Sorry, it’s a dreary day here and I am not getting anything done outside of my recliner. Just checked the 10 day forecast and see up to 3.6 inches of snow forecast for a week from now. I was really hoping we’d be done with this so I could dig in the storage unit in warmer temps. [sigh] Hoping to have a grand downsizing sale come spring. How many Coleman stoves do two people need anyhow? Oh, BTW, storing Coleman fuel in cans doesn’t work in desert temps. Over a few years it WILL evaporate despite being sealed. Actually, a couple cans we had stashed back in the Midwest also didn’t make it through 10 years of storage intact either, and it wasn’t meeces that did it. Still sealed, however… But I digress.
Okay, the panic is beginning, with half of America buying up TP and bottled water. I guess maybe to wipe and wash with? Personally I’d rather use wet wipes than try to play bidet with a water bottle, but whatever.
From what I have seen (it’s been over a week since Sam’s Club now) and have read since: rice, dog food, bottled water, TP, Kleenex, gelled alcohol hand sanitizer, Clorox bleach and disinfectant wipes are all the rage across the country. Some semi-luxury foods that will not last more than weeks at best before spoiling are being snatched up, for the coming isolation in place thing that is being bandied about.
People are still seeking reason to panic rather than listen to reason. They WANT to panic, and if possible blame Trump for everything. I think we are seeing some neo-cons come into the open, and I am not speaking of politicians or newsies.
People are making the mistake of calculating mortality rates using confirmed cases divided by reported deaths. Unfortunately for those figures the actual instances of MILD infection would raise the infected rates significantly, which would drive downward the mortality rates. Many cases are so mild the person doesn’t seek medical attention – and thus truly cannot be confirmed and so don’t show up on the tallies - but on the prepper forums elsewhere I am seeing that telling others you believe you and yours have suffered through a mild case is now de rigeur, sort of like being able to tell friends and family how you were mugged when you visited NYC. It makes for a tale that garners attention, don’t ya know.
No, it is not airborne. Neither is Ebola but we saw people firm in their belief that it was. Still no piles of bodies in the streets of NYC from that one either.
Surface transmission: yep. So is the common cold and seasonal flu. But now, because this is new and scary, people are suddenly everything outside their own cozy castle a minefield of deadly virus particles. So it goes.
Deadlier than flu: see the mortality paragraph. I truly believe people want it to be so they can justify their panic.
We have masks here but then we have for over 20 years, so…. Wife is a substitute teacher and does all grades pre-K through 8th. Including Spec Ed. She hates anything over her face and won’t wear a warming mask in winter even though cold hurts her lungs so getting her to use an N95 will be tricky, but if push comes to shove I won’t give her a choice. More likely she’ll have to stay home instead. Because SpEd kids are too often immune-compromised (part and parcel with Down’s Syndrome) and the SpEd teachers take more sick days than any other area. And she just told me the idiot school nurse has informed people that the virus can live ‘in the air’ for 3 days and that it will proliferate in warmer weather. Somebody needs to redo their Micro class is all I am saying.
No, we don’t wear masks in public because the threat just isn’t there. We don’t wear gloves in public either. We do have hand sanitizer pocket bottles and wipes we can use should we make a Sam’s run or something.
Is it endemic in the US? Yes. Endemic meaning present and lurking in the background, just as we also have had endemic Yellow Fever in the US (a couple tens of thousands died in the mid-South in the later 1800’s from that) and still have Dengue Fever in the US, though admittedly barely so these days.
Lots of political grandstanding over this and even the conservative media is running with it because it is the news of the day that gets the most viewers.
I do know that the medical people I am closest with across the country and internationally are not panicked, nor am I. Darn few Asian travelers where we live.
Oh, and should anyone be reading Natural News' pandemic site, look closely. Mike Adams is selling fear - period. 10% truth mixed with 90% hype.
RR
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