How are you guys doing in light of the Corona Virus?

[Profugo Barbatus]

I'm doing well here, up in Canada. I caught wind of this back early February and saw the trajectory of exponential growth, so I started buying more slowly over the following weeks. Now employers here are generally asking people to work remote, schools are shutting down, etc. So I'm hunkering away with what I bought and whats part of my usual emergency stores, and going to chill out, play video games, work on my own game and generally try to avoid becoming a carrier.

Sure, I'll probably be fine (Although the family of viruses Corona belongs to have a history of permanent lung damage in survivors, so not keen in trying that dice roll out) but I'd rather not be the person who starts a chain of infection that kills someones grandparents, y'know.

[Garfunkel]

Will be interesting here in the UK as well. I'll have to learn how to do online teaching for the rest of the semester - luckily Easter break is almost here. University cannot close completely because there are thousands of international students here, many of whom cannot return home and need support and services. No crazy hoarding in my neck of woods though apparently it happens - Sainsbury's CEO emailed all customers to explain the danger of hoarding and how modern logistics chains operate.

Irritatingly, I was supposed to present a paper at the SMH2020 conference at Arlington but first my University put a blanket ban on overseas travel and then Trump banned Europeans from travelling to US so scratch that. Hopefully things will get back to normal by midsummer as I have a research trip planned for July which I might need to postpone. I know it's selfish of me to be annoyed at such things when some people are dying but that's human nature for you.

[Steve Walmsley]

No cases on the Isle of Man so far, although I suspect there must be some undetected ones. The government here has just passed a law that everyone arriving on the island from tomorrow onward has to self-quarantine for 14 days. Not advice, actual legislation.

Other than that relatively normal; gatherings still allowed, schools still open. Some panic-buying going on in the last few days but nothing too crazy. I ran my own computer model at the end of January and stocked up accordingly with food with sell-by-dates in 2021 or later, so we are in good shape in terms of supplies.

Working from home as much as possible. We will probably bring all the family (both children, partners, and grandson) here at some point and shut the doors if necessary. We have enough food to feed them all for a couple of months at least, excluding what they bring with them. I even have a Jerry can that can filter drinking water from lakes and rivers, so we are OK even if there was an issue with water supplies (I bought the Jerry can for the motorhome).

Hope everyone stays safe.

[Erik L]

Illinois is going batsmeg crazy. No bars or restaurants are to have dine in after today. No gatherings of more than 250 people. Schools are closed until April at the earliest. All for 64 cases.

I personally think the media is hyping this beyond any reasonable state.

[Panopticon]

That's sort of the point, you want to be able to look back and say "we overreacted to this" because the alternative is pretty dire.

[Inglonias]

Everything around me is shutting down. My mom did some panic buying on Friday, but failed to get a bunch of important things. I was able to get a few more things yesterday, though.

I live at home with my parents, and my mother has asthma and sleep apnea. These prior respiratory issues means that her getting sick would be a pretty big problem, so we're stuck at home.

When I went to the grocery store yesterday, I noticed these things were not on the shelf:

Bread, eggs, frozen vegetables, soaps of any kind.

[Tree]

That's sort of the point, you want to be able to look back and say "we overreacted to this" because the alternative is pretty dire.

We're definitely still in the "we underreacted" side of things here.
Maybe it'll change, but I doubt it.

[Bremen]

Exponential growth is like that. Is this all an overreaction? Maybe, but by the time we would know it is, it would be too late. The US had a thousand new confirmed cases today. Yesterday it was 700. The day before that, 550. If we wait until hospitals are overflowing to shut things down, then things could get very bad.

As for me, well, no problems here! I tend to be pretty introverted by nature, so now I have a reason for it. I'm more worried about my family, really, but so far no one's feeling sick.

[Steve Walmsley]

My concern isn't primarily the virus, but the potential economic consequences. If schools are closed for example, then parents have to stay home. Those parents will be law enforcement personnel, doctors and nurses, truck drivers, power plant and water treatment workers, etc.. Normally the grandparents would step in to look after children, except they are being told to self-isolate, which takes that option off the table.

As transport and hospitality companies shut down due to a lack of business, their workers become unemployed. Now the total spending power of the population falls, so other companies not directly affected see falling sales and they too let workers go. If we are not careful, that turns into a cascade effect. High unemployment can lead to social unrest, etc. and to more extreme forms of government in the longer term.

There are a lot of dominoes that could fall if the virus causes these type of knock-on effects. That is another reason we are stocked up, rather than simply ensuring we can isolate from the virus.

[MasonMac (OP)]

Yeah. In New York at least, I imagine that restaurant workers and Taxi/Ride-sharing drivers are going to get hit the worst. They're usually living paycheck-to-paycheck and are unfortunately likely to get sick.

[Hazard]

The Netherlands are basically locked down until 6th of April as a result of the virus.

Labour hours are spread as much as possible and working from home is encouraged as much as possible. All schools are closed, education services are to be provided through the internet. Sporting clubs and events, gyms, musea and concert halls are closed and/or cancelled. Restaurants, cafes and coffeeshops are closed, although take out and delivery services are still available. Any gathering of 100 people or more forbidden. Personnel in critical infrastructure jobs (power, telecom, water, gas, public transport, law enforcement, health care, fire department and the like) are still expected to perform their duties, arrangements have been made to ensure their children are looked after in their schools.

If you are ill, stay at home. If you have flu or cold like symptoms, stay at home.

Luckily, Dutch labour law is pretty clear about when you may be fired from a job as a result of an illness. It's basically a big fat no unless it has rendered you unable to work that job for several years.

[vorpal+5]

I hope you all have read enough articles on how the Coronavirus spreads by now. For example, that the identified cases is the tip of the iceberg, given the silent incubation period (part of it anyway) and low intensity symptoms in at least half carriers. Estimate is that for one identified case, there can be from 10x to 100x contaminated people.

That's why most governments react with are one step behind, sometime two, mostly to not frighten their own population and disturb too much the daily life.

Steve, you should not wait before getting back at your home the persons you spoke about, the more time passes, the more probable there will be one which has the virus without symptoms yet.

France is now, at last, in full lockdown, but it has been done too late, with the same lateness as Italy. We currently have 6650 known cases, meaning we can have from 60k to 600k asymptomatic carriers. As soon as we have more than 10.000 people in respiratory distress (that's our national capacity, give or take 2k), our death rate will jump to what Italy experiments, so from 0.5% to 5%.

[amram]

When Hubei had 400 cases erupt in one day and went into lockdown, 6 days later they knew via asking each patient when they first felt ill, how many were newly symptomatic on that day. Nearly 2500 new cases that day, not 400. 

South Korea, Patient 31, ONE person can change the outcome for the worse, equally, that same person could mitigate or even eliminate spread beyond them.  In this instance, Patient 31 exposed some 1200 persons, and in doing so, South Korea lost their grip on the situation.

https://miro.medium.com/max/3584/1*r-ddYhoUtP_se6x-NOEinA.png

from here: https://medium.com/@tomaspueyo/coronavirus-act-today-or-people-will-die-f4d3d9cd99ca

The timeline of events in Hubei.  The orange bars are the reported cases, those are what everyone saw happening at the time.  The grey bars are what was really happening.  Its worth noting you are contagious before you feel anything amiss, before those cases became ill, they were active carriers infecting others.

Also, while lockdown essentially ended spread, seeing only a slightly greater case number for one more day after and then it receded(excepting whatever happened on feb 12...), that was not reflected in that hospitals and official records saw.  They saw it keep escalating out of control for 11 more days before finding the back side of the curve.

We are all going to see a similar pattern before this ends.

[MJOne]

Between 250 000 - 500 000 die of the regular flu every year.
I’m pretty far away from the panic button.

[GodEmperor]

Well im working in a hospital so i go to work as usual.
And waiting for the C# and keeping my fingers crossed it wont be delayed/cancelled.