It must have been packed with people. I was thinking I might go in at 7:00 AM Tuesday or Thursday. They have time set aside for old and other high risk shoppers. I'm a spry 57 but I'm afraid of bringing the disease home to my mother who's 88.

I probably shouldn't risk human life for a bag of potstickers. My sister's been going to the store for us three or four times since this started but I only started wiping stuff down the last couple of times.

Maybe I'll drive there early in the morning and skip it if there are more than a few cars in the parking lot.

Mamabear, the store I want to go to stopped doing curbside pickup and it looks like they were only doing for a limited number of items.

Where did I hear about someone hacking and coughing in a grocery store, cheerfully telling the cashier not to worry because it was just smoker's cough?

[Scott]

I went through the store with surgical precision. Went at seven AM. I thought that was when they opened, but they opened at 5:00. I would have gone then. Weren't many people. Most were old and they all wore masks. I was the only elite customer I saw with rubber gloves. I knew where the stuff was that I wanted, so I walked briskly through the aisles, carefully following the little arrows they had taped to the floor.

Walked past an employee and probably got within six feet of a customer who was going the wrong way but stayed well away from everybody else. They had lots of cash registers open even though there were few people so I didn't have to get near anyone standing in line.

I bought mostly crap. Bar S brand Polish sausage, the 2.5 lb family pack (I put them in the freezer) two bags of cheap pot stickers, some chimichangas, green onions, onion dip, potato chips. Boneless chicken. I think that's about it. $38, which seemed like a lot. My sister's been shopping for us but she only goes to the more fashionable grocery stores. So this stuff isn't reflective of my overall diet.

I'm pretty happy about it though. Everything's in the freezer except the onions, onion dip and potato chips. Oh, and bread. I bought bread.

Used two pairs of rubber gloves. Was going to wear a new mask for the trip, but the band broke when I tried to put it on so I wore the same mask I'd been using. Wiped stuff down with disinfectant wipes when I got home. Had the groceries on the porch and took each item out of the bag and wiped it down as I carried it in. I assume the freezer will kill what ever virus is left alive. Or maybe it will just preserve it and it will spring back to life when it thaws.

[Scott]

Oh, crap. They think it WILL survive in a freezer.

www.healthyfood.com/advice/can-freezing-your-food-kill-coronavirus-/

[Stormwatcher]

Yeah, the cold won't kill it- rather the opposite. Remember, this is the same type of virus that brings colds and flus, and those thrive in the winter. Sunlight and heat kill coronas. But if you wiped with disinfectant before freezering, that should be fine. They can't make up their minds whether the virus spreads 'easily' from surfaces or not, but they do agree that person-to-person is the #1+ source of spread, and it sounds like you managed that very well.

And speaking of sunlight: don't go overboard on it, but keep your vitamin D at proper levels. D isn't a virus fighter, but it *appears* to help keep the immune response from going wild and attacking the body as well as the virus. If you go supplement, 400-800 IU a day is fine. If you prefer natural D, 10-15 minutes in direct sunlight will see you good for the day. More than 1000 is generally unnecessary and, in excess, can lead to kidney or liver problems. (And even if it turns out not to be very useful vs Covid, it remains quite good for the bones.)

[Scott]

I take D3 daily. I don't remember why. Maybe I should go outside once in a while, though.

[mamabear]

Scott, that's too bad your store doesn't still do pickup. Seems like something all places should do, especially now. Our stores were already doing it, but they expanded the number of pickup parking spaces when the pandemic started. The only downside I've encountered to it since the pandemic is that it's harder to schedule a convenient time slot, and certain items must be shopped for in-store, old fashion style, as they can't limit the number of items you order online. (I guess that's the reason anyway). So things like toilet paper, paper towels, soap, sanitizer, etc. I still have to go in to get. Although I get my soap and sanitizer from a company called Melaleuca, which is online so it gets shipped directly to me. They don't have paper products, though, which is a bummer.

[Scott]

I went to the store at 5 AM yesterday. There was a geezer wearing a mask over his mouth but not his nose and for some reason he was digging and digging through the tortillas, like he thought here were some hidden in there with a later sell-by date. I have no idea what he was doing and I don't think he did either. See why you should disinfect your groceries?

[mamabear]

I don't guess I'll ever understand why people only wear their mask over their mouth and not their nose. You might as well not even wear one if you're not going to wear it properly. 🤦‍♀️

[Stormwatcher]

Eh, well, covering the mouth is better than nothing, since more is 'aerosolized' through the mouth (via coughs and speech) than through the nose. And to be completely fair, I can see it for people with glasses, whose mask-restricted breath fogs up their glasses something fierce. But I still wish they wouldn't! Everyone's better protected when the mask is on *correctly*.

These days the ones that really make me seethe are the ones who *pull down the mask to talk*. Those, I make sure to walk away from. Rapidly. Even though I'm wearing a mask.

...I keep having dreams where I'm inside a crowded place (store, mall, theater) and everyone around me is unmasked. And instead of thinking, 'This is how life normally is', my reaction is, 'GAH get me OUTTA HERE!'

[mamabear]

I understand the glasses irritation, as I wear glasses. Although I'm still a bit puzzled, if my mask protects you and your mask protects me, why is it when I tested negative (standard test when going in for surgery), I still had to wear one in the halls of the hospital. What am I protecting people from if I'm corona negative? =-/

[Stormwatcher]

Well, it's not that your mask protects you and mine protects me- it's really the other way around. My mask protects YOU from *my* possible Covid and your mask protects ME from *your* possible Covid. And the test you had a few days ago that turned up negative doesn't mean you're still negative today, even assuming it was accurate. Your negative-Covid status may change at any time without your awareness, and it's better to take an 'overly safe' approach than a 'not quite safe enough' one. (As people in TX, FL, SC, CA and other states are rapidly discovering.)

Asymptomatic and presymptomatic transmission are the highest rates of transmission in community spread, and there are a stunning number of people who have Covid-19 and simply don't know it. In fact, the CDC was estimating that the 48 hours before symptoms show is when you are most contagious. (I don't know what that implies for people who don't ever show symptoms at all, but I don't like the sound of it!) So taking the 'assume I'm contagious and protect people' route is better than the 'assume I'm fine and end up inadvertently infecting people' route. Especially in a hospital setting, when the medical personnel have so much contact with vulnerable and underlying-condition patients.