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Ask HN: NYC with autoimmune disease, what should I do?

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Re: Ask HN: NYC with autoimmune disease, what should I do?

#21

Post by pmiller2 »

DoofusOfDeath wrote: post #12
saluki wrote: post #4

Sounds like you are setup to ride it out in NYC. I would stay in place, carefully have groceries delivered when possible and ride it out until the healthcare system can support you if needed then revaluate your situation. You are probably safest in your current environment since you don't have to go out and have already been in 10 days.

If you go that route, perhaps have 1-2 months of groceries and toiletries delivered? That would give the groceries enough time to decontaminate before you touched them, even if later on nobody is able to make deliveries to you. I don't know about refrigerated / frozen foods though. Not sure how long covid19 remains viable when frozen.

Good luck with that. I’m having a hard time getting things delivered at all. None of the services seem capable of finding things like pasta, beans, TP, etc., and I’m not trying to shop in 2 month quantities.

Re: Ask HN: NYC with autoimmune disease, what should I do?

#22

Post by shadowprofile77 »

If you don't mind my asking, what is the autoimmune disease? I have one of my own and with my own worries for the same reason. Data based on China and a few other sources from the Imperial College Covid-19 response team for people below the age of 40, down to 30 shows that of this subset of confirmed infected, only 3.2% are likely to require hospitalization and even of those 2.3% only 5% are likely to require critical care. I assume that quite a few more than that among them have some complicating condition.

Re: Ask HN: NYC with autoimmune disease, what should I do?

#23

Post by dyingkneepad »

If I were you, I would stay in NYC and try to stay as clean/isolated as possible.

If the theory that people who already got covid19 develop immunity from it and won't catch it again is true, then one thing to realize is that NYC (and Italy and others) will become a "safe" place sooner than other places. Yes, there's the horrible downside that a lot of people are dying, but since so many people already caught it (and so many will catch it in the next days/weeks), after this peak passes you'll reach a point where mostly everybody around you will be immune, so you will benefit from herd immunity. If you move to another city, one where the number of cases is still increasing, it will likely take longer for this stage to be reached.

I should note that I'm not advocating in favor of society pursuing herd immunity strategies: letting people die is never a good strategy. I am just pointing the fact that the since the curve is not very flat in NY, herd immunity will be a thing there sooner than in other places. It's happening whether we like it or not.

I'm not a doctor and I'd love to hear arguments on how this theory could be wrong.

Re: Ask HN: NYC with autoimmune disease, what should I do?

#24

Post by ng12 »

I'm in the exact same boat. Two weeks ago I thought about leaving to stay with family who live an hour outside Boston. Two things stopped me. The first was my family members are all still going to work (even though Boston is pretty bad and there's a handful of confirmed cases in their local area). The second was I worried about bringing it back from New York with me an infecting my retired parents.

The nice thing about NYC is that I literally don't have to leave my apartment. I get all groceries delivered (perishables from Whole Foods, non-perishables from Walmart). Medication for my condition is delivered as well. I'm blessed enough to have a doorman so the only exposure I have to the outside world is going down to my lobby to pick up the packages which I do late at night to avoid running into anyone else.

My only concern would be if I did get sick and was hundreds of miles away from any of my family members. However as far as risk of getting sick goes I'm pretty confident that bunkering in my apartment is the right call.

Re: Ask HN: NYC with autoimmune disease, what should I do?

#25

Post by [deleted] »

pmiller2 wrote: post #21
DoofusOfDeath wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you go that route, perhaps have 1-2 months of groceries and toiletries delivered? That would give the groceries enough time to decontaminate before you touched them, even if later on nobody is able to make deliveries to you. I don't know about refrigerated / frozen foods though. Not sure how long covid19 remains viable when frozen.

Good luck with that. I’m having a hard time getting things delivered at all. None of the services seem capable of finding things like pasta, beans, TP, etc. , and I’m not trying to shop in 2 month quantities.

[deleted]

Re: Ask HN: NYC with autoimmune disease, what should I do?

#26

Post by WalterSear »

Spooky23 wrote: post #19
pyb wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Bad advice, relatives would contaminate the OP with high probability.

I agree all things being equal. But they're not. The delivery guy or mailman or building super could infect them too. It's a hard problem that I struggle with personally. My parents are elderly and not in great health. I live in fear every day that the efforts of my family and their support network (visiting nurses, etc) to help them can kill them.

You are way more likely to get it from someone you know than a stranger. 80% of Wuhan infections were in 'familial clusters'.

Re: Ask HN: NYC with autoimmune disease, what should I do?

#27

Post by BayezLyfe »

ng12 wrote: post #24

I'm in the exact same boat. Two weeks ago I thought about leaving to stay with family who live an hour outside Boston. Two things stopped me. The first was my family members are all still going to work (even though Boston is pretty bad and there's a handful of confirmed cases in their local area). The second was I worried about bringing it back from New York with me an infecting my retired parents. The nice thing abo…

> if I did get sick and was hundreds of miles away from any of my family members

I'm concerned about this as well.

> I'm pretty confident that bunkering in my apartment is the right call.

Thank you, that's reassuring

Re: Ask HN: NYC with autoimmune disease, what should I do?

#29

Post by TheDesolate0 »

Stay put. That's your best choice. Your home / apt is the environment over which you have the most control. Order a bunch of water and TP and delicious snacks from amazon and twitch your heart out.

When you have to come into contact with people, wear gloves, a mask (you can make it yourself, and sterilize it too), and eye protection (safety glasses). We call it MEGG, but you probably won't need the gown.

Here is how some of my colleges do it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k-tw-7XRV5w

Re: Ask HN: NYC with autoimmune disease, what should I do?

#30

Post by PeterisP »

ng12 wrote: post #24

I'm in the exact same boat. Two weeks ago I thought about leaving to stay with family who live an hour outside Boston. Two things stopped me. The first was my family members are all still going to work (even though Boston is pretty bad and there's a handful of confirmed cases in their local area). The second was I worried about bringing it back from New York with me an infecting my retired parents. The nice thing abo…

If you do get seriously sick, your family members would not be able to visit you anyway so it does not matter if they're hundreds of miles away or just across the street.

Unlike in normal circumstances, people who die in this epidemic die alone without seeing their loved ones since the moment of hospitalization.

[edit] Sorry for the morbid implications! The vast majority of people do get better, the risk definitely exists, but even with previous conditions it's not overwhelming, getting it is not a death sentence.

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