Mostly Apolitical Thread for Discussing/Venting our Rational/Irrational COVID-19 Fears and Experiences in 2020

I am a bandanna fan and always had one or two with me even before this. For my first few trips out I had one simply tied in the back. (However unlike whoever that is in onimo's pic, I folded up the bottom bit so that it is a rectangle instead of a triangle.)

As things have gotten more serious and as masking in stores is getting more prominent, I've tucked in a paper-towel layer as well as using rubber bands for a more deliberately mask-like look.

On some trips I have just had it with me while walking, and only put it on for close-quarters indoors use. Not sure I need to have it on from the second I leave the house to the second I get back, but perhaps that will become the norm/official guidance soon enough.

as I'm having a hard time sourcing a decent mask, i think i'm going to try using my keffiyeh – folded and wrapped around my lower face and tucked into my jacket.

"It doesn't reduce transmission to zero" is one thing, but right now we literally have no idea how much they reduce transmission, if they do at all.

^translated: "they're not 100% effective" is one thing, but right now we don't know if they're greater than 0% effective, either

no. we DO know that they reduce transmission. we don't know the exact percentage that they reduce transmission, because everyone is making them out of their pit-stained workout t-shirts and the materials vary greatly. but we know for damn sure that they reduce transmission to a significant degree, because we can use our common sense.

but CDC! but there's no clear direction! we know, we know. it's because our leaders are complete dipshits. we have to use our common sense. that's one consequence of electing the dumbest fucking idiot in the universe

"unlike whoever that is in onimo's pic"

It's Franklin in GTA 5

Grocery store shelves seemed somewhat barer this morning. Which probably has to do with the long weekend, although there was that piece on CNN yesterday about the one processing plant closing down and possible ramifications. (I'm finding shopping more and more stressful--some people just don't seem to be that serious--which is probably good in that I now don't want to be in there more than once every five or six days.)

Speaking-from-privilege warning here. Sorry, I can't alter the facts of my life.

I find potential food shortages/rationing depressing. Not from a sustenance point of view: I'm a soup lover, and would probably do just fine living on soup and salads, outside of the monotony. It's more the idea that there'd be this limited amount of food out there and that we'd be in competition for it.

Speaking-from-privilege warning here. I live in one of the foremost bastions of white privilege in Oregon and of course my neighborhood is plentifully over-served by grocery stores in the mid-to-upscale range. It is the diametric opposite of a food desert here. In any bidding war for shelf stock they will prevail and continue to meet local demand. There are some amazing advantages that accrue to living in a small, deteriorating 90 year old house located amid brand new $2 million behemoths.

PSA: people with hearing loss (I'm sure I'm not alone here) have a REALLY difficult time communicating 1) without being able to see anyone's mouth to try to read their lips 2) from 6 ft away due to environmental noise, esp if there is a lot of it or music playing. I need to remember to use the universal "huh?/sorry?" signal of a cupped hand to the ear.

I have my first delivery to someone who actually believes they have COVID, which should be interesting

La Lechera, I have been thinking about that too. I have Deaf friends who lip-read, and will almost certainly need to do some things in writing or via text. My son can hear fine but can't talk; he communicates a lot with signs and gestures and his face. I haven't tried to get a mask on him yet.

It is some shit! Good luck to your son & you & anyone with hearing difficulties trying to interact irl -- I feel like the best thing to do is spread awareness that this is an issue and hope people have it in their hearts to have patience with those who have added communicative issues, both hearing and speaking (and writing too now that I think about it.) One of my students works at a doctor's office throughout this experience, and she has mentioned more than once about how difficult it is to communicate effectively with people while wearing a mask (she is an English learner/I am her English teacher)

One thing I don't recommend is a mask made out of Saran Wrap.

ugh that makes me nauseated to even read the words

https://michaelkelly.artofeurope.com/karl.htm

(i promise i didn't write this. i have no idea why the page is karl.html)

Ulli's Roy Orbison In Clingfilm Website

Hello, and welcome to my homepage. My name is Ulrich Haarbürste and I like to write stories about Roy Orbison being wrapped up in cling-film.

https://michaelkelly.artofeurope.com/karl.htm

Wow, that takes me back

It's a long time since I read that Michael Kelly website, used to go there all the time, looks just the same as it did but with more stuff.

This is an excellent time for Karl to have posted this link as I made some reference to Roy Orbison and clingfilm a week or so back and found that my conversation partner was unaware of this wonder of the bygone internet

I am sure they will be grateful to be enlightened

personally i believe that everyone is aware of it, but some people choose to lie and claim they haven't heard of it. those are the ultimate fans who want to experience the website again for the first time so badly that their memories warp to conform to their desire

I came pretty close to the aforementioned COVID patient when making my delivery today. She was in rough shape and wisely barely opened the door to retrieve the items. But she was pretty decked out (mask, gloves, the works) so I'm not concerned for myself. It was mostly just scary - first time seeing it IRL.

Merely dropping them off on her doorstep wasn't an option?

no, it was in an apartment building and obviously she couldn't leave the apt

also she didn't have a working buzzer so I had to sneak into the building after someone else like a creep which was...privately hilarious to me tbh

I should make clear there was no direct contact of any kind!

Just checking – for your sake more than anything!

I just got a v sweet message from a relative of the recipient

If any of y'all are relatively low risk + live alone I highly recommend seeking out volunteer work, it can be a little risky at times but it's made my quarantine experience 10000% more liveable

nice, hope you are safe Simon, sounds like you are

went to the safeway for the first time in quite a while today. they made me put my cloth bags in a basket outside the door (told me I could take the basket outside and bag them myself outside the store), and made me use hand sanitizer before I went in. the aisles were wide and there were not many people there, which was nice. I got a lot of what I have been needing, but I was disappointed at how low the stock was in produce, and I couldn’t find any of the staples I wanted - flour, rice, beans, pasta

REALLY puts the challenges of 2 metre #PhysicalDistancing into perspective in cities, and shows why we need to create more space. Well done @theurbangeog. #COVID19 pic.twitter.com/oS2CWw0Tx2

— Brent Toderian (@BrentToderian) April 13, 2020

i love how the guy has somehow morphed the challenge of staying 6 feet away from people to a challenge to stay 6 feet away from any object in any direction

of course he's in fuckin toronto

Oh Eamonnpaws...

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2020/apr/13/eamonn-holmes-says-5g-coronavirus-claims-may-not-be-false

He added: “That’s all I would say, as someone with an inquiring mind.”

TEACH THE CONTROVERSY

Fuck me that makes me angry. Instant firing is the only acceptable next step. Our very existence is threatened by people’s without a single braincell, much less any actual knowledge or evidence saying ‘makes you think’ without any evidence of thinking.

Perhaps we can reserve the ventilators for people who deserve it and a course of leeches for these fuckwits.

Firing Eamonn immediately after coming out with that bollocks would feed straight into the conspiracy imo. best hope is related public ridicule

It's fair to say that public ridicule has had no effect on Eamonn Holmes so far in his career.

I ordered a couple of CDs on Amazon - cheap stuff, only like £8 for the pair - which have never arrived and which Amazon have offered to refund me for, however I'd really prefer to have the CDs. Anyway, the original seller suggested I contact Royal Mail because the CDs had definitely been posted on 30th March. Now, whatever you may do in life, do not try to go on the Royal Mail website and make any sort of attempt to find what happened to any lost mail - you will get trapped in a loop which is specially designed to stop you making any attempt to find out what happened to lost mail. I'm currently on my 24th minute of trying to get through to their call centre and about to chuck it.

Can we at least give him a course of leaches on live TV?

We haven't had more than a smattering of mail in 2 weeks (in London N4 so quite near you I think). We did need a letter urgently a week or two ago so actually went to the sorting office and managed to get it (bumped into our friendly postie there which helped, who told us there were mega backlogs/staff shortages). So you could try that, it's probably sitting in a nook along with a load more mail that can't be delivered.
Royal Mail website is appalling yes, better to track down any pages you might need on it via Google ime.

xpost

I notice our local delivery office is closed for the duration. Anyway, I'll just take the money, I've got enough music to listen to! I just hate these corporate websites designed to drive you more insane than you already are.

Yeah, I think it's time to stop, or at least radically reduce, online orders right now. As a physical media fiend it pains me to say this, but yeah, I've also got enough to listen to/watch/read.

I did make the order, let me see... nearly 3 weeks ago! tbf to yrs truly.

xp same feeling... lots of stuff I want to order (Warner Archive brought back their 4 for $44 deal again this weekend) but feeling guilty about postal workers who have to risk their lives so I could get some blu-rays or CDs or headphones or video games or whatever

I haven't heard anything about contagiousness of corpse after death though it did occur to me when I was hearing my dad's body was being transported across the country. He didn't have the virus, just died at a time when I thought doing things like transporting bodies might be problematic.
May be truer at the time of cholera or typhoid or something when the corpse does remain contagious.
So unsure about how much danger an undertaker would be in.
Assume taht a dead body is neither coughing nor sneezing so unable to transfer virus taht way but not sure if there are any elements of transfer I wouldn't be thinking of. Just know that just because a body is dead doesn't mean it's in a vacuum so may be able to spread some stuff.
& if you're having to do up a dead body so that it can have an open casket viewing not sure what you would be coming i contact with through that process.

But of course it wouldn't necessarily be the body itself that had the virus or at least not the only thing that had. If it died of it it must have had a point of contact that it caught from and that might well be shared with others who would be involved in teh funerary process.
& it's a trying job anyway.

Also as we move into hotter weather , has anything been said about mosquitoes or anything as a possible vector. Hate to find being bitten by something that had recently bit a carrier might lead to some complications.

I tell you what, Tracer Hand and stet's description of losing sense of taste or of stuff just tasting unpleasant has left me very wary of, for instance, this bowl of soup I'm eating right now.

Following up a long post from three or four days ago, the non-stop tinnitus I had for two weeks subsided a couple of days ago. The throat scratchiness too, although that was so mild, I'm not sure I trust my judgement there. Anyway, even though I figure the chance was very small, and that pretty much everyone has probably spent time constructing the same kind of scenario for themselves, I think there's a credible case I was an asymptomatic carrier for a couple of weeks. The timeline, too, would work, if I go back two weeks for carrying it and then another two weeks for incubation (the limit, and supposedly not common--usually it's only a few days). That'd take me back to March 14th or so, the last weekend I was still pretty casual about stopping in a restaurant or for coffee. I certainly won't change any of the things I'm doing and not doing now, though, on such a remote possibility.

A round of amoxycillin did a good job mediating my sore throat and shortness of breath so I'm taking that as a win.

aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand now dad's in the hospital. he's had balance issues and his knee is shit, and can't afford the physical therapy, and he fell in the fuckin' shower and hit his head. we can't visit cos of COVID.

now thinking of staying with the folks for a while. none of us leave the house, we all have masks, but also my mother cannot physically lift him if this happens again and she can't deal with it alone. and lord knows I have nowhere to go for a while.

i'm ok but i can already feel the stress and fear brewing.

sorry man. that sucks.
even if it's unclear when the moment of clearance is coming, we are closer to being done with COVID everyday. this is gonna pass.