Elephant in the room.

[CoastChief]

33 minutes ago, CODriver said:

Luckily I'm too young to have to worry much about a financial crisis. I wish you luck with your business

I am 24 live at home, I just like to be prepared and make some gambles sometime. 

[Fierokid87]

Utah shut down grade schools for the next 2 weeks along with any public gathering and a bunch of companies switched to work from home if double. Spent the last 2 days in the hospital having a baby (okay my wife had a baby) and the hospital was on high alert. Everyone got questioned and sanitized at 1 of 3 entrances/exits and the rest were shut down. Had to re-stock on some things after and had a hard time finding formula, and diapers. Water and toilet paper are also hot items. I'm more worried about mass panic/chaos as apposed to the virus but taking no chances especially with little ones. 

[ftpiercecracker1]

I wish i had the scratch to take advatage of all the low hanging fruit/stocks, but as usual in order to make money you have to already have money. 

 

 

 

On a side note, i wonder how many upper crust types are already hiding out in their million dollar bunker(s)?

 

Probably another good economy to invest in.

[Eagle]

Connecticut. According to the CDC map we currently have 6 to 10 confirmed cases. The NBC News map shows 11.

 

Earlier this week things were normal in the supermarkets. Today was a totally different story. NO toilet paper, NO bottled water, very little paper towels or facial tissue. NO antibacterial cleaning supplies. The bread aisle had been picked pretty much clean, and frozen hamburgers were mostly gone. Ditto frozen veggies.

 

The state government has closed the capitol building. Public hearings that were scheduled for this week have been postponed indefinitely. I hold a license from the state that requires in-service training. I was able to attend a class on Wednesday evening but classes for the next two weeks have been postponed indefinitely, and they'll re-evaluate additional postponements/cancellations when we get near the end of this two-week period.

 

A friend is an IT manager for a big hospital. The hospital has told all personnel who aren't directly, physically required to be on site to stay home and to work from home. My friend said they're looking at activating 7,000 additional people on their internal network. The IT office is in an office building miles from the actual hospital, but the IT team is staying home and telecommuting anyway.

 

I was supposed to attend the funeral for the father of a friend on Friday. The funeral was in New York state -- right in the heart of one of New York's clusters of confirmed cases. Considering that I'm 76 years old, have a history of pneumonia, and a year ago I was hospitalized with a collapsed lung as a result of the flu, I had to call my friend and explain that I just didn't feel safe going to the funeral. He said he understood -- I hope he does. I felt terrible about not going but I didn't think it was worth the risk.

 

Most schools in the county (and probably around the state, but I don't know that) closed as of Friday -- some for two weeks, most indefinitely. The State school board has adjusted their minimum school days requirement to call for a minimum of 180 days IF it can be accomplished before the end of June, otherwise the 180 days will be waived for this year.

 

Maps (updated regularly):

 

https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/cases-in-us.html

https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/coronavirus-u-s-map-where-virus-has-been-confirmed-across-n1124546

[CoastChief]

https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/

[87MJTIM]

Heard this years ago.  Appropriate for today.

 

(language)

 

 

[Jeep Driver]

37 minutes ago, 87MJTIM said:

Heard this years ago.  Appropriate for today.

 

(language)

 

 

 

Yeah, that was funny. 

 

 

Sheeple, the world is full of them. 

 

The only thing in this world I worry about, are the idiots who surround me. 

[thecodemonk]

I'm in WA here. People are going crazy at the stores, work has us in mandatory work from home (woohoo!).

 

The state had closed down all schools and banned gatherings of over 250 people (churches are scrambling to get their live streaming services going by tomorrow)

 

Every medical professional I've talked to about it is not worried though. Just a really bad flu with those having existing respiratory problems being the only ones really at risk of severe consequences.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[NHMJXJ]

I'm in healthcare.  This is a manageable problem,  but the public needs to get a grip.   

 

The message is; do not panic and stop hoarding personal protective equipment that those providing care NEED to manage the problem.

 

Dr. Sharkawy On COVID-19: “I'm a doctor and an Infectious Diseases Specialist. I've been at this for more than 20 years seeing sick patients on a daily basis. I have worked in inner city hospitals and in the poorest slums of Africa. HIV-AIDS, Hepatitis,TB, SARS, Measles, Shingles, Whooping cough, Diphtheria...there is little I haven't been exposed to in my profession. And with notable exception of SARS, very little has left me feeling vulnerable, overwhelmed or downright scared.

 

What I am scared about is the loss of reason and wave of fear that has induced the masses of society into a spellbinding spiral of panic, stockpiling obscene quantities of anything.  I am scared of the N95 masks that are stolen from hospitals and urgent care clinics where they are actually needed for front line healthcare providers and instead are being donned in airports, malls, and coffee lounges, perpetuating even more fear and suspicion of others. I am scared that our hospitals will be overwhelmed with anyone who thinks they " probably don't have it but may as well get checked out no matter what because you just never know..." and those with heart failure, emphysema, pneumonia and strokes will pay the price for overfilled ER waiting rooms with only so many doctors and nurses to assess."

 

 

 

 

 

 

[JustEmptyEveryPocket]

6 hours ago, Jeep Driver said:

Sheeple, the world is full of them. 

 

The only thing in this world I worry about, are the idiots who surround me. 

This sums it all up very nicely. Overall, it is NOT a big deal. Groups of insecure, misinformed, and under-prepared people are forcing it into a big deal.

 

One of the posts here said look at the numbers: Well anyone under 60 who does not have preexisting conditions has ~1% chance of death. So the vast majority of people need to just sit back, chill, and go about life as normal.

 

 

Everyone needs to realize the ultimate consequence of life ---> death. It might come from tripping down the stairs, slipping on wet concrete, a car accident, cancer, or Corona (either the beer or the virus). We all gotta go sometime, so man up and meet it head on instead of cowering and hoarding in your hidey-hole. No point in dying scared and sniveling. 

[MontanaManche]

it all seems overplayed but i would rather people overplay it and have it not really spread, instead of no one caring and we end up with half the population with the virus

[Airborne Janitor]

I was thinking it was overhyped until organizations like the NCAA were ready to lose billions of dollars by playing it safe. Italy had over 500 deaths in 24hrs. The question I keep asking is would the rates of infection/death be worse if the media wasnt hyping it up so much? I hate our mainstream media but this is much bigger than them and our borders. And even if the virus doesnt take off theres no doubt the economic shock its had worldwide. Buckle up for the next recession either way.

[Dzimm]

I think what most people don't realize is that in the US, people generally avoid the doctor as much as possible.  The symptoms of Covid-19 is similar to the flu or the common cold so it can go unnoticed.  For every person that is a confirmed case, the could be a dozen cases not confirmed.  For all we know, there could be millions of people in the US already infected and we don't know it because either they don't go to the doctor, or the doctor/hospital doesn't have a test kit, which most don't. 

 

The alarming part is how fast it's mutating.  Us young healthy people may think we are in the clear, but any of these mutations can quickly cause major problems for us.  The more it spreads, the more likely a more serious mutation can happen.

[CoastChief]

 

for those comparing it to the swine flu scare. 

 

 

 

There are 7 billion on earth, in a rapid moving global economy. 

 

 

I have many friends in the medical field who are prepping for setting priority for younger individuals in hospitals. If you read above you can see that medical professionals, are having trouble with equipment already. Its preventable with proper care and the necessary tools. I have read some comparisons of modern virus from the CDC and other sources

 

( SWINE FLU INFO)

 

 

The H1N1 pandemic was a highly prevalent infection, with a later analysis showing it had infected 1 in 5 people worldwide. However, its death rate was very low, estimated at only 0.02% (around 200,000 deaths globally and 12,000 in the United States) 

 

 From April 12, 2009 to April 10, 2010, CDC estimated there were 60.8 million cases (range: 43.3-89.3 million), 274,304 hospitalizations (range: 195,086-402,719), and 12,469 deaths (range: 8868-18,306) in the United States due to the (H1N1)pdm09 virus.

 

5k people have " reportedly " died and many more unreported have passed in 3 months. That is close to 40% of the total killed over a year by the H1N1.

 

Sources-

https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/downloads/2019-ncov-factsheet.pdf

https://www.cdc.gov/flu/pandemic-resources/2009-h1n1-pandemic.html

https://www.healthline.com/health-news/how-deadly-is-the-coronavirus-compared-to-past-outbreaks#2009-(H1N1)-flu-pandemic

 

 

 

 

 

 

Iran is preparing the only way they can. 

https://www.businessinsider.com/coronavirus-burial-pits-iran-grown-so-fast-see-from-space-2020-3

 

 

 

 

 

those of you posting swine flu things....look how much the swine flu effected the WORLD ECONOMY. 

Regardless of what you think. This is already effecting everyone, its a fact. 

As noted above long term civil unrest and medical equipment shortages. 

[1989commanche]

Try getting into Costco in the morning. They were lined up all the way around the building

[Jeep Driver]

Good grief................

 

 

I'm on my way to the Save Nothing for cheese pizzas and turkey pepperoni. We don't eat pork so we make our own. 

And a goody for a movie night. 

 

 

Aint' skeerd of dying. Got plenty of coffee and TP and neck deep in ammo...........GTG. 

[CoastChief]

All of my very liberal art friends are buying shotgun,s and handguns. You know things are bad when LA people named " Willow" " Spruce" "Spring'. Start packing.

[Pete M]

well, a few days ago all was normal.     decided to stop by the grocery tonight to grab some beer and pop (you know, the good tasting bottles of water).  plenty of those left.   the plain boring waters were all gone, and of course, below is a pic of the TP isle.  plenty of paper plates is you get desperate.  

 

had some good conversation with other like minded people that just wanted to come see what the fuss was all about and have a laugh at this world of idiots we live in.   

 

 

 

 

[Pete M]

oh, and as per usual when you shop a 24hr grocery store late at night, the aisles were full of pallets of more stuff to buy.  I wonder how long that'll last...

[Dzimm]

4 hours ago, CoastChief said:

All of my very liberal art friends are buying shotgun,s and handguns. You know things are bad when LA people named " Willow" " Spruce" "Spring'. Start packing.

Funny how that works isn't it?  I bet yesterday they were protesting to ban them.  No offense to you or your friends, just making a point.

[gogmorgo]

My brother’s getting married next weekend on the opposite end of the country from where most of our family lives. I’ll be flying in of course. As will most of my family.

There’s TP on the shelves everywhere in town, but not much. Hand sanitizer, Lysol wipes, nada. I’ve got half an airplane-legal bottle of hand sanitizer in my camping gear but was hoping to find something to fill it up the rest of the way. 
To be clear, I’m not concerned about my own health. I’m under 30 with a healthy immune system, I’ll be fine. What I’m concerned about is I’ll be passing through a few major international airports where the virus has already been confirmed to have entered the country, and I would absolutely hate to find out I carried it to my parents or grandparents, or some of my soon-to-be sister-in-law’s family who may not be so fine. It would be nice to know I have the option of sanitizing any time I need to touch a door handle or any other surface everyone else touches. 

 

Otherwise yes, events in town have been cancelled. Probably overcautious for how far away we are from major airports, but it is a resort town that handles a lot of travellers, and the front-line service staff who make up a lot of our workforce don’t necessarily have the luxury of paid sick days for minor cold symptoms, and this can be an expensive town to live in.

Personally I think the recommendation to sit tight for a little bit is a good choice, just to slow down the spread and allow ressources to be put it place to manage it. As of right now there aren’t many facilities with the ability to test, and the capacity may not be there to deal with a hundred-fold increase in pneumonia cases. 
The mass panic definitely isn’t helping anything, but I do think this is something worth taking at least a little seriously. 

 

[CoastChief]

1 hour ago, Dzimm said:

Funny how that works isn't it?  I bet yesterday they were protesting to ban them.  No offense to you or your friends, just making a point.

no offense taken. I'm an independent. I argue with them being afraid of the big man, but voting more in. This is a prominent collector in art, he also supported Mike Bloomberg.

[Dzimm]

^^thats crazy.  What does a gun shop do when they sell out of firearms in a day or two?  They can't get more in that quickly.

 

I went to FleetFarm on Friday to look at ammo prices and the 5.56 and .223 was completely wiped out aside from some of the most expensive hunting/competition loads.  The 1000rd bulk boxes were gone even.  Typical 6-8shot game loads of 12ga were also pretty much picked clean. 

 

Surprised to see tho that most of the handgun ammo and 00Buck in 12ga was on sale but looked untouched.  

[NHMJXJ]

 

I never scrimp on quality paper goods and always hit the big box stores and buy in bulk.  I guess that makes me an incidental hoarder.  So, got that covered.

 

I'm a bachelor and live alone, so I generally stop on my way home from work every couple/few days for produce and essentials (milk, OJ ... etc).  It was evident this week that, "things, they were-a-changin'".  I have to admit I grabbed a few extra cans of soup and extra dry goods. 

 

Re: the last couple posts ... At the beginning of the previous presidential administration some of my investments were in precious metals ... and lead.  Got that covered too.

[rokinn]

The U.S. is going to get hit hard by this.  Primarily because there is a dearth of testing taking place and and hospital workers will become ill due to a lack of protective equipment in short order, nearly all of which is currently made in China.  Hospital capacity will also fall short because cases will spike because we have very little idea who is infected and not showing symptoms.  We have the private capacity to much more testing but it hasn't been activated as of yet because they all want to know who is going to pay for it.  I think Dzimm is right on in regard to mutations.  From what I understand there are already two versions of it.

 

  "A comparison of the age distributions of Covid-19 cases in Italy, where they are only testing people who show symptoms, and S. Korea, which has broad testing. A whole lot of 20-29yos out there who feel just fine but are v contagious."