What should I be doing to safeguard myself and helping? There is a lot of uncertainty to manage.
Wash your hands a lot.
Encourage other people to do the same things.
Can anyone verify if this logic makes sense? Or does it not really make a difference because it'll just float through the air and reach your face anyway?
https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/health-environment/artic...
Instructions in English.
There are plenty of photos Italians queuing up two meters apart, so just maintain extra space like they do?
If you're old, self-isolation is the best thing.
Tell your friends to do the same.
Note: 60 days of food is probably much larger than any grocery trip you have ever done. Don't just go to the store and get a week's worth of food, like many are doing. In a week, grocery shopping will be impossible/dangerous. Two weeks, moreso. The doubling time on this thing is about a week and it's going to get worse for six weeks before it gets better.
Also, avoid doing any activities that might cause any sort of accident requiring hospitalization. Hospitals are going to be hard no-go zones starting in about two weeks, for 6-8 weeks. Use the railing, be careful getting in and out of the shower, clean up spills, don't use power tools, et c.
If you're having trouble getting groceries locally, Amazon still (for the moment! don't expect it to last) has 12-ct cases of Soylent in stock for about $40 in a lot of places for same or next-day delivery. (Figure 5 400kcal bottles per person-day for emergency rations if you can't get any local groceries. Even if you don't like it, it will keep you and your family alive while you can't go to the supermarket for a few weeks.) TIP YOUR DELIVERY DRIVER. When it arrives, pull the bottles out wearing gloves, and dispose of the boxes carefully, and WASH YOUR HANDS.
EDIT: Reply to SketchySeaBeast below (I am throttled and cannot post new replies):
Going to the grocery store is unnecessary contact/exposure that you can avoid by stocking up for the duration in advance. Grocery stores are chokepoints. It's better to shop once now than four times over the next 2 months.
Shelf-stable food that you will eat anyway is not a huge cost, and limiting your exposure is valuable as this thing ramps up. Every passing week for the foreseeable future doubles the risk that you will encounter someone who has the virus, as it seems pretty plausible (due to the testing strategy) that the US, at least based on current information, will be doing very little that will be effective to stop the spread.
It's probably just going to run its course unimpeded through society in the US, as it did in Italy prior to the lockdown. Would you want to be going to the grocery store in Italy right now? I don't want to be going to the grocery store in the US in 2-3 weeks.
Remember: when China had as many cases as we do now, a 60M province was already in total lockdown.
https://medium.com/@tomaspueyo/coronavirus-act-today-or-peop...
This is crazy FUD that will only make the situation worse. Stockpiling rarely, if ever, helps, and overwhelmingly hurts the poor and disabled. The absolute worst of "fuck you got mine" mentality on display here. Please do not do this, and please do not advocate for this kind of panic. You are actively contributing to a terrible situation.
To repeat: there is absolutely no reason whatsoever to stockpile rations, food stuffs, common goods, etc. In no country as of yet has this been necessary, even in the most hard hit areas. Do not do this. Going to the grocery store once vs four times is not going to make the difference between you getting the virus or not, and it's absurd that people would even consider this. The virus has been in and around our communities for months now, engaging in prepper fetishes now is closing the barn door after the horses have left. Stockpiling goods is completely ineffective anyway. The majority of our supply chains are JIT, and suppliers are already rationing and metering out goods. Stockpiling is pointless, you're just going to look like an idiot in the check out line.
Limit large social engagements. Keep up mild exercise, get plenty of sleep, and eat healthily. And for the love of God wash your hands. If you have frequent contact with immunocompromised people or the elderly be more vigilant about hygiene, wear a mask, disinfect any surfaces the both of you touch frequently. Consider doing their errands for them as well.
Everyone will eventually get the virus. It's almost certain. The goal here is just to prevent a thundering herd problem with medical resources.
That's exactly how I feel about stuff like that. I had only heard a quarantine's amount, but given the amount of made up stuff going around, I was hoping there'd be some sort of expert explaining the logic, and for it not to be just prepper fever.
> This is crazy FUD
There's no fear, uncertainty, or doubt in my message, nor am I being crazy, simply calm and rational: it's simple, normal preparedness for the recommended protocol of avoiding unnecessary close physical contact with others. Having 6-8 weeks of food in one's house isn't stockpiling, nor is it panic. It is everyday preparedness, and is good advice in all times, even outside of pandemics.
The LDS church, for example, recommends and encourages all mormons to have a year of food for their family in their home, and has done so for decades. I am not LDS, but this is not bad advice in general.
> Going to the grocery store once vs four times is not going to make the difference between you getting the virus or not
If you and your family are in full isolation at home during the worst of this, not going out in public at all during the peak of the pandemic (zero contact with anyone infected or potentially infected) versus going out four times into public places (grocery stores) absolutely makes a difference, both in your own potential exposure, as well as in the ability to spread it to others should you be exposed.
Right now most cities in the US only have a few hundred cases walking around (calculated from comparing the curve to other countries who actually are testing). That's not going to be the case in 30 days: the risk and spread is going up in a predictable, exponential fashion, just as we have seen in several other places already.
> engaging in prepper fetishes
Your alarming personal attacks do not contribute to the discussion. I'm not suggesting you build a bunker, hoard masks or TP, or anything else like that: simply have enough food to be able to stay home uninterrupted for a month or two. Mocking doomsday preppers when they're preparing for unknown, low-risk imagined threats is one thing. Preparing to simply have enough to eat while you and your family stay home during a global pandemic and presently-declared national emergency is about as non-prepper as it gets: preppers would claim it's way past the time you should have started.
Millions of Americans buy in bulk at stores like Sam's Club and Costco, this is no different. If the supply lines are as stable as you claim and will remain so as you claim, then they won't be harmed in any way by a few people buying a little bit extra.
> Everyone will eventually get the virus. It's almost certain.
This is also not true. Many people will avoid getting sick by avoiding public places and physical contact, which also has the added public benefit of not spreading it further. Additionally there will likely be a vaccine before the year is out. Avoiding contact with the public absolutely can and will prevent many people from getting sick. Please do not engage in such fatalistic fear-spreading; it's just a false statement. (It's also a terrible thing to say to high-risk groups, most of whom can avoid contracting it with precautions such as I describe.)
> The goal here is just to prevent a thundering herd problem with medical resources.
The single best way to do that is to avoid contracting the virus at all. The single best way to do that is to avoid coming into contact with anyone who is infected or might be infected: get home and stay home.
It is our responsibility to ourselves, our families, our neighbors, and our communities to avoid contracting this virus and to avoid spreading this virus.
Not sure if I'd agree with this. In my neighborhood, there are already multiple confirmed cases (some a few blocks away).
The only way to minimize my (and therefore my family's) exposure to the virus is to avoid any external contact. Encountering 10 people for one grocery trip versus 40 people over 4 separate trips. Statistically, I'd take the one-trip option.
Even if there was a marginal benefit to yourself it would be still be incredibly selfish to stockpile to the detriment of the vulnerable. The scarcity mentality is very dangerous, please do not perpetuate it.
It has nothing to do with scarcity and everything to do with limiting social contact. Every day, being out in public is more dangerous.
As you pointed out, there is no scarcity issue, nor is there likely to be.
> Everyone will eventually get the virus. It's almost certain. The goal here is just to prevent a thundering herd problem with medical resources.
Yes, eventually everyone will be exposed. The point here is to flatten the curve of exposure to a level which does not overwhelm critical care facilities. This can be achieved - or at least an attempt can be made - by limiting exposure. Those who have enough food at home to refrain from having to go out shopping for a month can limit their exposure more than those who have to go out every week.
> Going to the grocery store once vs four times is not going to make the difference between you getting the virus or not, and it's absurd that people would even consider this.
But that is not the point as you later state yourself: "The goal here is just to prevent a thundering herd problem with medical resources". Right, and the way to achieve that is by limiting exposure, for instance by only having to go out shopping once instead of four times.
I honestly don't get the attitude against a certain level of preparedness. What is wrong with stocking more non-perishable food stuffs at home if those are the things you'd normally buy anyway? You don't need to fill your basements with MREs, just get more of the usual non-perishables than you'd normally do - pasta, wheat flour, oats, etc. Get some yeast to bake bread as well while you're at it. Get butter, put it in the freezer. Dried beans last forever - I had some around which I took with me when I moved from the Netherlands to Sweden about 20 years ago, made a chilli with them, tasted 'like new' - and can make a good meal with a few odds and ends. Get 'canned' (i.e. packaged) tomatoes, frozen vegetables (the power will stay on during this crisis), etc. This is not doomsday prepping, it is common sense.
I have no problem with this, but that's clearly not what GP is advocating for. I doubt most in this thread even comprehend how much food is required for a 30 day supply of your average household. Buying double the amount of perishables doesn't seem unreasonable, stocking up for a month+ is absurd.
The Department of Health and Human Services has recommended that intelligence community personnel have at least three months’ worth of food on hand in the event of an uncontrolled pandemic.
Many countries have been or are in much worse shape and society hasn't broken down. This isn't Mad Max. If anything having the entire population simultaneously buy two months of food is going to cause far more problems than it'll ever solve.
That is where he gets this: basic common sense. Limit exposure, limit spread, flatten the infection curve to such a level that the peak 10-15% which will need hospitalisation does not exceed the available capacity.