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Ask HN: How are you preparing for COVID-19 disruptions?

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Re: Ask HN: How are you preparing for COVID-19 disruptions?

#261
post #191

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can maximize immune system functioning by making sure you get proper nutrition and plenty of sleep.

Don't forget exercise.

Do you suppose gyms are a bad place to go during an outbreak? So far I haven't stopped going, but seems like it could be an especially nasty hotbed of airborne and surface-based viruses.

Re: Ask HN: How are you preparing for COVID-19 disruptions?

#262
post #40
post #13

I wash my hands well and try to avoid touching my face. I try to avoid touching bathroom door handles and use some type of napkin or glove. I have been doing this for a long time, so its not really something I am doing just for this virus. If you read CDC website they also recommend washing hands and avoid touching your face. It is much harder if you have small kids, just don’t forget to also wash their hands if they…

General advice for any bug that transfers trough fecal-oral route, not just for COVID-19: 1. Dot's store your toothbrush in the bathroom (at least during the times when you suspect that some family member might get infected). There are fecal matter particles in the bathroom air. You can get the ass-to-mouth transfer in the same household from toothbrushes stored in the bathroom. 2. Close the toilet lid before you flu…

I really wonder how we started to have the toilet and place for washing up in the same room. Especially when you have more than one person it is so much more convenient to have them separate.

Re: Ask HN: How are you preparing for COVID-19 disruptions?

#263

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How is a virus, more contagious and more lethal than flu/MERS/SARS, a smaller problem?

> more lethal than flu/MERS/SARS WHO reports a 34% fatality rate for MERS, while at present it is around 2.4% for COVID-19 [2]. So it would be helpful if you provide sources when throwing down comments like this. I'll admit it's more contagious, as they state below, but again, most US cases are asymptomatic. 1 - https://www.who.int/emergencies/mers-cov/en/ 2 - http://www.cidrap.umn.edu/news-perspective/2020/02/study-…

> it would be helpful if you provide sources

Actually, to be honest, it would be helpful if everyone refrained from cherry picking information to support their current emotional state.

Please, please, please, let's rely on experts who specialize infectious diseases to do the communicating and go back to our code.

Re: Ask HN: How are you preparing for COVID-19 disruptions?

#264

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What fasting method do you practice? It sounds interesting!

I don't have much of a specific method, but usually I try to go at least 48 hours and limit myself to a 1 hour eating window. The key is getting your electrolytes. It's amazing how big a difference they make. Otherwise, I just take fasting day by day. I try to be conscientious and recognize whether I'm genuinely hungry or just desiring food because I'm bored. If it's the former, I'll break my fast. I eat pretty healt…

since you sound well versed - what would be a good food-free way to get electrolytes?

Re: Ask HN: How are you preparing for COVID-19 disruptions?

#265
post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is only a ~2% mortality rate from COVID-19, less than the usual flu. If one is prepping to survive from this, it is much more likely you have deeper emotional & psychological issues that prevent you from holding long lasting intimate relationships. And are at a higher risk of death from depression, anxiety, loneliness,and general social isolation. Thank you for listening. P.S. I work in this field and attached…

I disagree with your sentiment about preppier mentality strongly. For me, it’s not about prepping to survive like THIS is a world-ending event, it’s about not getting caught in a rush to get supplies or stampedes when people panic. Tbh, that’s more of a concern than the disease. That said, the serious complication rate is higher than the flu. The r0 is much higher than the flu. The disease is spread asymptomatically.…

Either A. the r0 is much higher due to asymptomatic spreading OR B. the serious complication rate is higher. It’s likely not both. If A. is true, the serious complication rate is likely overstated because there are lots of asymptomatic people who are getting counted.

Re: Ask HN: How are you preparing for COVID-19 disruptions?

#266
post #217

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What can be bigger than that? I have seen interview with a person in Wuhan and his biggest problem is running out of food.

Other people coming to take your food. If there are major food shortages and you have a big stockpile, you better hope you have a way to keep yourself secure.

vs not having a stockpile and hoping that if you just explain to people that you have no food they will stay out?

Re: Ask HN: How are you preparing for COVID-19 disruptions?

#267

I'm not. There's no meaningful preparations for avoiding what is essentially a really dangerous variant of the common cold at an individual level. Now governments and the medical field should be preparing for it. But most of that is logistical problems (e.g. number of hospital beds, preparing quarantine plans, test kits, etc). You can order a bunch of masks if it makes you feel better, but countries with common mask…

Do not overstock on masks or other supplies. Masks especially should be available to the sick. It's ironic that (I'm sure) someone out there will stock up on 10,000 masks and it will cause them to be in even greater danger because the sick people around them will have fewer masks. The CDC recommends that sick people wear masks to keep droplets in, and that people who directly interact with sick people wear masks whil…

Home Depot has been out of masks and respirators here for weeks now.

Re: Ask HN: How are you preparing for COVID-19 disruptions?

#268
post #114

Over the last few weeks, we have acquired enough food/supplies to stay isolated at our house for about 2 months (a combination of bulk rice/beans/grains, and pre-purchasing anything we use regularly which has a long expiration date). We also have medicines/toiletries/etc to last that long. Maybe 10-12 years ago I read the book 'The Great Influenza'[1], and there are enough similarities between that outbreak and this…

Here is another one, Spillover, by David Quammen. Apologies for the ugly link.

https://www.amazon.com/Spillover-Animal-Infections-Human-Pan...

Re: Ask HN: How are you preparing for COVID-19 disruptions?

#269
post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Definitely good to be prepared, but AFAIK there is no such thing as being "statistically overdue" for an earthquake.

Yeah there is. It is not like saying that if black hit on roulette 10x in a row that one would be statistically overdue for red. Because those are completely independent events with equal probability on each trial. With earthquakes if statically speaking a massive earthquake hits on a roughly 1 in 500 year interval, the stresses at the plate boundary are much more likely to be greater at year 600 than at year 1 after…

If only earthquake modelling was so simple as to say you were overdue for an earthquake simply based on accumulated stress. Unfortunately, the Gutenberg-Richter law is not prescriptive, but a time independent statistical observation which assumes independent events, which is why saying you're due for another one is very much like gambler's fallacy. Of course we know that there are underlying physical processes which make means there should be some underlying dependence to be found, and there are attempts at time-dependent models out there, but for our purposes independence works.

If you're interested in the statistics around recurrence times, can I recommend this [1]? It's fairly well written and clear and it deals with this issue fairly comprehensively and directly.

[1] - http://www.crm.cat/en/About/People/Researchers/ACorral/Docum...

Re: Ask HN: How are you preparing for COVID-19 disruptions?

#270

Earlier quoted context omitted.

is it possible to reuse a mask if you put the mask through an autoclave?

An N95 isn't going to survive an autoclave...

I think my P100 filters might survive an autoclave. They are the pink disc kind from 3M. Pressure cooking only goes up to 121C @ 15psi, so it isn't as hot as it may seem.
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