Life Under Coronavirus

[_MsJack]

My XH had the kids for visitation this weekend. He texted me today saying he developed a sore throat last night and a cough this morning and should he bring the kids back an hour early. I said yes, bring them back ASAP.

I wasn't sure whether or not to believe him (he has lied about being sick to get out of visitation many times), but he sent a text to me by mistake where he's telling someone to meet him at the walk-in clinic by his apartment in Indianapolis.

There are only six confirmed coronavirus cases in Indianapolis right now, so statistically it's unlikely he has it.

Still, very worried now.

[_Jersey Girl]

My wife and I went out, and when we got to our car we did a little dab of hand sanitizer. When I got home I washed my hands. We also were celebrating a thing today, but decided to pick up a couple of items and spend the day home rather than be in an enclosed public space. So, I definitely have changed my day-to-day routine, for sure. Also, I have 2012 on right now because it just feels right. Lol.

- Doc

Don't forget your exterior and interior door handles, all your interior knobs and shift handles inside the car, steering wheel, and...your keys. I do this like it's my religion because it was for decades.

In ECE we start the morning by mixing up two bleach water solutions in a central location inside the building--sanitize and disinfectant. When we enter the classroom we disinfect our way into it. All the knobs, chairs, table tops, sinks, toilets and water fountains. Everything on the shelves and inside boxes on the shelves, including the shelves themselves.

Throughout the day we are sanitizing drinking fountains and sink handles after every single use, and disinfecting toilets after every single use and that's only the tip of the daily iceberg I am mentioning here.

Children wash hands when they enter the environment, before and after using certain materials, sneezing, coughing, etc. and recall that sinks are sanitized after every single use. Toothbrushes, if applicable, are sanitized daily and tooth paste is placed on bits of paper towel or waxed paper for children to pick up with their individual brush, children wash hands before and after tooth brushing, sinks sanitized again after each single use. Hand washing and tooth brushing timers near the sinks covered in ziploc bags as a barrier and so that children wash and brush long enough.

During full day programs, everything I just mentioned is disinfected during rest time and when children go outdoors, and once again before leaving for the day. Tables during and after each use. Doing that daily for decades with approx. 15-20 children and 2 or more adults in the room, it becomes part of your every day activity at work and home.

If you need any tips...ask a preschool teacher! This is why I have no detectable fingerprints left!

[_Some Schmo]

Given the slow response to dispersing tests, I can't help but think the confirmed case count is more a measure of how efficiently the state is testing than how many people actually have it (likely way bigger numbers at this point).

[_Jersey Girl]

Given the slow response to dispersing tests, I can't help but think the confirmed case count is more a measure of how efficiently the state is testing than how many people actually have it (likely way bigger numbers at this point).

I think there are going to be vast numbers of people who are never tested at least right now, so those will slip through the counts in terms of data collection. The one 80 year old woman who died in our county was tested after she was already deceased.

[_MsJack]

Given the slow response to dispersing tests, I can't help but think the confirmed case count is more a measure of how efficiently the state is testing than how many people actually have it (likely way bigger numbers at this point).

On the one hand, that's probably a good thing---there haven't been enough severe cases to trip alarm bells and most people are suffering such a mild reaction that they think it's just a cold/mild flu. I've had three people in my small office with coughs these last two weeks and it's made me wonder.

On the other hand, that means it's really, really widespread at this point, and it's inevitable that it will get into more vulnerable populations like what happened at the nursing home in Kirkland, Washington, and cause a lot of death. Which is really bad.

[_Jersey Girl]

My XH had the kids for visitation this weekend. He texted me today saying he developed a sore throat last night and a cough this morning and should he bring the kids back an hour early. I said yes, bring them back ASAP.

I wasn't sure whether or not to believe him (he has lied about being sick to get out of visitation many times), but he sent a text to me by mistake where he's telling someone to meet him at the walk-in clinic by his apartment in Indianapolis.

There are only six confirmed coronavirus cases in Indianapolis right now, so statistically it's unlikely he has it.

Still, very worried now.

That would be cause for concern. I'm happy to see that you have the children coming back right away. We had a child here who (I wrote about this and deleted it) had a situation develop that they usually have to be hospitalized for. I worried about our one and only children's hospital likely being already at capacity because it usually is, and of course worried that the child would be exposed right in the hospital...and how would Jersey Boy and I be able to go pull shifts since I am at risk and he is off the charts high risk?

I'm sorry that you are having to deal with this while preggers. I am watching two local Facebook mother's groups working their way through what didn't even faze them at the start. One wanted advice on whether or not to fly for her vacation and to see her aging (77/80)parents. I watched that thread as it developed. Some moms saying go have a good time don't live in fear! Prices are in the basement! I put in my two cents once or twice the main reason being to explain how this pandemic was created and why it's called a pandemic vs epidemic, and I watched as cooler and more informed heads prevailed. They used a combination of facts and guilt. :-)

Other moms wanted to know how to keep from going crazy with kids at home for a minimum of 2 weeks--they're fooling themselves of course, the closures are ultimately going to be longer than that. Helping each other out with ideas and sample daily schedules to get through this. But imagine, Jack, we live in very nice homes with creature comforts galore not to mention all manner of digital experiences at our finger tips and people are worried about staying inside their own homes.

One thing that did my heart good were the moms who reached out for help for things such as--my child has strep, we're out of Tylenol and I can't get to the store and a wave of mothers offering what they had in their extra stash. Other mothers offering to share diapers, wipes and infant formula until scarcity levels off.

I know you have a church home and might also be part of moms groups online. I know you'll reach out if you need to and if you need someone to tell you not to be shy to reach out--I just did it. :-)

Meanwhile prayers for good health through this difficult time.

[_Jersey Girl]

DAY FOUR OF MY INCARCERATION: I may have actually lost track what day it is by now. Jersey Boy is baking bread because the store was completely out--carboholic that he is. He managed to pick up a few random things such as white vinegar for our vaporizers. Meat department guy told him they are going to run out of meat. I don't believe it. My online class begins today. Book of Kells. I hold out a hope of going to Dublin in fall and the UK. Eye balling crafts/DIY's. Currently getting into my introvert groove.

Amazon owns me.

[_Gadianton]

Chap, I would have thought that my years of defending science on this board and whatnot would have bought me some base credibility. Instead of asking for clarification when I said something that sounded as if I'm a boastful non-hand washer, with either no regard or understanding for how that affects others beyond myself, you just assumed the worst and scolded me, and then leveraged the infraction with the worst of all possible worlds of consequence.

Okay, whatever. I took pains to clarify, but no response from you; no "hey Gad, thanks for clearing that up" or anything. Instead, you fast-forward to the next statement I made that reads to you as if I'm missing some basic points about personal hygiene, wrest it from context and respond with the obvious.

it only works if everyone is doing it

I wash my hands whenever I come home. That protects my family each time I do it. In that regard is irrelevant to me what other people outside my family do.

Of course, by taking precautions not not to get infected one also reduces the risk to other people one may meet. I'm happy with that, even if I am the only one doing it - which in any case I know I am not.

You make it read as if I said hand washing works only if everyone is doing it. Do you really think I would believe something like that? If so, again, if you think I'm missing something so basic, why not first ask, "Hey Gad, it sounds like you're saying hand-washing only works if everyone is doing it, is that really what you mean?"

I welcome my views to be challenged, and so I have no issues with that in principle, but if the challenge forces me to continuously spend time clarifying, with no evidence the challenger is taking the time to understand, then I lose interest. If you would like to continue and quote me and respond with the obvious, as if I don't know, then that's your right to do so, but I'm not going to waste my time explaining myself to someone giving no indication they're trying to understand what I'm saying.

So for others in this thread, if you see Chap scoring points against me, know that I won't be responding further, and so if you have a similar concern, then please ask.

[_Chap]

Don't take it personally Gadianton.

Gadianton:

We are not our real selves here - just avatars on a computer screen associated with streams of text. It's the words that bother me, and their possible effect on those who might read them in the real world. At times like these we need to take great care to express ourselves so as to avoid misunderstandings.

The fact that I did not respond to your explanation was simply because I was, for a while, not doing stuff at my desk with this board as a kind of pause button whenever I reached a temporary dead end (more interesting than solitaire, certainly). I actually moved away into the real world for a while ...

[_MeDotOrg]

I think the proper way to think of your status with respect to SARS-CoV-2 is like Schrodinger's Cat. You should simultaneously be preventing yourself from getting or giving the virus.

That means not only washing your hands when you get home, it means washing your hands when you leave, and washing your hands again when you arrive at someone else's house, and when you leave. Treat every place you enter like Schrodinger's Cat: both as a safe haven and a hotbed of infection.