Derry. But we have a place in Donegal. We're going there this weekend to sit this thing out. I've booked-off work for 4 weeks and plan to isolate the family. I came to this decision after reading an article someone posted here...
The health service in the Lombardy region of Italy has virtually collapsed. Antonio Pesenti, Co-coordinator of Regional Crisis Unit for Intensive Care
You should stay home if you can. For your own sake and for the community's sake. The lady shouldn't have brought her kids to choir practice. Read Don's post about the situation in Italy. We all need to think about how we impact not just our families but also our communities. People with underlying illnesses and who catch the virus will be more likely to need intensive care, putting stress on the health service providers who also have people who love them and want them to survive this pandemic. If staying home prevents you needing intensive care, then you should stay home.
I mean to start staying home as much as possible.maybe even Mass since I am now battling another cold that as gotten chesty. You are not a wimp Kat. Brian's article makes it clear we are going to be on our own if things spiral like Italy.
This is a shock. There is a government official in Portugal who now has it. Of course Iran too. And on a more frivolous note Tom Hanks and his wife. This virus is the great equalizer.
Both my parents are in their early 70s. Dad has lung cancer (he was given 6 months to live- 3 and a half years ago, and hes still going strong!). They reckon it's a miracle. I agree. Hes the darling of the local cancer ward. A walking miracle. Hes a v devout man. Always has been... I am however worried about them both. If they catch it, it'll be detrimental. I've warned them - as far as I can (and they prolly wont listen anyways) - to stay away from ppl and crowds and gatherings. This is the first day I've actually taken this thing serious.
As soon as I get back home to Virginia from my trip to Georgia, I’m planning on staying home for at least 4-6 weeks. I stacked my pantry deep enough that I really have no reason to go out except Sunday mass. I’m only 54 but with a history of diabetes, heart attack and strokes, I’m in that “preexisting conditions” classification. I recently upped my daily Vitamin D to 10,000iu and will keep it there for the duration of this pandemic.
I began taking this seriously weeks ago. The news reports from Wuhan; I've worked alongside "medicine" for 30 years. I'd never seen anything like this. The speed of it, people dropping to the ground, how easily spread. I began gathering food & paper supplies (only what two people might need for half a month) in mid-February. Husband is retired, I work in our home. Prayers.
Yes Brian you must stay isolated and safe. I too have "conditions" and I'm proceeding much the same way. Is it safe to go up to 10thousand ius of vitamin D? I'm taking 4 thousand. My MD told me I could go as high as 5. Also what do you know about olive leaf extract ? So hard to navigate these things.
And if you really want to go berserk when you think of number of days the virus can remain on cardboard and plastic just think of the grocery products that come to the stores packaged in large amounts in those materials! My husband just returned from Aldi's here in the States and said they were all out of water and one of the managers he knows said they are really getting hit w/ shoppers. But he says that even normally when lines begin to get long they call somebody to open a new line....pretty efficient and profit thinking place. I already had a reservation for ourselves and a couple of friends at a restaurant that is further north and in the country but I know the dining room seats people pretty close together and my husband is another "compromised" person w/ heart and age, so I just canceled. But the manager I talked with to do that immediately asked me to make another reservation and emphasized that she was looking for me to call back for that. Even the places that seem distant from compromised areas must be having problems. Poor people. All Rome Catholic churches have just closed!
Can you bring your parents with you? I suppose that if they're anything like some of the vulnerable people I know, they wouldn't go with you. There are at risk people in my family: cancer x 2; heart disease x 3; chronic asthma x 1; others with varying degrees of compromised immune systems. Not all of them are elderly but at least the younger ones have a hope of being treated should the situation here get as bad as Italy. Some of them have spouses working in essential services. All of my at risk family members still working have had colleagues laugh at them for taking precautions. I dropped into one supermarket today. It wasn't too packed but a lot of stuff like bread had already sold out because they had been inundated earlier in the day. I heard that one Tesco had to close because the crowds were so big. As far as I know that's a huge Tesco. Waiting in the checkout queue, I heard one elderly lady complaining to the assistant about the fuss over a 'flu. I know that the panic buying is ridiculous, but it's the people passing it off as no big deal who are more dangerous to the elderly and infirm. I suppose they won't care until it comes to their front door.
Am worried for Americans in this: most have no healthcare (America has no NHS to provide basic healthcare. You have to pay for it yourself or if you're lucky, you get it with employment). Testing for Covid19 is not happening on the scale it should, and their President literally went on TV yesterday and told everyone it was a "foreign" virus and therefore no one from Europe (except the UK, bizarrely) can enter the US. These people are being thrown under a bus.
