What are you doing during quarantine?

[hagopbul]

Hello :

this is the second day in self quarantine , the city is rather calm , and i start reading , what about you ? we declared medical emergency , a lot of people are staying at home

the second day is rather not usual a lot of shops are close

did some laundry , then waste some time on social media

what about you ?

best
hagop

 

[PhanthomJay]

This is reminiscent of “where were you when the lights went out, or when the blizzard of ‘78 hit, or on the day of 9-11”. I’m working from home with rather poor productivity.
This crisis is very bad for the economy, and for those infected or who will be infected by this monster.

 

[jbriggs444]

Visited doctor twice. Once for myself, once for wife. Both unrelated to any COVID-19 symptomology.

Telecommuted. Did some work upgrading company VPN infrastructure from home (making sure the traffic routes efficiently over our available circuits). Tried to stay ahead of e-mail. Failed. I really need to hook a bigger monitor up to my laptop. [Got one sitting right here on my gaming PC]

Stuck a load in washer this morning. Wife is chatting up folks, paying bills, scheduling appointments, unloading dishwasher, loading same. Except for doctor visits, we have not left the house.

 

[hagopbul]

This crisis is very bad for the economy

yes it is bad for this economy but we can over come this

working from home ? any advice

best
hagop

 

[hagopbul]

I really need to hook a bigger monitor up to my laptop.

how about using a projector ?

 

[jbriggs444]

how about using a projector ?

Hard to do without having a projector. I certainly would not want to buy one on my own dime. Nor do I see much point putting a 10 foot image on a wall 10 feet away instead of putting a 29 inch image on a screen 2 feet away.

 

[Rive]

I have a hunch that many will do this:


Well, aside from joking around randomly I have ~ half year worth of books I got at some point but had no time to read them: the garden needs to be tended, and plenty of repair work on the house itself. And the hills are in the backyard, so some hiking is unavoidable I think...

 

[PeroK]

Hello :

this is the second day in self quarantine , the city is rather calm , and i start reading , what about you ? we declared medical emergency , a lot of people are staying at home

the second day is rather not usual a lot of shops are close

did some laundry , then waste some time on social media

what about you ?

best
hagop

Where are you from?

 

[hagopbul]

Where are you from?

from syria living in lebanon

 

[Borg]

I have a hunch that many will do this:

He's in trouble if the other guy has a Royal Flush.

 

[DennisN]

I've been listening to music, watching comedy, being on PhysicsForums, resting, cuddling with my cat.

 

[hagopbul]

O didn't believe in Covid-19 effect even thought it is happening in other place and will not reach me , now the street is empty and with every day passing it is becoming more empty , trying to read just sitting in front of the laptop but couldn't open it to read , yesterday a family friend passed away for natural reasons .

Trying to not to go on a walk as I love walking , we have a beach about 6 km away from my home , resisting that now

I had to apply for a scholarship also even if the chances of getting it some how small

Could we spend more than one week like this ?

 

[Rive]

Trying to not to go on a walk as I love walking , we have a beach about 6 km away from my home , resisting that now

Is it forbidden?
If you don't meet others and don't touch anything (used by others) during that walk it is just as safe as staying at home.

 

[hagopbul]

Is it forbidden?
If you don't meet others and don't touch anything (used by others) during that walk it is just as safe as staying at home.

No it is not forbidden but if I go on a walk that will take hours to come back home

What about you ?

 

[Rive]

What about you ?

We don't have lockdown yet, so it's just planning and preparation. The hills starting in the backyard (almost literally), so we definitely plan to sneak out for some hiking.

Ps.: just to be clear - things will depend on the actual rules. If it will be 'stay behind the door' then we are done

 

[russ_watters]

It's still business as usual for me. My company is on a voluntary work from mode, but if you work from home you're expected to work. I'll be in the office the next few days, but always re-evaluating. I'd guess we had about a 2/3 full office today.

 

[berkeman]

My wife and I are both able to work from home with the local Santa Clara County Shelter-in-Place order. She may transition to doing it full time (she was on the list at her work for transitioning to work from home), but I need to get back in the lab as soon as this is over.

On the upside, my noon workouts are going to be a lot more reliable during this period -- lately trying to escape from work for a noon run/swim has been very difficult. But doing a noon MTB workout every other day while working at home seems to work pretty well.

 

[Borg]

My wife and I are also working from home although my boss keeps defaulting to thinking that I need to come in for every little problem (I don't).

 

[TierYantra]

Taking care of my garden. I've got nothing else to do.

 

[epenguin]

This is happening in the US? It hasn't been much mentioned in Europe.
I have 3 advantages. 1 - am retired. 2 My flat has a 25 m terrace so not such cooped in feeling and I can go for walks without leaving the house. Mind you 500 m is 20X back and forth which starts to get a bit boring, but decisive is 3 last year had a severe lung infection that took a lot of getting over. Nothing like what this virus can give you in the worst cases, but inkling of what it would feel like and no temptation to take any risks, so if you are in the high risk age group, it could help maintain the precautions by trying to imagine the self-helplessness.

 

[russ_watters]

This is happening in the US? It hasn't been much mentioned in Europe.

Depends on what you mean by "this". There is one city I'm aware of with a mandatory quarantine - a "lockdown"; San Francisco. The rest of the country has various levels of recommended self-isolation (wow, you should have seen that autocorrect...), or "social distancing". Many businesses and government functions are requesting or requiring people to work from home, some are closing down.

 

[hagopbul]

we had some visitors today , trying to make the idea of Covid-19 testing outside my head after all this is not a physics domain what ever i am thinking must be thought out by some one in virology or some thing like that , reached page 90 from that book yesterday going to reach page 110 0r 130 today reading is a challenging task for me this days

trying to think how on Earth it reached 150 countries around the world

the streets are semi - empty a lot are at home no official lock down just the restaurants and the borders

 

[hagopbul]

by the way the toilet papers are out from my home and all i had to do is to go to local supermarket to by new one , we have plenty anyone need some i can send them with DHL /UPS /aramex / fedex

or normal postal service , it won't be a problem

 

[Auto-Didact]

Working full time in a general practice clinic, predominantly non-corona related stuff within the clinic and corona stuff at a distance together with the public health service and/or hospital if necessary. Stopped doing home consultations to the chronically ill and elderly since this week. Also, have way less time for research and teaching unfortunately, at least until I'm inevitably forced to self-quarantine.

 

[etotheipi]

Well it seems that A Levels in May/June have been canceled (or at least postponed...), so this is going to turn out to be one awfully long study leave!

I might get into basket weaving...

 

[Dr. Courtney]

Still lots of freedom in GA. Most recommendations are voluntary. Been for a bike ride every day. Most churches are online, but planning to attend one in person this week or Sunday. Edited some videos this morning. Collected data in an experiment earlier today. (There are advantages to the basement laboratory.) Prepping for various experiments. Some facilities I use are closed for larger groups, but individual and small party use can be arranged. Going fishing tomorrow. Working with my wife on recording some songs for music videos.

A little more "mommy and daddy time" than usual. No complaints.

Most extra time at home is more due to less time in traffic than massive closures.

 

[Evo]

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.

 

[Auto-Didact]

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.

Is it a big pharmacy? Or just a few workers? From my experience, this sounds like something completely understandable: a combination of fear for their own wellbeing as well as possibly being overwhelmed.

It is important to remember that pharmacy workers are not clinicians, i.e. they aren't trained at all to actually handle dangerous or lethal situations, e.g. when they have people paniciking reacting out anger upon them and especially if these workers are without adequate means for protection for themselves.

I'm actually hearing the same thing from small pharmacies in my area, some have even closed down. If you have the time to spare, you aren't afraid for your own wellbeing, and you feel like directly contributing to the overall wellbeing of your neighborhood, try reaching out to them and asking if they need any help delivering medication. Every small bit helps, even just some understanding from a stranger.

 

[Evo]

Is it a big pharmacy? Or just a few workers? From my experience, this sounds like something completely understandable: a combination of fear for their own wellbeing as well as possibly being overwhelmed.

It is important to remember that pharmacy workers are not clinicians, i.e. they aren't trained at all to actually handle dangerous or lethal situations, e.g. when they have people paniciking reacting out anger upon them and especially if these workers are without adequate means for protection for themselves.

I'm actually hearing the same thing from small pharmacies in my area, some have even closed down. If you have the time to spare, you aren't afraid for your own wellbeing, and you feel like directly contributing to the overall wellbeing of your neighborhood, try reaching out to them and asking if they need any help delivering medication. Every small bit helps, even just some understanding from a stranger.

It's a chain of pharmacies, I know the workers well, when I come in they welcome me by name. The thing is there is a wall with a window that separates the pharmacists from the customers, it puts a couple of feet between them and the customer. The drive up window is even closer to them. It's not like a bank where there is a window between them and the customer, it's wide open when they deal with the client. I get wanting less contact, but the delivery is ZERO contact. But it wasn't their idea.

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. Most of my meds come by mail, I only now have to go to the pharmacy for one off prescriptions, like when I go to the doctor and he writes a prescription for an antibiotic that I need to start right away and can't wait for the mail process. But many people don't have free mail meds like I do, it's part of my insurance.

 

[BillTre]

I work for an eyebank now and go to morgues and funeral homes to remove corneas from qualified dead people.
The national eyebank organizations is constantly coming out with updates on what cases to take and how to handle things. They are not taking cases where the potential donor is potentially a corona virus exposed person.
They are also going to be reducing the amount of cases overall since many places are greatly reduing or eliminating elective surgeries (which most corneal transplants are). So demand (corneal surgeries) will be down and corneas can only be kept around in a useful condition for a limited time.

A case I did on Monday was on a morgue table (on wheels) shared with a body bag labeled covid-19. Things are kept pretty clean in the morgues (run by health care professionals). Funeral homes on the other hand tend to be kind of messy and poorly kept relative to morgues.

As I go through the hospital to get access to the morgue (controlled accesss due to ME cases and other reasons), I am becoming more conscious of what I touch while there. For example, door handles, door opener buttons (common, but not ubiquitous in hospitals), and elevator buttons. Here are some strategies I have thought of (in consultation with others) to reduce these kinds of contacts.
Door opening buttons (4-6" diameter on walls) hit with elbow or hip.
Someone suggested putting on two pair of gloves before going in, so you can take one pair off if you think its contaminated and still have a glove on (beside the eyebank supplies, I have a several boxes of nice nitrile gloves at home and now in cars. These are handy and more are available at my local Harbor Freight store at reasonable prices (limit of four boxes last time I looked).
Gloves will work well for door knobs, but wearing gloves around places like hospitals can evoke responses from others since you are usually not supposed to go around with PPE (personal protective equipment, like gloves) on outside of labs since it is a potential source of contamination for others. This may change.
Gloves would work well for door knobs.
For elevators, I figure at least 90% of the people working in the hospital I spend most of my time in will touch an elevator button during a day. I have started using a pen to push the buttons. The pen can be sterilized with alcohol or by some other means. Now I am considering putting a glove over the pen so I can even more easily pitch it rather than sterilize it.

I have worked with even more nasty things in labs in the past (such as very efficient vertebrate mutagens) and feel that given time, approaches like this can be effective. On the other hand, a lab doing mutagenesis is a much more controlled environment.
However, there is a learning curve when it comes to behavioral changes (like not touching your face), so it is good to start trying to do these things before local exposure increases (ass it probably will).

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.

 

[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?