I'm not doing anything different. The grocery store yesterday was low on toilet paper. 20lb bags of white rice, only one left.

Since gas prices are so low, we have friends that are planning a 14 day road trip. Another couple put $1000 down on a trip to Italy. Not realizing why it was so cheap.

I don't understand hoarding toilet paper. *IF* and only *IF* you self quarentine, it's usually only for 14 days. How much toilet paper do you normally go through in 14 days, and do you reall need 12 thirtysix pack rolls from Costco for those 14 days??? And the water? WHY ARE PEOPLE HOARDING BOTTLED WATER? Don't you have a sink? One in the kitchen? One in the bathroom? Sorry, two in the bathroom (sink and tub). Does water come out of those taps? And how would you getting this virus or ANY virus stop the water from coming out of those taps? Why does anyone need to hoard cases of bottled water??????????????????????

I understand people wanting that santizer. I rarely use it. I actually have a bottle in my linen closet that EXPIRED in 2017! That's how little I use it. I have a small travel sized bottle attached to my purse. It'll probably expire before I use it up. I use my elbows to push open doors. I cough into my elbow. I'm not a germaphobe by any means. I rarely if ever even get a cold. Why? Because I'm not afraid of germs. I work in a drugstore filled with sick customers 40 hours a week. I barely get a cold. Okay, so 2 1/2 years ago I got the cold from hell, and the last time I was that sick was 33 years ago when I had a similar cold while pregnant with my youngest baby. Two bad colds in 33 years isn't that bad, if I must say so myself.

You want to make sure you're stocked up IN CASE OF SELF QUARENTINE? How much food do you eat in 14 days? Keep that much food stocked in your home. How much toilet paper do you use in 14 days. Keep that much stocked up in your home.

I bought 2 12 roll packs of TP at work yesterday and got "the look" from people. Sorry, but my husband is missing part of his stomach and has severe stomach issues so yes, we stock up 365 days of the year. But not a six month supply by any means. Usually just one bag of Kirkland brand TP and that lasts us about six weeks. But they had 0 in stock Thursday night and when my boss drove past the store yesterday morning when they were about to open, the line up to get in was more than a block long. FOR TOILET PAPER! OMG!

The media is blowing this whole thing out of proportion. The flu has killed MANY more people than this virus has. If you are healthy, you'll barely notice you are sick. Only the old and those with compromised immune systems will be severely affected. If you keep yourself healthy and clean YOU WILL BE FINE. Don't listen to your friend on Facebook. Listen to the scientists. And common sense.

I need to swing by the grocery today to pick up a few items I need. No hoarding - just some fresh produce, eggs and some pet food :-) Based on the 3 lengthy threads discussing this topic and all the mass hysteria reported about stockpiling TP, bottled water, sanitizers, etc. and some other staples, I am more than a little curious about what things look like at my local store. I shall report back :-)

The people freaking out over this are probably the same people that won't give their kids the vaccinations for measles, chicken pox, mumps, and polio.

It is a virus. The cold is a virus. The flu is a virus. All of the different herpes are a virus. Warts are a virus. If you get a secondary infection all virus COULD kill.

For those who think there is overreaction to the threat of Coronavirus, research the percentage of those who die and compare the speed of spread to the flu. And keep in mind that there are still few test kits being utilized, so there are no accurate counts of cases.

If you show no, or slight, symptoms it is still possible for you to spread this virus. Do you want to live knowing that your lackadaisical attitude may contribute to the sickness or death of someone else? Wash your hands!

Amylou, you made me laugh out loud three times. Made my day. I pretty much will do what I always do. I have to take every precaution mentioned anyway as I'm 81 and have advanced kidney disease. If it hits close to us, we will stay in. We are pretty well set with food and necessities. I take zinc every day to boost the immune system, it works well plus multiple vitamins and amino acids. We eat the Mediterranean diet as my husband is from Italy. He's 86 and takes no meds, healthy as a horse. Despite my illness, I can still do everything I did at 50. We get through things with laughter for the most part. Faith and fun is my motto.

One last thing, we purchase all our products on Amazon so they are delivered to the door. Easy peasy. Wear gloves when opening the packages lol.

The people freaking out over this are probably the same people that won't give their kids the vaccinations for measles, chicken pox, mumps, and polio.

Please trace how you analyzed and came up with this theory (I just do not see a connection at all).

Only the old and those with compromised immune systems will be severely affected.

So 34 year old Dr. Li's death was not a severe affect. I think he would beg to differ if he could.

Because of all the forward, forward, forward on Faceyuck. Because of all the people avoiding Chinese people and Corona beer.

Addressing Debby's queations:

I don't understand hoarding toilet paper. *IF* and only *IF* you self quarentine, it's usually only for 14 days.

Quarantining someone who has been exposed to the virus is only one scenario. Another is this: Imagine that the virus has spread to your community and you want to do everything possible to avoid getting it. (This is particularly true if you're at high risk of becoming severely ill with it.) You will want to stay out of stores and anywhere else where large numbers of people gather. So you stay home. With the food and supplies you have so thoughtfully purchased in advance. Including toilet paper. This scenario is likely, IMO, to last longer than two weeks.

WHY ARE PEOPLE HOARDING BOTTLED WATER? Don't you have a sink? One in the kitchen? One in the bathroom? Sorry, two in the bathroom (sink and tub). Does water come out of those taps?

Not if the power goes out. This sometimes happens in the case of major disruptions.

And to Tigereye:

It is a virus. The cold is a virus. The flu is a virus. All of the different herpes are a virus. Warts are a virus.

True. And I'll add that Ebola is a virus. Rabies is a virus. HIV is a virus.

It is a virus. The cold is a virus. The flu is a virus. All of the different herpes are a virus. Warts are a virus.

True. And I'll add that Ebola is a virus. Rabies is a virus. HIV is a virus.

You just made my point!

Because of all the forward, forward, forward on Faceyuck.

Tigereye

Your last few posts just don't make any sense. Are you OK?

The fact is the virus itself will not likely do much harm when it arrives.

We still do not have enough facts to be able to say that.

A little more humor.

We have an opportunity to learn a great deal about health hygiene and limiting the spread of innumerable transmissible diseases in our society.

Absolutely! I hope that in this country, more people realize the risk to us all, when many workers literally can't afford to stay home when they are sick.

From OutsidePlaying,

What I am scared about is the loss of reason and wave of fear that has induced the masses of society into a spellbinding spiral of panic, stockpiling obscene quantities of anything that could fill a bomb shelter adequately in a post-apocalyptic world. I am scared of the N95 masks that are stolen from hospitals and urgent care clinics where they are actually needed for front line healthcare providers and instead are being donned in airports, malls, and coffee lounges, perpetuating even more fear and suspicion of others. I am scared that our hospitals will be overwhelmed with anyone who thinks they " probably don't have it but may as well get checked out no matter what because you just never know..." and those with heart failure, emphysema, pneumonia and strokes will pay the price for overfilled ER waiting rooms with only so many doctors and nurses to assess.

I am scared that travel restrictions will become so far reaching that weddings will be canceled, graduations missed and family reunions will not materialize. And well, even that big party called the Olympic Games...that could be kyboshed too. Can you even

imagine?

I'm scared those same epidemic fears will limit trade, harm partnerships in multiple sectors, business and otherwise and ultimately culminate in a global recession.

But mostly, I'm scared about what message we are telling our kids when faced with a threat. Instead of reason, rationality, openmindedness and altruism, we are telling them to panic, be fearful, suspicious, reactionary and self-interested.

YES!

I should have attributed the article. She is Dr Abdu Sharkawy with the University Health Network in Toronto Ontario.

I find myself in the rare position of having limited agreement with Lucille, only with respect to her comment that not enough facts are known about this disease and what the ultimate outcome will be and so any extreme conclusions or actions are really not warranted at this time. That's the biggest reason (for me) why the hoarding and stockpiling of various goods seems irrational. I'm afraid, so I need to do something. Aha, I'll fill my garage with TP!

I understand that it's prudent for people who live in remote areas subject to getting trapped in by weather events to have a supply of food and water for the period of likely isolation. However, the vast majority of people who hoard months and months of food aren't in such circumstances and for whatever the reasons, the rationale for doing so when there isn't a likely need evades me. I have a good friend who's an active LDS member. They go through the motions of food storage (for the sake of outward appearances for fellow church members) but he thinks it's ridiculous.

PS for Outsideplaying

Other mentions I found of Dr Sharkawy suggest that he's male, not female.

I have to say that for someone seemingly not involved in public health functions, his diatribe is borderline irresponsible. I think his speculation is fine but he should describe his feellings as just those and not scientific assessments.

Here's another physician's perspective. NY State declared a state of emergency today, and the epicenter of the COVID-19 cases is New Rochelle. Dr. Lathan, who wrote the letter, is well respected. I'm not familiar with the addressees.

Dear Drs. Feijóo and Balchan,

Thank you for your updates regarding Covid-19. I’ve been an Emergency Medicine physician for over 20 years. I am currently in practice at a Westchester hospital and have 4 children in our New Rochelle schools. As the world is watching, Covid -19 is here in New Rochelle and likely neighboring towns as well. The CDC criteria our hospitals had been using to test for Covid-19 was initially based solely on travel history. This screening criteria allowed New Rochelle’s first positive case to slip through the cracks and remain in our community for approximately 3-5 days before his isolation and admission to the ICU. This is not an isolated case. Covid-19 is highly contagious and spreads rapidly. For every positive test there will be at least a dozen or so more people who have contracted the virus but will not be tested. Many of these untested carriers of Covid-19 will be young, and healthy - our children. They will present only with symptoms of the common cold or worse no symptoms at all. We all have elderly parents, family and friends on chemotherapy battling cancer, or coping with heart disease, chronic lung disease and various other conditions that will render them vulnerable to this virus. At least with the Flu, we have a vaccine and anti-virals. With well over 10,000 students in the New Rochelle Schools, Covid-19 will spread like wild fire. While the majority of our infected students will fare well, it will be mostly the immune compromised of our communities who will suffer debilitating illness, and in some cases death. There are over 1,000 residents in our city already under quarantine.

The responsible decision is to temporarily close schools like Mt. Vernon, Hastings and other Westchester schools already have. Sanitizing the schools only 3 times a week is not enough to stem the spread of this virus that lives 5-9 days on a solid surface. We all need a pause. Families need time to develop contingency plans. The school system needs time to figure out a more comprehensive screening, reporting and sanitizing schedule. This pause will also allow time for our epidemiologists to track the spread of this epidemic in our community and initiate additional quarantines as needed before reintroducing our children into the school system.

We have had a mild winter. Please use those snow days now and close the schools for 5 days. A 5 day closure will give us 9 days of default community quarantine. While this strategy may seem aggressive, when lives are at stake, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

Respectfully,

Edward Lathan, MD FAAEM

I did buy a few things today, like a small box of disposable gloves to keep in the car when pumping gas. I also bought more hand wipes as I needed them for the car anyway. I noticed in Meijer that one whole shelf was empty of TP. I still have my stockpile of items left from last December. I also bought more meat than I usually buy, beef, chicken tenders, and a small turkey breast. It seemed like quite a few people were coughing or sneezing.....yikes!

So I stopped by my local Safeway (the closest and most convenient) to pick up my few odds and ends. Even on a weekend, the store was not crowded and there was plenty of everything....except TP, which was surprisingly picked over and with a lot of bare shelf space. Lots of bottled water, lots of cleaning and sanitizing supplies. The only other things that were in short supply were some of their sale items. But I'm sure that was just because their sale prices were so good!

I don't understand the TP thing myself......... :-)

Elmer, you probably are correct. I looked briefly at the page and noticed pics of a female prominently displayed in the forefront with others of kids. Shouldn't have assumed from that.

Well There is this, ten to 16 million may be on lockdown in Italy. The lockdown could last weeks. That is why people buy food, water and toilet paper.

Could it happen here?

One of the healthiest things I am doing is turning off the non-stop media coverage of the coronavirus story. I think it is unhealthy to watch or read hours and hours each day of this coverage. There is very little new information, it is mostly commentary and doesn't leave the audience in a very good state of mind.

My daughter is in the ER with cough, headache, shortness of air and sore throat. One of her coworkers tested positive for strep, 2 called in and one was sent home with a fever today. I told her to go to an urgent care but she said they wouldn't let her leave. Cheesecake Factory letting a sick server serve food to people. She was sweating but taking Excedrin which could mask a fever, so they let her spread germs to everyone around her. She said it was super busy and not sure the sweating was due to fever or just because she was running so much. I told her to leave anyway but she wouldn't. She was supposed to work at her second job tonight but is waiting on test results. They're only testing for flu and strep in this hospital in Lexington. I'm assuming they're only testing for covid 19 if you've been in contact with a positive person or traveled to certain countries.

Let us know what she finds out please, how she feels later.

" she said they wouldn't let her leave. Cheesecake Factory letting a sick server serve food to people. "

That's inexcusable. She should look for another job and when she gets one, she should write a letter describing her experience to the local health department bureau that oversees restaurants.

Those who patronize Cheesecake Factory should take note. Is this the kind of place you want to go to?

Omg, guess what? My daughter tested negative for flu and strep but forgot all about her boss at the sushi restaurant she works at having traveled to South Korea last month. She's still at the ER so I told her to go and tell them NOW.

Elmer, she has been looking and is working a second job that pays better. I doubt they will test her unless her boss has been sick within the last 14 days. CDC website is saying symptoms appear in 2-14 days of exposure. We are triaging 14 days where I work. Waiting to hear back from her.

My dept at work normally goes thru 3 cases of hand sanitizer a week. I was lucky I got an order of 7 cases. Our suppliers are out until mid May. But I did get 4 cases of Clorox wipes and 1 case of Lysol spray.

SamKaren

Your resident dj

Good luck, kathsgrdn. Of course you know well she's in a low risk group if her health profile is typical of people her age and if she doesn't have chronic respiratory or immune system issues. Hopefully that's the case.

How are you preparing for the virus?

Not really preparing, but when we went to Ralphs to buy groceries and toilet paper, we discovered that Ralphs was completely out of toilet paper. I had never seen so many empty shelves in this grocery store before. We went to the one in Westchester, which often has a lot of Chinese stewardesses/plane attendants shopping there, but they usually are there on Sundays. Anyway, I had to go to CVS next door to get toilet paper, and fortunately they were not out. Ralphs in Westchester is less than a mile from LAX, and so people from the airport shop there.

Dh has been hoarding toilet paper for awhile --- way before coronavirus. ;)

Well she didn't tell them about her boss. They did tell her she couldn't have it because her symptoms weren't bad enough. She's in her 20s and pretty healthy so why they would say that is beyond me, unless they were just trying to reassure her. At least she has a doctor's note for the next 2 days off from work. Hopefully it is only a respiratory infection and not this virus. I would hate to think she or I or someone else she has been around/serving food to could get sick or spread it around.

"How are you preparing for the virus?" not really preparing here-YET-We only go out of town monthly or so,and are always aware of ppl coughing,sneezing, etc. due to my extremely poor immune system.

We can "hope" that this virus doesn't get this far north of Toronto, I s'pose.....surely,it wouldn't survive in our 3+ feet of snow and still below zero temps.

We wash our hands regularly,esp if we've been out and about and use hand sanitizers when out as well.

My daughter is in the ER with cough, headache, shortness of air and sore throat.

Just now reading this, she is in my thoughts and prayers that she recovers quickly.

Everything seems far-fetched until it's on your doorstep. I'm slightly concerned now that it's been found in my workplace. Of course, it's the size of a city, and I likely never encountered the person, but I am second guessing everything now.

I'm really updating my answer. I had my groceries delivered today. I'm happy to avoid that crowd. Also, at work, we're making our contingency plans of how to work from home, if possible. When not, it's a lab, we've decided to rotate so that only one person at a time is at risk. Every third day, kind of thing. I'm an at homer, not a lab person. l think they're smart doing it that way. We're doing things different to make sure it doesn't spread from or to us. We've also shut down all in person meetings and talks. Skype and Zoom must be making a gazillion dollars right now. I'd invest in their stocks if you wanna make some moola.

Grocery delivery is the last thing I'd be subscribing to unless they arrive with a negative test results in hand.

We were told yesterday at work if we wanted to work from home to fill out on-line information and send to our IT. We all got "approval" e-mails last night, only to have another one today saying, sorry you need to send it somewhere else.

One area Meals on Wheels just made some changes.

1. All meals will be porch delivered, preempted by a phone call.

2. When delivery is made, a door knock or doorbell will alarm the recipient.

3. Personal visitation is suspended until further notice.

3. The meal pick up service has been discontinued.

Stay home, we deliver!

My Dad's retirement community, where he is in assisted living, is locking down campus as of today. No more family, friends, vendors, etc from off campus; internally most social gatherings will be cancelled, each resident will have their temperature taken daily, and a couple other measures. Seems early ... but I guess that's the point. An outbreak there would be devastating.

This is in accordance with their reading of state and federal health dept guidelines, so I imagine many communities are acting similarly.

I think there's a world of difference between panicking and buying enough for 6 months, and taking basic precautions and buying basic supplies for a few weeks knowing there's a highly infectious virus making the rounds.

It's a good idea to be prepared for a few weeks even without the outbreak. We all live in places where natural disasters can, and do, happen, and having only a few days of food or other supplies necessary for survival isn't a great situation.

We have plenty of food and most of our supplies are well-stocked. I did buy some toilet paper as we were already low. I wish I could just stay in my house for 3 months but that's unreasonable. :) It wouldn't bother me a bit!

Michael, it is the lesser of the evils. One dedicated person, while avoiding dozens of sneezing people, holding cart handles, and touching registers. ETA: and if I'm infected, but asymptomatic, I'm not giving it to anyone. Most important part!

Mom's nursing home won't let people in or out now. Did I say that before? I'm glad I saw her the other day and I'm glad they're protecting her.

They suddenly decided to close the Houston rodeo and concerts today

There has been a man that is presumptive positive and has not traveled anywhere. So they have said now that it appears to be community spread they are taking it much more seriously. Plus that man had gone to the BBQ cook-off at the rodeo grounds.

Very unfortunate for the vendors and the kids with animals. They have traveled from long distances. It is a sad situation.

I think we should all be grateful for the right-thinking decisions so many have made to cancel or reschedule non-essential events. Public health is far more important.

The vendors will have other opportunities to earn money.

Schools are taking extended spring breaks too. Several universities have announced it and I expect to see the public schools start making similar announcements in the next 24 hours.