Looks like Michigan is headed toward shelter in place. Earlier today our Governor said there are no plans of it, but just now headlines are different…
I’m absolutely not saying it’s likely or imminent.
Okay! I thought you were and I was like “I must be missing something really big because BJ does not usually worry needlessly.”
I do have broader/longer-term worries. Getting food at the grocery store in two weeks is not one of them.
Hahahaha. Ahaha. Hahaha. wheeze
While I’m glad I come across that way… no. Not even slightly true the reason I’m a good nurse is because I am FANTASTIC at coming up with ways things could go wrong. I am professionally paranoid.
Can confirm that @Bracken_Joy is excellent at figuring out all the ways in which things can go wrong. With data. I say this with the highest degree of respect, because B_J is my fav person to go to be like “umm…should we actually be scared about this thing?”
while appearing to be as cool as a cucumber!
Inside, I’m flipping shit silently, don’t you worry
Awww I feel very respected and loved right now! So glad I have successfully channeled my anxiety in service of others. Thats been the goal all along, really
You are professionally paranoid.
Which means you are not paranoid. You are realistic. We’ve all seen the product of the research and care you take in forming opinions, especially about health outcomes, and we know that you don’t usually share views flippantly. When you give opinions, they’re usually extraordinarily well grounded.
I trust your reasoning capacity very, very much, and so I listen when you say you have worries, because I can see a good and careful mind at work and that’s a mind I want to hear out.
That’s slightly terrifying and utterly heart warming, thank you. I really should do a better job expressing when it’s my core anxieties coming through, vs useful anxieties that might due for other people paying attention to. issues of food security and restriction are where some of my anxieties come out to play the strongest. I’ve had a few episodes of “rug out from under me” in my life, with some blood sugar issues meaning I always need a plan for what and when I’ll eat next, in addition to some sort of inherited Impoverished large family issues from my mom, that really are a perfect storm to make those key issues for me. I keep food hidden everywhere. In pockets, purses, my car, just everywhere you can imagine. And my “pantry comfort” level is pretty high. I’ve tried to channel this to healthy foods, never letting things go to waste, and supporting local farming and ranching, but it is deeply neurotic and I recognize that. Even my poor husband has food items of mine he never touches, because he realizes it causes some sort of primal angry badger tendencies in me.
Yeah the reason there are shortage are 1) everything in the food/consumables supply chain is “just in time” delivery with pretty lean warehousing so mass stocking up of any sort quickly exhausts the supply and 2) with restaurants closed more people are eating from stores and their logistics chains take time to refactor
I feel you. I keep wanting to eat our shelf stable and frozen foods because the fresh foods in the fridge are what keeps my mind on an even keel – not at all the proper order to be eating things in! Once we run out of fresh veg I’ll need to make a grocery trip for my own sanity, even if we have plenty of shelf stable food.
And I think you do a very good job of making what’s your anxieties and what’s your professional anxieties clear! I think I just misread your original post and thought you meant “catastrophe imminent” and not “hey this could cause longer term disruptions.”
My CSA won’t even start til near the end of May, and lettuce is a ways off too definitely not immediate steps
I love that so many people have started up CSA subscriptions! What a good way to get produce from local farms, especially when worries are popping up for folks. <3
I got my brother to do one too May as well channel the anxiety to good! Also reaching out to another farm to see if we can schedule a cow share, since our current rancher hasn’t replied in a while
Complaining about other people, not actual angst
My coworkers are all going to die. Okay not really but during a group call today one person said they were going to the beach this weekend because they “weren’t going to live in fear” but they will at least try to keep a safe distance from other people (if it looks like the pictures from Clearwater though I doubt they’ll turn around and drive all the way home).
Someone else was like “Well we’re not even really … what is it, unsocializing? Oh social distancing? See I don’t even know what the word is, we’re not going to be following whatever the rules are.”
I texted with a neighbor to see how they were doing and she invited us over this weekend. I nice gesture I guess? But no, we’re only halfway into our isolation period. They are keeping their oldest home from preschool at least.
Yes, this.
My scenario, is, everyone in the supply chain - or a significant chunk of the supply chain - becomes too sick to do their jobs, so because of lack of people able to come to work, shit falls apart. I’m not concerned about grocery stores going out of business or being closed, I fear them being unable to keep up since their employees are on the front lines of this and cannot stay away from people.
Is that likely? I don’t know. But it’s what I worry about. Maybe this is my neurosis from spending most of my life working in horribly understaffed conditions where if one person gets sick and can’t come in, we’re fucked.
OH MY GOD YOU GUYS
Boyfriend just talked to his sister, who is a flaming republican and lives in Iowa. She thinks this entire thing is overblown. “It’s just the flu! Why is everyone panicking?” She’s pissed that a concert she had VIP tickets to got canceled. That’s her biggest concern.
What kills me is: Her husband is a first responder!!! Firefighter, paramedic … ?? I’m not sure, It’s a small town so he may function as both. And he is not concerned either, apparently. WTF WTF WTF
I told Boyfriend that Sister’s Husband sure as fuck is gonna be concerned when he can’t help people because the medical infrastructure has fallen apart.
It’s people like them who are going to spread this thing.
Even his flaming Republican fundie dad is taking this at least somewhat seriously! He lives in a super rural area though and social distance is kind of his MO anyway, he doesn’t like people much.
Just saw this.
So far we’ve turned down invitations from friends who want to play board games tomorrow (we wouldn’t go anyway, but we’re extra not going because one of the other guests just got back from a lot of travel).
Other friends want to get together next weekend. We told them we’d get back to them, but really we’re just waiting for the governor to order shelter-in-place because I’m sick of people telling me that I’m overreacting by self-isolating.
I really would say y’all worried about the supply chain are freaking out a bit too much. The primary concern is not overloading the hospitals, but the number of patients it takes to do that is many orders of magnitude smaller than what it would take to fuck the supply chain over.