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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?

#531

Post by sneak »

Tepix wrote: post #489
sneak wrote: post #467

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Drinking water is frequently the bottleneck, as stable food stores are cheap and straightforward.

If you have drinkable tap water you should be ok.

In this instance, a pandemic. There are many other scenarios where even if you have drinkable tap water under normal circumstances, disaster might render that useless.

I drink bottled/filtered only due to negative side effects (for me personally, most don’t have any) of drinking chlorinated water, so simply increasing my input buffer is really straightforward.

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

#532

Post by sneak »

chewz wrote: post #474
sneak wrote: post #469

I already maintain a 90+ day supply of food and medications and most consumables/supplies in my homes, as a matter of course. I took the lessons of the Battle of Berlin to heart. I also have a half dozen P99/P100 masks already, for the same reason. The only specific measure I am taking is stocking up on drinking water, my supplies of which fluctuate between 15 and 30 days as I consume it and periodically reorder. I a…

This is useless if you live in the city. All your supplies will be taken away from you by force if enough people becomes desperate.

I think the logical conclusion of your argument is that people in cities should not undertake any preparedness measures. I do not subscribe to that belief, and think it is an abdication of responsibility. It’s much more likely that I will need water/food due to supply interruptions than I will need water/food due to supply interruptions and also be subject to marauding gangs of thieves.

Also, where I live in the winter, it is normal to have a non-trivial amount of weapons in one’s own home, and something like 50% of homes do, despite being a reasonably big city by local standards.

I envision places like that to remain a lot calmer and more civilized longer than most other urban centers, where the means to keep order is a lot more centralized, and probably the first to abandon their posts in times of extreme crisis such as you allude to.

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

#533

Post by Barracoon »

mercer wrote: post #516
pmoriarty wrote: post #318

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You don't have to go to the gym to exercise. Plenty of bodyweight exercise (like push-ups, L-sits, planks, burpees, etc) can be done at home without any equipment. Investing in a little bit of equipment, like barbells or maybe a pull-up bar, can let you do even more exercise at home.

While I could Google this, I often prefer asking people I 'know' even as tangentially as via HN comments: any suggestions for resources about this? I'd like to exercise more, and I have an entire room available, but I'm not sure where to start. I have the one-handed weight thingies, for one, but a pull-up bar is not an option. I heard one of those ball thingies with a handle is useful?

This app may be useful to you. I've used it for about 6 months and have been pretty happy with it. You can customize what equipment you have available so that it builds you a workout based on that. On the other side, you can look at what equipment it lists and determine what you want to buy.

https://www.fitbod.me

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

#534

Post by alasdair_ »

Gibbon1 wrote: post #371
alasdair_ wrote: post #360

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Refill your medication(s), that's the biggest one. I take a prescription medication that is a controlled substance. I feel like a criminal each time I fill it. I'm only given exactly the amount I need for the next 30 days and it routinely causes problems when I need to travel out of state around the time of my next refill. I really wish there was some way of saying "I've been taking this stuff for years, I've clearl…

Friend of mine was working for FEMA after Hurricane Katrina. He said he went to lots of houses where they had an elderly family remember with cancer who had run out of their pain meds. And no way to get more.

Wow, that is terrible.

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

#535

Post by RaceWon »

u801e wrote: post #327
RaceWon wrote: post #243

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> A saner advice is to wash your hands frequently and to avoid touching your face when in public I wouldn't use a urinal either (I never do anyway, as a former licensed plumber, thosef'n things are NASTY imo). I also flush twice with my back turned before using a public toilet.. not ideal but better than not I think. I work in hospital

> I also flush twice with my back turned before using a public toilet.. not ideal but better than not I think. Flushing toilets leads to aerosolized water droplets from the toilet spreading around the room and contaminating nearby surfaces[1]. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toilet_plume

I know, but so does peeing into it. At least when you flush it's re-diluted.

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

#536

Post by exikyut »

sneak wrote: post #468
alasdair_ wrote: post #360

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Refill your medication(s), that's the biggest one. I take a prescription medication that is a controlled substance. I feel like a criminal each time I fill it. I'm only given exactly the amount I need for the next 30 days and it routinely causes problems when I need to travel out of state around the time of my next refill. I really wish there was some way of saying "I've been taking this stuff for years, I've clearl…

If I were in your shoes I would go to the black market and would secretly maintain a 90-180 day supply buffer, pandemic or no. This is clearly a case of a law that may have been well-intentioned majorly infringing upon your rights.

The problem with this is that it will cause a practical relief effect that will create a small but consistent reordering latency. "You don't seem too $symptomatic today, how did you handle the past N days?"

This could be easily discerned through individual scrutiny or large-scale automated analysis.

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

#537

Post by mercer »

Barracoon wrote: post #533
mercer wrote: post #516

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While I could Google this, I often prefer asking people I 'know' even as tangentially as via HN comments: any suggestions for resources about this? I'd like to exercise more, and I have an entire room available, but I'm not sure where to start. I have the one-handed weight thingies, for one, but a pull-up bar is not an option. I heard one of those ball thingies with a handle is useful?

This app may be useful to you. I've used it for about 6 months and have been pretty happy with it. You can customize what equipment you have available so that it builds you a workout based on that. On the other side, you can look at what equipment it lists and determine what you want to buy. https://www.fitbod.me

Awesome, thanks for the link!

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

#538

Post by mercer »

eveningcoffee wrote: post #527
mercer wrote: post #515

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree. It's probably aliens. Or reptilians.

Naturally argumentum ad hominem is always the best strategy.

I think that's a fallacy fallacy right there, but I also think fallacies can be fun responses to stupidity. Fallacy is a strange word. Fallacy.

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

#539

Post by Simon_says »

kaybe wrote: post #262
nabla9 wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Some people like to wash their hands after they poop.

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

#540

Post by sethammons »

MikeGale wrote: post #158

Some things to consider (we're doing most of these): 1. Find out what is going on, the Interwebs are your friends. The press and politicians aren't much use. The bureaucracy (China, Japan, Iran for example) are not much use and may make things worse. 2. Carry around some sanitising, no water, hand cleaner. 3. Get a few decent masks and read up how long to use them. 4. Find out what Fomites are and think about what th…

Working from home doesn't account for having kids who are going to school. That is a larger vector than most workplaces.
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