If you do the right things, you can be fairly confident that you'l be safe. Stay at home. If you need to purchase food and other supplies, order it online. Maybe leave it for awhile before you open it. I'm leaving mail alone for many days. More because of the people delivering it. Stuff inside should be safer, but if you can, leave it alone for a week. If you must go through it, wash your hands for 20 seconds throughly before touching your face. I wouldn't want fast Amazon shipping because I want the stuff inside to have a chance for the virus to die. There is a lot of conflicting info on how long it can last on various surfaces. I pay my bills online, so must mail is junk. If I order goods, I might let it sit for a week. I don't know. Walmart has free pickup I think if the order is more than $30. Haven't tried it yet. My sister, a nurse, has been doing it.
https://grocery.walmart.com/locations/pickup/
I need to look into it more. Other stores might as well, but it might cost some money. You can avoid being directly coughed on. Of course the virus could be on the items. Non perishable items you can leave alone for a long time. Perishable items, wash them if you can. Milk container, take out the eggs and wash them maybe? I haven't done that yet, but now that we are more into it I might. I won't eat anything that can't be washed or cooked. I bought some bananas for my 97 year old grandmother. I washed them first. I might talk about that Thursday. Monday I drove to Tennessee and I got back tonight. Quick 3 day trip to see my grandmother, who lives alone, and to get her the groceries I could. I've never seen a store so cleaned out. I went to Kroger late so they had not restocked. So much was gone. They,were limiting bread, milk, eggs and some other products there to 1 per day. They had milk, but very little bread. Canned food was nearly all gone. I don't normally shop before a hurricane much because usually I have some stuff already. But I've never seen it like this. I think food will get delivered to stores. I've never seen so many trucks on the road before on 12 hour drive there and back. When things get worse, which sadly I think they are to an extent that people are not ready to accept yet, I still think stores will be restocked. Military can assist I'm sure. Or national guard.
I do worry for NYC. Getting stuff there is going to be hard because no one has a car. Online might be the best option, but not everyone is online. They don't have cars, they use the subway which I assume will be closed if not already. I haven't seen too much news in past 3 days other than some when I got back this evening.
I did see all the spring breakers on TV. Including across the bay from me. That is part of what scares me. Not for me, I'm going to stay safe. My dad and I are. We're not going out. Maybe at all. This may well be life for 18 months to 2 years.
I got my grandmother prepared. She has a month worth of food. My aunt visits every week usually. My uncle and other aunt too. But she needs to be much more careful in how she interacts with them. I made it very clear that all these extreme measures are to help prevent millions of Americans from dying. The news has been painting a more optimistic picture to be honest. This isn't going to be over in weeks or months most likely. They are talking now about what I've been saying, there could be waves of this.
I saw the New York governor on TV tonight. I honestly think he isn't doing what needs to be done. How would people even get tested in NYC? People are too close together. They need to have everyone stay home there right now. Look at Italy. We are not going to be doing what even Italy is doing I fear and Italy learned too late about that. China had mostly the right idea. Everyone must stay home. Marshal law wouldn't go well, so it needs to be voluntary. But people need to not have to work. The federal government is going to need to spend trillions on getting money to people. Supply lines will need to be a major priority, which I think they will be. But people need to be able to safely get food. Especially those that can least afford or have least ability to get it.
But you can be safe. That needs to be your priority. Tell your family to be safe. Instruct them and extended family that this is going to need to be life until further notice. I feel horrible for the many people that are going to die. I'm trying to tell the people I know what they need to do. Not everyone in my family probably gets it yet. But for the sake of the most vulnerable, other family members can't visit the family member most at risk. That is how we are trying to keep my grandmother safe.
I had an older neighbor tonight I talked too night, a former nurse, who gets it. She's not going out. Another neighbor tonight called me tonight and asked if I wanted an extra pizza they got at a restaraunt tonight. I told them no thanks because of the coronavirus. They said they could understand because of what is going on in the world. People should not be eating out any longer. You don't know who prepared your food. I suppose you could heat the pizza and maybe kill the virus but I don't know. So many people in my family are older and have preexisting conditions that makes them vulnerable. In the phone call Sunday when we told my family we were coming we found out a family member just had a heart attack. They had surgery, a stint, and we're out of the hospital within two days and already out and about as it was described to us. We tried to get people in my family to really get it. I think they are starting to. But you can't have any contact with people if you are older. I didn't come within 3 to 6 feet of my grandmother. Sadly she is practically deaf and you have to write everything down. That involves writing it down and passing it to her. Sometimes she touched the notepad. It was us constantly having to wash our hands.
You must assume that every person outside of your household has the virus and act accordingly. We did actually go to a grocery store in Tennessee, but we kept our distance. Some people gave us looks. Other people did the same thing. Touch a door that isn't automatic? Use a paper towel and throw it away. I had a bottle of hand sanitizer with me the whole time.
On my way there I saw a coronavirus clinic in Montgomery, Alabama. I guess one of the hospitals probably set it up. It was by appointment only. That what they need to do. Keep things separate from other patients.
I got my grandmother her medication for over a month. Most well over. Went through CVS drive through. Covered the card to get it in hand sanitizer. Medication when we got home, set it aside for awhile. She doesn't need it right away. Couldn't clean the bottles because they had paper on them.
People can be safe. If you do the right things, there is no need to panic. But obviously it's hard for me to think about the people in my family, and the any others, who won't be doing the right thing. I can't help but be concerned for them. There is no comfort there, even in knowing I tried to get them to understand the serious of this. Hopefully more people will get it as this spreads at an exponential rate.
I wish I could be more comforting in general, but take comfort if you know you are doing the right things for your family. Some stores will be out of stock of things at times. But get what you can. I've got the food I normally eat. I have a big freezer. After that I have canned foods and Ramen soup. I could probably go a few months. But there will be food. It just may not be at the level we're used to, but with what will be going on by then, who cares about the kind of food.
Something I was hearing about tonight is about how this is worse for younger people than they initially thought. Some do get seriously ill of course but they are finding that some may have lung damage that they are now finding out more about. I wish those selfish spring breakers who don't care about anyone other then themselves hear about that.
I'll probably post more later today. I'm typing this on my tablet so there might be many things not said quite right.
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