Topic: Corona Virus Panic/Discussion Thread

Went to the local Morrisons today and it was like something out of a horror movie. There was plenty food which was good but the whole eerie atmosphere combined with kitschy music was low key terrifying. I was half expecting a zombie to jump me in the frozen aisle while ‘Baby I Love Your Way’ was playing.

Most of our staff have been furloughed today, lots of texts flying about.

@nessisonett to be fair that Zombie would probably be a member of staff anyway, if you think it's bad as a customer just think what the people working there are going through

Walking around my neighborhood for exercise, going to the grocery store, going to a hospital; it's all tense and weird now. Especially with the way cases have been exploding in my state thanks to our incompetent state leadership.

Yesterday, the U.S. saw a bigger explosion in cases in a single day than any other country since the pandemic began, and it has barely even started to mess us over here. Pretty soon everybody else in the world is going to be looking at our explosive growth and thanking their lucky stars that they're not Americans.

@LN78 That's not entirely true.

https://www.cnn.com/2020/03/25/politics/donald-trump-gallup-a...

His approval rating is at its highest point in history. Granted, that approval rating has a very low range of variance because half the population hates his guts, and the other half worships him like a god, but still. The man BOTCHED A PANDEMIC RESPONSE. The ECONOMY IS IN FREEFALL. And he is openly playing with the idea of allowing millions of at-risk Americans to die as a sacrifice on the altar of capitalism. Many of those people are his base. AND HIS APPROVAL RATING IS AT A RECORD HIGH.

This... isn't the country I grew up believing it to be. It's a bad joke, and we deserve every bad thing that comes our way from this point forward.

All empires fall eventually, and this is, without mistake, the beginning of the end of the American Empire. Maybe that'll end up being a good thing on a global level, but it sure sucks seeing it first-hand. But I guess somebody has to be living in Rome when it's burning to the ground, right?

@kyleforrester87 thank god you have been furloughed. The horrible bosses keeping none essential workers at work - should be ashamed the greedy gits.

I was furloughed on Tuesday, at the end of the day without daily accruing payments and splurges on days off the vast majority should manage okish. Pay my mortgage, bills and have money for a Rocket League season pass and a few games.

One thing I am noticing now is the risk of doing general stuff. SuperspreaderMarkets are too big of a risk. Picking up a box of cereal is now a game of hot potato. Wheeling it back home to kill you. If the cashier has got it - risk, If someone has previously picked up the box - risk, if someone walked in 5 seconds before you and let out a little sneeze leaving coronavirus in the air - risk. You can't live paranoid but that is the stage we are at, especially in hotpots like London and Manchester.

@themcnoisy Haha, actually i havn't been benched myself, but I am fully working from home, as is the girlfriend, so we're just going to ride it out. I am expecting to be kept on unless things really take a nose dive, I quite like my job so I am happy enough about that, but I'll be okay even if it doesn't work out.

As for shopping, we normally buy bits every few days, but I did the first big shop in a long time at the start of the week and we'll do another big one next week - i'll be careful to wipe everything down when I get in and hope for the best. Might even wear rubber gloves in the shop.

I STILL think it's just a matter of time before I get it, i cant keep this up until im vacinated, surely?

@Ralizah If you can Rali put yourself away for as long as possible. OK what's going on in America is either super clever by the Administration or incredibly naive and neglectful. From a health care perspective you already have the answer, so if you can LockDown for 12 weeks. Do it. Do not come out whatsoever. Not even for food.

The great side of Americas approach is if you can and do self isolate properly. You will benefit from herd immunity.

@kyleforrester87 I've stored loads of stuff. I'm ex submariner so all the stuff we used to store on board I've tried to emulate.

I never understood the bog roll thing. If you are isolating indoors then food, liquid and things to do are the most important things. Trust me by week 3 or 4 out of an unknown amount of days away you need stuff to keep you occupied. You can always wash your bum hole out - who the hell cares!

*that's a last resort we still have 2 and a half bog rolls.

@themcnoisy We'll probably fully isolate (as much as possible, anyway; I'm still going outside to exercise at times) when confirmed cases get to our area. Before that, I think we'll still go out to get food once in a while and go to the occasional doctor's appointment. But we've stopped spending time with friends, have closed down our store to walk-in visitors, and really only interact with one-another at this point. We're also very conscientious about hand-washing.

Although we're all a little sick with SOMETHING right now. Nobody has a fever or anything besides a runny nose and cough, though, so I doubt it's Covid. If it is, though, and you stop hearing from me... well...

Congratulations America! You're finally, actually, number 1 in something other than military spending! The most infected nation on Earth! But it's cool. I'm sure everything will be fine by Easter. After all, the dear leader has a "good feeling" about that very beautiful time of year!

@themcnoisy Well that's some good news then. I'm still inclined to wait before I trust 100% that reinfection can't happen, but it's a good sign.

@RogerRoger Oh yeah, her hospital is being VERY careful. No visitors, limited interaction with the staff, and temperature checks before you can even get in. lol Her cardiologist was even wearing a mask when he came to talk to her.

@Heavyarms55 17,166 and counting so far today, baby! We're going to be breaking infection rate records every day for weeks now. Our infection rate is going to be double China's within a week, if not sooner.

The local drug dealer’s doing home delivery apparently. That’s nice of him in these trying times 😂😂

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-03-25/-most-sinc...

Most calls per day in NYC since 9/11, apparently. And it's likely to only get worse as the infection rates continue to climb.

@Heavyarms55 He also said that they had "Tremendous control over the virus" last week but then admitted that they don't the following day if I remember correctly.

Anyways, it's crazy that the US has the most number of reported cases currently considering that US's population is only a quarter of China's. They should've taken this matter more seriously earlier.

@nessisonett Oh, I mean it is good to see that even drug dealers are following the quarantine.

I know that in my local area/city there are massive issues with public order as the drugs are drying up and dealers are not on the streets so addicts are getting desperate. It is weird how this affects society in different ways.

It is ok, I have 3 condoms of Grade A Charlie up the 'ole passage ready to go.

@Rudy_Manchego What are the chances of finding three studs all called Charlie?

@kyleforrester87 The beauty of Grindr

@Rudy_Manchego very specific filters

@LN78 Right. Because, for weeks, we've been denying tests to people who need them left and right (although we always have enough for celebrities and politicians, strangely!). We've been telling people they don't need tests unless they're sick and in the hospital, which means we'll never getting ahead of this thing like the South Koreans did (granted, the window for doing this was weeks ago, so it wouldn't matter how much testing we do now unless we rolled it out to EVERYONE and then enacted some sort of draconian quarantine order nation-wide, which isn't going to happen until society starts falling apart). How nice of the administration to give the virus a solid month-long start and THEN improve testing capacity so that we can see just how F'ed we are.

I mean, don't get me wrong: we absolutely should be increasing testing. Even if the truth is uncomfortable, we need to know the extent of the problem here. That has been true since the beginning. But it's not going to matter unless pared with a plan of action, which would require a competent federal leader, frankly.