This space is supposed to be fun—sexy excerpts, new releases, puzzles, games…fun. Well, today, I’m going to get serious.
I’m an avid news watcher—many different news channels and newspapers every day, and not just US news. What I’ve been reading over the last weeks has me very concerned for my family, myself…you.
Last night, I went to bed a little late and did my usual scrolling through Twitter to see what was happening in the world. The more I read, the less sleepy I was. Suddenly, my daughter DM’d (direct messaged) me. She and the 15-year-old girl had been exchanging messages back and forth. (Which is hilarious all by itself, because we live in the same house!) They were both a bit freaked out. We met on the back patio while everyone else slept to talk about it. Mind you, this was 11:30 at night. I brought a pen for a grocery list. Because the only thing we could do for ourselves, at that moment, was to decide what we needed to have on hand if we self-quarantined.
Yes, self-quarantined. As in doing something to try to prevent the spread of the virus to our family members—and no, I’m not some weird prepper, although now, I’m thinking they’re better prepared than the rest of us. With list in hand, for things like toilet paper, paper towels, hand soap, home cleansers, Dinty Moore stew cans, rice, beans, decongestant, cough syrup, cough drops, etc., the two of them headed off to Walmart. Being over 60, I’m no longer allowed to go out and about unless I absolutely have to!
This is what the TP shelves looked like last night at Walmart…
So, I know there are a lot of you who think people are going crazy. But what if there’s something to this? What if there is something you could do now to keep you and your family safe? Information is key.
When Germany’s leader tells her people that 2 out of every 3 Germans are projected to be infected… When Congress’s own medical staff tells them that 70 to 150 MILLION Americans can be infected… Maybe we should take some precautions.
I’ve heard things like, “It’s just another flu.” Well, flu’s been around a while. We have some immunity—and immunizations. The Novel Coronavirus (novel means NEW) is something we have no immunity built up inside us. It spreads far fast. It lives up to 3 days on surfaces and for hours in the air after an infected person exhales. The incubation period appears to be 4 days, but you can appear asymptomatic for a long while! Which means everyone you come in contact with after that fourth day following exposure could be infected—by you! And it’s not just an old person’s disease. If you smoke, if you’re fat, if you have an immune system deficiency… All are factors in mortality.
But let’s not talk mortality rates…oh, hell. Let’s do. With the present statistical mortality rate applied to the figure that the experts think will be the total infected, we’re talking hundreds of thousands, maybe millions.
So, I’m taking a deep breath. This isn’t seasonal flu, which seems to die off when the weather gets warm. This is the new pandemic. It’s related to SARS—remember that scare a few years back? This is more virulent! But don’t take my word. Listen to an expert who’s a guest on Joe Rogan’s podcast. Joe isn’t a “Democratic hoaxter” (Coronavirus is no hoax!). He’s a libertarian, and actually, a pretty smart guy. I’m sharing this podcast because the guy he has on is easy to understand. Listen to what the expert says. Let it scare the pants off you. Then take steps.
If this turns out to be a big “nothing burger”, then you don’t have to buy TP until the next millennium! No worries. If it’s as dire as the experts say, we need to be ready.
I’d love to hear whether you’re doing anything to get ready. Or whether you think this will all go away. No snarking, folks! Let’s just talk.
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We always have enough food in the house for a few weeks, but I did buy extra dog food, and some OTC meds. Can’t buy hand sanitizer anywhere but I have the stuff to make my own. Smaller stores have toilet paper because people are going to big box stores.
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We have a similar situation over here in the UK. Shelves are empty of rice (which originates from China) Pasta (which comes from Italy) (Just sayin…) are all gone from the shelves. TP/Kitchen roll/baby wipes, all gone. People are panic buying which I get, but they need to be responsible and leave some for everyone? Soap! All gone. Now that scares me more than I care to admit. Why is the soap all gone? Why have people waited until now to start buying soap? Why did they not have soap in their houses before this? I don’t understand. Hand sanitizers all gone. I buy most of my staple stuff online from Amazon and have it delivered, I am truly grateful now for having that foresight. I’m stocked up enough to sit out roughly 6 weeks with the paper products, 8 weeks with food supplies and 10 weeks with home made meals that I have cooked and then frozen. I am fortunate in that I live on a mountain and it’s not hugely populated, but my mum lives in the town down the road and I worry about her. She’s 80 this year and has so many health problems she would be done for if she contracted Coronavirus. I am also very concerned for my disabled son, he has a number of underlying health conditions that make him vulnerable should he contract the virus. I locked us all down at the start of this week when the first reports of positive testing was reported in our localised area. I’m tired of people telling me it’s just another flu bug, no, it isn’t as you rightly pointed out, it’s related to SARS. Anything related to SARS that is proving to be more resistant, seriously more aggressive and faster travelling needs to be paid attention to. CoronaVirus is a killer plain and simple. There will be a lot of dead before this one is done. People need to take it more seriously over here.
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Gemma! It sounds like you’re already living in that scary place! I wish you, your son and mom well!! Please keep us apprised of what’s happening.
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My family always has things on hand… but I have seen more and more empty shelves around the stores. Grabbed a big bag of parrot food in case… just hoping for all to be safe and healthy. My sister and her family went on a cruise this past week… I thought she was crazy to do so… see what happens this weekend when she is supposed to return home.
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We always have a stick of food. We went today for some extra water and paper products. I probably shouldn’t be out I’m on an immunosuppressant for eczema. I also bought a ton of cat food.
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I went to two grocery stores yesterday and they both had plenty of toilet paper however people were buying it up. One store was Walmart and the other was a Northwest area store called Winco. I usually buy my toilet paper at Costco along with paper towels and tissue but they are having the issues with getiing it into their stores as they get 2 pallets and then it’s gone. I still have a small supply as I have a Certified Family Home so I tend to buy in bulk. I haven’t bought toilet paper in a regular store in years so I don’t even know what to buy. Last night on the news I saw a map of the US and I believe there was 6 states that are virus free as of then and I live in one of them. I’m sure it won’t last and the scary thing for me is I care for my 87 year old mom with severe Alzheimer’s and has had kidney and breast cancer in the past and has been in remission but she is frail. We have a certain amount of canned and frozen meat just because it’s hard to get to a store and the rest of the family living here are going to work and school so we say a prayer every day that we can somehow keep the virus at bay.
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I’m so glad you published this! We are self-quarantined as of this week except for essential doctor visits and to buy food and supplies. People in this area act like we are crazy, but we’re over 60 and have health issues. Also, Florida has cases and it’s only a matter of time before the virus runs through the entire state. As you said, this is not just another flu. We want to protect ourselves and others. Anyone who can stay home should stay home.
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Living in one of the hot spots (Seattle area) and being over 60 and immune compromised, I am being very careful. I only go out when I have to and I am glad I was already using one of the grocery delivery services. Already at the point where schools are closing and gatherings of 250 or more are banned. Just hunkering down and hoping to get through this.
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Well in Ontario Canada, our premier of the province has decided to close the schools two extra weeks after our March break (same
As Your spring break). I was out in the public today but I didn’t get to a grocery store a friend and I were treasure hunting at secondhand stores. I have a pretty stocked freezer of chicken and grass fed beef lots of butter lots of veggies frozen I live alone so I have enough TP for me. I’m a bit of an introvert so most of the week I stay home away from people anyways. I also live in a very small town of 500 people I am not being extremely cautious. Around here I’m more frayed of the regular flu then I am of the coronavirus. The one thing I don’t understand is why the TP is disappearing from stores diarrhoea is not one of the symptoms. Also if you can’t find any of the regular cleaning products try vinegar it works just as well.
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I do food prep normally so I always have food in the house. I have lots of paper products because I was getting ready for everyone to come home for spring break. I went to the store today to buy some meatballs for dinner and I was stunned by the lines at the store and the empty shelves!! So I guess I’m not doing specify preparations because I always have stuff in the house anyway. I love your night time shopping pics!!
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I’m in Florida and where I live we always have to be prepared because the closest grocery store is 30 minutes away. So we don’t go to the store every day or two and three times a day. I usually go once a month and sometimes two. I have a pantry that has 45 cans of each can food we eat a lot of, I have shelves that are for cleaning products that is always stocked, I always have 2 full gallons of bleach, our water is delivered (8- 5 gallon bottles and 10 cases), batteries are always checked and restocked in January, Etc. so I’m ready. We have power outages all the time and hurricanes so we learned to be ready for anything. We have a generator that runs the house, two refrigerator freezers, an ice machine and two big freezers. But we are lucky – we have room. Some people don’t so they have to wait to get stuff. Yesterday was my minor shopping day – the boys bathroom was down to one 12 pack of toilet paper – so I needed to pick up two 12 packs – I was shocked when I got in the store and there wasn’t any on the shelf.
I far as how I feel about what people are doing – I think some people have a right to be scared – 60 and older, low immune system, babies and pregnant women are at a very high risk – so they need to be very careful and take the warnings seriously. This is not a hoax and it is real. Others need to be prepared and have the items that are needed on hand just like they was preparing for a hurricane. People don’t need to panic because someone sneezed or coughed – that is natural and people do it all the time. I have a sinus problems and always have – I sometimes sneeze for 30 minutes straight but I’m not sick. But right now I know I have to be very careful because the pollen count is high, we are going to have two weeks of 90 weather with no rain and that triggers it. Everyone needs to make sure they are listening to trusted sources for updates and follow the instructions to help get this under control and out of here. I hope everyone stays safe.
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I think we’re heading towards school closures in a day or so, Delilah. I typically stock up on stuff like TP when the brand I like is on sale, so I think we’re set on that front 😉 It’s more whether I can stand having all of us in the house for weeks on end 😉 I made sure DD and I have loads on the TBR, and DS2 will be fine as long as the internet holds up, LOL! We will have to see how stuff like regular grocery shopping goes…
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As an addendum to my earlier comment, our government is advising us not to self quarantine too early. Apparently we are supposed to run the risk until the disease is closer to its peak which will be somewhere close to the end of May beginning of June, and then self quarantine for a minimum of 2 – 4 weeks around that time, they will tell us when we should go into lock down. Apparently, self quarantine at this early stage is a false safety strategy, when we come out of isolation in a few weeks time, we run a higher risk of contracting the virus because it will be reactivated and will get a renewed boost.
There is so much disinformation out there right now about what the best thing to do is, that it has my head spinning! In the UK we are not closing schools, we are not cancelling large group events (theatre, cinema, shows etc) we are supposed to carry on as normal, not touch our faces, (eyes, nose, mouth) and wash our hands every 20 minutes for 20 seconds each time while singing the ‘happy birthday’ song twice! I kid you not. A direct instruction from our Prime Minister Boris Johnson! Now I get why he’s said it, the time it takes to sing the song twice is how long you should be washing your hands for each time, but surely, I mean surely he could have come up with a better analogy and one that made him seem less like a complete idiot and also prevent the meme makers from having a golden opportunity to turn the COVID-19 threat into a farce to be poked fun at! No wonder the people of Britain are not taking this seriously enough! I think I may just never come out of my house again this year! Seems like the safest option to me. Besides, if I start singing happy birthday to me twice every 20 minutes, my poor son’s ears will be bleeding by the end of the first hour. I can’t hold a tune in a bucket!
Stay safe everyone. Stay sane, and keep your spirits up. We can beat this, it will just take time and a commonsense attitude. xxx
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Gemma! Sounds scary in the UK! I’ve been following the news there.
Thanks, everyone, for sharing!
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It got a whole lot scarier when the gov. rolled out their plan to beat COVID-19! Eugenics anyone? Mass genocide? Apparently the gov. would like 60% of the population to contract the disease, if we don’t mind… that way they can kill off all of the elderly, disabled, weak and infirm people in the country, roughly 277,000 deaths is 0.1% of the 60% of the population. The rest should try and get on with it and get over it, so we can build up a herd immunity to it for next time. Seriously, what government in their right minds would consider telling the elderly and infirm population of their country to just up and die please, you will be doing your country a service! They aren’t testing anyone for the virus, even when people get past the 7 day self-isolation barrier and phone 111. They are being told, we don’t test in the community any longer. They never tested in the community in the first place. We have no idea at all just how many people are affected by the virus and we will not know where it is in the country until it’s too late. I cannot believe the cold, callous and uncaring response our government has had to this, currently BoJo is on the missing list since he rolled out his plans. No one has seen him in the past 24 hours. Great. I’m staying in, keeping my son in with me and I have battened down the hatches for the long haul. Good luck to everyone out there, stay safe, if you run out of toilet roll don’t panic, tear up an old towel, cut it into squares and use them as dedicated washcloths for your nether regions, a bit like a terry toweling nappie of old, they will wash easily in the laundry and are entirely reusable. Stay sane peeps, this too shall pass. xx