Corona virus - the situation where you live

For most of last week, things were normal here. Then yesterday the lines in the grocery stores were extremely long, and there were a lot of gaps on the shelves. I'm still not sure why people want so much toilet paper, given that it is a lung infection.

All schools are closed. Libraries are going to be closed after today. People who can work from home will probably be doing so from next week. I think pretty soon larger companies will shift into mandated closures because there's no point in keeping offices open when most of the people don't come in.

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Interesting, from the perspective of this board, is the government advice to not visit people in nursing homes and to not turn to grandparents for childcare. So, the answer to the bingo about who will look after you when you're old is "Hopefully, not your family", and breeders are going to have the dubious pleasure of looking after their own children.

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As for me, I generally have a well-stocked pantry. Remote work is possible with my job, so I'm planning to hole up in my apartment for a few weeks. Mostly this is due to the recommendation to avoid people, which is something I feel like I've been preparing for my entire life as an introvert. However although I am overall fairly healthy and young enough to not be in the at-risk group, I do have a history of lung illnesses and asthma. I've started using my steroid inhaler as a preventative measure and I'm testing my peak air flow nightly, and temperature every morning.

I am more worried on behalf of friends and relatives. For older people, especially one who is undergoing cancer treatment, for the medical risk. For younger people, it is mostly financial concern as more of them are gig or shift workers who won't get paid if they aren't working. There isn't much I can do to help out the older friends/relatives, like bringing them supplies, because none of them live near me. I gave some money to people in more precarious financial positions so that they can get supplies in case they need to self-isolate. But it really feels like there's very little that I'm able to do, beyond trying not to get it and trying not to spread it.

Our local stores have completely sold out of toilet paper, cat litter, and spaghetti sauce.

The local Walmart and Aldi were packed, but I figured it would be much worse, honestly. I went to Walmart yesterday and today for a handful of stuff and got everything I need, but I'm also not stocking up like it's the fucking apocalypse.

All schools in my state are supposed to be closed, but local teachers are apparently going to meet tomorrow to decide if any of the schools here are going to close.Not sure how they can do that, but that's what the paper/radio says. I don't get it, if kids aren't getting sick with this shit, why do they get to stay home?

As far as infection itself, seems a case has been confirmed about an hour from my town, so it's getting closer. In the event of everyone staying the fuck home, I've got a bunch of video games to play, two seasons of I Love Lucy on the way, plenty of food and lots of sleep to catch up on. Being a lazy introvert homebody has prepared me for this.

I'm pretty healthy overall, but I do seem prone to bronchitis, so I suppose my lungs might be susceptible to infection. I also have a mild sore throat right now, but I'm pretty damn sure it's from the medication I just started since dry/sore throat is a side effect. Just hoping it's not something like strep that requires antibiotics because I'd be concerned the hospital will try to quarantine me unnecessarily. Unfortunately, I cannot work remotely, so if I have to stay home, I'm going to wind up using up all my vacation days and frankly, I think I'd rather be out with the sick masses than at home with my loony mother for two weeks.

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Cambion
All schools in my state are supposed to be closed, but local teachers are apparently going to meet tomorrow to decide if any of the schools here are going to close.Not sure how they can do that, but that's what the paper/radio says. I don't get it, if kids aren't getting sick with this shit, why do they get to stay home?

If you look at the numbers coming from South Korea, where there is widespread testing not just testing of suspected cases, it looks like younger people are very likely to be asymptomatic carriers. If keeping them home from school would mean they'd actually stay at home, I'd be in favor. But I suspect that instead it means that their breeders will drag them to work where they can infect people more effectively.

Huh, I wonder what makes younger people more likely to not have symptoms. And what age groups does "younger" cover anyway? I saw something recently about a lady around my age who tested positive and had no symptoms for a while and then had only mild symptoms.

And yeah, keeping kids out of school just means they'll get hauled to work with Moo/Duh, taken out with parents to run errands and expose everyone in stores to potential sickness, they'll get dumped on grandparents who are much more likely to get sick and die due to age or bad health, or allowed to run around free-range.

But at the same time with the number of kids with fucked immune systems due to not being exposed to germs or being born very premature, I wonder if there are some that might develop severe symptoms.

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Cambion
And what age groups does "younger" cover anyway?

It looked like the 20-30 cohort in Korea, but I am guessing it could also be younger and older.