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The Worldwide C0VlD-19 Coronavirus Pandemic Discussion Thread...

JAJT

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Big brands were all out of stock and the generics looked like they were also starting to take a hit.

That didn't take long - zero sanitizer on the shelves of any brand.

Certain "emergency staples" also heavily hit (the flour section was basically out of stock, for example, and it's normally 99% full).

Store was absolutely packed still, mind you, so people aren't staying home or anything but I feel like even the most arm-length casual observer is picking up a few extra things they normally wouldn't "just in case".

And this is with still no confirmed case within 3 hours of here.
 
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Bekit

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I was in Costco today. It was packed to the hilt. More cars than at Christmas.

Things in the store had changed visibly since Wednesday when I was there.

Bleach was sold out. Wednesday they still had a normal amount. Lots of extra pallets of toilet paper and bottled water were placed out in various locations, like the ends of aisles.

Staples like rice, oatmeal, and canned tuna seemed to be running a bit low.

Interestingly, Walmart across the street was not packed and there was plenty of bleach.

So there's definitely an uneven distribution of what and where people are buying.
 
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Mattie

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I know there was a couple who just infected a bunch of people about 10 miles from me on the border of Germany and the Netherlands. And the guy was an Entrepreneur who went to Italy and brought it back. And attended a Carnival Celebration. I think they said maybe 300 people they were hunting down. And they sent him to the Dusseldorf. :( Hopefully I don't experience this horrendous activity.

Not really happy about it and didn't think it would get around here that fast, but the numbers aren't high here.


 
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GoodluckChuck

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Picked up about 100lb of beans and rice and enough canned food to last us a couple months. Costco was extremely busy but most people were just normal shopping.

There are foodservice stores around here. That's where I got the 50lb bag of pinto beans.

Also filled up the gas tanks.

Things are calm here now in Eastern Washington but it would only take one scary public announcement for everyone to lose their shit.
 

biggeemac

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I was in Costco today. It was packed to the hilt. More cars than at Christmas.

Things in the store had changed visibly since Wednesday when I was there.

Bleach was sold out. Wednesday they still had a normal amount. Lots of extra pallets of toilet paper and bottled water were placed out in various locations, like the ends of aisles.

Staples like rice, oatmeal, and canned tuna seemed to be running a bit low.

Interestingly, Walmart across the street was not packed and there was plenty of bleach.

So there's definitely an uneven distribution of what and where people are buying.
Yup, and thats exactly why I bought probably $2500 worth of household stuff and food staples for my two houses last week before any panic set in. We are good for many months, if not longer on much of our needs. Food we can probably stretch a few months if it really came to that.
 
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Here

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I have 4 little kids and am super tight on space. What should I stock up on? Diapers take up a ton of room, toilet paper's pretty bulky too. And cans.

What will give me the best bang for my space?
 

lowtek

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I have 4 little kids and am super tight on space. What should I stock up on? Diapers take up a ton of room, toilet paper's pretty bulky too. And cans.

What will give me the best bang for my space?

Are your kids old enough to eat solids? If not, that changes things.

You can't go wrong with lentils, beans, rice, flour (don't forget yeast), peanut butter, honey, and salt. Get spices for a little flavor.
 

loop101

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I still think if the Chinese government doesn't contain the virus, China will collapse - in to what, I have no idea.

"While on the dragon throne, the “son of heaven” had total power over his subjects. But he did not have to be of noble birth and he could lose his heavenly mandate for being unworthy, unjust or plain incompetent. The right of the populace to rebel was implicitly guaranteed if the heavens were seen to be displeased. Natural disasters, famine, plague, invasion and even armed rebellion were all regarded as signs the mandate of heaven had been withdrawn"

 

BizyDad

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This thread got in my head. I stocked up today. Largest grocery bill of my life.

Thanks @lowtek for the calorie counts.

"When did Noah build the ark, Gladys? Before the rain. Before the rain" -Spy Game 2001
 
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Timmy C

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This thread got in my head. I stocked up today. Largest grocery bill of my life.

Thanks @lowtek for the calorie counts.

"When did Noah build the ark Gladys? Before the rain. Before the rain" -Spy Game 2001


My god same.

We will be glad we did it if shit goes bad and prices go way up and even worse we cant get anything from supermarkets.
 
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BizyDad

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My god same.

We will be glad we did it if shit goes bad and prices go way up and even worse we cant get anything from supermarkets.

I pray it doesn't come to that.
 
D

Deleted70138

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Though there are only 3 cases in Republic of Georgia with 0 death, just got the message that universities won't be starting for spring Semester. Status quo will remain at least till 16th of March.

Should start affiliate marketing for Coursera. Would buy their stock if it was not private.
 

David Fitz

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Does anyone remember what it was like when the swine flu hit? I vaguely remember that people were saying the world was going to end.
 
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nowap

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Looks like US media are finally catching up now that the virus really arrived in the US. Until last week, a google search for anything "corona" related would give back anything but US news.

Right now, all I am getting is NY Times and other USA websites.

Maybe it's the google algo at work (more people from US clicking on US news results, adjusting the scores for the rest of the world).
 

nowap

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There was a discussion in this thread some pages ago, about the real death rate. The world-o-meter site has some nice info on this: Coronavirus Mortality Rate (C0VlD-19) - Worldometer

Seams like (unsurprisingly) for the 15-20% of infected that get more severe symptoms, the quality of the healthcare is important.

In Wuhan, at the start of the outbreak, there were simply too many patients at once (we've all seen the horrible Wuhan videos if you go outside mainstream media for 1 second). In Iran, lack of quality care also seems to be the cause of the high death rate (and/or severely under-reporting).

I think this virus can't be contained anymore (with the usual track and trace methods of contacts of known patients). The main thing now is to slow it down and spread out the peak over a long period of time.

Some latest updates:

* In Italy, genetic differences in the virus suggest that it has been spreading in the area long before the current outbreak (weeks - maybe as early as start of January).
* Asymptotic transmission is of course a thing here (although in some countries health authorities don't talk about this). BUT - latest research suggest that this is only around 2 days before symptoms first occur - so no for the whole incubation period - which 1) makes sense and 2) is also the case with other viruses - although not as long (a day max I think).
 
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EVMaso

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I've been in and out of malls this weekend for various errands. Supermarkets in Vancouver Canada seem to be unaffected (maybe an uptick in volume, but nothing is out of stock yet) for now, but I bet the news of the Washington state death might cause people to stock up.

I myself bought 3x the normal groceries I do, in addition to some extra rice, canned goods, and toiletries. It's stuff I will end up using anyways, just a nice buffer in case the stores get rowdy, I can hunker down for a few weeks if needed.
 

.B.

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Trevor is a immunologist who studies viruses... there has been "cryptic transmission" (author's words) for many weeks in the Washington area. View: https://twitter.com/trvrb/status/1233970271318503426

It's so sad to see it all unfold and to see that the governments in most countries have been doing the same stupid thing for weeks:

30812

In my country, the government sent the same procedure to doctors and hospitals, as if people only get infected in China and then don't pass the virus to anybody else anymore once they are out of China.

The same procedure was sent to doctors and hospitals in Italy and that's why they released their 'patient 0" from the hospital: because he had not been to China recently. We see the consequences.

* In Italy, genetic differences in the virus suggest that it has been spreading in the area long before the current outbreak (weeks - maybe as early as start of January).

So sad.
 
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Rabby

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Not to mess with anyone's head or anything, but what if everyone rushes the Costco to stock up on stuff and a few of the people there have the virus? Seems like Costco or Walmart could be the new "Broad Street pump handle" of cholera fame. And not only do you collect people up there and potentially expose them, but you bring stuff home that someone could have hacked virus all over. Might be better to order from amazon and hose the box down with Lysol before bringing it in.
 

sparechange

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I just got over a flu or some weird crap, there are 9 cases of the virus in Canada so far afaik.

Although after some research the virus only kills people with weakened immune systems, so I'm not worried.
 
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nowap

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It's so sad to see it all unfold and to see that the governments in most countries have been doing the same stupid thing for weeks:

View attachment 30812

In my country, the government sent the same procedure to doctors and hospitals, as if people only get infected in China and then don't pass the virus to anybody else anymore once they are out of China.

The same procedure was sent to doctors and hospitals in Italy and that's why they released their 'patient 0" from the hospital: because he had not been to China recently. We see the consequences.



So sad.

Same in Holland. Today, they shut down a whole hospital (not allowed to exit or enter) because a corona patient was treated there for almost a week ... they only tested her today! (because she hadn't been to China or Italy).

Just today the health authorities in Holland changed their message to the public: stay home if you have cough and fever, call the doctor. Until now, this was only 'and if you have been to Italy or China'.

They are also still saying "didn't have symptoms at xyz time, so don't worry, couldn't infect others".

I believe the same happened here in Sevilla. Around 60 nurses/doctors send home for quarantine. (patient was not identified as having Corona for a long time). Although that patient is now already recovered, I don't know about those staff members.
 

nowap

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For those who like data...

Trevor is a immunologist who studies viruses... Takeaway is that the RNA of the specific strain of the virus in Washington has now been sequenced, and it appears that unrelated cases several weeks apart have stemmed from the same carrier -- meaning that there has been "cryptic transmission" (author's words) for many weeks in the Washington area.

View: https://twitter.com/trvrb/status/1233970271318503426

Interesting. Sound like the exact same thing happened in Washington state as in northern Italy! Undetected for weeks!
 

NateKruse

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Not to mess with anyone's head or anything, but what if everyone rushes the Costco to stock up on stuff and a few of the people there have the virus? Seems like Costco or Walmart could be the new "Broad Street pump handle" of cholera fame. And not only do you collect people up there and potentially expose them, but you bring stuff home that someone could have hacked virus all over. Might be better to order from amazon and hose the box down with Lysol before bringing it in.

I went to Costco this morning to get some additional food. I had been preparing for over a week but Amazon let me down.

I ordered two 30-day supplies of freeze-dried food from a third party seller on Amazon on 23 Februry 2020 for $195.20 and paid $10 for expedited shipping. I got confirmation that it was shipped and would be delivered by Pilot Freight no later than 28 February by 9 pm. When 29 February passed with no delivery, I contacted the seller asking for a tracking number and got this reply.
30817

Unless I'm misreading the situation, the item was sold out when I ordered it but they marked it as shipped anyways. That's something that would have been nice to know much earlier. Fortunately I already had some other food stockpiled but that was definitely going to be the bulk of the calories.

Costco was packed at opening time on a Sunday. I didn't find any white rice or dry beans but other than that everything seemed to be pretty well stocked.

Two of the local Sprouts grocery stores around here were completely out of bulk red lentils when I checked. They still had plenty of brown lentils and various beans.
 
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MattR82

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I live in Brisbane CBD and haven't seen any panic shopping nor anyone really staying out of public places.

I'm really looking forward to this being over though. I'm prepared myself, and don't think the panic will match the reality, but I am hopeful that people will find a good balance between keeping their lives running while still being cautious, and that the spread is managed well over the next 12 months.
 

lowtek

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I just did a trip (oral hygiene, shampoo, etc.) to the Walmart by 202 and Arizona Ave in Chandler and the following were extremely low / out of stock:
1) Large soap refills
2) Hand sanitizer
3) Plain bleach (scented is left, but not much else)
4) Clorox wipes (GV brand is out, a few name brand left)
5) Great Value branded Lysol (a few of the name brand left)
6) Gloves (except single pair expensive stuff)
7) Fever meds (Tylenol, Advil, etc.)

As of a few days ago, all these items were well stocked.

I didn't see any long lines and the food was still well stocked, so the panic hasn't truly stated yet. But it's safe to say that the pandemic has entered the public consciousness here in Phoenix.

On a related note, one of my wife's coworkers went to India and brought back a nice case of TB. She had to be hospitalized for a few weeks, and while she was still running around she was in close contact with my wife. She gets tested for TB on March 10, and was told there is a strong probability she is infected.

For what it's worth they (the Maricopa County Health Dept) also informed her that testing for C0VlD-19 begins this week. If you're in the Phoenix area I highly recommend finishing off your preps now. We have one of the largest universities in the country, which means a large international student population. We've already had one positive case (an ASU student no less), and it's quite likely we have hundreds - low thousands of cases here already. Once the testing gets underway and word gets out, I expect more shortages.
 

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