COVID-19 What Are/Will You Do to Deal with This?

(Michael - When reality fails to meet expectations, the problem is not reality.) #1

What are you doing now, or plan to do and when, to protect yourself, your family and loved ones, your community which includes your colleagues and clients/customers at work as well as others? Apparently, you could be a carrier of this virus for up to 14+ days and show zero symptoms, spreading it wherever you go to whomever you meet.

It’s all well and good for government officials to tell us to ‘hunker down’, distance ourselves from one another, avoid crowds and just stay home as much as possible. What if you don’t live in a rural or remote area, or don’t have the facilities to store 6 months of food? What if you can’t work from home? What if you need a pay cheque and can’t take an extended unpaid leave?

Passive countermeasures. Active countermeasures. Please share.

(Michael - When reality fails to meet expectations, the problem is not reality.) #2

I’ll start this off. My situation may be typical, or not. I’m in Canada and receive government senior benefits the total of which don’t quite cover the rent each month. My full time job at Walmart buys the food, pays the utlities and a few small and miscellaneous expenses. I need to work or I face the prospect of making a decision either to pay the rent or eat. I’d rather eat, so… The possibility of living on the street has little appeal for me.

Fortunately, Walmart seems to have committed to staying open at least into the near term. So I think I’ll have a job to go to. However, that means I’m exposed in transit to and from Walmart and all during my shifts. I’ve decided that active countermeasures are most appropriate.

Based on what I’ve read and researched so far, until chloroquine and/or hydroxychloroquine become readily and easily available I intend to dose myself and my wife daily with quinine from tonic water (Zevia and diet varieties) and zinc picolinate and zinc citrate supplements. I started today. Still unsure of dosage, so will be researching that over the next day or two.

Hey how are you going? What did you STRESS eat today?
(Karen) #3

At home. Going nowhere. Working down the freezer, pantry and refrigerator. Reading. Etc. it’s driving my husband crazy though. I hope I can ride it out a few months. I’ll get sick…, but hopefully later. I have junk lungs.

My daughter works at a vet. She has been exposed. She is staying home for now. My husbands cousin is a retired nurse in Washington. She was helping out and is now CoVid positive.

Passive response.

(Michael - When reality fails to meet expectations, the problem is not reality.) #4

For anyone contemplating zinc supplementation:

https://ods.od.nih.gov/factsheets/Zinc-HealthProfessional/

#5

I’m a fellow Canadian and live in a large city (Toronto). I’m doing my best to follow the suggestions on social distancing. Frequently wash my hands, use Purell and do my best to not touch my face with dirty hands. Thankfully I have a home gym but go out for walks and of course to do some grocery shopping.

I was off this week but now my team and I are told to stay and work from home. I’m not hoarding food to paper products, but have witnessed quite a few folks that have.

I’m not visiting my parents or in-laws, at most standing in the door way and talking to them from a distance. Since I go to public places, take public transit, that there is a chance I might pick something up. Last thing that I want is to be responsible for passing this on to anyone.

This will likely last for a long while so trying to get use to it.

#6

I don’t know if you live in Ontario. Premier Ford announced that you can’t be evicted for not being able to pay rent when being asked to not go out:

I thought that Walmart was increasing it’s workforce to deal with the increase in demand.

#7

Michael, you have some challenges there, my thoughts are with you.

I’m doing the standard advice things with proactive hand washing. I was lucky with work (posted in another COVID19 chat).

I have that same balancing act between eating and rent that you describe. I have incrementally gathering food opportunities as they present as I hunt my pay cheque each fortnight. Those gathering tricks are what our grandparents would have called normal life. Buying things on special, in season, local and cheap, then preserving surplus, sharing abundance and friendly bartering. Revisiting frugal living tips and tricks and building new skills along that path.

I have done some maintenance on my push bike and fishing rod to supplement food gathering while social distancing. Fishing will augment meditation. I found some bags of potting mix soil on special at the local garden centre, so popped them in the space available, made some holes in the top, no need for containers, and planted some pumpkin and zucchini seeds from some fruit from a farmer friend. Tending to growing things has a calming effect for me, and I might have some fruit in a few months.

I’m texting and emailing and phoning all the family, friends etc in a constant circulation powering up social interaction while physically distancing. Funnily enough I’m cutting back on social media as that seems to be quite a toxic place at the moment.

(charlie3) #8

They want us to live quiet lives for a while, not easy for everybody but easy for me since I’m doing it already, living alone in retirement mode. I have a prudent, no hoarding, food supply that has me shopping for vegetables 3 times a month, a 30 day supply of meat, fish, olive oil, cream and coffee, and 20 days of eggs which I’ll try to top off every 10 days. I have a gym in the basement that I use. I would go stircrazy without the internet. I’ll try to avoid getting infected since I’m in a good position to succeed.

(Michael - When reality fails to meet expectations, the problem is not reality.) #9

@Mavro Vancouver. Walmart is doing fine, so far. Big crowds of shoppers every day. As long as staff remains healthy I think we’re OK. Thus, my active countermeasures.

#10

Large crowds won’t help with matters. I hope that your Walmart limits the number of people that can enter at a time. In Ontario it’s been mandated that we can’t have groups of greater than 50 people which includes grocery stores.

The big six banks have differed mortgage payments for 6 months. Shortly after that Ontario announced no evictions for the same period. I can see what Ontario did with rents might be extended to the other provinces:

I also pay rent but am thankful that I can do most of my job remotely. I’m sorry that you’re not as fortunate and are putting yourself at risk. I wish you good health good fortune good sir.

(Jo O) #11

I’m following Dr John Campbell (Check youtube) advise.
Take 1000 ui of vitamin D.
Learned better hand washing technique.
If a fever, ride it out.

FYI
I’ve worn gloves at work for the last year, wiped down my station when I’m done, & a mask when any cough. The other gal I work with is now doing the same.

Next
I’m in the middle of moving. Planned long before the crazy. And fortunately, I used toilet paper as packing material in several boxes.
I’ll start the Wim Hof breathing & cold practice again. My guess, if fever fights the virus then maybe increasing metabolism & generating our own heat with brown fat can do the same. (I did do it in December & January and successfully fought off a cold my husband had. Usually, I catch his colds & am worse than he.)
And after watching Dr Campbell posts about fever, it’s making more sense how Wim Hof is able to minimize the affects of a virus.

#12

Retired, staying at home.
I only go out for groceries once every 2-3 weeks.
Reading, surfing the net, watching tv and Netflix and Amazon prime.
Phoning.
Sleeping.
Cooking keto.

#13

With no order to “Shelter in place”…I strapped on the new skis and enjoyed the space!

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(squirrel-kissing paper tamer) #14

I live with my brother. Both have jobs that can’t be done from home and while we worry when going in, we’re thankful we are still allowed to work. Otherwise, no contact with friends or family, just calls. Grocery store once a week for fresh food but doing well on frozen and cabinet stock.

Today I’m filling my backpack and going hiking on the trails at a local park, alone. Everything is around here is starting to bloom and it’s a good reminder that not everything is a mess right now.

#15

I am sure I am totally safe, I do nothing unusual for myself. (I am the opposite of a hypochonder but I have good genes and my lifestyle is pretty okay I guess, not good enough but I am working on it).

I don’t visit my relatives and I don’t think I would even go near a shop or a town in the next 1-2 months. I can’t promise this with villages as it’s spring and there are things to see! And villages are everywhere. My daily walks are in the nearby forests and other places, far from all villages, at least.
My SO goes to work and probably will buy vegetables once in every 2 weeks, he needs his raw, fresh, juicy things. He picks up eggs but he payed in advance, I see not much risk (from him to the elderly ladies. he probably will have a big change to get infected at some point, it can’t be helped. he is very unusually healthy, he will be fine but we try to protect others).

I did some final shopping today, I used gloves and once hand sanitizer too. I probably will do nothing from now on, at home. My SO washes his hands when he takes off his dirty working gloves, after a shop visiting and after he comes home.

We have enough food for quite a few months (just a bit more than usual) but some important staples need refilling regularly.
I have spring onions and some other vegetables to help, raw vegetables have a shortest shelf life among our staples. During the last years we got used to doing a proper shopping once a month, mostly using food with a long shelf life and being creative anyway. So not shopping all the time is normal to us, not just no problem.
My life is about the same except no choir and no monthly visit of a relative.

(Todd Allen) #16

To cheer us up with the thought that things could be worse, my wife and I have been watching viral outbreak pandemic movies such as “The Omega Man”, “I am Legend”, “Contagion”, “Outbreak”, “28 Days Later”, “The Andromeda Strain”, …

#17

Not working (quit right before everything went to hell) but started doing at home certification training to get back to my old job. Still going to the gym every morning which has very few people in it. Pretty much only going out for food, gas, haircuts. So far whether at the gym, supermarket and pretty much everywhere else people are being smart, wiping everything, trying to keep a little distance as much as possible. But as you said, not being out in the country, not being a prepper, most of what people are suggesting we should be doing just isn’t reality or even possible for many. My state (I think most have) pretty much thrown out the rule book on what makes you eligible for some good ol’ govt money, maybe I’ll try to get some of that to make life a little easier. They take enough of it from me the rest of the time!

(Dirty Lazy Keto'er, Sucralose freak ;)) #18

You left out the biggest, most current one of all them, “Pandemic” ? I want to watch that… but my GF doesn’t like the main people involved with production :slight_smile: lol Personally speaking, I could look past that… but… My GF calls the TV programs…

#19
(Dirty Lazy Keto'er, Sucralose freak ;)) #20

Well interestingly, our state Government has decided that taxi drivers, Uber, and Lyft are “essential” work forces, and should remain in operation. Hmmm… from a personal standpoint, Id rather not be couped up in a small closed environment, with strangers one after the other all day, every day. Seems kind of like Russian Roulette to me. So Ive opted to quit at least 2-4 weeks, and then I will reevaluate. Even so, I’ve turned the app on a few times just to see what was up, and their are close to zero good rides being taken anyway.
With my other ‘job’, fine art photography, good luck selling any prints right now :frowning: Its hard enough to sell fine art with a booming economy.

Long story short, I don’t have any problem going out by myself, or only with my GF, and today we are actually going to a nature reserve to check out the wildlife, and do some photography…

And still, I’m not really worried about getting the virus myself, “other than, I would not want top spread it to people who might be more vulnerable than myself”. My parents are in their 90’s… but I live 2500 miles from them, and I guess I won’t visit now until at least the end of the year :frowning: Granted I totally care about everyone elses parents and grandparents too, as well as people with compromised immune systems.

And btw, I feel like I’m going to be able to go 2+ weeks without a grocery trip, so that’s the only place I’m feeling any risk anyway. So, at least Ill be able to confirm that I didn’t already have the virus “going in” to quarantine…