What is happening and about to happen is pretty unprecedented in our lifetimes. My colleague in Ireland went through SARS in Hong Kong. She says, “Americans have no idea what’s coming.”
Given the images I have seen and what other 1st World countries are doing...I think it is reasonable to give pause to her warning.
What we do know so far is it is far more contagious than the average flu. And after that...we don’t know what we don’t know.
A few weeks ago...it stopped the engine of the world in China. Iran is off the hook acting stupid. SK has drive up testing and Italy...well it’s Eu.
People I am speaking with tonight are actually scared. We’re talking about panic buying etc. on these threads. But, I can tell you...people are scared. They don’t know what to believe or understand. Companies cancelling interior United States events/conferences...people and businesses are frightened.
Cancelling large gatherings is a good thing—and will definitely slow the spread of the virus.
I am encouraged that these steps are being taken now—if everyone waited a couple of weeks more, then I would be really worried.
I think I’m officially in the scared column myself...
If you think they are scared now wait two weeks. See where we are.
I'm in the heartleand. Conservative country. I don't think it's quite penetrated how bad it's going to be...there's a lot of Rush listeners and I don't know if he did on purpose or not but there's still a fair bit of skeptism. Me? I've been ready for about 3 weeks no matter what happens. Hand santizer and wipes every where. Gloves and masks when and if it starts getting bad and we have to go out. Food for 4 months in case there's quarantine. If it goes beyond 4 months it will be a long haul but I feel President Trump is up to the challenge.
lack of confidence in the presumably responsible agencies to give us bad news makes rumor/less verified reports much harder to dismiss.
who/cdc/et al aren’t acting to try to keep each of us healthy. any and all of us can be collateral damage for the cdc. above all it is control panic at all levels.
the virus has odd features. there are preliminary reports that suggest some things that are more frightening than what is already out there. if any of these things are true we will never hear it from the cdc until it is blatantly obvious. I am very interested to see western ‘recovered’ studies after a while. it is still very early.
if we have annual pandemic from this, it staggers the mind to even imagine how it changes this country and the world. death rates could be higher next year due to survivors with permanent damage (the ‘serious/criticals’ that survive the first year), and so on each year.
there are local factors that may make the chinese have the worst outbreak stats (real stats not funny numbers) - sars vaccination and every chinese effectively having smokers lungs from the pollution.
this has worried me since mid-late january when I started paying attention, at first due to the apparent contagion and then due to china’s economic suicide reaction - meaning this was really bad. everything that has followed isn’t a surprise in the broad concepts, unfortunately. we are 4-8 weeks from something anyone not from a very different country cannot imagine.
Thankfully, not all people are scared. What I saw today at work are people who know there's a particularly contagious disease, but who are staying focused on doing the best job they can at work and who discussed ways we can work safer and reduce risk at work, and also at their home.
And part of people not knowing what to believe is some of the absolutely crazy rumors floating around there. There's more than a little bit of that going on at FR, just like at a lot of on-line forums. Thankfully, people are getting called out where appropriate.
Okay fine. I was at that stage 4 weeks ago. You will get through this, or at least some of you will. Lol. We should all be thankful Trump had energized our economy. Right now I am sitting on more food then I ever sat on before. We at least were in a position to prepare. Now perhaps we should assist and help those less fortunate. Imagine being caught right now with 3 days food and $20 total available cash. And the third world just may be beyond decimated.
I felt bad for not keeping him aware of my thinking and my preps. I meant too, just never got around to it. Part of it might have been some embarrassment on my part. I sent him a list of stuff. I hope it isn't too late for him - hopefully being far away from any outbreaks he still has some time to get some basic supplies.