It’s easy to make your own hand sanitizer: 2/3 cup 99% rubbing alcohol (isopropyl alcohol) or ethanol and 1/3 cup plain aloe vera gel. Can add 8-10 drops essential oil (consider ones that have additional antiseptic properties i.e. lavender, thyme, clove, cinnamon leaf, peppermint etc.)
^^^ I agree. Air pollution may be temporarily down in China, but we are using enormous resources on this and the economic distress it will cause people is also a detriment to environmental health.
Also, I would like to have some general information about the “underlying health issues” some patients have. Asthma? HIV? Cancer? Obesity? High blood pressure? MS? There are many things that could affect the intensity of the virus and it would actually be helpful to have useful information about that rather than a generic cloud that seems designed to give a false sense of reassurance.
@greenwitch Some data is available from studies done in China. It’s in this thread somewhere but here is a place to read up. It’ll be imperfect and deals with different demographics and health care systems than our own but likely gives a good ballpark estimate:
https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/coronavirus-age-sex-demographics/
Anyone else getting ads for KN95 masks?? On this site?
We went to Costco today and it was sheer madness. The doomsday shoppers were out in force. People with cases and cases of bottled water, all of the rubbing alcohol was sold out, same with nitrile gloves.
Carts loaded to the gills with toilet paper, frozen pizzas. Many people had masks on. People were shopping in a frenzy.
The checkout gal told us it has been like that for the past 3 days. Every cart was taken and we had to go grab one from a cart return in the parking lot. It was honestly worse than the week before Christmas.
^What state are you in? We thought about going to Costco today just for regular stuff (not for the purpose of stocking up), but decided not to go to avoid the crowd and long lines.
We are in MA
@1NJParent
I went to Costco yesterday and it was pretty busy, but not unusual for a Friday afternoon. There was a guy with a cart full of kitty litter but isn’t there always a guy with a cart full of kitty litter?
The greeter wiped down the handle of my cart with some damp thing and it was a bit disconcerting. Where did he get that damp thing anyway? I was not reassured. Step back, you with your damp thing, and keep your face away!
Sorry, that sounded mean. He was trying to help.
I’ve seen a grand total of 2 people in masks. One, a man who works at the post office (good idea), the other, a shopper at the farmer’s market (probably overkill).
I went to BJs today (our local big box store). It was much busier than normal with a lot of carts full of stock-up type items. The Clorox wipes were almost completely out. There were only two packages left after I grabbed mine. I also bought a large bag of rice because it was on sale, and we needed rice. As I was picking up my bag, the guy next to me made a comment about everyone shopping for the zombie apocalypse. I didn’t notice whether there was hand sanitizer or not since we had some at home.
I don’t understand all the carts full of water. Do they expect the water to stop running?
^ my question, too
Why do we need hand sanitizer at home…when we have (presumably) sinks with soap and water?
And yes…I bought three small bottles…but I’m wondering where I’m going to use them.
Had a talk with FIL tonight (91 - significant heart issues, though still fairly active for his age). I reminded him that most people of all age groups survive, but I think the unspoken part is we’d all be worried. We gave him a game plan of stocking up some and just staying inside his house if the virus comes to his neck of the woods.
Personally we haven’t seen anyone in masks in our travels along the east coast (south to mid at this point). Restaurants are still rather full. Some more than expected. Fast food to sit down restaurants. Chinese too.
Our med school lad tells us they’ve been getting updates but no one seems worried where he is. He’s not.
Hey, question for all of you who are very knowledgeable about the health care system. How ragged do you think it’s going to get? D was just about ready for try for kid no. 2, but now concerned about what healthcare might be like, not just nine months from now, but in between. Also, about impact on coronavirus on pregnancies. Any insights from the experts here? Thanks!
We are in Denver visiting family. I asked if they needed a run to Costco. The loot: a case of Corona beer and some Kirkland Signature paper products. 
I rarely use hand sanitizer - I prefer soap and water, so will only use hand sanitizer when soap/water is unavailable.
Where I live, bottled water is a hot commodity when there is a chance of power outages. Most of the communities in my area rely on well water, so if there is a power outage, the pumps don’t have power to bring water into the house. So not only do we not have access to drinking water, but we also can’t flush our toilets, take a shower, etc. Bottled water is in high demand when we have blizzard or hurricane warnings (we all fill our tubs so at least we can force flush our toilets during a power outage).
I noticed the other day while perusing the sale flyer online for Sam’s Club, that toilet paper was a few dollars off. It was available online, but it showed my local Sam’s is out of stock. So is most of the hand sanitizer as well as disinfectant wipes. But apparently they still have bottled water ?
I have lots of leftover hand sanitizer from prior health fairs that we didn’t use up, so I’m not looking for any more. I bought only things we were out of or nearly out of. Out Costco was rather crowded. Our kids wanted and bought more electric toothbrush heads, green tea and lava cakes in little ceramic containers.
We don’t need and didn’t buy any bottled water, as I only get and use it for the support group meetings and we already have enough on hand.
We were nearly out of TP, so got that. Also got a 3# bag of almonds because we like them and they’re quick and easy protein. Noticed that Costco has put a limit of one per customer on temporal thermometers (bought one the other day for H’s fever).
Didn’t buy masks because honestly I can’t tolerate them and don’t believe they help except for healthcare workers providing care for infected patients. They are VERY hot and uncomfortable when properly worn.
I did get a prevnar 13 shot from my internist because it was my year and time to get it. I will get my pneumonia shot next month as well because it’s my year and time to get that as well, per my internist.
I also canceled my appointment to see my CA lung doc because I’m doing fine and my local docs can provide care for the short term. My internist and the CA scheduler thought my canceling my travel plans are a good idea because we know I’m at risk due to my very low lung function.
Our S who is pretty low risk flew here from VA, has flown to CA and back here. Is flying back to VA and then back to HNL and then back to VA. Obviously, he’s not overly concerned but is not finding travel hotel bargains he had expected to. He did say there were more seats and he was happily upgraded in his flights. He’s flying a lot!
@TS0104 international travel down, driving down from telecommuting, etc.
It’s not really something I’ve put energy into thinking about but I can imagine.
Went out to dinner tonight - a buffet place no less- and as packed as it always is on a Saturday night.
I kept forgetting to stop our amazon subscription so we have toilet paper and dog food until September ??
We’re on a subscription plan for diapers if all else fails.
I will never need to buy hand sanitizer again. We need it if we’re changing baby’s diaper or something without ready access to a sink. I can think of 100 other places it’ll come in handy.
Suspect they haven’t thought it through. Maybe after a few unpleasant experiences, like not being able to buy hand sanitizer, or toilet paper, or several dozen other things they take for granted will be wherever they shop, when they want it…
… they’ll have a little epiphany. Or, maybe not, and they won’t mind being personally inconvenienced.
Fat chance.
We have a well. We also have a generator large enough to power the well pump. And yes, we have plenty of gas for it.
We also have lots of vessels we can fill with water.