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CDC outlines what closing schools, businesses would look like in US pandemic

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141–150 of 186 posts

Re: CDC outlines what closing schools, businesses would look like in US pandemic

#141

I'm advising everyone in my circle to prepare for a 30 to 45 day at-home stay and assume no stores will be open during that time. I think this is the prudent thing to do. I would also advise speaking to your neighbors to make them aware of the need to be prepared. To that point, buy a little extra of everything --well, maybe food only-- so you can help a few people out during what is likely to be a difficult time. Ha…

Since you asked,

>I'm advising everyone in my circle to prepare for a 30 to 45 day at-home stay and assume no stores will be open during that time. I think this is the prudent thing to do.

I think that's the paranoid thing to do. I'm stocking up a bit so that I can stay inside if I personally get sick, but that doesn't require 30-45 days of supplies. I don't even really have room for that much stuff in my tiny apartment.

>I would also advise speaking to your neighbors to make them aware of the need to be prepared. To that point, buy a little extra of everything --well, maybe food only-- so you can help a few people out during what is likely to be a difficult time. Happy neighbors are as important to safety as anything else.

>I'm actually thinking of making a preparedness checklist and going door-to-door around the neighborhood to hand them out.

You're obviously much friendlier with your neighbors than I am. If any of my neighbors did that I would probably assume they were a bit off and avoid talking to them from then on. I certainly wouldn't act on some random dude's checklist.

Re: CDC outlines what closing schools, businesses would look like in US pandemic

#142
post #77

Basically every household should already have, regardless of the origin of the disaster: 1 month of clean drinking water or reliable (tested) filtration devices and a impure water source (local streams likely to have various bacteria that will make you sick). 1 month of food that requires minimum water and fuel to cook (quick oats > slow cook oats). Enough fuel to cook that food (most of your food should not require…

I'm pretty sure storing 30 days of water would violate my lease. That's its own disaster waiting to happen.

Re: CDC outlines what closing schools, businesses would look like in US pandemic

#143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Riddle me this one: If EVERYONE stays home, how do stores remain open? Do we think they are run by robots? I try to use language with some degree of precision. I said "assume no stores will be open during that time". ASSUME, not "stores will definitely be closed during that time". Assume, as a part of planning, not categorically know, because the assumption will make for better planning. It is far safer to make this…

There's always some risk that infrastructure will catastrophically fail, and in general I think a month-long self-sufficiency stock is a perfectly reasonable thing to have. (I have one myself, although primarily because I live in an earthquake zone.) But when people are reacting to the coronavirus, the implicit question isn't what preparations are good to have for general worst case scenarios; it's which preparations…

You are over-complicating simple advice that is perfectly reasonable and not extreme at all:

Assume stores will be closed. Plan accordingly. Be glad if things don't play out that way. No harm done. Not difficult. Not extreme. Not a big deal. Just reasonable assumptions and planning in the face of what could be a very serious event in human history.

Re: CDC outlines what closing schools, businesses would look like in US pandemic

#144
post #77

Basically every household should already have, regardless of the origin of the disaster: 1 month of clean drinking water or reliable (tested) filtration devices and a impure water source (local streams likely to have various bacteria that will make you sick). 1 month of food that requires minimum water and fuel to cook (quick oats > slow cook oats). Enough fuel to cook that food (most of your food should not require…

I wonder if all the beans and rice I bought in preparation for Y2K are still good?

There's one thing prepper fantasies have in common... the impending doom never comes. It's fun to think about. But, real honestly, if the survivors at Hiroshima and Nagasaki were able to get by in the days after their tragedy, I bet I could figure something out on an ad-hoc basis.

Re: CDC outlines what closing schools, businesses would look like in US pandemic

#145
post #121

Know what’s worse than this virus? Panic. This shit is no deadlier than the regular flu. If you’re not 80+ or have a bad health you’re fine. They need to fire these officials.

Even the rate in younger people, such as those in their 20s, is higher than flu at 0.2%. The rate for flu in the 18-49 age range averaged about 0.001%[1]

It's not just the flu. Please don't assert that without checking the numbers.

1. https://academic.oup.com/aje/article/179/2/156/123327

Re: CDC outlines what closing schools, businesses would look like in US pandemic

#146
post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I haven't seen any good guides for individual and household preparedness, but I think that this guide "Interim Guidance for Preventing the Spread of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) in Homes and Residential Communities" ( https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/hcp/guidance-preve... ), especially the precautions section, can be a useful place to see what would be needed to prepare. Some things to have besides fo…

Do the N95 face masks that you can buy at the grocery even do anything to prevent the spread of coronavirus?

Apart from keeping you from touching your face, they raise the alarm on those that see you, so they tend to keep their distance.

https://sentido-labs.com/es/biblioteca/coronavirus-2020-02-L...

(Text and video subtitles are in Spanish, but sound is the original English)

Re: CDC outlines what closing schools, businesses would look like in US pandemic

#147

Here are some actual documents on preparing for an influenza pandemic that the CDC is repurposing to prepare people for the coronavirus because of the similarity to the spread of the flu. https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/php/pandemic-prepa... States will have their own influenza preparedness plans that they will probably be following for the coronavirus as well. One helpful thing that they advise governors t…

There is a pretty good Coronavirus prep guide here:

https://theprepared.com/wuhan-coronavirus/

The key here in any pandemic is to make sure you reduce the chances of being infected. That works better than any surgical masks, N95 respirators, etc.

In essence, minimize or eliminate social contacts like hugs, hand shakes, kisses or touching anyone during this period. If you need to do so, remember to not touch your face, nose or eyes, and wash or sterilize your hands immediately after that. Stay away from public places with large amounts of people or confined areas. Your face is sacred, remember not to touch your face, eyes or nose when you're outside, or else wear a surgical or N95 mask (if you can find one), which helps in enforcing the above. Wash your hands for at least 20-30 seconds when you return home. Do not touch things like lift buttons with your fingers. Use a key, pen, elbows or knuckles (not so ideal but it's better than using fingers). If you're travelling in a car or cab, request the driver to wind down the windows. Stock up on medicine, and avoid visiting hospitals unless required.

Re: CDC outlines what closing schools, businesses would look like in US pandemic

#148

Anyone know if surviving with this coronavirus results in immunity to it afterward?

surviving it might not be much fun either depending on the severity of the case. survivors have a 45% risk of pulmonary fibrosis (onset within 3-6 months after initial infection), then there is testicular damage in men, among others, see https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22412112

> survivors have a 45% risk of pulmonary fibrosis

I'm not seeing this in the link you posted ( https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.02.18.20024539v... )

A quick online search isn't yielding anything substantial on that either.

EDIT: N/M found it, but they're saying it's a possibility due to observations found during SARS:

> Gaohong Sheng et al. [20] have shown that viral infection can increase the risk of pulmonary fibrosis.Xie et al. [21] found that 45% of patients showed signs of pulmonary fibrosis within one month after being infected with SARS-CoV.Hui et al. [22] found that 36% and 30% of patients infected with SARS-CoV developed pulmonary fibrosis at 3 and 6 months after infection, respectively.Therefore, we believe that pulmonary fibrosis will become one of the serious complications in patients with 2019-nCoV infection.How to prevent and reduce the occurrence of pulmonary fibrosis in patients with 2019-nCoV infection is an urgent problem for medical workers in the treatment of 2019-nCoV.

Re: CDC outlines what closing schools, businesses would look like in US pandemic

#149
post #77

Basically every household should already have, regardless of the origin of the disaster: 1 month of clean drinking water or reliable (tested) filtration devices and a impure water source (local streams likely to have various bacteria that will make you sick). 1 month of food that requires minimum water and fuel to cook (quick oats > slow cook oats). Enough fuel to cook that food (most of your food should not require…

I wonder if all the beans and rice I bought in preparation for Y2K are still good? There's one thing prepper fantasies have in common... the impending doom never comes. It's fun to think about. But, real honestly, if the survivors at Hiroshima and Nagasaki were able to get by in the days after their tragedy, I bet I could figure something out on an ad-hoc basis.

If you want to take this seriously you should be rotating all canned goods every few years. You're basically trading off the tiny cost of canned goods with a small risk of getting a disease from bad food (well-stored cans should be fine for 5 years, any bulging cans should be discarded), which isn't normally a huge problem, but during emergencies, could be.

If you look at history, a lot of wars were won or lost based on how well a city prepared for a sustained siege.

in the case of hiroshima, water pumps were restored 4 days after the bombing, but of course the story is more involved (http://www.hiroshimapeacemedia.jp/?p=47988)

Re: CDC outlines what closing schools, businesses would look like in US pandemic

#150
post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do the N95 face masks that you can buy at the grocery even do anything to prevent the spread of coronavirus?

my take on this is that those masks are probably useless, and even if they were useful, most members of the public will not utilize them correctly. so, i advise people to leave the face masks of all types for utilization by our healthcare workers, as there will soon be a shortage and as a member of the public you should mostly be sitting at home rather than wandering around areas with other people anyway.

The CDC is telling people to use face masks (not necessarily n95 or p100 respirators) when ill or around those that are ill.
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