Hellobee Boards

@Mrs. Carrot: for what it’s worth, as of around midnight last night, New Orleans is now up to 6 cases. I only know this because I’m in Louisiana and I’ve been basically reading stuff online non-stop.

My state doesn’t have any cases, yet (though I think that has more to do with not testing enough people than with not having any). Next week is spring break and I don’t know of anyone canceling plans (but we weren’t going anywhere), so I imagine once everyone returns, it will be here.) So far, little has changed in daily life here. If schools close, we will close our business (it’s entertainment for kids, totally unnecessary.) I’ll worry about our workers, and hopefully our board will figure out a way to pay them. They are low-wage and many have no income without us. DH already works from home, and I can actually pick up more work at home (I teach English on-line). My parents live nearby and both households are well prepared at this point for 2ish weeks of food and other supplies. DS2 has asthma, so I’ve stocked up as much as insurance allows on his breathing medications. I worry about my grandma, who is 90 and lives in a retirement home. I’m not sure if it would be better to bring her to one of our houses or leave her where she has access to her meds and doctors. I’m hoping the slow spread to our state will help us prepare.

ETA: I did tell my kiddos yesterday that we may need to postpone our Disneyland vacation in May. It’s too early to say for sure. We’d only lose about $1200 at this point, which could be much worse. We have awhile to make the decision—we can cancel 5 days out and only lose what we’d lose right now.

I'm in the Boston area, so we have a number of cases, many stemming from that Biogen meeting.... I work for a large company and we're all doing a mandatory work-from-home "test" day on Monday - similar to @krispi: , to test the network.... MANY are already working remotely. All of our meetings & events over 25 people have been cancelled.

My DH had a conference in New Orleans in 2 weeks - cancelled... My parents and sister were going to Disney in a few weeks - cancelled.

I'm sure it will get worse, and I envision schools being cancelled for a time, while I'll be working remotely anyway.

@Mrs. Carrot: I absolutely think that you are thinking along the right lines to consider those more vulnerable.

The bottom line is that while there is uncertainty, viruses aren't hard to understand. What matters is how contagious they are, and how many cases are severe. And now, there's way too much data to deny that this is very, very serious. The spread to date suggests that 30-80% of the world's population will become infected. A person aged 70 has a 10% chance of dying if they contract it, and 20% chance if they show symptoms. Young and healthy people die too, albeit at lower rates. These numbers will get worse if the health system is overwhelmed. Doctors in Italy are already being forced to make life and death decisions about who to treat, and based on current trajectories many places in the u.s. could have a similar scenario within a week to 10 days.

My biggest hope now is that the virus mutates to be less deadly. This would not be unprecedented - it has happened with flu - but we just don't know given the novelty of the virus. I have little faith that U.S. institutions will be able to cope with it - given our lack of universal health care and paid sick leave, we are very vulnerable.

My fears are based solely on the numbers - how fast the virus spreads and how deadly it is, there was uncertainty at first but now a clearer picture is emerging and it's not good. I feel like I'm watching a train wreck in slow motion and am hoping so hard for the best but expecting the worst. Please everyone be careful...

also p.s. I truly, truly hate being an alarmist person on the internet. But this is really unprecedented, as I think some of us are already seeing...

@periwinklebee: I did feel somewhat better thinking about kids in China not dying, I wish we’d get some Italy data about kids too. But the truth is, even a very low rate represents a real person who could be your child or parent. Ps I keep meaning to reply to your wall post too!!

@bhbee: @periwinklebee: There is a good article in the Washington Post about how it’s not affecting kids. I’m having trouble linking it though, sorry! The data seems pretty clear that kids do not develop severe symptoms, including kids with chronic illness though that is less known. That said, from a public health perspective, we still want to prevent kids from getting sick because they are vectors that spread the disease and can do so really rapidly.

@JJ2626: I think I found it. Really interesting point about guessing kids aren’t getting it because of something mechanical vs immunological. That actually makes me feel better (if it’s true) for the asthma kids out there.

@tinyperson: Thank you for sharing that post ️ I have saved it to read again and share.

@helloperidot: I agree in the sense that some people don’t have the luxury of staying home and not using public transit (low wage, hourly workers) so its incumbent on us to do our best flatten the curve. That said, I am letting my toddler and her nanny go to the playground because I think it’s better for LO overall and I will likely still frequent my local coffee shop because I do want to keep supporting small business. These are hard decisions to make!

In NY with 2 confirmed case in our town, schools closed for 2 days for deep cleaning, tho we send our middle child to preschool that’s open and it’s next to one of our district schools. Confirmed cases in our county def climbing. I’m not TOO concerned ourselves but more for my parents, so I am for social distancing to help ward off the rate of it spreading.

I’m on maternity so I’m glad I’m home; but nervous also as my baby needs to start daycare next month.

And yes I am super annoyed with all the people that have been fear hoarding everything.

@bhbee: @helloperidot: Yes, exactly, it's going to be costly for everyone but we have to flatten the curve or it will be far, far worse. We can see what's happening in Italy and take actions NOW because if we wait to the point where we are already at the verge of breaking the system, it is going to be too late.

It is helping me feel less powerless to check in with and try to help people I know who are more vulnerable, to getting sick, to the economic ramifications, or both. It is easy to think, ugh - I'm overwhelmed just dealing with my own stuff - but there are a lot of people who are likely to be more vulnerable. I know a lot of us on here benefit from low wage hourly labor, whether it be a cleaning service, babysitters, etc. Please consider offering to continue to pay people who might otherwise be put in an economically precarious position by quarantines, staying home sick, etc if you can.

We have two confirmed cases in our county. We have RSVP'ed for a birthday party at a play place this weekend...should we cancel? I'm not sure if it's an overreaction but those kinds of places already seem so germy.

@crazydoglady: Yes, I absolutely would send my regrets to the party host.

Here's how I look at the situation: I aspire to be an old lady one day, and I also hope not to die in a highly unpleasant way. It sure looks like we can prevent serious disease and premature deaths to an extent for the current old ladies and gentlemen and other vulnerable people (and, you know, some much younger, not obviously vulnerable people!). We should be willing to inconvenience ourselves beyond washing our hands and learning not to touch our faces for the good of others.

@crazydoglady: I think I'd cancel. My daughter's first birthday party is supposed to be in 3 weeks and we are pretty sure we are going to cancel it. We are making an impromptu trip up to my parents house this weekend to celebrate with them early before our state really gets hit and we need to stay home. So far we have 5 cases.

There are no confirmed cases in my state, yet. Though that is based on only 50 tests. We are just trying to prepare - in an appropriate way, not a hoarding kind of way! Especially since stores are already having such a hard time keeping things in stock. I stay at home so if DD's preschool were to close that wouldn't be a big impact. DH's job has no work from home option, so that is a worry. I am worried about our parents, especially my dad and MIL who have pre existing conditions that put them more at risk. I'm worried about my sister who is doing a semester abroad in London right now. I am very worried about my great aunt, she lives in a retirement community but someone in my family goes to see her every day to organize her pills, check on the cat box, and just a general check in with her. If they decide to stop allowing visitors we would have to decide how to handle that - she would probably need to come stay with one of us? Though she wouldn't be happy about it. Even without confirmed cases we are trying to limit where we are going and any large events. Flattening the curve is a very important thing.

Also, if you are able please consider donating to your local food banks! I try to volunteer at ours and this is the type of thing that can wipe food banks out quickly! There are so many people who are not in a financial place to buy any extra food. So many kids rely on breakfast and/or lunch from their school cafeteria, they might not have any at home, which can be a big problem if schools have to close. Just wanted to share!

@helloperidot: Yes, there are certainly some districts that will have plans in place or be able to develop them quickly - which is amazing!

Oof, I have to say this is really exacerbating my anxiety. They just sent our students home to study from home for the rest of the term but so far we are still expected to be there. But if I work from home I then have my toddler to care for, making work...difficult. I’m worried about my mother who is 64 and has multiple comorbidities and also for the baby I’m supposed to have in May. And that of course one of us would randomly be the 35 year old to get seriously ill (unlikely, but still).

What I am doing (in addition to hand washing etc) - skipping play places etc on weekends, and probably not going to the gym, which I’m not really supposed to be doing anyway with placenta previa lol.

I wish I could pay for my mom to retire to take her out of working in a public school where she’s super exposed...

We decided last night to cancel our trip to New Orleans Major bummer but it didn't feel right going. We're anticipating that our public schools will close for a few weeks at minimum too (Northern VA/DC area).

I'm having some real internal debates here - our March break is next week. My parents are coming down to take care of the kids (unrelated to COVID, just because my son doesn't like his full-day daycare) but are asking for lists of places they can take the kids, and I'm torn. We have less than 50 cases across the province, only two confirmed in my area, a husband and wife who had recently returned from a hotspot. I do not want to make my parents spend a week locked in the house with two very very active little boys. But can I, in good conscience, recommend they take them to the pool and the trampoline place, etc?

Ugh.