Paul has a mild cold (just a cold: no dry cough, no fever, just a little congestion and sneezing) and NOW he is panicking about the Covid-19 situation. He’s been observing my calm and reasonable efforts with fond indulgent condescension, but he gets the tiniest little bit sick himself and suddenly it’s “DO WE HAVE ENOUGH DAYQUIL BECAUSE I NEED TO TAKE IT EVERY FOUR HOURS TO TREAT MY NOTHING SYMPTOMS WHILE I PLAY VIDEO GAMES” and “SHOULD WE (BY WHICH I MEAN YOU) HOMESCHOOL THE CHILDREN??” This evening, before going to bed TWO HOURS EARLY, he said to me, “Don’t read Twitter and get all panicky, because you might need to talk ME down from panicking.” In the immortal word of my sarcastic 9th-grade daughter: “Okay.”
Meanwhile, Rob’s college and William’s college both notified us that they are making all classes remote/online. Neither college is technically closing campus, which I am taking to mean a stance somewhere in between “We really don’t want to screw over kids who can’t go home mid-semester like this” and “We really don’t want to give refunds for room/board.” Okay by me. I am heading out to collect my young and tuck them back into the nest for the time being.
Also meanwhile, people on my in-person Facebook feed are mocking people who are trying to get enough supplies together to sustain themselves in a situation where they’re sick and it would be irresponsible of them to go out for supplies. This is not a good look; I suggest not rocking it.
I’ve been waiting for your follow up because things in my neck of the woods have been moving fast. I am still in the wait-and-see category and am really hoping this is similar to when the t.v. weather people get so excited about the newest snownado ☃️ that never quite materializes. Please know I love your perspective and it is definitely needed so please keep sharing!
Yes. Our school district (in SoCal) just cancelled any non-essential gathering, so sports, performances, open house, etc. are all off. For my kiddos (ages 13 and 16), that means no show choir competitions and no show choir trip to NYC for my oldest next week. We are trying to balance the “this is serious and the whole world is affected” with “this sucks and you are allowed to be sad.” I am quite certain that our schools will close in the next seven days. Our spring break starts March 23rd, so adding on to that makes sense.
I am very glad I don’t have a senior this year. Most college tours and admitted student days cancelled, many milestone things (like prom, last game/concert, etc.) may be cancelled as well. May we live in interesting times, indeed!
Yes, be very glad about not having a senior…
I have one, and he’s undecided about college. He has it narrowed down to 3 schools, which we are scheduled to re-visit (two for accepted student days, and one to shadow a student in his major). We have not YET been notified about cancellations (and the school at which he plans to shadow hasn’t cancelled face-to-face instruction yet) but I know it’s probably just a matter of time.
I talked to him yesterday about the possibility that he might have to decide without ever stepping foot back on these campuses.
Our college also moved to online classes and they are asking students not to return to the dorms if at all possible.
We are scheduled to go to Africa May 22.
I’ve been remaining calm, but am starting to lose it as none of the “flexible fare options” offered by every airline apply to us – ex: we scheduled PRIOR to March 1st. We are traveling AFTER April 30.
We buy trip insurance but never elect CFAR and now it’s too late.
Change fee is $1200. Tickets cost $1900.
But then what’s $1900 when it comes to health? *wrings hands*
We are also out of Day/NyQuil and hand sanitizer and I’ve lost hope that any of the hoarders will leave one on a shelf for me. Ugh.
We made my parents cancel some airline tickets recently. They too were outside the change windows, but then as things have been progressing their airline extended the window and they were able to reschedule with no fees.
I wonder if you could call the airline and see if an agent could waive the fees for you? Or if not, I would probably wait a few weeks to see how the policies change. That change fee isn’t going up, so you have time to wait and see, right?
I think that here in France we’re underreacting. I work for the government and we’re still having big conferences and reunions. School is still going. People are saying that we’re waiting until the local elections this Sunday to do something. We will see what the president says on tv tonight.
Is anyone else drawing comfort from Tom Hanks’ (calm/reasonable) posts about being coronavirus positive in Australia?
Yes! I got a frantic text from my sister last night (after we had exchanged encouraging don’t panic messages earlier in the day) saying,”Now Tom Hanks has the virus!!!!” I went to his twitter all worried to check it out and immediately felt better. Still scary, but his calm logical approach is wonderful.
Serious question — What do we think about the safety of Amazon packages at this point? I placed an order yesterday morning to finish out the last of my supplies, and it’s supposed to arrive tomorrow. Now all I can think about is how many unknown people have touched it before it lands on my front porch. :( Sooooo yeah. Maybe starting to panic a tiny bit.
I would say this is where I have to stop thinking about it because otherwise I will end up scrubbing boxes of pasta in the sink. Everything we buy from any store has been touched by a lot of unknown people in warehouses and in the store, as well as probably walked on by rodents, and we are just going to stay calm about that. WE ARE GOING TO STAY CALM.
I had this exact self talk yesterday when things really started to speed up. I can’t wash the papers my coughing coworker just handed me. I cannot bleach down everything I buy. I must not allow myself to go down the rabbit hole of total terror while also being reasonable about the seriousness of the situation. I’m doing a delicate dance with anxiety these days.
If you need to do something to stay calm spray some Lysol on it or stick the box in the sun. Don’t most viruses hate direct sunlight and temps over 27C?
This podcast with a Johns Hopkins infectious disease scientist is really helpful with info on how you are most likely to catch it. Products in the mail are not a concern, being around coughing and sneezing people is the biggest concern. The more social distancing we can do now the better the future will be. It’s an hour but worth listening to. It helped calm me a lot.
https://samharris.org/podcasts/191-early-thoughts-pandemic/
Some moderately happy news: contact precautions (C. difficile type bugs) are different from droplet precautions (coronavirus). This is partly because some pathogens are better able to survive on objects than others. Of all the germs, viruses are most likely to die on a door handle, for instance, because they’re sort of small and not designed to live without a host. So packages that have been touched by other people, then left for a couple of hours in the sunshine, are not great coronavirus incubators, whereas standing near a coughing person puts you near droplets of live virus. Or shaking hands with an infected person puts you in contact with a live virus.
That is very good to know!
I think I’m more worried that people will start stealing my packages off my porch, to be honest. We live on a cul-de-sac street and up to now, have been fortunate that porch pirates don’t seem to want to take the extra effort to find our house. But now, if they wondered if my last package had 3 pounds of couscous in it or the last roll of recycled TP in the state?
I’m pushing 70, have an autoimmune disease, and live a hermit (and blessedly rural) lifestyle. I have used the order online/pickup grocery service all winter to avoid as many germs as possible. Panic doesn’t appeal to me.
We found out yesterday my college student will be home an extra three weeks (he was just a few days from returning to campus from spring break). The middle schooler is still in school, but I don’t know how much longer that will last. Wife may be working from home soon. Her office is still deciding how to proceed.
I work from home, but may be a lot more crowded working space soon.
I doubt my college will return from spring break in a week from now. My kids are still in school, but lots of extracurricular activities are being cancelled, and we too are trying to balance that “This is for everyone’s safety” and “It sucks and you’re allowed to be sad” thing. When the NBA season was cancelled, my son was very sad indeed.
I had a frustrating conversation with a colleague yesterday who was all “Awww,I hate how people are panicking” and “Social distancing makes me sad” and “I just think these measures are kind of too much, you know?” We are trying to flatten the curve for vulnerable people. Talk to the nursing home in Seattle about how social distancing makes you sad.
I am trying to urge a little . . . well, not “panic,” exactly, but “unpredictable difficult-situation preparedness” in my college student, who does not think he needs to pack up his stuff just in case he is not allowed to return after spring break, even though his college has switched to all-virtual education for the foreseeable future.
Dude. Buy some bins at Target and put your stuff in them. Put your name on the bins. If it turns out to be unnecessary, you can mock me mercilessly for decades.
I’m trying not to panic and also trying not to smack people who post more than once per day on facebook about the virus, thus fueling panic! I did block one cousin who posted a hostile article claiming that people who are relieved to not be in the highly at risk group (or in my case, who are relieved that toddlers and babies aren’t in the highly at risk group) are selfish, ageist, ableist monsters. Seriously??? I can be relieved and also worried/sad about my elderly friends and family too!
Like you I’m taking calm reasonable measures. Every time I go to the store I get an extra of any non-perishable item I’d be buying anyway; extra peanut butter, salmon cans, mac-n-cheese, frozen corn dogs. Stuff my 4 kids under 8 will eat that won’t go bad anytime soon.
I’m also glad that the city is taking measures like calling off SxSW this year (Austin) but the idea of schools and stuff closing makes me anxious. I really don’t want to be stuck at home with kids for a month!
Is your daughter’s “okay” the three-syllable “oh-kay-uh”? or the slow-so-it’s-a-snotty-question “OK”?
A friend and I were discussing which is more infuriating.
Obvs it would not be snotty or infuriating directed at one’s spouse, who started the whole thing anyway.
She varies it, depending on circumstance. She has one that’s like the verbal version of that gif of that actress, Jennifer somebody, saying okay with kind of a FACE and a hand gesture: brisk but deadly.
I’m in CA near SF and our school district cancelled all non-classroom-related activities. The scholastic book fair I run that should’ve delivered today was postponed (so we can cancel it in May; I do not see this being better in May).
We’re now seeing cases pop up within our city so it is feeling very irresponsible to me that we haven’t closed the schools (I have elementary and preschool aged children) because they are the plague rats who will transmit to everyone else who is susceptible. I was asking friends last night if the food insecurity for children was a US issue since I have only seen that brought up here as reasons for being cautious about closing the schools.
I read this medium article last night: https://medium.com/@tomaspueyo/coronavirus-act-today-or-people-will-die-f4d3d9cd99ca
and was horrified once the data the charts and graphs were showing sank in. The fact that we really have no idea how widespread this is already because we can’t/won’t test is awful. We’re playing roulette with vulnerable people because somehow if we don’t test then people aren’t infected.
It doesn’t help that my preschooler basically has coughs and sniffles all winter long. We’re just avoiding our parents/grandparents and I’m trying to avoid taking the kids anywhere other than school as much as possible. My husband is WFH until at least mid-April so that helps with avoiding public places with the kids.
I currently feel like I simultaneously have too much candy and not enough candy in the house to handle this situation.
Yes! Not enough candy. I want to eat everything. Apparently this is how I deal with uncontrollable situations. I am near you (East Bay). School is still in session for us.
I’m with you there on the elevating concern.
Yesterday I stocked up on fresh veggies, bread, cheese, salsa, and a few easy-to-prepare freezer items at Costco, and bought a big bag of dog food from the pet supply store. I’ll probably get some meat for the freezer and mac n’ cheese and other pasta at the grocery store tonight. I think it’s time to renew prescriptions for a couple of things anyway so I’m going to try to get those filled tonight, and maybe check the shelves for Advil since we go through a ton normally as a family of migraine sufferers.
I don’t buy water and don’t plan to start for this because there’s no reason to think that our taps will suddenly stop working; it’s not like there’s going to be power/water/etc. down like there might be with a weather event. Yet half the carts at Costco were full of flats of water.
My husband asked me this morning if we should cancel our Easter trip to Florida, but we haven’t really had time to discuss it yet. If the Wizarding World of Harry Potter isn’t open (how long before theme parks close?) and we can change our tickets or get airline credit though I think we likely will postpone.
Update: so yesterday it was announced all schools will be closing in my province for at least the next 3 weeks. I went to do my usual Thursday night grocery shopping and there was an hour wait to check out, but I couldn’t just abandon my cart because we were totally out of things like milk and dish soap. My father in-law just cancelled his trip to Florida in April. We’re going to likely cancel our trip because the parks announced after my comment yesterday that they’re closing. Parliament has been suspended today for at least 5 weeks.
Trying not to panic because we’ve had very few identified cases in my actual city, but the world is going a bit nuts.
The ones on my FB who are starting to offend me are the ones who essentially say, “Dumb people are buying stuff, this is all overblown. And besides, what’s the big deal, you can get everything delivered if you need to.”
Because, you know, the people who work at the grocery store, restaurants, and places that deliver wouldn’t get sick, wouldn’t have relatives who might get sick, etc. And certainly won’t come into contact with someone who’s gotten sick, requiring a domino effect of social isolation and quarantines. And because it isn’t unspeakably selfish to assume that people who are not being paid a lot and most likely have poor healthcare coverage are just there to serve your superior I-don’t-have-to-plan approach to a major public health situation.
I am seriously about 24 hours away from unfriending people over this.
Things are getting real here right now. All of the state universities in Iowa are closed for 2 weeks after spring break (spring break is next week). I’m sure all sports events will be finished.
As for me, I’m hosting a baby shower for 15 on Saturday. It seems WEIRD to do that. So I have been buying stuff for the shower and not stocking up on things. If the shower happens, on Sunday I’ll be right there with everyone buying a few extras of things. I’ve also become a bit paranoid about my health. My back hurts and I’m a little sniffly. Not a big deal and I wouldn’t think about it for a second except I’ve got 15 people coming to my house on Saturday. And if this turns into a regular cold, I’m going to look like I have the carona virus ;) And the stupid part of my brain wonders—what if I have it? Never mind that I’ve left my house like 4 times since last weekend!
I do think things would be calmer if we had leadership that made a person feel like they knew what they were doing. I’m sure that there are tens of thousands if not hundred of thousands that would test positive if we were testing like we should. And I wish people would realize that staying away from big groups is helpful.
I live in Alaska, where you might hear this on the news “there will be a possible of 2 feet of snow overnight”, and no one blinks an eye. I’ve been here since 1991-and there has never been a run on the grocery stores that I have seen, weather related. Cue this virus, and by the way-NO CASES have been reported here, yet the stores were being mobbed! My husband went on his usual Costco run yesterday, the cashier told him they got a shipment of TP that morning, it was already gone. I did go to my local grocery store at about 9:00 this morning, they did have TP and paper towels, and I bought one of each. I really don’t feel we should be hoarding things, because that does disrupt the supply chain. I think because we get so many of our goods shipped, if that doesn’t happen because of shut downs-I guess we will be in a world of hurt. We have less than a million people here, and are so far from the lower 48-not hard to imagine we will be last on the list for any kind of help if things do hit the fan. I do feel people should be responsible and think of how to cope with an emergency, but the hoarding reminds me of what I’ve read after the attack on Pearl Harbor when the US joined the war. I don’t want to be that person!
Personally, I wish I hadn’t read the series Life As We Knew It by Susan Beth Pfeffer. It was amazing, but it has stuck with me and I swear breeds anxiety. In the first book, an asteroid hits the moon and knocks it out of alignment, and at first no one thinks it is a big deal. Well it is-and the way the family responds the to break down of the infrastructure has stuck with me since I read it 12 years ago!!
Everyone should have an emergency kit-and don’t forget the pets! If you are quarantined, you need to have what? At least 2 weeks of pet food on hand. I wouldn’t count on delivery, who knows what might happen with that service.
Oh my god I read that book two weeks ago and it was stressing me out non-stop! But as a bonus, it did make me want to buy many cans of beans, so I ended up stocking up on food before it became a Thing and the stores were all mobbed. (The stress did not stop me from reading two of the three sequels, which were very not good. Do not recommend)
Oh one more thing I want to mention-in this kind of situation I do think of the WWll poster Keep Calm and Carry On. I KNOW that saying has been over exposed and lampooned-yet it is based in a very real situation. Imagine trying to live your life, raise a family, go to your job-with bombs falling every night. Maybe with your loved one serving in the military. The people of Britain during that time kept things afloat under what were almost impossible odds, surely we can the same!
For sure Keep Calm and Carry On, but believe in science and listen to experts and don’t dismiss this as nothing.
For me, it seems like maybe we should all stay away from big groups for a while. Telework if you can. Don’t go to kids’ sporting events or recitals or any of that. Do go to the store when you need to. If you were planning on fun activities for spring break (i.e. visiting museums or other things), maybe don’t do that this year.
I think so many people think it has to be all or nothing and a lot of people are settling on nothing. That’s not the right move.
Absolutely jenny-SCIENCE!! I certainly don’t dismiss this as nothing-and I hope I didn’t sound like I was doing that. Like I said, I am in a state where the virus hasn’t shown up yet, but we are on spring break, and most of our travel comes through Seattle. I fully expect to see cases in the next month.
Neither I nor my husband have a job where we can telework. We have hands on jobs, I work as a substitute teacher, and I know the chances of my being exposed to the virus are pretty good. But what do I do? I’m already filling in for someone who can’t make it to work. So, I hope you see I do take this seriously, but what I was trying to say (and maybe not well) I don’t think panic and hoarding is the answer.
Maureen: Agree!
Completely agree with you. And I didn’t think you were dismissing it, but there are just so many people that are ;)
I’m hopeful that we’ve finally figured out that we need to change habits and maybe we start to slow this thing down.
I wouldn’t take cancellations etc as a bad sign at all, I think they are a hopeful sign. The only way to contain an epidemic for which there is no treatment is to bring the basic reproductive ratio down below 1 – so on average, each infected person infects fewer than one other person. Social distancing is EXACTLY the best method for doing this, and the fact that measures are being enacted now and not at some theoretical point in the future when hospitals are overrun is actually an extremely positive and hopeful sign. Short of a vaccine, this is the best way to stop something infectious from spreading. (And this is just one reason math is awesome. It can be very reassuring!) So, overall, I think all of this is GOOD news.
This is very reassuring. Thank you Veronica!
It *is* good news, and not least because people like my 80-year old mother, bless her heart, otherwise struggles with things like stopping her practice of regularly swimming laps at the public pool (not to mention her volunteer activities at an assortment of places interacting with lots of people but thank goodness she has at least managed to decide that is not a good idea for now). And, yes, now the pool is closed. Thank you, town decision makers!
I’m in Seattle, and we are….. struggling. They announced school would be closed for 2 weeks with a half of a day’s notice. Then, the next day they said at least 6 weeks. We live in a lovely neighborhood of small houses with lots of things to do nearby… that are all closed. The pool, the library, the science center, the zoo, the aquarium, the space needle – all of it is closed. The stores are still open and doing a booming business. So we are at home with 2 school age children and I’m already struggling with how to keep them busy in our small house/tiny yard with no materials and no where to go. They are mostly entertaining themselves by bickering. I’m a nurse at the hospital – so I have to keep working, and my husband’s job involves e-learning, so his work is ramping up rather than down. For the next week he will be able to work at home, if the kids stop bickering long enough to let him. Childcare is a bit of a question mark after that.
I’m fully supportive of all the social distancing measures – it is absolutely the right thing to do, but its still a struggle. My kids are requiring extra patience when their parents are extra stressed. And don’t even let me start on how worried I am for all the people who have it much, much worse – the elders who have very real fear of the virus and have to isolate, the gig economy workers whose incomes rely on people going out and spending money, all the single parents, all the restaurant workers, all of the arts and culture organizations that run on a thin margin to begin with and now are having to cancel entire productions. Send your good thoughts our way, please.
My daughter’s school has closed for an “extended” spring break but I told her to pack everything as if she isn’t coming back. She’s a senior and it is devastating as her final season of her sport is cancelled and maybe her graduation as well. My son’s school’s dorms are open but classes are online. He’s been home for spring break but won’t take the outbreak seriously. He’s hanging with friends, partying, etc. We live in the Boston area and have a legit outbreak. I told him he’s got to go back to college since he cannot or will not follow my rules for keeping COVID-19 out of our home. He’s flying back tomorrow but I figure that I will have to drive (28 hr each way) to get him in a couple weeks. With sleeping bags so we can camp all the way back…
This is gonna be a long term sh!tshow. When I first heard about the virus (Dec. 29) I wasn’t too worried. We were overseas and so I watched the BBC to keep up to date. But I’m a virologist and as soon as I heard that there were asymptomatic carriers, I knew we were doomed… We are talking long-term, self-quarantining (is that a word?) as the only way to end this . The virus can only survive as long as it finds another host so if infected people stay in their homes (and Lord keep them from getting it too bad!) and the rest of us hunker down for a month or so we’ll be okay.
The long term effects of this on our economy, on the world, are hard to fathom at this point. Do Not Look at your 401K btw!
One additional thought — I am among those relatively “well” situated for this in terms of household, location, age of kid, provisions, etc. I will of course do what I can to help others, though as my octogenarian mom (who to date is the least good among my household members at embracing the whole “social distancing” message, for the record) lives with us and my DH is in his 60s and a former smoker, I am inclined to take social distancing pretty seriously) . But in thinking about how to keep us sane-ish I’m thinking now might be a good time to try some recipes of the sort that I usually have no time/interest/patience for because they are time- and/or labor-intensive (I am usually one of those people who sees, “Have supper ready in 30 minutes!” and thinks, “Ha! Who has 30 minutes to spend preparing supper?!”). Anyone want to post any recommendations (or links to same)?
Here’s an idea I came up with for my daughter and her family. She and my son-in-law are now working from home and the kids (10 and 13) will be out of school for at least a month. I thought it might be interesting to have a family project of keeping an ongoing journal during this time. This is history in the making and it will be interesting for their future generations to look at later. Included could be official documents, actions the family took, feelings, pictures, drawings, etc. Maybe like a family junk journal where everyone contributes and anything goes.