What are you doing during quarantine?

[Auto-Didact]

Also, it would not be legal to drive around with someone's prescription meds that was not employed by the pharmacy. I just feel sorry for the shut ins (the elderly and severely handicapped) that depend on having their meds dropped off.

My point exactly. In my country we have a legality clause for stuff like this called 'paid internship', where the expert - i.e. in this case the pharmacist - is free to appoint anyone he deems fit as an intern, in this case delivery intern; this is literally delivery work, nothing more, nothing less, which can be learned in about two afternoons training. Almost all legal and privacy issues can be circumvented by just pre-sealing the meds in a closed bag, the same method used by Uber Eats, Deliveroo et al. for delivering food. Even in the difficult delivery case that any explicit instructions or explanations are actually necessary to be given together with meds, that task can typically be handled from the pharmacy by phone.

Actually more generally, I think in times of crisis like this, the government should stimulate those who are currently unable to work in their field due to it literally being shut down, to still be able to volunteer to (temporarily) work under supervision in the fields that are obviously being put under extreme duress. Think simple but important tasks in food chain supply, pharmacy, healthcare, etc, i.e. a volunteer temp program in times of need such as the current crisis which is semi-analogous to the involuntary military draft in times of war.

To be clear, I'm explicitly not suggesting that untrained temporary volunteers do anything remotely excessive like calculating dosages, giving injections, doing nursing work, or doing any real clinical hospital care tasks which requires an actual level of clinical expertise.

 

[BillTre]

I just read a CNN article on what is allowed during a shelter in place order (seems to based on N. California/San Francisco). Many activities are exempt.

These are allowed according to CNN:

The shelter-in-place order also does not apply to those going to work in an essential business or essential government function. That includes:

• Health care operations, including home health workers.
• Essential Infrastructure, including construction of housing and operation of public transportation and utilities.
• Grocery stores, farmers' markets, food banks, convenience stores.
• Businesses that provide necessities of life for economically disadvantaged individuals and shelter facilities.
• Pharmacies, health care supply stores and health care facilities.
• Gas stations and auto repair facilities.
• Banks.
• Garbage collection.
• Hardware stores, plumbers, electricians and other service providers necessary to maintain the safety, sanitation and essential operation of residences and other essential businesses.
• Educational institutions, for the purposes of facilitating distance learning.
• Laundromats, dry cleaners and laundry service providers.
• Businesses that ship or deliver groceries, food and goods directly to residences.
• Child care facilities providing services that enable essential employees to go to work.
• Roles required for any essential business to "maintain basic operations," which include security, payroll and similar activities.

 

[Auto-Didact]

I just read a CNN article on what is allowed during a shelter in place order (seems to based on N. California/San Francisco). Many activities are exempt.

These are allowed according to CNN:

This is essentially the same list of professions that have remained active by necessity in the European states that aren't under a total lockdown.

 

[berkeman]

I would be interested in hearing from @berkeman (or other health care people) about his experiences and what they are doing since he is an EMT and probably has greater exposire than I do.

Most of my part-time shifts have been canceled or postponed, because I mainly work medical standby at big events. I was available for smaller events up until a couple days ago when Santa Clara County called for the shelter-in-place. I may still get activated by my Disaster Healthcare Volunteers (DHV) group, but I haven't heard anything about that type of callout yet.

https://healthcarevolunteers.ca.gov/

For the folks who are working EMS on ambulances or clinically, the County has issued special guidelines:

https://emsa.ca.gov/covid19/

https://emsa.ca.gov/wp-content/uploads/sites/71/2020/03/COVID-19-Memo-to-EMS-Partners-007-1.pdf

Basically you wear full PPE for any potential contacts with COVID-19 patients, and mask up the patient early in the call if they are exhibiting any symptoms or are known to have tested positive. Recently Fire started only sending one FF inside on non-emergent medical calls (fully gowned up) to assess the patient before deciding how to handle the call with the rest of the crew. Some local FFs tested positive for COVID-19 early on, so the Fire Department is worried about short-staffing issues if too many FFs get infected or have to quarrantine.

 

[BillTre]

Most of my part-time shifts have been canceled or postponed, because I mainly work medical standby at big events. I was available for smaller events up until a couple days ago when Santa Clara County called for the shelter-in-place. I may still get activated by my Disaster Service Worker (DSW) group, but I haven't heard anything about that type of callout yet.

Guess you might get called out if too many of the regular people get sick.

 

[chemisttree]

I still am unable to find toilet paper, I wish I had taken panicked binge buying more seriously a few weeks ago.

Handheld Bidets were still on the shelf at Home Depot 2 days ago in San Antonio. Something to try. Maybe order one online?

 

[Auto-Didact]

For the folks who are working EMS on ambulances or clinically, the County has issued special guidelines:

https://emsa.ca.gov/covid19/

In Europe outside of big hospitals almost every walk in clinic is currently getting overwhelmed, so much so that most have actually closed the front door, or even the entire clinic out of necessity. Also due to lack of centralized planning there is a rampant supply problem, both in rural areas and even in major metropolitan areas.

In our clinic, we currently have one paramedic who opens the door without donning full protective gear, i.e. wearing only a FFP2 mask, in order to determine whether or not the patient at the door has a cough. I'm currently trying to get my hands on some practical make shift full protective gear, e.g. surgical wear, old lab coats and whatnot for the clinic that I still have laying around at home; if this is the situation in one of the richest countries on Earth, I can only imagine what the situation is like in third world countries.

 

[Bystander]

2020 Census, took a couple minutes.

 

[BillTre]

Did mine yesterday.

 

[hagopbul]

Today is day number 6 I think of self quarantine , I start to forget about the days I think

It interesting that people around the world are doing this self quarantine , that means they care not to make anyone sick

Any way have to finish 7 books in this times and have to buy few gifts to send but the border are closed so just sitting on the couch

 

[PeroK]

I going to stay calm and learn cosmology.

 

[bagasme]

Still business as usual, opening this laptop for gaming, and playing around basic sysadmin tasks.

 

[George Jones]

In no particular order:

1) My wife and I will watch murder-mysteries/thrillers. We just finished Wisting, and I think we will move on to The Valhalla Murders.

2) I think I will introduce my Pakistani wife and 13-year-old daughter to The Waltons; I have the first two seasons on DVDs.

3) I have a stack of unread novels on which I want to make some headway.

4) I have a stack of unread non-fiction non-science/math books on which I want to make some headway.

5) I brought 75 physics and math books home from my office.

6) For about two more weeks, I have teach a university astronomy course for non-science majors. All face-to-face meetings have been cancelled, and I did my first lecture from home yesterday. Today I have to choose assignment questions, I have to upload a few files to the course website, and I have to work a bit on tomorrow's lecture.

 

[Evo]

Handheld Bidets were still on the shelf at Home Depot 2 days ago in San Antonio. Something to try. Maybe order one online?

I'm using paper towels now. A few days ago I ordered a box of the folded ones that go into dispensers at public restrooms, I bought my box last week for $30, yesterday I noticed the same box now sells for $42 all on Amazon, same seller. I also noticed prices on everything I ordered a week ago has increased.

I was at the pharmacy 3 days ago to buy ibuprofen, there was not a single bottle, all brands were sold out. I was able to find some online, but the price was almost double what I paid a month ago.

There were 3 bottles of hand gel available, 3 was the max you could purchase, I was going to give them to my girls that need them, so I instantly grabbed them and checked out, SOLD OUT! I have my credit card pre-populated so we're talking maybe 4 seconds or less time. People must be literally sitting on sites or have alerts set up to buy the stuff the instant they are available.

I have terrible allergies, my ex husband said I should have been born with tufts of tissues at the end of my wrists. Anyway, PTL, I have been able to buy kleenex.

I was speaking to my neighbor who has been ordered to work from home, he believes this will all be over and he'll be back in the office in a few weeks. He's dreaming.

Home Depot just announced that following the early closures of other stores like Walmart, it too will start closing at 6pm. For people not familiar, that's a giant hardware store that sells just about anything you can imagine. Not good, fewer store hours forces more people to be in the stores at the same time. To limit hording, stores like Walmart have stopped selling popular items online, you have to physically go to the store to get them. Seems like there could be smarter ways to trace and block online hording purchases.

 

[BillTre]

Napkins can be a decent alternative to TP and tissues.
Less rough than most paper towels.

 

[hagopbul]

could this go any longer

for the TP issue could they are selling them to mask manufacturing , as the i heard you can use a TP for the inner part of the mask

but seriously could we self quarantine more than april , is it needed ?

 

[berkeman]

but seriously could we self quarantine more than april , is it needed ?

We should hopefully start seeing the effects of the quarantines and shelter-at-home orders in just a few days, I would think. The time for symptoms to show up is 2-14 days, according to links I've seen. The change in the reported case rate will be complicated by the increasing availability of the test kits, though, so it may be a challenge to separate the two effects...

 

[Auto-Didact]

I still am unable to find toilet paper, I wish I had taken panicked binge buying more seriously a few weeks ago.

Handheld Bidets were still on the shelf at Home Depot 2 days ago in San Antonio. Something to try. Maybe order one online?

Napkins can be a decent alternative to TP and tissues.
Less rough than most paper towels.

for the TP issue could they are selling them to mask manufacturing , as the i heard you can use a TP for the inner part of the mask

 

[Mondayman]

I move dead people for a living. People are still dying, so its business as usual.

 

[BillTre]

I move dead people for a living. People are still dying, so its business as usual.

Taking any extra precautions?

 

[Mondayman]

We wear equipment to protect ourselves and change out of our work clothes immediately after moving. However, we've yet to have to move a victim of the virus.

 

[BillTre]

We are now not doing cornea recoveries from potential donors if they have been intubated (too much potential for airborn droplets and frequently blood coming out the mouth/nose I guess).
I did one a couple of days ago.

We were told that the hospitals were necessarily telling us of there were corona virus victims in the morgue.
They write on the body bag in the only place I've been recently.

Way fewer recoveries now because elective surgeries are all being cancelled.

On the other hand, I would expect your pick-ups to increase in number.

 

[Dr. Courtney]

My pharmacy has stopped delivering, which makes no sense, many restaurants have now started delivery to be safer. Also the pharmacy itself is closing and will only do business through the drive-up window.

I still am unable to find toilet paper, I wish I had taken panicked binge buying more seriously a few weeks ago.

Happy to send you some. PM me an address. Being a redneck in rural GA has its advantages. Georgia Pacific is ramping up production and keeps us well supplied.

 

[collinsmark]

Oh, my goodness. For about 10-20 seconds, I thought that Dr. Courtney's post...

Happy to send you some. PM me an address. Being a redneck in rural GA has its advantages. Georgia Pacific is ramping up production and keeps us well supplied.

...was in response to BillTre's post (directly preceeding Dr. Courtney's post):

We are now not doing cornea recoveries from potential donors if they have been intubated (too much potential for airborn droplets and frequently blood coming out the mouth/nose I guess).

I was thinking to myself, "Good god! What in the world is Georgia Pacific up to?!?"

 

[nsaspook]

Working on a hobby solar energy project for small 600W backup systems.
https://forum.allaboutcircuits.com/threads/project-solar-wind-pic-controlled-battery-array.32879/page-5#post-1488589

 

[Mondayman]

On the other hand, I would expect your pick-ups to increase in number.

Thankfully, deaths from the virus in BC are low. Pickups hasn't changed. Fentanyl, suicide, cancer/disease, and accidents are still the primary killers.

 

[hagopbul]

today reached page 100 on the book i am reading 500 to go , this reading thing is real challenging thing i was a very good reader

contacted someone about asking about new methods on SARS-ncov-2 detection

went outside to buy few items , and didnt walk to the beach although i want that so much

are we creating a fear storm un intentionally ?
best
hagop

 

[DennisN]

@kyphysics , @Jarvis323 ,
How are you both feeling, by the way? I'm feeling much better, my cold seems to be going away rather quickly.

@kyphysics , I'm actually going to install the latest version of Cities: Skylines and play it today. And I will be very careful to not cut down on healthcare in the city I will build.

 

[some bloke]

I self isolated for a few days last week, has a cough when the guidelines in the UK came out to go home if you have one, so I did. Couldn't work from home, so got a lot of chores done, then made some dungeons and dragons stuff, then went absolutely stir-crazy, then played minecraft.

Cough is gone now, so I'm back to work. I couldn't do 3 months in the house, 4 days was bad enough!

 

[Dr. Courtney]

This is the scope trace taken this week of simulating an underwater blast wave with a ballistic pressure wave.

A paper published some time ago (https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0889974697901031) predicted that spheres would create blast-like waves in high speed water entry. Technical details complicated experimental ideas until we found a simpler solution. Water entry needs to be vertical and few facilities are high enough for the distance required for a sphere to separate from a sabot or patch. But a 50 caliber lead sphere can be loaded directly into a muzzle loader without a patch or sabot to facilitate the experiment in labs with normal ceilings.

So, this week, we are using 18th century technology in a 21st century experiment to confirm a 20th century prediction and invent a practical device for simulating underwater blast waves in the lab. Yes, the powder gets poured down the barrel and the round ball pushed in after it. There is a bit of smoke. But on the whole, the time between trials as well as the cost and effort of the experiment are much lower than our previous invention. ( https://aip.scitation.org/doi/10.1063/1.4922828 )