10 votes

Daily coronavirus-related chat, questions, and minor updates - March 30

This thread is posted daily, and is intended as a place for more-casual discussion of the coronavirus and questions/updates that may not warrant their own dedicated topics. Tell us about what the situation is like where you live!

16 comments

  1. [2]
    Comment deleted by author
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    1. zara
      Link Parent
      As someone who lives in Houston and has to go back to work in a grocery store today, this makes me happy.

      As someone who lives in Houston and has to go back to work in a grocery store today, this makes me happy.

      3 votes
  2. [7]
    Parliament
    (edited )
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    General question: how do you feel about ordering food delivery from a restaurant? Or beer delivery from a brewery now that my mayor has approved it. So far, we’ve made a single grocery store trip...

    General question: how do you feel about ordering food delivery from a restaurant? Or beer delivery from a brewery now that my mayor has approved it. So far, we’ve made a single grocery store trip since beginning self-quarantine on the 13th. Just curious what everyone’s opinion is.

    We've been happy to cook every meal to minimize the number of interactions with other people, but we're definitely missing our favorite restaurants. And it's clear they're struggling too.

    7 votes
    1. [2]
      MimicSquid
      Link Parent
      My wife, who worked in food service for a decade, feels pretty all right with it depending on how much post-cooking handling the food gets. A raw salad, sushi, something like that? No way. A...

      My wife, who worked in food service for a decade, feels pretty all right with it depending on how much post-cooking handling the food gets. A raw salad, sushi, something like that? No way. A pizza, where it essentially goes straight from a multi-hundred degree oven into the box? Pretty safe, though take care with the box.

      7 votes
      1. Parliament
        Link Parent
        That's kinda what I thought. I'd feel pretty comfortable ordering a pizza right now, and lord knows I'm missing our local pizza joint.

        That's kinda what I thought. I'd feel pretty comfortable ordering a pizza right now, and lord knows I'm missing our local pizza joint.

        6 votes
    2. [2]
      Deimos
      Link Parent
      We got take-out food from our favorite restaurant yesterday, for the first time since this has started. My understanding from doing some reading on it is that we don't even really know yet whether...

      We got take-out food from our favorite restaurant yesterday, for the first time since this has started. My understanding from doing some reading on it is that we don't even really know yet whether it's possible to be infected through food, and quite a few people seem to think it's unlikely (for cooked food, at least). My impression is that it should be quite safe overall, and it's probably even safer if you reheat it at home in the oven or microwave. It might be the packaging that's more concerning than the food itself, so just be careful with that and wash your hands thoroughly after handling it.

      Last week I also ordered a bunch of cans of beer from a nearby brewery. I have no idea if it actually does anything meaningful, but when they got here I washed them all in a sink full of soapy water. I figured it couldn't hurt, anyway. Here's my dishrack full of freshly-washed beer.

      6 votes
      1. Parliament
        Link Parent
        This was my concern much more than the food itself. I didn't sanitize my groceries last Wednesday though because I don't have the cleaning products to do so (all sold out), so it was just a risk I...

        It might be the packaging that's more concerning than the food itself, so just be careful with that and wash your hands thoroughly after handling it.

        This was my concern much more than the food itself. I didn't sanitize my groceries last Wednesday though because I don't have the cleaning products to do so (all sold out), so it was just a risk I had to accept. Best I can do is wash my hands regularly.

        Maybe I'll try your soapy water tactic on packaging that is conducive to it - doesn't really work with produce, for instance. I still wash fruit/veggies with water as I normally would though.

        4 votes
    3. [2]
      babypuncher
      Link Parent
      I'm ordering delivery twice a week from local restaurants (not national chains). As long as my government says they can do it, I'm OK with the risk. Some of these places might be forced out of...

      I'm ordering delivery twice a week from local restaurants (not national chains). As long as my government says they can do it, I'm OK with the risk. Some of these places might be forced out of business if they can't keep the online orders coming in. I would hate to come out the other end of this and find that some of my favorite places have closed up shop for good.

      4 votes
      1. Parliament
        Link Parent
        Me too. Before our city figured out that delivery/takeout would still be allowed, our favorite taco place announced they would be shutting down, so we bought a $100 gift card to use later. Of...

        I would hate to come out the other end of this and find that some of my favorite places have closed up shop for good.

        Me too. Before our city figured out that delivery/takeout would still be allowed, our favorite taco place announced they would be shutting down, so we bought a $100 gift card to use later. Of course I'm worried about the family that owns it because they are our friends who live in our neighborhood and only run this single restaurant, but so many employees on staff depend on them being open too.

        My brother lives in a different city and was circulating a Google sheet/doc that had a listing of all their locally owned businesses, the status of those businesses during the shutdown, then links to support them. I thought that was a pretty interesting idea to spread around.

        2 votes
  3. [3]
    cfabbro
    (edited )
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    Sooooo I need to vent a little, since I finally can. Some of you may have noticed I haven't been around much the last week. Well, that's because my sister and her family have been on strict home...

    Sooooo I need to vent a little, since I finally can.

    Some of you may have noticed I haven't been around much the last week. Well, that's because my sister and her family have been on strict home quarantine for all that time, and my parents and I on self-imposed quarantine, after my sister was hospitalized briefly last week due to nearly fainting thanks to a horrible cough she had recently developed (and still has). She got tested for the coronavirus while there, and needless to say we have all been incredibly nervous since then... especially since my BiL and 5yo nephew have also now developed similar horrible coughs. We all agreed not to tell anyone until we got the results, not even our family or close family friends, so they would not worry unnecessarily. And since none of them had been in contact with any of us during the time when she/we could have been infectious anyways there was no risk to them in remaining ignorant, so long as we didn't expose ourselves to them in the mean time.

    Well, after over a week of worrying and fitful sleep, we finally just got the results back... and it turns out my sister is in the clear! It's just regular old viral Influenza, and I can't tell you how much of a relief that was to hear. She and her family will still remain in home quarantine for another week at the request of her Doctor, since the hospitals are overwhelmed enough as it is so they don't want even regular flu spreading right now and flu patients clogging things up as a result... and my parents and I still plan on maintaining pretty strict social distancing, since coronavirus is still out there, after all... but at least we can all relax a tiny bit now, and I can finally publicly vent about this ordeal. :P

    Incidentally, it was my father's 69th Birthday this weekend and it was by far the weirdest we have ever celebrated. We had a cake delivered to our front door by a local bakery, which we then took inside after the driver left, cut it in half and then we delivered half to the door of my sister's house. Then we came back home and had a birthday dinner with them via video chat. It was bizarre but fun, and my nephew seemed to love the experience, especially since he had coordinated decorating with my mother. Both tables were covered in playmobile and hotwheels emergency services vehicles (fire, EMS, and police), since that was the birthday theme my nephew had decided on for my father. It was a little disconcerting, but fitting given the circumstance, I guess. ;)

    7 votes
    1. [2]
      kfwyre
      Link Parent
      Glad to hear you and your family are in the clear. I can't imagine how stressful that must have been for all of you. Not that having the regular flu is any sort of comfort, but given the...

      Glad to hear you and your family are in the clear. I can't imagine how stressful that must have been for all of you. Not that having the regular flu is any sort of comfort, but given the circumstances it's definitely the better outcome.

      2 votes
      1. cfabbro
        Link Parent
        Thanks, and yeah, it was not super pleasant. My father was losing his mind with worry and broke down in tears a few times during the week, likely because my mother has a whole bunch of underlying...

        Thanks, and yeah, it was not super pleasant. My father was losing his mind with worry and broke down in tears a few times during the week, likely because my mother has a whole bunch of underlying health issues and he was worried about her... but thankfully we can all relax a little bit now. I feel a bit guilty venting the way I just did, especially since we're in the clear and others have not been so lucky... but so it goes. :(

        3 votes
  4. kfwyre
    Link
    When I go to bed at night, my phone is now plugged in on the complete opposite side of the room. I did this because I found myself staying awake and reading the news late into the night. I used to...

    When I go to bed at night, my phone is now plugged in on the complete opposite side of the room. I did this because I found myself staying awake and reading the news late into the night. I used to be able to get away with this kind of thing, but as I've gotten older I've gotten acutely more sensitive to a lack of sleep. If I don't get good sleep now, it kills the whole next day. I'm tired, in a fog, and can't enjoy anything.

    So, I exiled my phone from my bed and am better for it. Unfortunately, there are some nights where I simply can't fall asleep quickly. On those nights, I usually like to read or listen to an audiobook as a wind down activity, but if I grab my phone, you can bet I'm checking the news and falling right back into old bad habits.

    My husband had an old phone lying around that still worked fine. I reset it, and then I went in and deactivated pretty much every single thing I could including the web browser. The only things I put on the phone were my apps for books, audiobooks, and music. I then installed a launcher that only lets you have access to 5 apps. I now keep it by the bedside, and my real phone across the room.

    Thus far, it has worked wonderfully. Reading a chapter before bed is the perfect wind-down activity to the night, and the phone doesn't allow me to feed my compulsion to get lost in a news or topic spiral. I can wake up in bed on the weekends and snuggle with my dog for an hour while listening to an audiobook, instead of jumping straight into the latest updates and horrors of the world.

    It's given me a necessary and healthy distance from the modern firehose of information and discourse; it's allowed me to focus more on activities which are enriching me; and it has enriched my sleep quality significantly. I highly recommend a similar setup to anyone else struggling with their phone keeping them up at night.

    4 votes
  5. Kuromantis
    (edited )
    Link
    Quick numerical update in Brazil: Region Cases (per 1,000,000 people) Change (over the last day, hour length varies wildly) (%) Brazil 4371 (20.8) +115 (2% increase. That's lower than it should...

    Quick numerical update in Brazil:

    Region Cases (per 1,000,000 people) Change (over the last day, hour length varies wildly) (%)
    Brazil 4371 (20.8) +115 (2% increase. That's lower than it should be.)
    São Paulo (state) 1451 (30.6) +0 (?)
    São Paulo (city) 899 (73.7)

    Now here are some random, (probably pointless from the data collection being porous) milestones I found interesting regardless.

    Belgium is the next country to reach 1000 confirmed cases per million people, although they're at or past their inflection point.

    The global rate of new cases of the virus hasn't been an exponential for 4 days now. It's probably from porous testing (and the virus gradually shifting from Europe thanks to being incredibly effective to the United States and the rest of Latin America, Africa, South and Southeast Asia and other fringe corners of the world like the virus did when it spread beyond China.) But it's surprising nonetheless.

    Also 40 days ago only 1 thousand confirmed cases were reported outside China. I wonder what the next 40 days will bring us. I presume it's more slow and incremental action from governments who don't really want to do anything for the people.

    3 votes
  6. mrbig
    (edited )
    Link
    I decided to do the Hundred Pushups challenge. The idea of coming out of this looking better than I started was attractive. I soon realized I cannot do a single regular pushup, so I'm doing window...

    I decided to do the Hundred Pushups challenge. The idea of coming out of this looking better than I started was attractive. I soon realized I cannot do a single regular pushup, so I'm doing window pushups. There's no one looking anyway.

    I had lost about 1kg - mostly because there was nothing tasty in the house - but eventually, I had to go to the grocery store and came back with two packages of Lays, 2 kg of sausage, a package of bread and a big bar of chocolate. I don't know what to do: should I use the isolation to get ripped, or just say "fuck it, this is not the time to quit on junk food!"?

    On the other hand, it's been interesting to talk a whole bunch with my potential dates before meeting them. Frustrating, yes, but also interesting. In normal circumstances, I would have met these girls a long time ago. But now we have this mini-trial period. Maybe that's a good thing.

    2 votes