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Coronavirus global pandemic

MoodyBlues

MoodyBlues

Compassion is cool!
VIP Member
The novel coronavirus burst onto the scene just weeks ago, but it has already taken its toll on many people and even entire countries--Italy is on lockdown.

I just read that the NBA has suspended this season, indefinitely. Many major events have been canceled/postponed, including Coachella, and universities including UCLA and USC have switched to online classes.

The SARS virus and swine flu scares pale in comparison to this.

How, if at all, is it affecting you? What are you doing differently? Are there confirmed cases near you? Today, Pasadena [my next door neighbor] announced its first confirmed case, as did Tom Hanks and his wife Rita Wilson.

Thoughts?
 
mikedt said:
I came back to Jinan, China, as my school will be opening again soon.
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Honestly, I'm surprised--and I mean that in several ways. But you're there, I'm not! So if you feel confident that you're safe, I'm sure you are.

As for me, I called my dentist today and canceled my next appointment, until further notice. I don't leave the house, and severely limit who visits. As I told my dentist's office, I can't afford the risk of being exposed to this virus, as it will kill me.
 
MoodyBlues said:
The novel coronavirus burst onto the scene just weeks ago, but it has already taken its toll on many people and even entire countries--Italy is on lockdown.

I just read that the NBA has suspended this season, indefinitely. Many major events have been canceled/postponed, including Coachella, and universities including UCLA and USC have switched to online classes.

The SARS virus and swine flu scares pale in comparison to this.

How, if at all, is it affecting you? What are you doing differently? Are there confirmed cases near you? Today, Pasadena [my next door neighbor] announced its first confirmed case, as did Tom Hanks and his wife Rita Wilson.

Thoughts?
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its been on the radar screen since jan. just not in the US. we totally dropped the ball with testing. we had a chance to get tests to the US by the WHO in january, but we turned them down for some unknown, idiotic reason.

https://www.politico.com/news/2020/03/06/coronavirus-testing-failure-123166

edit: if we tested just two weeks earlier, i think the US would have been in much better control of this thing.
 
just read this article:
https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2020-03-11/coronavirus-contagion-outbreak-movie-comparison

its about the movie Contagion. i am currently watching the movie as i type this post. i know this is a hollywood movie, but there are some scary similarities so far.......i am thanking God that COVID-19 is not as deadly as the fictional virus in the movie.

here is another article on Contagion and COVID-19:
https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2020-03-11/coronavirus-contagion-outbreak-accuracy-movie
 
Me and my wife are staying home more often, not going out to dinner as much, not shopping at the malls and avoiding crowds.
On the other hand, my company is bombarded with orders from every hospital and clinic since this pandemic started. So I'm constantly inside these places which scares the hell out of me.
I'm using my gloves and face mask, hand sanitizer, and washing my hands as much as possible.
It all seems like a bad dream....
 
i am a service technician that maintains fish aquariums in people's homes and businesses. i have several accounts that are in nursing homes. yesterday i had to get scanned for my temperature before one of the nursing homes would let me in. and just now, one of my accounts that is in a posh Beverly Hills residence just suspended my services and wanted to know on how to take care of their fish tank. this thing has finally affected me personally and it is pretty scary.

i also just found out the Tom Hanks and his wife tested positive for COVID-19.:maskeddroid::maskeddroid::maskeddroid:
 
The most obvious impact on me is that CERN is adopting a precautionary approach (being a place where normally people from more than 100 countries will be passing through daily): last week all meetings were switched to video-only until (at present) the end of April, and as of next week access to the site will be restricted to a short list of people with particular technical expertise and everyone else advised to telework. And of course public visits are cancelled (on a typical day there will be a several school parties visiting the lab). I've cancelled a couple of trips, and am holding off booking travel for a couple more.

Otherwise my main concern is my mother, who would be extremely vulnerable. At present recorded infections in the regions where both she and I live are low, but it's safe to assume that won't remain true.

Oh, and I'm being asked to assess the impact on my research teams if my home institution closes the doors and asks everyone to telework in the near future (planning for impact on teaching has been going on for a couple of weeks).

But you know, I'd rather have precautionary measures like that than politically-motivated stunts that do nothing to address the real problem, just try to push the narrative of it being a "foreign" problem and pick scapegoats.
 
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Well the Biogen conference seemed to be the start of the East Coast US contagion. So as a Boston, MA citizen it's affected me.
Way more room on the T lately. Even the dreaded highschool student rush on buses at Forest Hills in the morning has thinned out.
 
(Note: This originated in Current Affairs, but was moved due to the seriousness of the subject to a more trafficked forum)

I had a genuine question and concern about how this virus pandemic is affecting people. I care. I see this as a place to discuss and encourage one another. Negative posts will be deleted. I can do that. I'm the "incompetent moderator". :)

I'll start.

My son: He has a seasonal job as a emcee for a dance competition company. It pays well, but he's bummed because they cancelled his gig for this coming weekend. It was supposed to be held in Queens, NY. (a borough of NYC). The venue cancelled due to coronavirus concerns.

Me: I cancelled going into NYC this Saturday to teach (singing) (I teach singing, @NightAngel79. I don't know if you knew that.)

I'll be teaching my NYC people via Skype/Facetime. I'm older with asthma. I am a prime target for complications.

Students are cancelling coming into my NJ studio, if they have any kind of illness and FaceTiming. To be fair, I put out a mass mailing telling them I'd send them home and they'd lose their lesson if they came in sick. To be fair, that has been my policy before all this. I don't need to risk becoming ill when they can just do video lessons.

Stocks: I lost pretty much all my gains in the stock market. I haven't lost principle, yet. I am staying put because I won't be needing money for the foreseeable future. I'll keep it in. Now is the worst time to pull out. After all, I still own the shares and they'll rise in value again.

If or When this all becomes a situation that the population is quarantined, I can still teach from home.

Oh, one more thing. I had someone come into my studio, today, who was ill with a sore throat. I sent her home! I don't teach sick people!

Emotionally, the country is very, very anxious. You can feel it. Everyone is scared and believe you me, I'm washing my hands. What is your experience?
 
I think this topic transcends politics, hell, even current affairs. This is officially a pandemic, schools in my 2 states are closed for a month, stuff is shutting down. Stay safe everyone, don't hoard, wash your hands, stay away from people for a spell.
 
I work in local government, so, front lines. I'm dealing with community outreach, continuity of service, preparedness, mitigation, communication, and double checking my go bag. Oh, and my regular job in the community that is completely unrelated to public safety.

Today was filled with officials from health, police, fire/ems, leadership, finance, education, community outreach (e.g. seniors, youth), HR, you name it. Anything and anyone that can help the community contain, mitigate, and /or help in any other way get through this while keeping our services as normal as possible. This will be my primary focus for the next several weeks, on top of my regular job. :mad: :(
 
Unforgiven said:
I work in local government, so, front lines. I'm dealing with community outreach, continuity of service, preparedness, mitigation, communication, and double checking my go bag. Oh, and my regular job in the community that is completely unrelated to public safety.

Today was filled with officials from health, police, fire/ems, leadership, finance, education, community outreach (e.g. seniors, youth), HR, you name it. Anything and anyone that can help the community contain, mitigate, and /or help in any other way get through this while keeping our services as normal as possible. This will be my primary focus for the next several weeks, on top of my regular job. :mad: :(
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God bless you and strengthen in your work, @Unforgiven .. Your proverbial plate is full.
 
So far I have not been effected by the virus. I live within a small circle. I had to make a Best Buy and Costco run yesterday and have an optical appointment next Monday. I'm not one to hang out in crowds so I'm not directly impacted yet.

The cancellation of all the sports going on has me somewhat bummed out. I well understand the drastic measures that are being taken but I will miss my sports. It's an exciting time of year with the NCAA tourney starting as well as Major League Baseball. I'm not an avid follower of the NBA, soccer, nascar, golf. etc but they are all suspending competition to limit crowd gatherings. I don't know how they will reschedule or fix the mess and all of the money flow attached to professional sports. Small change compared to the health of the Nation but man what a mess.

I am looking for large manufacturers to close their doors next. A number of huge aircraft plants will be impacted in my area if so. I don't know how that will effect the local economy but it will have to be adverse. Not to mention the personal suffering of the employees.
 
I should be at CERN this week, but I'm not because the lab has taken a precautionary approach and is switching to teleworking apart from a limited number of technical experts (luckily the LHC is not operating this year, but it will have some impact on setting up for the run next year). My university is making plans for a switch to teleworking and distance learning, and estimating the impacts on different areas of activity, but nothing has been enacted yet. It will come though.

My mother would be extremely vulnerable, so she's my main concern.
 
Steven58 said:
God bless you and strengthen in your work, @Unforgiven .. Your proverbial plate is full.
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I'm only on the outskirts of the real heavy lifting. Your local boards of health, fire and ems, police, and CERT teams are and will be the real heroes.

I won't get political, but I'll say this. Federal, state, and local governments are mobilized, information is flowing, and precautions are taking place. The "more should be done" crowd (news) is doing a disservice to get clicks and ratings and unnecessarily raising angst. This is serious, but is being taken seriously by all levels of government.
 
Last week I was following the news and was concerned like everyone. This week I'm more concerned. There are 2 confirmed cases in my county, both relatively close to me. One is in the school district my niece (and nephews) are in. That person has an immediate family member with 'ties' to my nieces school. My niece was in the school play over the weekend so I went. I'm a big germaphobe from way back so that went well for me (pre-news). I spent 2 hours holding my breath! Now my sister, a single parent, is just waiting and wondering about when the school will close.
I work from home (until the end of the month as they eliminated my position) so that's good all expect the looking for a new job part. I'll hopefully be going for interviews in the big outside infected world. Ugh because everything sucks - what a difference a week makes.

Edit: and to top it all off, there's no hockey or baseball o_O
 
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