I did choose to eat my packed lunch instead of go to the team lunch at a food hall. I wanted to go get fancy ramen, but I did save money and practice social distancing from a crowded food hall.
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I was linked to this and found it a powerful read.
I read the translated-to-English version which is in the first 2 comments of this link. It is from a doctor in Italy.
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In my city, I also am of the opinion that it is selfish not to self isolate once there are known cases.
I think the media is hyping up the fear. But the way to minimize spread has nothing to do with how deadly or not deadly the virus is. It has to do with protecting vulnerable populations.
From an immunological standpoint, being in an area with likely (as yet unreported!) exposures and carrying on about your life is the exact same thing as not getting the flu vaccine then not taking care to limit your contact with folks vulnerable to respiratory illness.
Just picture Tiny Baby every time you (generic You) think itās dumb to be intentional about your number of trips to the store/mall/movies/park.
anomalily I do think itās different when you are being very cognizant of your surroundings and are taking precautions. Youāre not just saying āItās not that big a dealā and ignoring recommendations.
I hope I can get closer to summer before getting infected if itās going to happen.
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Heās really cute. I promise. Imagine him and imagine me going angry bear on you.
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Excellent post. Thank you. I wish I knew how to convince others of these things. IT IS PROBABLY NOT ABOUT YOU. (You being the generic you.)
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And the only thing we DO know about outcomes of this disease is that delaying the spread DOES help prevent death.
There are a limited number of ECMO machines in our country. The more we can stagger BIP cases, the better.
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Interesting thread. Iām in France where weāll probably reach the āpandemicā stage soon. I take public transportation every day and I have no choice but to be in close contact with a lot of people coming from everywhere but I took some measures by limiting social gatherings, washing hands and being extra cautious (no hand shaking or close contact with colleagues). The media might be ramping it up but there are certainly more cases than reported because not all countries are testing automatically. And we know for certain that itās dangerous for vulnerable people so I think itās responsible to do our bit to limit the spread.
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I agree. I was talking about the same issue in my journal about Africa where the worry is about limited resources and other deadly diseases taking the backseat. I think resources being diverted to Coronavirus will reduce our ability to take care of other sick people. I know it was the case in Africa for Ebola; more people died from malaria and measles during the outbreak. The US and France have more resources but still ERs are strained in every country and limiting the spread will save lives and free resources for other critical care.
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I admit Iām having a really hard time with all of this - being trapped and therefore missing out on life in any way is a major anxiety trigger for Reasons. Regardless of why I am being trapped. Even if Iām prepared with enough food, cat food, meds, etc. I would feel the same way if we had some natural disaster heading our way or there was a polar vortex coming.
Iām trying to get over it but am failing and my therapist was of absolutely NO help today. She was just like, donāt think about things you canāt control and I was like, have you MET me?
This all feels very selfish but that is the flavor of anxiety that I happen to have, unfortunately.
My work says we can work from home as much as we like. I am debating how much to do so (ETA: this is largely because no one else is and I feel like Iām going to be somehowā¦ not punished, but thought of as paranoid?), and until stuff actually shuts down I have to keep coming in on Wednesdays or else forego my lunchtime therapy appointment. Maybe I should. IT is working on getting me an adapter so I can plug the ancient monitor I have at home into my work laptop, as the screenās really too small for me to work as quickly as I really need to be. I should have that tomorrow.
Boyfriendās work was going to send him home with a ginormous PC tower and 2 monitors that heād somehow have to haul home on public transport, but he learned that itās so old it doesnāt connect to wifi and thereās literally no way to rearrange our apartment so that he can have that much computer equipment thatās not his in a room that is not catproof so that he can manually plug a cord (ie, cat toy) into our router. So, I donāt know whatās going to happen there. He can do about half his job on his mac at home. They donāt have a laptop or a PC that can connect to wifi, that they can give him. Maybe heāll get fired if he doesnāt come in.
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If work is giving you the option, I would work from home as much as possible. Donāt feel one ounce of guilt over it. Just do it.
I tried to convince my parents not to go anywhere. At the beginning of the conversation my mom was kinda like, āWell, I guess I need to think about when and if I should stop volunteeringā¦ā And I said now. The time is now, Mom. Not tomorrow, not Monday, now. Iām not sure if I totally got through to them.
They were just at the grocery store yesterday, so thatās good. Weāll see if they actually follow through and let me go shopping for them when they run out of fresh produceā¦
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My favorite thing is theater. I have a lot of theater and concerts coming up in the next few weeks. And I have tickets for Les Mis in Eugene (2 hours from here) in a month, something Iāve been looking forward to since last summer.
Do I just miss it all? These things pretty much define āgroups of 20 or more peopleā. Iām also immunocompromised.
I havenāt skipped anything yet, but now Iām considering it. If I got sick and the aftermath affected the rest of my life, it would not be worth it.
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Just heard that the NCAA basketball tournament, aka āMarch Madnessā, will be played without any fans in attendance.
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So here is my workās approach:
Weāre currently at a level 3 out of 4 on the internal crisis response ranking. Today and tomorrow the business is trialling splitting the workforce into two teams - Red and Blue - for non- essential staff and having one team work at home each day.
I suspect weāll quickly go to level 4 which is work from home all the time. There is an international travel ban to a range of countries and domestic travel is limited to business critical travel.
The response is easier for office based staff - but harder for the operational staff in chemical manufacturing plants, or the crews on mine sites. Theyāre working out what minimum staffing levels are and sorting out a similar bifurcation of the workforce.
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Iām really confused by this too. Everything Iāve read says yes, we should skip this sort of thing. I have tickets in April to a band that is overseas and very rarely tours and the goth community here is all, will they even be able to travel here? If so, do I go? Tickets were stupid expensive. Ugh.
Iāve registered for some dance classes. I guess I skip those too? Even though itās small groups of people?
Iāve pretty much resigned myself to the fact that a) weāre not going to New Orleans in May which means b) we likely have to push our timeline for moving out of Chicago by another YEAR. For folks who donāt read my journal, the plan was to visit the 3 cities on our list of possibilities, decide by end of the year, commence frantic job hunting, move a year from now when our lease is up. Seems like thatās out. Boyfriend is unwillling to mvoe somewhere heās ever been, and I understand that. But I donāt know when itāll be safe to travel againā¦
Oh, and, it turns out Boyfriendās work hasnāt even given permission to work from home yet. Theyāre just contingency planningā¦ which, I think the contingency is now, yeah? Argh.
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Also - I dunno why weāre so worried.
A panda-emic sounds awesome and cute. 
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I really appreciate how thoughtful this community is 
, on this topic as on so many others.
Iām in the camp of people not worried about risk to me personally, but keen to slow the spread so that people who have a more severe response can receive adequate medical care.
On a minor note, Mr H was really really really looking forward to having two weeks off starting at the end of March, and now it looks likely that weāll have a kid at home full-time by then 
poor bastard.
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And also, I very much appreciate PDMās reminders of the funny side of this. Maybe itās dark humour, but I can laugh at coronavirus jokes even while worrying about my medically fragile loved ones.
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Iām coming around to thinking that I should skip everything. Yes, itās horribly disappointing, but getting sick would be worse.
When I missed the epic 6-hour play because it was snowing so much, I was disappointed but it was so clear to me that it was the right decision. It would have been unsafe for me to drive. I will probably never get to see it after missing my chance because how many theaters are willing to put on a 6-hour play?
So Iām starting to reframe it as āitās currently unsafe for me to goā. It helps to think of it that way. These are not normal times.
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Completely agree with all the comments that is so important to at a minimum slow the spread of the virus to give our health systems a chance. #flattenthecurve and versions of this diagram are all over social media but it brought the message home to me. There are documented assumptions and calculations behind these representations. My immediate family and I would be considered low risk although weāre all on asthma preventatives but my mother although in good health is 92. She lives in New Zealand which has had I think 5 cases so far.
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