Corona Virus

[Unorthodox]

First communal spread case confirmed here.  Well south of us but still. 

[Unorthodox]

It's a small, old congregation.  His first idea was livestreaming, but there's almost certainly too many who don't even email.

He's probably going to record on CD, and bear down on the home visitations as delivery, w/ it doubling as checking on the most at-risk and alone...

Might not hurt to do as much online as possible though.  I know a lot of companies here are offering free internet till summer now, and even if it only helped organize the relief efforts could be worth it. 

I'd be willing to offer up the back end password and let them organize via my page if it helps at all. 

[Buster's Uncle]

Mylochka is webmaster of the church's website, and they were going to do at least an audio/video as a matter of it's Monday.

I suggested adding YouTube, but that would involve the little SOB listening to me about anything, not least marketing issues.  He got issues all right.

[Geo]

To be fair people use toilet paper wherever they are. If they aren't at work, college, on an airplane, in a restaurant, hotel, or in school, and are home instead they will need to buy more instead of getting it as a courtesy. They are just overdoing it. Toilet paper that normally goes to those places will be diverted, but they buy in larger packages.  Things will balance out in time.

I now wonder if we're going to see more internal theft checks at my workplace's exits to check if people don't take facial tissue or toilet paper from the lavatories home with them.

[Buster's Uncle]

Mylochka is webmaster of the church's website, and they were going to do at least an audio/video as a matter of it's Monday.

I suggested adding YouTube, but that would involve the little SOB listening to me about anything, not least marketing issues.  He got issues all right.

Related side-note; I shared last week's sermon w/ Uno on Facebook as soon as I posted this, and the cadence is entirely different, but that there's my voice to the extent we used to impersonate each other on the phone to people who knew both of us.  So for those curious: https://www.pleasantviewchurchmorganton.com/copy-of-2018-sermons?wix-music-comp-id=comp-k7p51wf5&wix-music-track-id=6714964603568128

[Elok]

Brief pause of Lenten fast: glad to hear you're all hunkering down.  My impression is that this is going to get Italy levels of bad in at least some parts of the country.  As an RT student, I don't know what's going to happen to me; two of my three instructors are practicing RTs and will probably be wanted to handle an overwhelming caseload in a few weeks.  This week is spring break, and the college president says the word is to stay the course, for now.  There's talk of online classes, but I think that's hooey, and at any rate the important parts of instruction have to be done in-person.  I think it's more likely that, if hospitals get badly overcrowded, my classmates and I will simply get drafted, and the details will get worked out after the fact.
Stay safe!

[Geo]

Stay safe!

You too!

[Buster's Uncle]

Elok tells me re: home care, not to go to the cough medicine too quick; you cough for a reason.

[Geo]

The doctor just put me two days at home.
No, not for a viral infection, but a tennis elbow.

They were definitely quick to separate feverish/coughy people from the others in the waiting room. Those are sent on to a separate waiting room. And all  personnel was masked.
I didn't even have to pay! The doctor considered it an extension of my visit 2 weeks ago.

Stricktly speaking he should have sent me on to hospital for a scan of my elbow first, but you can imagine it could take a month or two before they have time for such a minor problem.
So my physiotherapist and me are going to see one another quite a bit more the next couple of weeks.

[Rusty Edge]

On the anecdotal front-

Last week my wife, fearing restrictions, had advanced her birthday dining reservations to tonight. This afternoon they called to tell us they are closing. So, I'll make her steaks at home on her birthday later this week.

We were low on a few things, but decided to wait until after the weekend had passed to reduce pressure on the stores and avoid crowds. Also, some family members are homebound with influenza A and needed some stuff like Gatorade and soup.  So we ran errands today. We have a business membership at SAM's, so we went early this morning. No crowds, but we were dodging cleaners and stockers. They had rationed paper products, maybe water too. Some things like the laundry detergent I use were out of stock. Don't think they had hand sanitizer, but we weren't looking for that.  Thing is that today was the last day of early hours for the premium membership. They are going to an intermediate opening hour for everybody. That should give them more time to restock.

Drove by COSTCO and they still look like Christmas traffic.
Went to the local mega-super market. The checkout line was an hour long. Self checkouts were limited because they were enforcing rationing policies( 1 water, 2 dozen eggs, 1 TP, etc. They had stuff.

On the way home we needed gas. I'd been wearing gloves to remind me not to touch my face, but out of habit I took them off to pump gas. You, know, so they don't soak up gas and smell up my coat, etc. But of course gas pumps have keypads and so forth. Foolish mistake.

[Elok]

Okay, supplement to the cough advice: that's for a PRODUCTIVE cough.  That is, if you're bringing anything up at all, bring it up.  Don't let it sit in your chest and form a breeding ground for more pathogens.  If your cough is entirely dry, just an endless hack, it's okay to suppress it.  And, now that I think of it, this germ does tend to produce more of a dry hack anyhow.  So that bit of advice may not be as useful as it sounds.
EDIT: Let's be clear on what's meant by "cough medicine."  There are expectorants like Guaifenisin (Robitussin), that try to thin mucus out so you can move it more easily, and suppressants, like dextromethorphan, that try to prevent you from coughing.  I'm speaking of the second variety here.  DM works, and sometimes it's a godsend, but it tends to get overused.  Sometimes you just have to grimace and keep coughing up crud.  Expectorants would be helpful if they worked, but it's not clear, based on clinical data, that any of them do.  Just drinking water does as much.  I know keeping your fluid intake up is wearisomely standard advice, but fluids make your secretions thinner, and unless you chug so much straight water that it mucks up your electrolyte balance, they're harmless--you pee out the excess.  That's why broth is beautiful, it gives you minerals as well, plus lots of nutrients.  Good strong homemade broth is a wonderful thing.
Now, one other thing I've heard, but have not looked into, and it sounds rather desperate: I read an account by a virologist that zinc does work, but there's a catch.  It has to be dissolving lozenges, and they have to be pretty strong; most lozenges are adulterated, which makes the taste more tolerable but also reduces efficacy.  Basically they dissolve in your mouth and coat your throat with the stuff, and it's a potent killer of coronaviruses.  It's horribly unpleasant stuff, and taken regularly it can permanently mess up your sense of taste or cause nerve damage.  I wouldn't mess with it myself; I mention it for folks like Rusty who have multiple risk factors stacking up against them and want to drive a nascent throat infection off to buy time for vaccine development.  Even so, caveat emptor.  I hear it's a horrid experience, and I'm not a doctor.  That is a total hail mary play right there.

[Rusty Edge]

Thank you very much, Elok. That is very useful.

Back at the beginning of the month I restocked cold medicines, and I made sure that in addition to Nyquil type multi-purpose products, We had individual bottles of NSAIDS, Tylenol, Mucinex, dextromethorphan, zinc lozenges ( I've used before), saline sprays and I'm probably forgetting something. Also there are some leftover narcotics for emergencies. I hate the way they make me feel worse than pain, however they do a great job on a cough. As it happens I have gallons of boxed broth and some bullion in stock because I like to turn surplus and leftovers into soup. The dry sauna helps, too.  So I guess we're prepared.

IF we aren't already exposed, I expect we'll be hanging out here at home for the rest of the month.

Here's the question that perplexes me-

To Nasonex or not? It will soon be tree pollinating season, the worst time of the year for me. But aren't allergy symptoms the body's natural defense against viruses? I've been avoiding anti-histamines and Nasonex for that reason.

[Elok]

You're quite welcome.  They're probably going to cancel classes over this junk, so I might as well be useful until they either let us back in or it gets bad enough to press-gang us.

Noses are, for RTs, the things you have to shove a breathing tube through.  Not that we don't appreciate the excellent work they do filtering, warming, and humidifying, but we're lung people.  So I don't really know, but my uninformed and hemi-gluteal speculation here is that Nasonex should be okay because it has a purely local effect on the nose, and COVID doesn't often cause sneezing; sore throat, fever, hacking cough and dyspnea/SOB are common, but maybe 10% of cases sneeze IIRC.  Also if you get congested enough you'll be forced to mouth-breathe, which is definitely suboptimal from an immune perspective.  I wouldn't make myself miserable with snuffling and sneezing.  If you want to avoid Benadryl, etc. that might be wise, IDK.  Do you have a Neti-pot?  That might help too, and avoid the whole question.

[Rusty Edge]

You're quite welcome.  They're probably going to cancel classes over this junk, so I might as well be useful until they either let us back in or it gets bad enough to press-gang us.

Noses are, for RTs, the things you have to shove a breathing tube through.  Not that we don't appreciate the excellent work they do filtering, warming, and humidifying, but we're lung people.  So I don't really know, but my uninformed and hemi-gluteal speculation here is that Nasonex should be okay because it has a purely local effect on the nose, and COVID doesn't often cause sneezing; sore throat, fever, hacking cough and dyspnea/SOB are common, but maybe 10% of cases sneeze IIRC.  Also if you get congested enough you'll be forced to mouth-breathe, which is definitely suboptimal from an immune perspective.  I wouldn't make myself miserable with snuffling and sneezing.  If you want to avoid Benadryl, etc. that might be wise, IDK.  Do you have a Neti-pot?  That might help too, and avoid the whole question.

Thanks again. My ENT is a saline spray enthusiast, rather than Netti pot. But I take your point about some filtration being better than none.

[Elok]

It's not just filtration--the warming and humidification are also fairly important.  Cold, dry air thickens your secretions.  That's why showers can help you clear out the crud.