Corona-virus - How worried are you?

Enterprise_1701C

What strikes me as funny is that the hand sanitizer is not known to kill the virus!!

I am always washing my hands anyway, especially in the kitchen, and washing your hands properly is said to be the best way of preventing the spread.

We are unlikely to be overly affected by it, but the one person I am seriously concerned about is my housebound and elderly MiL, at one stage we did not think she would make it to last Christmas, she has carers coming in three times a day every day and would not make it through an illness like that, that said we keep thinking the next infection will take her but she keeps making it through!

Pollycat

I'm not worried, but I've hardly been out of the house for 7 weeks (post-operation).

My cupboards and shelves in the garage are full of tinned & packet food. They always are.

We've been eating batch cooked meals from the freezer whilst I've not been mobile, I'm just about ready to start restocking with shepherds pie bases, bolognaise, chilli, soup, stews now I can stand a little at the hob.

I have stocks of kitchen rolls, loo paper, washpowder, washing up liquid. I always have.

All my stuff is bought BOGOF or on offer.

I always use hand wash when out, I've seen enough people exit the loo without washing their hands.

So - absolutely no change at all.

We are mid-sixties but pretty healthy.

pickledonionspaceraider

MoneySeeker1 said:

suejb2 said:

Not bothered

An understandable point to make, but the thing that strikes me there is that these things don't directly affect other people.

This virus, on the other hand, could damage the infrastructure of our society. We have already seen doctors surgeries close (ie affecting people with all the other illnesses being unable to access them). We've already seen schools close (despite the fact that many homes no longer have a stay-at-home parent and so the question arises of who looks after the children when they aren't allowed to go to school?).

Small communities could be badly affected. In a city there are plenty of other places to "take up the slack" if one or two close temporarily (or even permanently). In a smaller place it could matter a lot if some of their facilities shut and they might be at risk of some of those places remaining permanently shut after this is all over (ie even fewer facilities to use than the lower amount the place had in the first place). If a smaller place loses some of its shops, entertainment facilities, etc then it could become difficult to live in that place for the rest of your life - whereas, in a larger place, there's "Plenty more where those facilities came from" and people will still have a wide range of shops/social facilities/etc.

So people in smaller communities HAVE to keep using their facilities (shops, social, etc) as normal and, indeed, make a special effort to do so - in order to ensure those facilities remain open and their profits don't get hit or the place could become less viable to live in.

Great point
Yep, schools, doctors and colleges closed by me.

pickledonionspaceraider

Pollycat said:

I'm not worried, but I've hardly been out of the house for 7 weeks (post-operation).

My cupboards and shelves in the garage are full of tinned & packet food. They always are.

We've been eating batch cooked meals from the freezer whilst I've not been mobile, I'm just about ready to start restocking with shepherds pie bases, bolognaise, chilli, soup, stews now I can stand a little at the hob.

I have stocks of kitchen rolls, loo paper, washpowder, washing up liquid. I always have.

All my stuff is bought BOGOF or on offer.

I always use hand wash when out, I've seen enough people exit the loo without washing their hands.

So - absolutely no change at all.

We are mid-sixties but pretty healthy.

Good thinking @poll@Pollycat  Some people are just naturally stocked up - I know my parents are. They could live easily three or four months on the food and cleaning products they have. I am pleased about that

I know what you mean about people not washing their hands when coming out of the loo. 

I am a bit weird about that, like going into the loo, people flush the toilet after doing their business so germs on there (I always use a tissue to press the button) and then the tap, that is covered in germs - so you turn the tap off, and you have your hand where someone else did before they washed and finally the germ ridden door knob

The toilet at my work, there is a woman who regularly wipes throws 'used' (and I don't mean a snotty nose) on the floor. There is a bloke at my work who uses the toilet with the door open and leaves quickly, obvs hes not washing.  I have the office next to the toilet lucky me ha
Honestly some people make me squirm

Over the weekend, I went to a hobby group of mine, and one of the 'ladies' had left a piece of tissue she had obvs used for an ST on the toilet windowsill!!!!  - don't know who it was, but it wasn't there the first time I used the lav.  I didnt know what to do, as I was worried people would think it was me..but I couldn't remove it 

pickledonionspaceraider

I am not sure why, when I tag someone, it seems to go weird, to me, it looks like I have tagged Pollycat four and a half times.  System glitch.  

1977Chad

I'm not worried and I'm a nurse. People are overreacting.

Consumerist

DIY hand sanitiser

You can get a litre of isopropyl alcohol for under a tenner online (at the moment). Just make up a minimum 70% (by volume) with water (or some emollient like  aloe vera) and you're good to go.

I'd like to say you'd be saving a fortune but it seems you just can't get hand sanitiser anywhere at the moment. But if you could get it then you would be saving quite a lot on commercially available stuff. And - better - you will know how strong it is.

Pollycat

I wonder if most of the people who are stockpiling are the ones you see in supermarkets a few days before Christmas with 3 trolleys full of stuff they are unlikely to eat (so will be in the dustbin the day after New Year) just in case Great Uncle Wilf wakes up from his 10 hour snooze in the armchair and demands a Viennese Whirl?

Spoonie_Turtle

Consumerist said:

DIY hand sanitiser

You can get a litre of isopropyl alcohol for under a tenner online (at the moment). Just make up a minimum 70% (by volume) with water (or some emollient like  aloe vera) and you're good to go.

I'd like to say you'd be saving a fortune but it seems you just can't get hand sanitiser anywhere at the moment. But if you could get it then you would be saving quite a lot on commercially available stuff. And - better - you will know how strong it is.

A relatively cheap way to ruin your skin, yes. The commercial products have been formulated so as not to damage your skin with moderate use (well, that's the idea anyway - some are better at that than others) but even with excessive use of those you'd damage the natural skin barrier and put yourself at greater risk of infection anyway. Hand sanitiser should generally be used if you can't wash them - especially if you're immunocompromised - but washing properly is still best.

I personally am not too worried as I'm virtually house-bound, but if people would just wash their darned hands properly and sneeze into tissue - or their elbows, if need be - we'd all be a lot safer. The main effect for me will be if there are shortages due to panic buying, as we already get through a huge pack of toilet roll far too quickly and don't have a spare bedroom for stocking up on it! And antibacterial wipes.

Anyway, worrying too much likely lowers one's immune system, thus making it worse if one does become infected. Best to take sensible precautions and otherwise get on with it.

pickledonionspaceraider

Pollycat said:

I wonder if most of the people who are stockpiling are the ones you see in supermarkets a few days before Christmas with 3 trolleys full of stuff they are unlikely to eat (so will be in the dustbin the day after New Year) just in case Great Uncle Wilf wakes up from his 10 hour snooze in the armchair and demands a Viennese Whirl?

hahaha@pollycat