Trump was saying the cases would go to zero shortly, not a big deal to even worry about, expect to go to work with a mild case. Lots believe every most recent word or tweet.
But the whole point of Sam’s / Costco is bulk for businesses. So there’s not really a reasonable way to ration without also rationing businesses and organizations. Unless they just ban all their non-organization customers (and setup a system to do so?).
It’s also not productive to have organizations need to send out multiple members to go between 100s of stores buying 1 3 oz purel and 1 75 pack of sanitizing wipes from each. That wouldn’t cut down overall exposure either.
I’m just back from supermarket about three hours ago. Situation was normal, people were friendly, no shortages, no lines, nobody wearing masks, acting weird, or over buying.
Yes, that was my experience at all the stores except wholesale club.
Was talking to some friends in Europe where this panic buying happened 1-2 weeks ago, now it’s back to business as usual. I guess maybe even better since a ton of hoarders have to go through their pile of stuff so won’t be shopping much for a while.
“CBR” stands for “chemical, biological, radiological”, three different sorts of warfare alternative to conventional weapons. Please cast aside the first and last, focusing on “biological”.
We have been in a trade war with China for a while. Even though a “phase 1” agreement has been signed, significant differences remain between the USA and China on trade.
For some reason this question popped into my head: If the Chinese were conducting a biological attack on the USA, how would that attack differ from what we, as a country, currently are experiencing?
All right. All RIGHT!! I can hear the replies before you even write them. This is not a biological attack. Period. And by the way, I’m not Alex Jones (that guy is a lunatic). I can think of important differences on my own. For one thing you target younger people especially, and not fossils.
But were I a Red Army hardliner I surely would be watching closely America’s response to this bioinvasion. What a perfect, albeit completely unintended, dry run for the Red Chinese. Nothing they could simulate is the equal of our current real-life response and reaction. They have to be learning a ton of lessons they can file away for future use.
Naaa. I really don’t think they were trying. But I’m absolutely convinced they are watching our every reaction with rapt attention, and taking copious notes. And they have to be encouraged by our poor response so far.
The Russkies?
My sense is they would prefer just to nuke us out of existence . . . . if it ever came to that, I mean.
But a few days ago I visited Costco for a few items & it was a mad house there. Wonder why? True many items are discounted at Costco… People rush for a discount!
I got back from Walmart about 2 hours ago (Washington side of Portland, OR). Entire shelving units of soup, spagetti sauce and potatoes, most breads and 90% of the entire meat section all completely gone. Safeway, Winco and other grocery stores still have stock of most of these items but it’s similar to looking at the pics of the Costco/Sam’s club toilet paper and tissue section.
We also went out to buy study material to homeschool our youngest for the next 5 weeks (our district’s schools are all closed until late April). Most of the decent elementary school books are all picked over. Looks like a few other parents had the same idea we did. It’s crazy. Fortunately I’m excessive already and have a month’s worth of frozen and canned goods and TP/tissues/paper towels so it’s really not an emergency for us but it’s a little wierd seeing people crazy over all these items. We waited over a week since the craze to go shopping but it seems things are even crazier now.
We are extremely fortunate that I make enough at my job and side gig and we live enough below our means that my wife has been able to be a stay at home mom but I definately feel for those families who have to struggle right now to find child care to be able to go to work, many of whom live paycheck to paycheck.
I think anyone, like yourself, who shops now is smart. I offer that not from the availability of goods side . . . but rather from the exposure side.
The virus still is not in my “community” . . . . to the extent we even have a community around here and I suppose we do in a way. I had to travel ten miles, one way, to reach the supermarket today. Needed to perform a dump run (strictly for recyclables) anyway and combined the two trips. Our dump is only open on Saturday mornings.
Thing is, the virus clearly is spreading. Few weeks out things here might not be so quiet. We could have announced cases in the community. So figured, on balance, t’was better to “git 'er done” today instead of waiting. Am good now for at least a month, and with my powdered milk, frankly much longer than that.
Course at some point in late April or early May s’gonna be necessary to replenish. Have to hope for the best.
As for Costco, that company does not operate here where I am. There are not enough people here.
I guarantee they planned to sell them on Ebay or Amazon for a huge profit and now are stick with them. Since ebay closed those channels and amazon is now gated for those types of items. Guess he can distribute them locally through craigslist?
ETA: Read the article. Amazon reseller.
My wife has always added additional teachings outside the school curriculum in workbooks and online supplementary material so this is not new to us. Credit goes to her though.
School closure for us was announced yesterday afternoon and that very night she meticulously planned and printed out a schedule for curriculum and activity list to keep our son on a similar at-home school schedule. I may be the bread winner but she is the one who for sure keeps everything together at home.
I guess that’s the thing. After seeing Seattle school closures (600k students, half the state’s students) at home and all Oregon schools closed we knew that very afternoon that we were next. 10 min after I told my wife to expect that we will have our son home for a long time, the announcement came that our district closed too.
I don’t anticipate our USA closing shop completely like areas of China and Italy has, especially under lock and key but the effects nonetheless are there. A week ago people online referred to the now pandemic as similar to 9/11. I was on college campus then seeing the twin towers fall on our projector tv in central campus. We were all affected but this pandemic is different. Maybe because it was on the other side of the US where this now is starting on ours. But fear is the worst and most threatening factor.
A graph I saw earlier showed 0% of people infected under 8 have died. .1% of people under 30 have died. Another .1% of people under 40 have died. Somewhere around 4% of people 50-60 have died. It scales up but it isn’t until you are over 70 where maybe 15% have died.
This epidemic isn’t like the plague or the 1918 flu or anything like it but it has spread so quickly that it has people not in fear of dying but in fear of their lifestyle. Panic has spread and overreacted to what is perceived scarcity of items to cause an overzealous buyout in items to cause an actual scarcity of those items. I may sound dated in saying this (not yet 40) the information age may be our biggest achievement in sharing knowledge but it may also be our biggest downfall with mass hysteria.
So anyways… Enough of the rant and back on topic… The blood is almost in the streets. I was tempted to buy in at 10% down then 20% down… When is the bottom when I should go in? I was prepared to this weekend until I saw what I did today but I don’t think we’re yet there.
I’m figuring the best case scenario is two weeks from now, we know how bad the situation was as of today. Not sure there are physically enough tests to even get that clear picture by then. Its literally impossible to know right now – the rules in most places for a doctor even requesting a test (not for being approved) specifically excluded any possibility of detecting any community transmission by design. They require(d) at least two of: severe symptoms, direct travel from a couple designated areas (Wuhan, etc), and direct contact with someone who tested positive for Covid19.
The effect of the half- effort distancing will take longer to see any effect after that. If we went FULL lockdown next week (which I don’t expect), it would STILL take weeks until a decrease in new daily cases (see Italy).
The death rate is not terrible IF the healthcare system is not overloaded. But it looks up to 10X as much or more with overwhelmed system. 5%+ death rate should be terrifying, even if you don’t care about any old people – or about any other people that won’t have care for other chronic conditions or injuries/ illnesses.
These extra massive death totals are (or maybe just were) preventable!
I don’t think cowering in a corner in fear makes any sense. But I do think people should be very scared. It takes massive cooperation to avoid the worst case scenarios. People need fear to not put their individual (often selfish) interests so far above the lives of their neighbors.
