Media hype and coronavirus

During an outbreak in 1892, President Benjamin Harrison’s Surgeon General declared that “no vessel from any foreign port carrying immigrants shall be admitted to enter any port of the United States until such vessel shall have undergone quarantine detention of twenty days, and such greater number of days as may be fixed in each special case by the State authorities."


It will be of great interest to see if the party that controls the House will vote to close the southern U.S. border if things get worse. 

OK, I'm in my Golden Years, and so I am in one of the higher-risk populations for the virus.  And my somewhat younger wife now insists that when we run errands, such as going to the grocery store, bank, or libraries, I just sit in the car and listen to the radio while she goes inside and does whatever business needs to be done.  I do appreciate her love and concern, but I don't like being coddled or having my activities restricted so much.  What's next, I wonder... Oh no: is she going to start cutting up my meat for me?  Or - the real nightmare - shaving me?

John, this is why I haven't rescheduled our coffee session. I'm working from home this week, going a bit stir-crazy already...

OK, I'm in my Golden Years, and so I am in one of the higher-risk populations for the virus.  And my somewhat younger wife now insists that when we run errands, such as going to the grocery store, bank, or libraries, I just sit in the car and listen to the radio while she goes inside and does whatever business needs to be done.  I do appreciate her love and concern, but I don't like being coddled or having my activities restricted so much.  What's next, I wonder... Oh no: is she going to start cutting up my meat for me?  Or - the real nightmare - shaving me?

John, this is why I haven't rescheduled our coffee session. I'm working from home this week, going a bit stir-crazy already...

That's what I had suspected. I sometimes just think that at this point I have had an interesting life, a pretty good run, as they say, and if I get sick and die, so be it. But that's not something I ever would say to my wife.

During an outbreak in 1892, President Benjamin Harrison’s Surgeon General declared that “no vessel from any foreign port carrying immigrants shall be admitted to enter any port of the United States until such vessel shall have undergone quarantine detention of twenty days, and such greater number of days as may be fixed in each special case by the State authorities."


It will be of great interest to see if the party that controls the House will vote to close the southern U.S. border if things get worse. 

Well, considering Mexico has 7 cases and the US has 200+, I'm going to say that closing the southern border won't do a whole lot of good.

However, Mexico is Third World at best and their medical infrastructure very bad, so it will invariably spread like plague there, especially when it hits Mexico City, the largest city on Earth.

Well, considering Mexico has 7 cases and the US has 200+, I'm going to say that closing the southern border won't do a whole lot of good.

Except that a few hundred Chinese were caught trying to sneak over the border.

"2011 Huge ice storm followed by snow, knocks out power for 4 days to our house.... I’m drastically unprepared. Nothing makes you feel more worthless as a man or father than being unprepared to provide the basic necessities to your family.... running water, heat, power, etc.... that event prepared me for this corona event in the fact that I don’t need to worry about it. After 2011, I researched and studied prepping from a practical standpoint. What do I need to have to lock my doors for a month and not leave? After that storm, I researched and became educated in what I like to call “household readiness”. I have enough gas to fuel my generators for two weeks on a 24/7 run and enough food and water, medicine, staples, etc to last the same. If we had to, it would easily stretch a month. I did this over a years time simply slowly adding things to put in the stockpile every time we got groceries. I check expiration dates and rotate items in the stockpile into normal use and then replace accordingly when the expiration dates come close. So as I went to Walmart today and there was no Toilet paper, bottled water, Lysol, bleach, hand sanitizer, Lysol wipes, and the OTC flu and cold meds and laundry detergent, and dishwasher detergent were nearly gone and people were chucking cases of canned soup in their carts.... I simply went and got the pack of ankle socks I went there for and went home.... stress free and worry free..... "

And you weren't a drain on resources because you looked ahead. If the human cattle need assistance from an alphabet soup agency, yet again, you won't be a drain and can stay away from the petri dish of infection that others will need to go to.

Yeah, it's a really good feeling. Better when you've been w/o power for 4 days, night is falling and the temp' combined with the wind chill brings the outside temp to -80°F. BTDT. But while our preparedness wasn't what it is today we did OK. Today we'd do even better. FWIW, it was an extended ice storm that did it to us also. We had 4" of ice that basically took out our area.

Gentlemen, this thread is becoming too political. Mention of “walls” and “agencies” when talking about immigrants and the government, no matter how worded, has no place here. If you feel strongly about these subjects then please take it private through PMs or e-mails. Thanks.

I am one of the lucky few that work essentially alone and my hobbies (bike riding, book reading and hiking.......and yes, shaving!) are solo pursuits, so my life goes on as usual. Of course, there's always some interpersonal contact when I'm out and about, but I'm not too concerned for myself. However, my in-laws are in their late 70's and are not in the best of health, so we are all focused on not infecting them.

All our precautions are messed up by the fact that my wife is a nurse in the local hospital where they've had one confirmed case of Coivd-19. They are taking all the steps they can to avoid spreading the disease, but the fact is that she is very likely to be exposed to it, and then bring it home. However, we're all in good health so my hope is that even if we do catch it, we will be able to weather it.

I wish all the DFS'ers the best in avoiding this pandemic. While I have no doubt that most of those infected will weather the storm with only some discomfort, I am sure we'd all rather be healthy. So I hope you and your families (and your communities) dodge the bullets heading your way and that this passes over quickly.

I am one of the lucky few that work essentially alone and my hobbies (bike riding, book reading and hiking.......and yes, shaving!) are solo pursuits, so my life goes on as usual. Of course, there's always some interpersonal contact when I'm out and about, but I'm not too concerned for myself. However, my in-laws are in their late 70's and are not in the best of health, so we are all focused on not infecting them.

All our precautions are messed up by the fact that my wife is a nurse in the local hospital where they've had one confirmed case of Coivd-19. They are taking all the steps they can to avoid spreading the disease, but the fact is that she is very likely to be exposed to it, and then bring it home. However, we're all in good health so my hope is that even if we do catch it, we will be able to weather it.

I wish all the DFS'ers the best in avoiding this pandemic. While I have no doubt that most of those infected will weather the storm with only some discomfort, I am sure we'd all rather be healthy. So I hope you and your families (and your communities) dodge the bullets heading your way and that this passes over quickly.

Best of luck in remaining healthy yohannrjm

The panic is off the charts and is being fueled by the media. Ray Charles could see that. It's hard not to get political with that which is political in its very nature.  

In a month or so it will be something else.