How has COVID-19 impacted you?

I'm more of a horsepower than stick-and-ball person, myself, so I'm disappointed (but understand) that both Formula 1 and IndyCar cancelled their season openers and all supporting races this weekend, and there will be no open-wheel racing until at least May. IMSA had already rescheduled the 12 Hours of Sebring until later in the year. I guess the last holdout, NASCAR, has finally cancelled the next two races (at least), as well. Looks like the last sports to still be going on are UFC and Wrestlemania.

The UFC is holding their event in Brasil tomorrow night in an empty arena, and have moved the next few events from the major venues to the UFC training center in Las Vegas, where they will be held with no spectators, and the bare minimum of support/press personnel on hand. As for pro wrestling, Vince McMahon won't cancel Wrestlemania at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa unless legally forced to, I'm sure. Let's put 50,000 people in a stadium during a pandemic. What could go wrong...
 
They are closing our offices and having is work remotely. This next week is Spring Break too, so I'm going to need as much patience and I can get. Wish me luck.
 
Looks now like I'm either getting an extra week off or working from home. I broadcast instruction to eight campuses, two of which are leaving for their spring breaks today, the other six of which were scheduled to resume on Monday. But we're being told campuses will be following the lead of their local ISD, and so far I know four of the six for sure will be off at least another week.

I'm going to be pissed if I have to broadcast from home just for fucking Killeen and Midland, I'll tell you that for nothing. 🤬

Went to HEB for my regular grocery shopping and it was full tilt "hurricane making landfall in 12 hours!" madness in there. People dragging two baskets through the aisles, lines backed up at every register, empty shelves. Insane. I have no idea why people are stocking up on water & batteries, though. Cleaners, bleach, hand soap, sanitizer, sure. But it's not Walking Dead time here.

Anyway, here's MY pandemic preparedness kit:

30112

Because in perilous times, handles > fifths, man. Handles > fifths. 😎

~Boar
 
Just dropped roughly a grand on a desktop and two monitors, so my wife and I can adequately work remote. The 15" laptop wasn't cutting it, and the 10 yr old iMac went into retirement.

Otherwise, we've got plenty of meat in the freezers and a pantry full of nonperishable food in case we decide to hide out for a bit.
 
I just flew home from Asia. The airports and airplanes were unbelievably empty. There were only about 50 passengers on my flight with 276 seats.
 
Working for a large hospital in a very populated area, I'm now 100% remote. Managing the hospital's IT dept is rather easy to do remote, so I'm lucky in that respect.

Obviously as you know you can't buy any TP or paper towels. Costco shoppers are nuts. Really quite scary to see how many people are stock piling right now, and concerning about what will happen if the "big one" (earthquake) hits. This is a serious pandemic, and not something that should be taken lightly, however imagine a major spur of the moment disaster; people will panic.

Just be prepared for anything, and have supplies on hand. I'll certainly be stocking up on more stuff after things settle down. If there is a major issue, we're going to have to really take care of our own and be prepared for the worst. Haven't eaten out at a restaurant for nearly 3 months now and trying to avoid populated areas.

Be safe out there!
 
Half of our action plan has been activated at the health department. Sooner rather than later, I am fairly certain I will be assisting with contact tracing interviews. I am officially working from home from 3/16-3/27. During that time, I may still have to report for training or orientation somewhere, unless it is available online or via video conferencing. My daughter’s school district is on extended spring break, my wife will also be working from home.
 
Reminds me of an old expression, "Too stupid for words." At worst, this is a virus. People die from them when their immune system is compromised by poor diet, other illness, or old age. The normal flu strains are a much higher risk AND the cold season is winding up.

The reaction by government and their ancillary businesses (CDC, big pharma, education, media, etc) is very concerning, though. They are treating this virus very differently than recent Corona virus outbreaks. And too many are driven to panic. It's a virus not an alien invasion! :)

It's time for a Covid-19 cigar! ;) Perhaps a Corona? :P
 
So now at my local hospital we are having to actually limit our contact precaution room supplies, as the public has been buying up on mass bulk gloves, masks, etc.

This is mainly an additional insight into the healthcare side of things. An informative inside look.

Hospital staff is now being limited in contact precautions on gloves and mask supply, because of limited stock. Public population is buying so much into the stock that now MRSA patients no longer require full PPE, and now just require gloves due to stock. Medical procedures in room are limiting assistants to only wear gloves and further equipment if absolutely necessary in bedside medical procedures. Surgical personnel are limiting their supplies unless you are coming in contact directly with the patient’s body. Physical therapists, occupational therapists, and speech therapists are suggested to wear gloves if only absolutely necessary in patient rooms and further suggest hand hygiene due to restricted supplies.

Daycare is soon to shutdown so now I have to bring my 3 and 5 year old with me to my clinic so as not to expose their grandparents if it begins to reach us, which it hasn’t. My clinic is now set to gloves only with injections and procedures and otherwise gloveless with examinations and testing. Mainly because I can’t buy ANY gloves or masks because they are all on backorders.

These precautions and stock supply are now affecting how we are treating other patients. I’m not happy about this. I’m absolutely positive that as soon as we let people back into school and offices this is gonna take off again with few deaths per the norm. But it just upsets me that now it is affecting exposures in the hospital for those worried about infection from other sources....

If the coronavirus hits our area, then me and my wife will be the first one exposed because we work in the hospital and clinic setting and are required to treat those affected or afflicted regardless. With the lack of supplies that is steadily ensuring we will be exposed....

Edit: tbh tho, I’m not worried about contracting it
 
I run a coffee shop. I've had a few preppers loading up on beans, but mostly just dwindling numbers My kids schools are closed for the next three weeks. They are old enough to stay home, but a lot of families are going to use all of their PTO because their's can't.

My wife works for the regional blood center. They had an estimated 1500 units lost today due to canceled blood drives. Closed schools, campuses, work from home mandates and no visitor policies are the culprits. Traumas, surgeries and child birth are not going to stop because there is a virus on the loose, but if there is no blood available, the survival rates are certainly going down. Regardless of what they make it sound like on the radio commercial, if you are paid for your blood product, it CANNOT be transfused into a patient. Paid for plasma is fractionated to make medicines.

There is no surplus. Those 1500 units become a shortfall unless those donors or someone else goes into a center and donates. If you are eligible to donate, get 'er done.

This paranoia is going to destroy small businesses across the country. One of the best suggestions I have seen was to purchase gift certificates (directly from the shop/restaurant so they have the cash) and hold them until you're ready to be out in public. This gives the business some money to keep them alive, pay rent, pay employees etc. until the panic settles. Its small business and not the corporate ladder that makes this the land of opportunity.
 
We've just received the call from my school district that we're closed for the next two weeks. I'll be working on some remote lessons through Google classroom. While I can't say I'm particularly upset, it is a bit of an inconvenience as we had some things scheduled that now have to be adjusted. I get it though....need to control the spread and expose as few people as possible.
 
Just an update. Both kids home from school into early April for now. Ex-Mil facility on lockdown, which is good, for her sake as well as the rest of the folks there. Brother and wife will be on a plane coming back tomorrow. Essentially, probably shouldn't have went...I think their flight was into Switzerland from what my folks said. So far so good for them, will still have to self quarantine when they get back. Hoping to get in touch with them right away to make sure that happens, because its not a big deal to pick up and drop off food and supplies to them for me. Probably not ideal but I don't want my folks doing it either.

Crazy times, but doing what I can. Seems like the government is ramping things up, to "flatten the curve". Hopefully that all works as expected. Also concerned about the effect on local business, but haven't decided on how to handle that personally just yet. It is big in our area and we know a lot of folks from frequenting it. Don't want to stop completely either, so just have to figure it all out. Maybe just ordering take out for the time being. For us, this is all kinda just day 2 or 3...so still feels new..and weird.
 
So thanks to schools being closed, I don’t need to set my alarm for at least two weeks (win). Since my kids are home, I can teach them how to use hot soapy water and sponges to clean dried yogurt off tables and chairs (win), and I can teach my oldest how to fold his clothes and straighten up his room (win). This has promise. There might be an up side to this. I’ll let you know in 14 days.
 
On the verge of freaking out a bit. I just opened my own gym back in November and have had numerous setbacks along the way, include a shitty business partner I had to fire/pay off. And now this. The bright side is that my gym is all personal and small group training, so never more than 4 people with a coach. It's actually ideal considering the mandates. However convincing the public of that is tricky, and who knows how this will affect business in the near future.

Trying to see the bright side and build up my online personal training business, but even the marketing for that has been tricky.

Kids are off school for the next two weeks while their schools figure out distance learning. Their particular schools (charter schools with small student populations) have already been working on that for a few weeks, so they'll be ready before the larger regular public schools in St Paul.

Ugh.
 
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