[Shop-talk] everybody OK with Covid-19?

[Scott Hall]

The metro St. Louis area could go either way, I think. I ran out of paper
towels this weekend. Costco and Wal Mart tonight look worse than Florida
during hurricane prep. The toilet paper thing is real here--I would be
willing to bet there's none in stores anywhere in the metro area. No paper
towels either. The meat cases at Costco were empty, completely. Wal Mart
had some fresh produce--plum tomatoes and cabbage, but no bananas or
onions. Costco was the most unsettling--they had a list at the door of what
was sold out and the massive pallets of produce were just gone. The area
was mostly just empty. People were rolling out with cases of bottled water.
As if the water supply was in jeopardy. No flour. No butter, milk almost
gone. I'm not sure how bad people think it will be when they buy all the
fifty-pound bags of flour.

Schools are closed starting tomorrow; I told my guys last week they could
work from home. The rumors were going hard at work--they're going to be a
quarantine, banks are closing, gas stations are closing. Illinois is closed
all 'non-essential' business which, while probably the right way to stop a
biological agent, drive the spread of the stupid fear-mongering.

I was thinking about this a lot like Eric--just wash your damn hands (often
and well), maintain social distancing, and if you're under 60 the worst
you're going to get here is what amounts to a bad cold. Stay out of the ER
unless the paramedics take you there themselves and this will all blow over
in a few weeks. Even at the stated mortality rate you won't know anyone
that dies from this and if we don't tilt the hospitals they can probably
save most of the truly bad cases. If we all do our part this will be mostly
a non-event for most people.

After today I'm less worried about the virus itself and more about the
stupid running around. I lived through Florida hurricanes that seemed like
nothing compared to the people obviously barely containing their panic.
Toilet paper panic buying? Or attempted price gouging? Seriously?

And apparently my pop-epidemiology isn't great either--this is a bigger
deal than I thought and I should have sent everyone home at least a week
before I did. Maybe that 2% fatality rate is soft and it's not sticking to
the (sorry, fellas) elderly.

I figure I've got enough food probably two months, minimum. If I had to not
leave the house at all, that'd be achievable. But after watching and
hearing my fellow citizens I'm starting to think I should have laid into a
stockpile of ammunition.

I dunno, I'm a little unsettled. I've evacuated from hurricanes. I lived
through *not* evacuating from hurricanes and had no power or running water
for six weeks. In August. I never thought society was even close to to
approaching mass panic, it was just sweaty. Watching these people around
here...I'm not so sure about this. It's almost like they want to melt down
and have been waiting for an excuse. Even on Fox no one was claiming banks
and gas stations would shut down but people made that up in their heads.
Normal news stations just kept repeating schools would close and people
just got more wound up.

I'll probably feel better in the morning. Something about watching people
load up cases of bottled water in front of a store of empty shelves. It was
like they needed to buy *something*.

On Mon, Mar 16, 2020 at 1:34 PM Philip Ethier via Shop-talk <
shop-talk at autox.team.net> wrote:

> Covid-19 is around.  How are you doing?
>
> --
> Phil Ethier West Side Saint Paul Minnesota USA
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