News Worldwide impact of the novel coronavirus (covid-19)

[lostforgottensoul]

In this state, you could stay home and draw unemployment. It's too bad they aren't doing that everywhere. I get why your company has to keep operating, and, apparently they can't set it up so people can work from home, but it would be nice if they looked out for their employees who are more at risk too.

They just offered it. Upcoming. Not forced. You have to have the setup and its based on health reasons (those that are at high risk) and oddly, how long you've been with the company and stats. Those thats been there the longest with good stats will get it after those with health concerns. They say they estimate 40% of employees will be working remote.

The thing is, there are so many account security measures that we have to follow. Such as being CPI compliant because we take payments. I hope they take the ability to take payments away from those remotely working because you cannot ensure someone is CPI complaint at home.

I don't wanna work from home. Not only do I not have the setup but keeping my days the same is keeping me sane. But it will clear out the call center some and will allow more social distancing to happen in the call center.

We can't close. Just like any utility company. But this will help some people. Even at high risk, I can't and don't want to work from home and really hope its not forced. And if it is, they need to loan me a PC.

 

[jaccat]

We’ve now got all the idiots deciding social distancing means taking their kids on holiday. I live in a tourist hotspot with high poverty rates and one hospital with just a handful of critical care beds. So far we’ve kept infected rates low, but based on the influx of people seen coming to the area in the last two days that's expected to change. Selfishness. I don’t get why so many people struggle to understand what social distancing means.

My place is expecting to get some kind of normality back in stock levels over the next few days. Whether it stays on the shelves is another matter.

 

[The Albatross]

We will see about today.

I was the "pool man" for 10 years I practically bleached myself out. of existence . The little packs of "shock" are a different chlorine and it makes bleach look like soda. I've been "gassed" with chlorine in pool sheds. Pool water is sparkling when it contains no microbial organic life or by products (dead ones)
Bleach is very effective on anything organic . I can't stop usinga little chlorox spray in the shower because nothing else gets rid of the red and black alge.

But they leave a phosphate trail. (Deathly allergic to fungals including algae). What? Is it okay to talk about pool asepsis now that people are realizing that bleach is a sanitizer? Go figure.

big fight with my wife as usual, but he gave me a quote a couple weeks ago, and he left me a message, "lets schedule the job". I'm like "not for the price we were talking about two weeks ago we won't".

Call it a personal difference, but we're scheduling services and not quibbling. But I expect unless you've ever had a personal small business people are disinclined to do that. We are actually tightly budgeted due to economic uncertainty... but build in "support your local businesses" to insure/be as certain as we can be that they will be there in the future. So far... we're scheduled for our seasonal services. I would also encourage people who avail themselves for services paying their bill rather than defaulting. We have quotes out for brick masonry, cement walk and drive ways and heating and air conditioning upgrades to support working people as we can in addition to normal services. We are also ordering pick up at local restaurants a couple to three times a week to help support businesses. Take care of them, they take care of you. That's old school, but they remember and remember that when the books are tough... you came through.

2nd half of rehab is in a pool that is too cold for the locals. Darn I hate it when that happens (67-68 degrees... same as Pacific ocean during winter). Fortunately mister's higher end apartment complexes aren't dealing with issues like another poster reports. 5 complexes have combined and axed all the subcontractors except the carpet people... for the duration unless or until people decide that can/will stop paying rent. Rules are for others... and everyone seems to think they are the exception. This is the closest we've been to metro in 35 years and we are aghast. We are sitting quietly and watching rather contributing to the crazy.... and wishing we were back home and near the fish camp. Our $$$ is spent for the year... most likely but we have $$$ under our zero. The necessary expense of physical therapy cost like a grand. Which is a lot for "people like us"... little to no savings. We only have one thing we can possibly refinance... which is potentially lucrative right now. But not carrying mortgage or general debts... it is only questionable benefit.... so it's operation calculated spending and pinch pennies til your fingers bleed. Been there, done that... several times and got the trophy.

 

[joeylittle]

This is why I want hand sanitizer. Its hot here so I wear short sleeves. Not sure how to use the sleeve of a tee shirt to touch things like door handles, elevator buttons, etc

Gotcha. Just helping with creative solutions - you can also use the hem of the short-sleeve t-shirt. Or, put a sock on your hand, or a baggie, or (like you said) a glove...Or take a long-sleeve t-shirt, cut off part of the sleeve, wear it around your wrist and pull it over your hand when you need it. Some combination of all the above, depending on situation. I know it's all a little strange/clumsy/weird, but truly - appearances don't matter so much as safety.

ETA: I've been schooled! The only potentially useful idea in the list above is single-use (dispose w/o touching exposed surface) baggie, or latex glove...but handwashing for the win :tup:

ETA: i'm high risk due to my health so thats where the worry comes from.

I hear you - so am I. I think I'm hammering on this because hand sanitizer isn't even 100% effective. It's easy to make the mistake of thinking the hand sanitizer is protecting you, but if your immune system is more vulnerable, that's all the more reason to operate carefully.

Hand sanitizer doesn't really take care of the problem. Using physical barriers for high-touch surfaces, disinfect high-touch surfaces per CDC guidelines, keeping your hands away from your face, and washing your hands with soap and water as often as is practical - those things are the things that will actually make a difference.

Also, get your supervisor to move the coughing colleague. That's just frustrating, if the directive is to sit every-other seat. Weird.

 

[The Albatross]

Gotcha. Just helping with creative solutions - you can also use the hem of the short-sleeve t-shirt. Or, put a sock on your hand, or a baggie, or (like you said) a glove...Or take a long-sleeve t-shirt, cut off part of the sleeve, wear it around your wrist and pull it over your hand when you need it. Some combination of all the above, depending on situation. I know it's all a little strange/clumsy/weird, but truly - appearances don't matter so much as safety.

Clothing is considered dirty medically for asepsis. Just sayin. None of the suggestions are sound.

 

[Mach123]

But they leave a phosphate trail. (Deathly allergic to fungals including algae). What? Is it okay to talk about pool asepsis now that people are realizing that bleach is a sanitizer? Go figure.

Call it a personal difference, but we're scheduling services and not quibbling. But I expect unless you've ever had a personal small business people are disinclined to do that. We are actually tightly budgeted due to economic uncertainty... but build in "support your local businesses" to insure/be as certain as we can be that they will be there in the future. So far... we're scheduled for our seasonal services. I would also encourage people who avail themselves for services paying their bill rather than defaulting. We have quotes out for brick masonry, cement walk and drive ways and heating and air conditioning upgrades to support working people as we can in addition to normal services. We are also ordering pick up at local restaurants a couple to three times a week to help support businesses. Take care of them, they take care of you. That's old school, but they remember and remember that when the books are tough... you came through.

2nd half of rehab is in a pool that is too cold for the locals. Darn I hate it when that happens (67-68 degrees... same as Pacific ocean during winter). Fortunately mister's higher end apartment complexes aren't dealing with issues like another poster reports. 5 complexes have combined and axed all the subcontractors except the carpet people... for the duration unless or until people decide that can/will stop paying rent. Rules are for others... and everyone seems to think they are the exception. This is the closest we've been to metro in 35 years and we are aghast. We are sitting quietly and watching rather contributing to the crazy.... and wishing we were back home and near the fish camp. Our $$$ is spent for the year... most likely but we have $$$ under our zero. The necessary expense of physical therapy cost like a grand. Which is a lot for "people like us"... little to no savings. We only have one thing we can possibly refinance... which is potentially lucrative right now. But not carrying mortgage or general debts... it is only questionable benefit.... so it's operation calculated spending and pinch pennies til your fingers bleed. Been there, done that... several times and got the trophy.

I think I followed most of this. The price the guy gave us was monstrous. I didn't expand on the stuff my wife and I were arguing about? Just the usual. My thing is, whatever we try and do together, it gets between us and I can't let people's see us fighting, because I get all feeling unsafe. She always does the same thing, it's a pattern. I'm quibbling because I didn't want to pay that anyway, and now I don't have to. Wait and see a few weeks is perfectly acceptable now for anyone. Plus contractor guy made a couple of the usual mistakes, red flags. I'm all set . Things have changed so drastically in the past little while, I can hesitate a bit.

 

[The Albatross]

As you prefer, but our purchases are on the books with the exception of the dental/crown that the provider has kicked down the road to May … non-emergency dental procedure... but gives me more time to save for. No rates were disproportionate to what was customary so we didn't have to elect to do as you did. Post hurricane Ivan... seeing material prices escalate as codes tightened and contracts squeezed while trying to meet commitments. It is something I expect we're not likely to ever forget. We though are not regular consumers having been on the back side.

 

[Sideways]

@lostforgottensoul - old school handkerchiefs!

Wearing gloves, especially disposable ones, gets real old real quick, especially in warm climates, right?

For communal surfaces, like door handles and lift buttons (since only my parents generation are fully stocked on handkerchiefs), get an old sheet or towel, and cut it into squares about the size of your hand.

Take some of those with you each day as your hand rag for touching surfaces. When you get home at the end of the day, chuck them in the wash so you can keep using them:)

 

[lostforgottensoul]

For communal surfaces, like door handles and lift buttons (since only my parents generation are fully stocked on handkerchiefs), get an old sheet or towel, and cut it into squares about the size of your hand.

Take some of those with you each day as your hand rag for touching surfaces. When you get home at the end of the day, chuck them in the wash so you can keep using them:)

What a great idea! Thanks!

For the "push" door going out of the building been using my cane. But pulling it with my cane is difficult plus then my hand goes right on the cane handle. But pushing it with the bottom of my cane works for going out of it.

Also, get your supervisor to move the coughing colleague. That's just frustrating, if the directive is to sit every-other seat. Weird.

Yes! Moving desks is so much work. Especially with finding a Veridesk (rising one) but need to move. He comes in after me and I put in the team chat to remember to sit every other desk. He didnt move. ?

 

[joeylittle]

Clothing is considered dirty medically for asepsis. Just sayin. None of the suggestions are sound.

I'm talking about a barrier layer for high-touch surfaces outside the home. No, it doesn't create aesepsis - but it helps cut down the % transfer of potentially alive virus to the skin on the hand. Just as sneezing into one's sleeve or elbow isn't going to eliminate any trace of the virus (and it creates a transfer to one's own clothing that needs to be dealt with) - it simply cuts down on % of transmission.

Not a replacement for true disinfection. An assist on controlling pickup/transfer.

ETA: you're right, Albatross - bad advice on my part. Thanks (along w/ JMH) for correction.

 

[Mee]

I really love handkerchiefs for stuff like that . FWIW I also only use reusable cleaning clothes and face clothes too ( a new face cloth each day). I keep a bucket by my washing machine and put all the used cloths in there, and then when the bucket is full I run a hot wash. I put face clothes through with towels. The hot wash for cleaning cloths works to disinfect my machine too and keep it smelling good and is the only hot wash I do - once a fortnight or so.

If you actually are using the handkerchief for nose blowing, modern advice is that paper is the way to go. But a good old fashioned handkerchief is really useful to have on you

 

[Warrior Chicken]

Fear leads to panic. Panic leads to hate. Hate leads to violence.

I think about this ^^^ all the time. Even before covid19.
I do hope that most people can remain for the rest of their lives in their oblivious bubbles and not experience what happens when H—->V