obvert
Posts: 14050
Joined: 1/17/2011
From: PDX (and now) London, UK
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quote:
ORIGINAL: Canoerebel
Johns Hopkins screen grab as of 3/8/20 at about 7 p.m. eastern (USA) time. 110k cases; 3.8k deaths.
On 3/2/20, I posted a screen grab showing 80k cases and 3.0k deaths. So, about 800 deaths this week and nearly 30k new cases, only a small percentage of which were in China.
I noted a few days ago that the first cases were reported in my little town in northwest Georgia. As best I can tell, life continues normally. Grocery stores fully stocked; restaurants full; etc. Yesterday, I went on a long hike on Pigeon Mountain to take photos for a story. Today our family was in church and then met other family for lunch in Marietta, where there's another confirmed case. The virus has been a topic of conversation but without any real alarm. I don't know if we're like Noah's non-listening neighbors as he warns of coming flood, or if our intuition is on target. Hopefully the latter.
Do you find that your behaviour has changed at all? Do you wash hands more than before this outbreak? Do you consider how many lengthy conversations you have with people you know well, vs those you don't know as well?
My behaviour has altered dramatically. I have an annoying habit of biting my fingernails unconsciously when watching tense TV/Films and sometimes while reading or just thinking. I am aware this is not hygenic and have stopped for periods of time before.
Once on my long around the world trip in '96, I made a concerted effort not to touch my face at all upon reaching India. The kicker was having a group of kids follow me around one of my first days in Mumbai and one of them squatting in front me, taking a dump, and wiping it with his hands, then attempting to grab my clothes. It also didn't help that there had been a recent outbreak of bubonic plague in a nearby state.
Now I am conscious of everything I touch when on the tube. Carry hand sanitiser (hospital 70% alcohol) and wash after arriving anywhere. I carry a face mask but haven't used it yet, but often keep my gloves on since it is still winter. I don't direct my face toward strangers, move away from those who are coughing, cover my own face in my arm crook if I cough, and attempt to use my height to get above the general firing line of people's spit. Part of my concern is that I work in close contact with a very international community of students and teachers. I also have to commute on public transit, and have a wife and daughter who do the same, both of whom also go to be with large concentrations of people during the day. (One helpful data point from the WHO report linked by Kull was that there were no known transmissions from kids to adults in China, when it was written).
I tend not to engage in conversations where large groups are in close contact, and limit my time speaking to anyone. Although I did go to a football match at the weekend, and a market, and took all kinds of transport.
The real change is that my wife and I spoke this weekend and decided to stop kissing or engaging in close intimate contact until she gives birth to our second child in about 5 weeks. I don't want to have her get any disease in this last stretch and it just makes sense to take the hit for a while until we see how this develops. She'll stop working soon and reduce her exposure, but I may have to continue depending on what schools here decide to do.
I've been less worried for us recently, having read so much and learned so much on this thread, so thanks to all who contribute new research, ideas and balance to this discussion. 
< Message edited by obvert -- 3/9/2020 10:56:15 AM >
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"Success is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm." - Winston Churchill
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