Are you doing anything differently because of Coronavirus?

Yes , because I have a family if five that depends on me to make sure they have everything they need to live as healthy and as good lives as possible.

I have erected the industrial shelving I bought. Not only for the supplies , but also for other things in the store room.

I have not done a full inventory on supplies, but I did invest a good piece of my tax return in the continuity of our family. I have gold and silver and cash on hand. Not a large amount, but enough to sustain a short period of time in case.

Multiple facets of security, and medical needs. I even bought a duel fuel generator, and a shiny new 5 gallon gas can that is full of 87 octane fuel with some seafoam fuel stabilizer. We are having our outside propane tank topped off and keeping our vehicles full of fuel, which I do anyways.

I am way more vigilant when I am in public and I took my family out to eat friday night and informed them that this may be the last time for a bit. I am going to limit our public engagements for a bit. I already drive to a metropolitan area near St louis to work. I will not be stopping in that area to get fuel or to get drinks. I am no longer going to go out to lunch in that area as most restaurants are in a short area off of interstate 55 which leads directly to Chicago.

Some can say I am panicking, some can say that I am crazy. That is fine, they have always said that about me anyways.

All that I know is that I have taken the steps I can to ensure that my family possibly has a better chance of riding this, or any emergency out on the short or long term.

Besides I live in tornado country and we have already been impacted by a tornado back in 2005. Power was out for days.

Do what you feel is right. If you are wrong, then at least you are prepared for the next possible disaster or financial instability in your life.

People say dont post your preps online or tell anyone. I agree with the don't tell any one bit. But I believe if the situation is bad enough and the government has to cross reference the net to find local IP addresses and use hackers to find supplies, then we are in another type of hurt. If it is a local hacker with a small gang of individuals, I live in farmland and I am confident that my families abilities to handle such an event are more than adequate. If the government raiding citizens time arises I would have probably enacted the bug out protocol and good luck finding me then. Those plans will not be disclosed.

Have a good day, and remember, it doesn't matter what anyone thinks about you. Survival is not a popularity contest.

originally posted by: infolurker

originally posted by: Jay-morris
No, because most people who get it, it's just like a mild flu, so not bothered.

It's the flu bro isn't going to cut it much longer in my opinion when possibly 20% of those infected will have to be taken care of in the hospital for weeks.

The WHO sent 25 international experts to China and here are their main findings after 9 days
www.reddit.com...

5% of people who are diagnosed with Covid require artificial respiration. Another 15% need to breathe in highly concentrated oxygen - and not just for a few days. The duration from the beginning of the disease until recovery is 3 to 6 weeks on average for these severe and critical patients

Healthcare system: 20% of infected people in China needed hospital treatment for weeks. China has hospital beds to treat 0.4% of the population at the same time - other developed countries have between 0.1% and 1.3% and most of these beds are already occupied with people who have other diseases.

Pre-existing conditions: The fatality rate for those infected with pre-existing cardiovascular disease in China was 13.2%. It was 9.2% for those infected with high blood sugar levels (uncontrolled diabetes), 8.4% for high blood pressure, 8% for chronic respiratory diseases and 7.6% for cancer.

It's not the flu, but the symtoms are her similer. 80 thousand people died of the flu in 2018!

Yes, of course if older people or people with other problem catch the coronavirus, it could be dangerous, just like if they caught the flu.

Most people dying from this are elderly or people with other problems. If you are healthy, you will clear it with little symptoms.

But the media want to put fear into people about this! That's what the media does! This virus is the new Bogeyman for the time being. After this dies down, there will be another Bogeyman, and so on!

See that part about 20% requiring weeks in the hospital? Flu has appox 2% hospitalization rate and usually not for 3-6 weeks.


Do the numbers. If this crap is as catchy as the flu or worse think about the shear numbers that would require weeks of care.


Let's hope the numbers do not get anywhere that high.

originally posted by: infolurker
See that part about 20% requiring weeks in the hospital? Flu has appox 2% hospitalization rate and usually not for 3-6 weeks.


Do the numbers. If this crap is as catchy as the flu or worse think about the shear numbers that would require weeks of care.


Let's hope the numbers do not get anywhere that high.

And the ammount of medical staff that will be out because of getting the illness themselves, Most of the hospitals in the US already are complaining about the fact that they dont have enough PPE to deal with an influx of cases.....

So short staffed and an overwhelmed medical system?

Wonder how much that will multiply in magnitude of the death rates

a reply to: EnigmaChaser

Not really, no. Washing hands a big more frequently at work, maybe. Otherwise, working in retail, I'm exposed to constant people wheezing, coughing and sneezing 5 days a week. If I'm gonna get sick, I'm gonna get sick regardless unless I head to work in a bio-hazard suit.

a reply to: liejunkie01

I bet your wife and kids feel a sense of security. It sounds like you are their rock. When I was a kid, my dad was the take-charge type, always prepared, and he made us all feel safe when there was a storm on its way or any other need to hunker down...actually, mom, too.

originally posted by: queenofswords
a reply to: liejunkie01

I bet your wife and kids feel a sense of security. It sounds like you are their rock. When I was a kid, my dad was the take-charge type, always prepared, and he made us all feel safe when there was a storm on its way or any other need to hunker down...actually, mom, too.

Yes, my wife is ok and board with the sentiment of the possibility of panic in the very near future.

I tell my children straight up what the situation is and that we will be better off than most, and most certainly I tell them there is no guarantees in life. We do what we can do and roll with comes at us. There is no reason to cherry coat the situation at hand, whatever it maybe.

With that being said I do reassure them that we are prepared to face the situation head on and not to worry about it. I calm the panic in the family with reassurance that we are well prepared.

First reply, be kind. English is not my native language. RIVM doesn't tell anything useful over here, wash your hands bladiebla. Nothing wrong and please don't look further.

So I decided to pile up some goods. I planned for 3 weeks, 10kg of rice, pasta's, meat in the fridge, canned fruits and veggies. 30ltr of water and I keep the empty bottles to refill.

I have a huge backpack, axe, knife, ways to make fire. My own car, which is filled to the notch at all times. I love to camp so all the stuff is there to flee. Full tank of gas which I can cook for 6 weeks on.

I was planning a road trip to Slovenia, yes that is next to North Italy. So all the stuff I need is already in house but I wasn't planning a bug out vacation

This whole thing unsettles me, not worried but certain things got me triggered.

I doubled up on vodka. When the time is right, I will sterile from the inside.

Being on a fixed income does present a challenge when it comes to stocking up for a month or two in advance, but Ive always known how to stretch a dollar. When I was a little girl back in the 70's I spent a summer with my aging grandparents. They saved everything! Paper bags, flour sacks, jars and containers. Food scraps to put into the compost pile. Everything was reused and recycled for a different purpose. As I grew older I started the same odd habits and drove my kids crazy with all my silly do it your self projects slippers made from old sweat shirts and re using paper lunch bags but I saved money to purchase more groceries and other things we needed daily. So I basically havent done anything differently when it comes to preparing other than bought some more vegetable seeds for a larger garden and bought more canning lids. Living 17 miles from the closest town does have some benefits.

a reply to: Nickn3

I threw out the Wodka, my liver was hurting. Doesn't yours? If not you can drink more, no harm done

Nowadays I drink smoothies and stuff lol.

Nope, I still go out to enjoy the weather. I still go to common places. I still pick my nose, scratch my ass, and fix my junk.

I've pretty much always washed my hands after using the bathroom. It's just good manners.

If I die, I'm going to die doing something I enjoy.

originally posted by: EnigmaChaser
So for all the freak out on the subject of Coronavirus - are any of you actually doing things differently because of it?

No, in fact I'm trying to ignore everything about it as much as possible. I am getting sick of getting comments from random people every time I cough though. Especially when they can see me smoking and still make corona virus comments when they see me cough...#ing dumb #ing people.

A year before we bought our home there was major flooding that disrupted travel to the area for a month. That was in 1997, so we have always been prepared to shelter in place.
Spring is when I have lots of appointments in the big town; six scheduled for March so far. I will cancel if rumors begin that it's closer than Spokane. Two of my kids are in health care; one in Seattle and one in a larger neighboring town, so I feel confident I can greatly reduce the chances of getting it.
I became an avid quilter upon retirement, and the threat of CoV 19 has made me focus on getting the huge pile of already done tops quilted as quickly as possible. I should be done in about six months.

Added hand sanitizer, gloves, wipes, and other cleaning materials to my regular prep stuff. Keep several months of food and water on hand as is (working our way up to 12 months currently), so not worried there, same with medications. Other than that, regular cold and flu season precautions. I am building a house now and concerned that it will impact materials and build time/cost, while I do have a contract with my builder that the house will be done by October 15th he does not have a clause for this type of thing causing disruption. I'm not going to go after him as I understand the situation the finance people on the other hand are always less understanding.

originally posted by: Alien Abduct
a reply to: EnigmaChaser

I say that as I personally am not worried about this illness at all. Why? 14-41k people died in US tied to the standard old flu in 2019.

The flu infects about 13% of the U.S. population with an R-0 (R zero) value of 1.3. Meaning each person that gets the flu will spread it to 1.3 people on average. So about 36 million people will get the flu. And out of that 36 million people roughly 13k people will die. So we are looking at a mortality rate of about .036%.

Now on to Covid-19. The R-0 value best estimate is about 2.3 which translates into many more people getting Covid-19 than the flu. It is estimated that about 60% of the U.S. will contract Covid-19. This disease also has a much greater mortality rate than the flu which is about 2.3%. These numbers may seem small but let's translate them into the scenario we are likely to be facing in the very near future. 60% of the U.S. population is about 200 million people estimated to contract covid-19 in the U.S. With a 2.3% mortality rate we are looking at an estimated death toll of 4,554,000 people in just the U.S. alone.

That's a far cry from the little 13k of people dying from the flu.

All of my numbers come from authoritative sources listed below.

Flu stats WebMD

Covid-19 stats
University of Minnesota

Centers for Disease Control and prevention (CDC)

Today officials from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) warned that although the agency is taking historic measures to slow the introduction of COVID-19 into the United States, the country should prepare for the possibility of community spread, as seen in China and neighboring Asian countries.

"The day may come when we may need to implement such measures as seen in Asia," Nancy Messonnier, MD, director of the CDC's National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, said in a press conference, referencing the closing of businesses, schools, and churches in multiple countries where transmission is now occurring within the community.

Source

I have been stockpiling canned and dry goods and lots of water. I have also bought a supply of various disinfectants and plastic to cover my windows and doors in case we need to quarantine ourselves in our home.

I can’t argue with the data or the math. And I’ll set aside my distrust of the CDC given their deep political connections.

That said, I feel like there’s a number of factors that may mean this doesn’t scale the same way in every western culture.

For instance, about 15% of the US population smokes vs. 50% of the Chinese population. This could mean more respiratory issues in general and since this bug is has a respiratory twinge to it they could be hit harder.

Another factor is our resources vs. their resources in terms of medical care - both for this virus itself as well as preventative care. I’m not a Chinese medical expert but my understanding is that - broadly - they don’t have as high of quality of health care or preventative care as we do.

Then there’s the general environmental quality - while there’s definitely polluted areas in the US for instance, there’s material air quality issues in China in urban areas - also not good for the respiratory side of this.

My point is that this might not scale the same way everywhere when taking lots of other factors into consideration.

The last thing I’m not hearing a lot about is that the flu season ends in April/May. Once we get back to summer weather I’m curious how well the virus will survive - since other strains of the flu that reached this level of hyperbole have seemed to go away - just like the flu tends to do each year.

Where I’m going with this is it’s fine to prep for the “worst case” scenario but I still just don’t buy it. Maybe the media and the government has cried wolf one too many times for me to freak out.

Lastly, remember the swine flu freak out? The mass freak out wasn’t as bad with that but it was still hyperbolic. Heck, I got the H1N1 strain. It was just the flu - which sucked - and then it went away.... just like any other virus I’ve ever contracted.

originally posted by: Occam78
We are up to about a month supply of food, water, pet food/supplies, paper products, and toiletries. Also picked up vitamin supplements, acetaminophen, sanitizers and masks/gloves. Trying to limit to mostly items that we will use anyway, just getting more at once. Of course being extra cautious about what we touch and hand washing. We are trying to find a middle ground and be as ready as possible if it goes full crisis mode, while avoiding actions that would be irresponsible or reckless in the miraculous event that it all blows over.

I don't get the whole "no reason to panic, more people die from...." line of thought though. That can be totally true, and there's still a problem. It's a straw man argument, distract from the other concerns and focus on one that's easier to minimize. It also assumes, incorrectly, that the only issue is the number dead. The big concern, as far as I'm concerned, is economical. It's not about the number dead, but the number incapacitated whether by long term illness, quarantine, or death. It's about the effect on the workforce.

My husband has been throwing out counterarguments like "what if it's being exaggerated, or there isn't even a virus and it's just an attempt to create panic for some other reason, and how do we know what's fake". I respond the same way every time, there's plenty we can't know and it's not actually that important to as far as our response goes. Any widespread panic/supply chain disruption will have the same outcome. It doesn't matter one iota what the truth behind it is if people are reacting to it on a large scale. It could be a complete fabrication, and if the general public is treating it as the truth the end result will be the same. That is why we are preparing. We can't get bogged down in "what ifs" or "how do we knows". The only important thing is what is happening as a result. What is happening warrants action and planning.

While you raise a good point - that’s all about sentiment. That’s short term. The fundamental impact will win out and that won’t take long to assess.

Beyond that, it appears the elderly (e.g. retired) or those with pre-existing conditions are most at risk. Which is always true - Coronavirus or not. My point here is that since we’re talking economics strictly - killing off the elderly doesn’t really matter since they’re not part of the labor force. Their assets get transferred to someone else who is contributing to the economy - it gets spent or invested either way.

Also since we’re taking economics, don’t forget about capitalism. Businesses won’t want to lose business ongoing. They’ll figure out how to make it work, get product out and stay afloat. I’d argue that those who buy the MSM reaction to this issue and take extreme measures will lose in 3-6 months.

Lastly, I take issue with the straw man argument you mentioned. It’s called scaling and assessing probabilities. This has infected less than 1/10,0000th of a percent of the world population. Continuing to think in terms of worst case scenarios isn’t supported by modern history in the post-war era. This same thing happened with Ebola, H1N1, etc. we were all supposed to be dead! Yet here we are...

We’ll see who is right but I bet in 2-6 months this will be in the rear view. Ironically, this is why most people suck at investing. They sell/panic/etc. over and over again thinking about worst case scenario - which basically never plays out. The reality is almost always somewhere between best case scenario (virus goes away and it’s all good) and worst case scenario (hundreds of millions of deaths).

I guess I just don’t worry enough.

A little bit of stocking up on the things I see are the popular items (so I’m not left short).
Hand washing more often.
When I make an order on Amazon I don’t want it if it comes from China because it might get delayed or could be carrying the virus (I don’t know how long it lingers on surfaces)

originally posted by: Bhadhidar

originally posted by: EnigmaChaser

I say that as I personally am not worried about this illness at all. Why? 14-41k people died in US tied to the standard old flu in 2019.

www.cdc.gov...

I’m not trying to downplay the human toll for those who we lost but seriously - is anyone actually making material changes to their life/plans/schedule/habits because of Coronavirus?

Most snakes are harmless, but some are deadly. Some mushrooms are delicious, a few are agonizingly lethal.

In both cases, until you know which is which, it pays to be cautious around any snake or mushroom.

Likewise, various strains of the flu have been around long enough to be familiar, and yet thousands still die each year from them.

Covid-19 is new, hence the ”Novel” appellation, and so, by definition, we do not fully know what its capabilities are. Most likely it is similar to “flu” strains we’ve dealt with before.

But corn snakes and coral snakes look similar, too.
However, the latter can kill you.

That said, no, I’m not doing anything different at this time.

Depending on circumstances going forward, that may change.

All fair points. While I currently hold the position I’m not worried about this beyond doing what I normally do during cold season (hand washing/hand sanitizers/Lysol things periodically/take EmergenC daily + other vitamins daily/run our indoor air purifiers/etc.) - thats also subject to change.

For me, that change would probably be people who are aged 20-50 and otherwise healthy succumbing to this disease at a rate that exceeds that of the standard flu mortality rate.

Said another way - if otherwise healthy people are starting to die frequently from this than my tune will change. But as it stands - that’s not the case. So I’ll keep doin my thing.

a reply to: EnigmaChaser

We shall see, and while you make a fair point about the elderly being most heavily impacted, that does nothing to mitigate quarantines or lockdowns. They are not just keeping the elderly home from jobs, it's everyone. The economical damage won't come from the deaths of employees but from the set backs and damage done to businesses and investments while everything is stalled up in the name of prevention and minimizing spread.

The people who are screaming that we are all going to die are acting on emotion and irrational fear. But if this thing triggers a recession, and it has every potential to, the impact stands to be long lasting. Less dramatic perhaps, but reality usually is. It could still cause issues. Add to that the fact that if the less rational individuals make a rush on supplies, particularly while production is down and shipping is delayed, that will lead to very real world problems no matter how justified the panic reaction was (or wasn't).

I just feel like all of what you said can be true, but if the media incites enough panic, and enough of the world is locking down or under quarantine, that will affect all of us. I'd rather get myself to point of being a bit less reliant before that happens. Once it does it is too late. I'm just counting my blessings that none of my family relies on life saving medications or the like. There's not much we depend on besides food, water, and shelter. Let's just hope things go better than it's currently looking like they might, for the sake of those in a more vulnerable situation.