How Is Covid-19 Impacting Life in Your City? - Page 8

10023 · #**141** Posted **Mar 10, 2020, 6:14 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pedestrian

Maybe they won't let you in. The US could be like Hubei by then (though it's more likely they will be with their open borders to Italy).

Or everywhere is and it doesn’t really matter anymore.

Pedestrian · #**142** Posted **Mar 10, 2020, 6:15 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by chris08876

New York National Guard activated to combat coronavirus, establish ‘containment area’
The National Guard will “deliver food and clean schools in the zone during the containment period,” Gov. Andrew Cuomo said, as reported by ABC News.

This is so crazy. National guard soldiers don't know anything about avoiding contamination. If there is any virus in these places they are cleaning, they are likely to catch it and spread it further.

Anyway, the idea of a ghetto with a synagogue in the center is maybe not so new.

10023 · #**143** Posted **Mar 10, 2020, 6:15 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by chris08876

New York National Guard activated to combat coronavirus, establish ‘containment area’

=======================
https://www.militarytimes.com/breaki...tainment-area/

This is not a containment area.

JManc · #**144** Posted **Mar 10, 2020, 6:18 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by chris08876

I too am heading to Spain in May.

Spain, France, Netherlands... in that order. Not canceling, and hope not too.

Netherlands, Belgium and Germany for us in May as well.

Pedestrian · #**145** Posted **Mar 10, 2020, 6:18 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by MonkeyRonin

Went to the grocery store last night. Everything was pretty normal, except that the toilet paper shelf had been picked bare.

What's with the global phenomenon of stockpiling toilet paper? Are people worried they're going to shit themselves to death?

People are stocking up on "essentials" so they won't have to go to stores and mingle with the crowds there if the virus becomes widespread in their communities. Makes perfect sense to me however I stocked up on TP and paper towels about a week ago just because I needed them.

JManc · #**146** Posted **Mar 10, 2020, 6:22 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pedestrian

People are stocking up on "essentials" so they won't have to go to stores and mingle with the crowds there if the virus becomes widespread in their communities. Makes perfect sense to me however I stocked up on TP and paper towels about a week ago just because I needed them.

Have these people not heard of Amazon?

MonkeyRonin · #**147** Posted **Mar 10, 2020, 6:25 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by iheartthed

This is my concern too. I was thinking about a getaway but I don't want to end up quarantined or stuck outside of the country.

It was only about a week ago that I was thinking a trip to Italy was a fantastic idea - fewer crowds and discounted prices just for the risk of a then seemingly overhyped virus. Glad I didn't do that now, given how quickly and dramatically things have changed there.

In the meantime, if anyone wants to do any travelling, I think local road trips are the way the go. Less of a commitment, easier to adapt as needed, less exposure to potential carriers.

It's a bit of a bummer (especially as I had skipped any "big" international trips last year so as to be able to do several this year), but perhaps this is an opportunity to spend a bit more time exploring our own regions and getting to know some of our overlooked neighbouring cities a bit better.

Or just save that money and invest in stocks as the market bottoms out instead. That'll be bound to pay off in a couple years.

Kngkyle · #**148** Posted **Mar 10, 2020, 6:28 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pedestrian

This is so crazy. National guard soldiers don't know anything about avoiding contamination. If there is any virus in these places they are cleaning, they are likely to catch it and spread it further.

Anyway, the idea of a ghetto with a synagogue in the center is maybe not so new.

I'd be surprised if the National Guard doesn't train for events like this.

Pedestrian · #**149** Posted **Mar 10, 2020, 6:42 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by JManc

Have these people not heard of Amazon?

So do you know whose been handling that stuff you'll be handling when you open the Amazon package? Bet they coughed into your box before sealing it.

Besides, I'm finding Amazon is "out of stock" on the same stuff my local Walmart is so they may not be such a reliable source to depend on.

Finally, bulky but cheap stuff like TP isn't always available on Amazon Prime.

Chicago3rd · #**150** Posted **Mar 10, 2020, 6:46 PM**

In Sitges this week. The flight over from Boston was not full, but I swear, Logan and Heathrow were the healthiest I've ever seen them (7 hours combined in each of them). Normally there is hacking and coughing all over the place....not this visit. Some masks.

Sitges is small town just outside of Barcelona and life is going along normally here. Tomorrow we will be in Barcelona and should be fine. Tons of hand sanitizer and no masks. We'll see.

Pedestrian · #**151** Posted **Mar 10, 2020, 6:46 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kngkyle

I'd be surprised if the National Guard doesn't train for events like this.

I wouldn't. They train for decontamination in nuclear war, not cleaning schools (I was in the Navy Medical Corps for 26 years--I never heard of any training for what they will be doing). And the idea seemed so remote to most of these young guys when they went through whatever training it was, I doubt they absorbed much of it. Probably rolled their eyes through most of it.

JManc · #**152** Posted **Mar 10, 2020, 6:46 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pedestrian

So do you know whose been handling that stuff you'll be handling when you open the Amazon package?

A package of Charmin handled maybe by four or five people between the time it leaves the distribution center to your front door or the panicked hordes sniffling, coughing and touching everything in their wake as they make their way around the store?

Pedestrian · #**153** Posted **Mar 10, 2020, 6:49 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by JManc

A package of Charmin handled maybe by four or five people between the time it leaves the distribution center to your front door or the panicked hordes sniffling, coughing and touching everything in their wake as they make their way around the store?

Yeah, but the idea is to get it NOW, when the guys handling it are likely to be uninfected (no matter where you choose to buy it).

Besides, Charmin? Really? I already said nothing but Quilted Northern touches my butt.

Acajack · #**154** Posted **Mar 10, 2020, 7:03 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pedestrian

Besides, Charmin? Really? I already said nothing but Quilted Northern touches my butt.

How do you abide by this exclusive preference in public places?

Kngkyle · #**155** Posted **Mar 10, 2020, 7:04 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pedestrian

I wouldn't. They train for decontamination in nuclear war, not cleaning schools (I was in the Navy Medical Corps for 26 years--I never heard of any training for what they will be doing). And the idea seemed so remote to most of these young guys when they went through whatever training it was, I doubt they absorbed much of it. Probably rolled their eyes through most of it.

Old articles, but seem to support my belief that virus containment is very-much part of the National Guard's specialties.

https://www.baltimoresun.com/marylan...813-story.html

https://foreignpolicy.com/2016/05/26...ational-guard/

https://www.nationalguard.mil/News/A...emic-response/

Pedestrian · #**156** Posted **Mar 10, 2020, 7:19 PM**

And so it begins:

Quote:

San Francisco’s South Park Cafe closed after an employee tested positive for coronavirus
Photo of Justin Phillips
Justin Phillips March 10, 2020 Updated: March 10, 2020 7:34 a.m.

San Francisco’s South Park Cafe, the neighborhood restaurant run by the corporate-card startup company Brex, was closed Monday after an employee tested positive for coronavirus as was the company’s San Francisco office.

The cafe is located in the city’s South Park neighborhood, which is a hub for local venture capital and tech companies. News of South Park Cafe’s closure spread on Twitter Monday afternoon when a user posted what was said to be a portion of a letter recently sent to Brex employees.

The letter said an employee, who did not show signs of being ill, was “at home resting” after testing positive for COVID-19, or coronavirus . . . .

https://www.sfchronicle.com/food/art...d-15118383.php

Pedestrian · #**157** Posted **Mar 10, 2020, 7:23 PM**

This is a nightmare waiting to happen:

Quote:

‘I’m scared’: Homeless people and health workers brace for coronavirus to hit encampments
Kevin Fagan and Dominic Fracassa March 9, 2020 Updated: March 9, 2020 4 a.m.

Ann Martinez lay on a cot on the patch of grass in San Francisco where she’d be pitching her tent in a few hours, and pointed at her pals nearby. They were talking about the coronavirus crisis. The talk was a mixture of bravado, fear and resignation.

“They tell us all we’re supposed to wash our hands all the time and stay clean, but listen — we’re homeless,” she said. “How are we supposed to do that out here? And look at us. They say people are more vulnerable if we have a condition. Well, I’ve got diabetes. Some of my friends have HIV. Others have hepatitis C.

“I’m scared and I don’t know what to do.”

State, county and city officials throughout the Bay Area say they are scrambling to put together a reaction plan if the dreaded COVID-19 virus snakes its way into the homeless population, but those sleeping in tents, RVs and shelters say they’re worried about the toll an outbreak could take. There hasn’t been a homeless case of COVID-19 reported yet — but most officials agree it is probably just a matter of time.

Street counselors and governmental outreach workers are distributing flyers and telling people without roofs to wash up regularly. And most communities, including San Francisco, are planning over the next week or so to step up efforts to install easily accessible hand-washing stations, distribute hand sanitizers, and designate motel rooms and other facilities for quarantining homeless people if they catch the virus . . . .

https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/...h-15115597.php

Pedestrian · #**158** Posted **Mar 10, 2020, 7:32 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kngkyle

Old articles, but seem to support my belief that virus containment is very-much part of the National Guard's specialties.

https://www.baltimoresun.com/marylan...813-story.html

https://foreignpolicy.com/2016/05/26...ational-guard/

https://www.nationalguard.mil/News/A...emic-response/

"Normally, the soldiers would wear tightly sealed protective suits. Given the near 100-degree heat, they chose to work in T-shirts . . . ."

These articles reference, in the first, case an instance of not-very-realistic or relevant training conducted years ago (the key thing in bio-decontamination is how to don and remove the protective suits which they apparently finessed--and this is the way military training too often goes), and in the other two it's about specific units (medical and "first response"), not regular guardsmen. I continue to argue that regular guardsmen from regular units don't know much about this activity even if they've had any kind of training in the last 5 years. They are being used as unpaid cleaning labor which is probably OK but if they find themselves in a genuinely "hot zone", one or more of them is likley to catch "it".

Kngkyle · #**159** Posted **Mar 10, 2020, 7:47 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pedestrian

"Normally, the soldiers would wear tightly sealed protective suits. Given the near 100-degree heat, they chose to work in T-shirts . . . ."

These articles reference, in the first, case an instance of not-very-realistic or relevant training conducted years ago (the key thing in bio-decontamination is how to don and remove the protective suits which they apparently finessed--and this is the way military training too often goes), and in the other two it's about specific units (medical and "first response"), not regular guardsmen. I continue to argue that regular guardsmen from regular units don't know much about this activity even if they've had any kind of training in the last 5 years. They are being used as unpaid cleaning labor which is probably OK but if they find themselves in a genuinely "hot zone", one or more of them is likley to catch "it".

Do you know what type of National Guard units they deployed? Or are you just assuming, and then saying it's stupid based on that assumption? There is so much neither of us know, yet you were so quick to call it crazy. To me, THAT is crazy.

Pedestrian · #**160** Posted **Mar 10, 2020, 7:54 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kngkyle

Do you know what type of National Guard units they deployed? Or are you just assuming, and then saying it's stupid based on that assumption? There is so much neither of us know, yet you were so quick to call it crazy. To me, THAT is crazy.

The article said they are being used to clean schools. They don't use medical units for that and I'd bet they don't use the special Homeland Security units for that either. But OK.

I admit it--as someone with a lot of time in the military I get very annoyed at using the military as cheap labor which is what I think is happening here.