DH said toilet paper sold out at Costco near us, but not at Target. My office has bottles of Purell now placed around the office. I think this is smart. There is no practical way to wash your hand every time you touch a cabinet, the copier, the doors to offices (you’d spend half your day in the bathroom if you did that)
A trash can was placed by bathroom door (at my request…this was stupid that they’d taken ones out that used to be there.
I am making an effort not to touch my eyes, nose or mouth and if i do so to use a tissue (then immediately throw away)
I’ve never been much of a hand sanitizer user. I probably have a few travel size bottles somewhere, I suppose it is worth pulling them out and putting them in my bag.
My main issue is I am realizing now much I touch my face. I’m in big time allergy season and my eyes itch. I find myself wanting to rub them multiple times a day. Due to thin skin I don’t like to use Flonase but I’ve started using it again this week.
I couldn’t bring myself to stock up at Costco. If we needed we could eat for several weeks on what we have in the house. I keep a decent stock of pasta and can goods in case of earthquake.
I go to the gym 5 days a week. I wash my hands and also use the paper towel to open the doors. I bring my own yoga mat. I have been getting my cardio outside this winter as I try to avoid the cardio room during flu season. I don’t wipe down the weights in my strength class but probably should.
@mom60 That explains my itchy eyes and sneezes! Hay fever is early this year in my area and the flowers have been blooming. I just took an allergy pill and will start carrying around tissues. I rub my eyes instinctively.
Bay Area, CA here, and we have confirmed cases in our county.
So this is what I am observing:
The grocery store shelves emptied out over the weekend. Things like pasta, canned soups, bottled water, bleach were totally sold out. There were no more wipes for carts.
Masks are sold out everywhere, even the non-effective surgical masks.
Seeing some people wearing masks out in public, but only a few. At the pharmacy there were many people wearing masks, especially elderly people, but that is typical during cold and flu season.
Receiving emails from schools about their preparedness plans and how they are staying informed via the CDC, WHO and local health agencies. They included the CDC advice (hand washing, stay home if you feel sick, no hand shaking, etc).
Attended an outdoor exhibit over the weekend which was well attended. Lots of hand shaking still going on though.
Restaurants are less busy, but that is probably due to the time of year (spring break, ski weekends).
Someone on a local blog posted that the movie theaters are empty.
Every day the local news reports on a few more cases. Over the past week it went from one person, then three, and today it is up to seven local cases.
one school sent home two students because their father had been in contact with someone with the virus. No further reports on any of them having the virus though.
The situation is evolving. Over a week ago people were unconcerned and laughed off talk of pandemic preparations, but things are sobering up quickly with reports of more and more local cases.
We are stocked up on essentials for an enforced quarantine - coffee, tea and ice-cream ? oh, and a big bag of Basmati rice that we bought on an impulse in December from our big box store.
On a more serious note we’ve been dealing with multiple rounds of mysterious flu-like ailments since December so have an overstock of Kleenex and Clorox wipes.
Our ancient thermometer stopped working recently so we have a fancy new in-ear thermometer (only one we could find).
We always have a bottle of sanitizer in each car so I’m not going out looking for Purell. And most importantly, H and I are policing each other about frequent hand-washing and touching our faces. Both of us are allergy sufferers so the face touching is compulsive and hard to check.
We aren’t curbing eating out or going out, we ate at authentic Italian and Chinese restaurants in the last week and went to our local Asian market to shop for some items.
But… I cancelled my plans to travel in the near future to a destination wedding that is in a location that has (or will have very soon) travel restrictions in place now.
We don’t have any other travel plans until the second half of the year and no plans to change that as of now. We will go forward with those plans unless there is a global lockdown on travel.
Our kids have opposite reactions to this. One kid has followed through with all the helpful posted advice that I shared with them and bought Cold-Eeze, disinfectant wipes, Tylenol, elderberry gummies and nitrile gloves, ? . Sanitizer was completely sold out. Lives in shared housing so wants to be careful about common areas and surfaces.
Other kid doesn’t have any of the suggested supplies, doesn’t plan to buy any and is traveling extensively to both domestic and international destinations in the next few weeks. ?♀️
We have a trip planned to London and Paris at the end of April. We have until March 15th to cancel (will only lose $600 which is Delta’s change fee for two tickets). We’re still hoping to go, but will be prepared to cancel based on what happens in the next 10-12 days.
Went to Infectious Disease Doctor this morning (for one of the many issues my husband is still dealing with), and the sign on the door said if you have a cough, wear a mask. There were no masks left in the dispenser. I’m guessing patients stole them, because they’ve always had plenty before. The doctor brought up the subject of Coronavirus, and said it’s the lungs filling up with fluid that kills you. Same with the flu. He has a pleasure trip to England and France planned in April, and suspects it will be cancelled, because of the possibility that he would have to quarantine for 14 days upon return.
Then we went to our nail place, and they had hand sanitizer everywhere. They’ve never had it before.
Next was a restaurant. Yep. Hand sanitizer as soon as we walked in. Never noticed it before at this restaurant, but we never looked for it before either.
But no changes at the hair stylist.
At each establishment I used my coat to touch the door handles, and they we used hand sanitizer afterwards. Not sure if using my coat is a good idea. Might need to rethink that.
Your coat can have it on it for like 7 days I read on clothing…
Just came back from Walgreens. Got my 3 supply of meds. They had a buy one get one 1/2 price on Zinc lozenges. Their brand. But sold out of Sure deoderant since it’s $1.99 now.
But what was kinda sad was the 80 year old women buying up like 15 boxes of health gloves. That kinda got to me and felt real
Agreed! My 12 yr old has a long history of colds going to his chest. He came down with a mild cough mid-Jan and his Dr suggested the elderberry gummies and throat lozenges. He loves them!! He had me go back the next day and buy two more boxes b/c they worked so well on his cough that he was only out of class for 2 days. They’re expensive by comparison, but if they work and they taste good enough that he’ll actually USE THEM!! then I will absolutely keep buying them.
One thing that is obvious but bears repeating anyway is being sure to get enough sleep. Being sleep deprived weakens the immune system.
I bought a few extras of the usual items I normally stock up on in winter (in case a bout of stormy weather makes us not want to go shopping). Not mass quantities.
My parents are going all out Mad Max with this, and emailing my sister and I on a thrice daily basis with updates on who is out of what (four stores out of hand sanitizer in their area, no masks until April, etc.). I kind of think it just gives them something to worry about (not to mention something to do), which, I guess, keeps them happy.
Today I emailed back a photo of a shelf full of hand sanitizer (like 40 8-oz. bottles) from one of my local stores, and offered to ship them some.
I feeling like this is a little bit of mass hysteria over what amounts to a bad flu. It isn’t ebola. Wash your hands often, don’t touch your face, and keep a little hand sanitizer in your purse or car. Normal flu precautions, really.
We’ve stocked up a little extra on food and supplements, and I ordered vinyl gloves. But that’s not the main thing we’ve done. H and I are over 60, both with health issues, so this is a little concerning, though we aren’t paranoid and we’re still going out in public, etc. We have a date with our son this weekend to put him on our checking account and our safe deposit box, so he can access those if necessary. I am making a list of bills to be paid, computer passwords, important contacts, etc., in case we get ill (or worse) and he has to take over. We’re going to go out to lunch on Saturday and discuss all these things. These are steps we wanted to take anyway, and the virus has merely speeded up the timeline.
I was expressing to someone today what I have expressed here in terms of sort of the OP’s original question “what are you doing if anything…” - and I was saying that it’s my nature to try and get educated and be smart in my habits and surroundings but that I wasn’t going to over worry/have anxiety over something I can’t control beyond my choices.
The person said it must be nice to have such a Pollyanna approach.
Why do we have to make everything such a competition/crisis/jump on the bandwagon or you’re wrong?!! (this is in response to my “friend”, not CC friends)
