Coronavirus

I'm mildly freaking out. Here in GA and someone just died from the virus in my county. Watching a press briefing from the Governor as I write this and a medical staffer said, if you are on an immunosuppressant, you are at an increased risk and should stay away from groups of people, basically. So I'm on Remicade and I'm sort of freaking out.

Dr. Brian Monahan, the attending physician of Congress and the U.S. Supreme Court, said he expects 70 million to 150 million people in the United States will become infected with COVID-19, NBC News reported Wednesday, citing two sources. That's a lot of people, probably the worst case scenario.

I am not stocking up food or supplies, because that's more of panic than anything else. What I do not understand (kind of upset) is the severe lack of Coronavirus Testing Kits and not enough people getting tested. The only way to stop the spread is the wide/easy availability of Coronavirus tests!

Everything that straydog said!

I’m on Imuran and Remicade and somewhat worried but all we can do is prevent/delay catching it AND prepare our suppressed immune systems as much as possible.

IMHO, it’s going to reach near enough everyone but the vast, vast majority will be and have been fine.

Avoid social contacts as much as possible, rest, proper nutrition and positive attitude is the way to go!

Having said that, I went shopping in a respirator today. 🤣

wow, Keith! Wishing you the best. Scary.

Well...I am coming at it from the perspective I gained while stuck at home with my husband when he had swine flu. To quote him "he would not wish that on his worst enemy" He had huge fever swings, mineral exhausting sweating, and delirium..I washed his sweat soaked t shirts, fed him and was near him for the whole 2.5 weeks. I never caught it.
I washed hands a lot, kept well hydrated and nourished, washed hands, disinfected the remote, potty and light switches, washed hands (get the theme???).
I catch a cold if I'm in the same neighborhood...so I am going on the wash hands, avoid close contact with large groups of people, wash hands, drink lots of water, wash hands theory again.

Hi all - it's been a long time since I've visited this forum, but with the coronavirus looming, I was wondering how everyone was doing. I've had Crohn's for 45 years and am currently on Humira. I only work a few hours a week, but it's in retail, and I am thinking I should take a leave for a few months. Anyone staying home because of this? There are no cases in my county - yet, but over 60 in quarantine situation. Many of my customers come from Southern Ontario, Canada, where the disease is spreading. The stress is getting to me. I hate to bail out on my employer, but I have to look out for myself. Any comments/opinions would be appreciated.

HabsHockeyFan said...
Oldchronie...are you US or Canada? Thinking you may be near me if you're near S. Ontario CA. I'm in western NY.
I work from home currently so I am fortunate. Hope things calm down for you.[/quote

Habs,

We've communicated on here several times over various topics, but I had forgotten that you're from Western New York. What's the Corona report for Buffalo right now. I was going to do some cross border shopping Monday morning, but not sure if I really should. My Son is returning from Las Vegas via Buffalo airport, and am concerned for him possibly having to self isolate.

So far there are NO cases of the coronavirus in my county. But there is 1 just 30 miles away. So its just a matter of time.

I live in Markham, Ontario Canada where no one works. Surprisingly none of the Chinese have tested positive for the Coronavirus. The Chinese are coming back to Markville Mall but the restaurants where the Chinese eat are completely empty except for races non-Chinese. The grocery stores are not seeing any extra foot traffic in Markham.

The shopping is crazy right now. Never seen anything like it, as mentioned, toilet paper, hand sanitizer, bottled water, no where to be found. It's like Y2K all over again. I'm wondering what the next item that someone says, "what if we run out of that" and starts another buying frenzy.

Yes, the panic shopping has already hit my city, which is a very large city, lol. No toilet paper, paper towels, no hand sanitizer, no rubbing alcohol not to mention canned goods, things like tuna fish & soups as an examples. My neighborhood app is busy with posts about all of the grocery stores in our area being out of everything. I ran in to get a loaf of bread on Friday, snagged the last loaf & not many hamburger or hot dog buns left.

I buy toilet paper every time I am at the store. I will pick up two packages, I've done this forever, it doesn't have an expiration date, lol. Thankfully we are in good shape. We have enough food to last us for quite some time. We eat out quite a bit at a cafe by our house since it's just the two of us. They serve a great hot lunch & most of the time we bring half of our lunch home & finish it off for dinner. It's really no more expensive for us doing this.

Stay well everyone.

UK here.

At first the supermarkets ran out of hand sanitiser, then toilet paper, tissues and painkillers. Now food is taking a big hit: pasta, rice, tinned tomatoes, jars of sauces, cereals (especially porridge), tea, flour, yeast (for making bread obvs), crisps, long life milk, eggs, butter, etc. People are still calm on the surface, but you sense it wouldn't take much to tip them over the edge.

The government is.... useless. And that's the politest term I can come up with for them. They designed a clever-clever "herd community" strategy that involved letting the virus run through the population, infecting the young and healthy whilst somehow magically avoiding the old and unhealthy. There was enough of an outcry about this that the government was forced to retreat, at least publicly. I wonder. They talk a good game but their actions contract their words at every step of the way: stopping community testing; not banning gatherings; not closing shops, pubs, etc. In fact, in a particularly cowardly act, they have just forced businesses to assume the reponsibility of deciding when to close. This means that if a business has to close, it can't claim on insurance.

Oh, and that herd strategy I just mentioned? Turned out the government got their modelling wrong and used a virus which required half the ICU beds of Covid-19. Another reason they were forced to backtrack on it. Guys, we barely have enough ICU beds right now, let alone if 60-80% of the population get infected.

Anyway, I probably don't have the virus yet. It is in my area, but the number of official cases are still tiny. I'm going ahead with my next Stelara dose on the 6th April. I do think the infusion dose must have helped a bit, because the urgency has deffo got worse again. Don't want to wait 2 weeks tbh, but have no choice.

As for toilet paper, I've got my Brexit stockpile >_>. I bought a load for a no deal Brexit last year, and didn't use it. As the threat of a crashout has not yet passed (we are in a transition period which lasts until December), I decided to keep my reserve of toilet paper. I think we're possibly the only country in the world which has two disasters waiting on our doorstep (albeit one of them 100% preventable).

@Habs - You can take cholestyramine in plain water... Yeah, it's disgusting but I just chug it down. Using ice cold water and/or a straw helps.

Keep safe, folks.