I get what you are saying. I just am scared that isn’t safe. Our principal is a very strong leader and the school is good with classroom management overall (in a not so easy population) and so I’m not worried about compliance at my school. the students will wear masks and the principal and staff will enforce that as it is going to be district policy. The principal is the boss of our school in a good way. Kids do what she says or they have consequences that make the more motivated to do what she says. It might not be perfect but I think there will be enough peer pressure that kids will want to comply. If everyone is wearing masks, not doing so isn’t going to be thought of the same as by kids as if only some are wearing them. One student told me during distance learning that he and his father were, ‘the only two in all of Wal-Mart who didn’t have masks on’. Mask compliance is high in this area from what I can tell.
Those who are stocking up on things, what are you buying? I have heard people talk about olive oil, vinegar, sugar, and hand sanitizer recently. Anything else?
I tend to think about what we normally use and try to have extra of those things. I don’t want to be wasteful or buy up things so others can’t have any. That said, I also am supposed to avoid stores so stocking up so I don’t run out of things is important.
Also, what things have you found recently that were out of stock for a time? I found a good-sized bottle of hand sanitizer that can be used to refill smaller bottles. There are some gardening supplies that were out of stock that are coming back in (and many that are not) or will come back in August. I might make our tiny garden a bit bigger.
What are the rest of you buying?
I had read that in California they are medivacing patients to areas with more capicity.
I am absolutely not hoarding. I bought a large bottle of sanitizer at Costco and don’t intend to buy more. I need to get a super sized package of TP from Costco, like I normally buy- and keep that as my ‘backup’. Same with paper towels and napkins. Will buy some bread flour, since that was hard to find and keep my normal stock of tomato sauces, pasta, rice, canned good well stocked. I am going out today to buy 2 boxes of those masks at Costco, if they have them. Want to share them with my parents and the kids when they (HOPEFULLY) go back to school. Am keeping a close eye on our 90 day supply of prescription meds to make sure I am as up to date as possible.
Not worried about cleaning products, maybe I’ll buy a container or 2 extra. Maybe an extra box of Dishwasher tabs.
I did a mostly canned goods order today - which I won’t pick up until next Wednesday. I ordered multiple of all items - about 4 of each.
Soups (a variety and 2 of each type,) tuna, salmon, clams (for clam sauce) fruit, peanut butter, tomatoes (8oz sauce, whole, diced and crushed,) tomato juice for gazpacho.
I already have most of these types of canned good already. This order will go into the basement for when I need it.
I can add to my order until the 1:45am Wednesday morning.
Do you have a link? I tried googling and found nothing. From what I’ve read, California hospital capacity is fine as of now, though the rise in cases is not good at all.
I read last week they were medivacing patients from hospitals in the Imperial Valley, as they were overwhelmed with sick patients.
Not to mention the difficulty in cleaning off the inside of a face shield after a sneeze. Yuck!
Maybe instead of going out to a lot of stores and restocking, since much of the country is still amidst plenty of COVID stay out of stores and don’t stress about stocking up on every little thing - or consider online or curb side pick up.
You have to wonder if this idea of restocking for the winter (or whenever) is also contributing to current COVID rates. IMO people should still be limiting store visits. It stuns me to think that people are just leisurely walking around a mall…
Most of us are not going up to “stock up” we are buying things as we go out to our normal grocery shopping.
Anyway, Covid is not spreading much at all (according to information we have now) from fleeting contact (like walking by someone at the grocery store), especially with masks being required (in my state). So this is not a concern.
Re: California hospitals at the border medivacing patients:
From the NY Times, June 7 – https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/07/us/coronavirus-border-mexico-california-el-centro.html
From the Washington Post, May 27 – https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2020/05/27/coronavirus-mexico-border/?arc404=true
There’s just been so much news to follow, I think these stories have not gotten much attention.
OK, you folks have forced me to bite the bullet and subscribe to the LA Times. And here is an article about the Imperial Valley medevacing covid patients because hospitals are full:
https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2020-06-15/imperial-county-covid-19-cases
Hilariously, Imperial County says they want to open up businesses, because if they open up their residents won’t go to other counties and get covid. Imperial Valley, your hospitals are so full of covid you have to medevac patients to hospitals as far away as San Francisco. (That’s about as far as medevacing a patient from Brooklyn NY to Charlotte, North Carolina.) They don’t have to go to San Diego to get covid.
Or maybe they’re saying they should reopen because they’re so full of infection already that they should continue spreading it locally instead of spreading it to other counties, I’m not sure
If “Covid is not spreading much at all (according to information we have now) from fleeting contact (like walking by someone at the grocery store), especially with masks being required (in my state)”, then why are any of us worried about stocking up? We should just be going to the grocery store once a week or whatever our routine COVID or no COVID.
I have concerns that if we thought the TP, disinfectant products shortage of this spring was bad, it’s going to be worse in the interim or when COVID takes a turn downhill again.
I saw a post in my IG feed from the state of Illinois reminding me I can be tested for C19 for free, whether or not presenting with symptoms.
Before? May? you needed to be an essential worker, have had exposure, or have symptoms.
Many hospitals can convert a regular bed into an ICU bed. All the plugs are there. It may not have the observation abilities of an ICU where the nurses in the center can see all the rooms, but it works.
My daughter was in NICU for 3 months. It had 39 stations in the main room, but there was a side room with room for another 8-10 stations. Once while we were there they had to use the overflow room for 6 or so babies, and they moved the healthiest ones there and moved the newest babies into the main room.
We have mountain hospitals with only 4 ICU beds and they regularly transfer patients to Denver. Sometimes, like with covid, that’s because the patients do better at a lower altitude.
Even in NYC, they didn’t run out of ICU beds.
Not as easy to convert a regular nurse to an ICU nurse, however.
I think masks are to keep YOU from spreading germs to others, to keep the droplets from escaping. The shield keeps the droplets from getting into your mouth, nose and eyes directly. The droplets would have to go down to the ground and then be sucked back into your face under the shield. If you are only wearing a shield, you could sneeze or cough and the droplets would fall down to your feet so are still ‘out there’.
I went to the bank recently and the teller was behind a plexiglass wall with just a 2" slot for me to slide my paperwork through (which she moved with the end of a pencil). No one was at the stations on either side of her. She had on gloves up to her long sleeves, a mask, and a shield. Nothing was getting to her!
Some hospitals did. There were stories of people being left in the emergency room because there was no room in the ICU. There were stories of people being left in the hall because there was no room in the ICU.
And then when hospitals did make more ICU beds, they didn’t have the staffing. You can put a nurse who normally handles orthopedic recoveries on ICU, but they’re not trained for it and they’ll give worse care, which is what happened in NYC. NY had volunteers from other parts of the country fly in to help out. If Florida, Arizona, Southern California and Texas all spike at the same time, there aren’t going to be enough volunteers from elsewhere to handle the ICU needs.
My stocking up at this point is done mainly to have enough of staples (eggs, nuts, raisins, baking supplies, etc.) so I can space my shopping trips two to three weeks apart if necessary. Since the beginning of May, I’ve been getting a weekly CSA share. I gave away almost all of this week’s share, to a coworker who let slip that her husband is now unemployed. I figured she and her family could use the stuff.
I last went to the grocery store two weeks ago. I was extremely happy to find whole-wheat flour, which I have not been able to find online or at the smaller (but still major-chain) grocery store closest to my house. I bought one five-pound bag. I typically have 10 or 15 pounds of white flour on hand. Any baked goods (e.g., bread) that I eat are ones that I make, so flour is a must for me. I had bought a large bag of yeast earlier this year (before the pandemic shutdowns began), and it should be enough for the next year or two.
I’m just back from a trip to Whole Foods. I also went to Vons (Safeway) earlier in the week. I normally don’t shop twice in a week but this week I used up all my fresh items. Both markets had plenty of produce. Both were limited in pasta, rice, canned beans, cleaning supplies and baking supplies. I haven’t seen the store shelves this empty this the beginning of Covid. It leads me to believe people are stocking up again. Toilet paper supplies seem to be plentiful in my area. What I still can’t find is napkins.
Whole Foods is doing a much better job with cleaning carts, the conveyor belt and register area cleaning. Vons was letting everyone in, had no one cleaning carts and was out of hand sanitizer. I felt safer at Whole Foods though WF had a case of Covid in an employee a few weeks ago.
I learned from a relative who is contemplating knee replacement that our hospital system has 2 hospitals in our area and they are trying to keep one hospital Covid patient free. That hospital is the one doing all orthopedic surgeries and patients must get a Covid test prior to surgery. Obviously no system is perfect but it’s somewhat reassuring. It also is good to know if anyone needs an emergency room visit for something that’s not suspicious Covid.
Not 100% verified but I heard a young adult got a cheek swab Covid test done in Los Angeles at Dodger Stadium. This was 2nd hand info. My DIL who had the lost Covid test had her test turn up and she tested negative. In my county they are encouraging people to get tested regardless of symptoms. I know several people who have been tested even though they had no symptoms.
As far as opening up- my county has postponed the opening up of personal care services such as nail salons, tattoo parlors. They are concerned that cases are going up.