Coronavirus (No Politics)

Much bigger problem than the stock market - my town has zero toilet paper. What the hell is wrong with people???

ToddMcF2002 said:

Much bigger problem than the stock market - my town has zero toilet paper. What the hell is wrong with people???

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See my post back on page 4 in this thread. The idiots are out in full force.

I sold all my stock shares for toilet paper. I'm now selling it at $30/roll on ebay. I should beat my stocks in a couple more days

I'm going outside to collect leaves

ToddMcF2002 said:

I'm going outside to collect leaves

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Take a gun and watch your back. Mutants are about.

It's getting worse. Canned and dry foods are disappearing now.

You are located in the US? In Germany and France it's pretty normal in the supermarket (in the City area of France more than in the country area of Germany). More people are stocking up, but shortages of specific goods are rare and very temporary.

It's also idiotic that people are hoarding bleach and hand sanitizer. It's an airborne virus. You're more likely to catch it from a cough or sneeze than by touching something.

Shopping is surreal. First grocery store I went to today (US - New England coastal area, north of Boston) had almost no parking (and it is a very large store). So went to another one. Also packed. Had to park in another parking lot and walk to it. Never seen so many shelves empty or almost empty. Seriously if you need toilet paper or paper towels or paper napkins you may be in trouble. Conserve what you have. Every aisle was open and lines in all of them. Clerk said its been like this all week. Suspect it will only get worse. Boxed milk almost gone, canned and prepared box food half empty, 2/3 of the meat area was empty, freezer stuff depleted. They said they still restocking but have trouble keeping up.

Work has closed campus to students till April 3rd (next week is spring break so want to make students wait 14 days after break in case they traveled). Some schools in the general area, like UMaine, have closed for the rest of the semester.

I heard Germany is closing schools and kindergarten.

wolfgrimdark said:

I heard Germany is closing schools and kindergarten.

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Yep, pretty much all of europe does that now.
We just don't have this empty supermarket problem. People are not hoarding THAT much. Also there is no need for that. I mean sure...your favorite icecream might not be available anymore soon, but it's not like everything is going to shut down and nothing is being produced anymore.

I understand people hoarding food, i did some of that myself. Why risk going out when the shit will be at its peak in the next few weeks? I expect a lot of countries in europe to be in italy's situation where you are allowed out only for food or emergencies.

Germany is also delaying the start of the summer term for students until after Easter, in several states at least.

And with regards to hoarding foot: I can understand it to some extent. But after this, there's gonna be a whole lot of people eating nothing but dry pasta for weeks...

Through the posting in another forum I've learned today that Corona is in fact not a single virus, but a family of viruses - some of which can be deadly for pets as well. This one, I read, for example : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feline_infectious_peritonitis
Additional information : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feline_coronavirus

This could perhaps explain, I think, why some people get ill, don't show symptoms and go through the illness with relative ease : They had contact to this family of viruses through their pets before.

Alrik Fassbauer said:

Through the posting in another forum I've learned today that Corona is in fact not a single virus, but a family of viruses - some of which can be deadly for pets as well. This one, I read, for example : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feline_infectious_peritonitis
Additional information : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feline_coronavirus

This could perhaps explain, I think, why some people get ill, don't show symptoms and go through the illness with relative ease : They had contact to this family of viruses through their pets before.

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I don't think that's the case. In general, different species of infectious agents, even if they belong to the same family are immunologically so different from each other that previous exposure and immunization to for instance other coronaviruses won't protect you against this species (severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2), at least not very much.

Consider Influenza. There are three species of influenzavirus causing infections in humans, the most important one is the Influenza A virus. This species is divided further into several strains, and despite belonging to the same species, several of those are different enough that immunity against one of them provides little protection against the others.. Which is why you can get influenza again and again, and flu-shots must be taken every year, because the virus strains harassing people today are not identical to those bothering us last year.

pibbur who currently is Pibbur A.

JDR13 said:

It's also idiotic that people are hoarding bleach and hand sanitizer. It's an airborne virus. You're more likely to catch it from a cough or sneeze than by touching something.

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Actually, this is not entirely correct (not entirely uncorrect either). Many viruses from airborne droplets can survive for several hours on surfaces, including hands. The corona virus is one of them. So proper disinfection is very relevant for COVID-19.

However hoarding sanitizers is still meaningless. Cleaning with water and a suitable detergent (soap) is just as efficient, according to some maybe even more efficient than using sanitizers. I have a small bottle of a disinfectant (Antibac) in my backpack. But I only use it before eating in restaurants, coffeeshops (not Dutch ones, I never visit those). At home, at work and in public toilets I wash my hands.

a pibbur who knows how to wash his hands properly (which is actually importent, every piece of the hands must be washed).

PS. There are actually different types of airborne transmission of infections. Droplets containing agents are heavy enough that they fall to the ground quickly, and won't travel for much more than 1-2 meters before touchdown.

But very small droplets evaporate before reaching the ground, and the resulting virus infected particles can stay airborne for a long time making the infection transmissible over much longer distances, and also for hours after the culprit has left the building. For this to happen, the virus has to be able to survive in a dry state, not every virus can do that. Measles is an example of infections that can spread via micro droplets/virus particles and this infection is therefore much more contagious than almost any other infectious disease, 5 to 10 times more than COVID-19. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basic_reproduction_number

There has been some discussion about how this coronavirus transmits, but according to Norwegian health authorities there is now general agreement that it transmits via regular droplets. DS.

PPS. For the record, I ddn't know about the two types until two days ago. DS.

One comment about hoarding. Here in Norway it's mandatory that you stay in home quarantine for 14 days if you have (likeky) been in touch with an infected person. I don't know, but I think that's the case in most of the world.

When "sentenced" to home quarantine, you can leave home for short walks, but stay away from other people and shops. So it makes sense to have enough food, water (and toilet paper) for 2-3 weeks, more than that is not necessary.

a pibbur who has enough bread and water (and toilet paper) for 3 weeks, but still not enough Coca Cola.

PS. If you have become infected, but don't require hospital treatment, you're supposed to stay in home isolation, which means that unlike quarantine, you can't leave your home. There may be other terms used for this in other countries, "home quarantine"/"home isolation" are direct translations of the words we use in Norway. DS

pibbur, I didn't say you couldn't catch it from a surface, I said it's "more likely" to be transmitted through the air. The CDC is maintaining that respiratory droplets are the most common source of infection.

How long it can survive outside of a host is still being debated, but it would seem to depend on what kind of surface it lands on as well as other factors like temperature and humidity.

JDR13 said:

pibbur, I didn't say you couldn't catch it from a surface, I said it's "more likely" to be transmitted through the air. The CDC is maintaining that respiratory droplets are the most likely source of infection.

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You're right, you didn't.

How long it can survive outside of a host is still being debated, but it would seem to depend on what kind of surface it lands on as well as other factors like temperature and humidity.

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Makes sense.

Sorry for misinterpreting you.

a pibbur who hopes to learn to read posts more thoroughly before replying to them. Eventually.

a pibbur said:

a pibbur who has enough bread and water (and toilet paper) for 3 weeks, but still not enough Coca Cola.

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Coca Cola is probably more dangerous to your long-term health than the coronavirus.

Says JDR13 who drinks coke himself sometimes.

In college, a large cup of Mountain Dew was left behind the small table-top refrigerator in our dorm room. I have no idea how long it had been there before I found it while cleaning. We didn't clean very often, so a long time is a safe bet.

All of the liquid had evaporated out of the cup and all that was left was this slightly green-tinted lump the size of my fist that felt like hard plastic, but which I imagine was the remaining sugar. It can't be good for anyone to swallow a lump of hard plastic the size of my fist every time they drink a glass of Mountain Dew.