My company has banned travel to China, Korea and Italy. Only business critical to the rest of the countries (required VP approval). And we can’t have meetings with more than 20 people in the same room.
I’ve had a cold and been working from home most of the time for weeks now and to be honest don’t like working from home. I need to go to the office to chit chat and go out to lunch with people.
It does seem like even an over-reaction isn’t the worst thing. Sick people are always supposed to stay home - at the high school, they preach that all of the time. Many times, people still go to school or work sick. Now, if they are worried it might be the virus, they really do stay home.
I’m really hoping that, over the next month, we see a decrease in cases and this all simmers down.
I thought i was going to have a brilliant answer to the hand sanitizer issue and looked on Amazon (we get all of our paper goods delivered from Amazon and don’t belong to Costco) but looks like hand sanitizer is sold out! I even tried Walmart online (another fav of ours for getting bulk items sent to the house) and they say “purchase in store only”. We don’t keep hand sanitizer around here generally. I might have a few travel sized bottles around here somewhere.
I did wash my hands probably 15 times yesterday. I went to lick my finger to turn the page of a book and had second thoughts. So I guess this whole thing is getting to me just a little bit but I am not cancelling spring break! D needs to see the three schools on our since she’s thinking about ED!
Oh, I’m not really that concerned about it. I was just contemplating people’s use of hand sanitizer when they are out in public. My daughter and I were just casually talking about it as she handed me her hand sanitizer after using it. Generally speaking, if their hands are germy, their germs are on the bottle once they touch it, and of course, depending on what virus, etc the germs may not be a big deal. And me using it yesterday in my scenario wasn’t really going to help b/c I was touching things in my car afterward that were also germy. I guess what I’m saying is…I just can’t be bothered to get that caught up in it. Sure, if there are wipes at the grocery store, I’ll clean my cart. But there are so many other things I’m touching that someone else has touched.
I wash my hands a lot. I always wash my hands as soon as I get home from somewhere. My mother is a retired nurse. It was grilled into me when I was a kid. What I’m really bad at though, is not touching my face.
Well, my employer is now in the (in my opinion) complete over-reacting mode and I was told I could not take my trip today to Seattle. It’s regarded as too risky of an area right now. Hotel cancelled without a problem even with a 3 day cancellation policy and I get full airline credit on Southwest. I’m disappointed and it was an important business trip that will not be handled well by phone, but so be it. I hope this all dies down in the next month or so.
I was buying chicken yesterday and went to get a plastic bag/sleeve to put it in. I couldn’t get the bag, after tearing it off the roll, open. I had to lick my finger in order to open it. I admit I was a bit hesitant, as I had been touching the cart handle (which I couldn’t wipe down - no wipes) .
As for your story about Amazon, I saw on the news that price gouging was big time on hand sanitizer and that Amazon was removing sellers who were overcharging for hand sanitizer.
@4kids4us Don’t “lick”, just spit 
That’s what I did when i was at Wegman the other day and faced similar issue. OMG the things we take for granted in the past…
I wiped down my steering wheel. I’m always surprised at how quickly it gets dirty.
Ok need to understand if I need a N95 mask since my employer purchased one for every employee (we are a very small company). Up until recently I was traveling all the time (I was actually in Seattle a week ago). I am a healthy female in my 50’s and my DH and kids are all not in the at the risk group. One kid coming home for SP this Sat from an area that has not had a case yet.
I work from home when I am not on the road. I do leave my house to run errands and do meet with some people on weekends since I volunteer at a animal shelter. I do have a small conference here in town tomorrow , but its all local people .
My only travel scheduled is to visit my mother in S. Florida in the middle of the month. (she would be more in the at risk group). If I felt like I was exposed I would cancel that trip.
So back to the question at hand. How would having a N95 mask help me? If a family member gets sick? Should I wear one if I am traveling in an airport. I had no intentions of getting one, but the company bought me one.
SInce we just returned Monday evening from being out of town for almost a week, I had to go shopping today. I dod not need any toilet paper, but did need paper towels, and KRoger happens to be having a “spend $40 get $10 back” on these paper goods and dish soap, so I now have enough TP for the next 3 apocalypses. Oh, and of course read up on the CGC guidelines for how to prepare for the zombie apocalypse. https://www.fema.gov/blog/2011-05-19/cdc-preparedness-101-zombie-apocalypse
Went to the wine tasting last night and didn’t shake hand’s. Had Purell in my pocket and felt rather stupid. Others were shaking hands then most were not. Everyone was taking about it.
We are going out to dinners etc. Not hearing a drop off in our area. Seeing people at Menards today (yes, I am like there all the time
Plumbing issue I had to fix),and some were loading up on water and Clorox etc.
At my meeting the other night, none of the usual greeting hugs and handshakes. I suggested the footshake and that’s what we did. I’m a big no to the elbow bump as that is where people sneeze and cough.
Ran a couple errands this morning, one being a quick trip to the grocery store. I noticed no shortages but did see a few people stocking up on water and toilet paper. (Makes sense that if you drink all that water, you’ll need the toilet paper.) Anyway, other than signs limiting shoppers to 5 of this or that, the grocery store seemed per usual.
Me - I’m cooking/eating as I usually do. I plan to be diligent about not running low on things I use consistently, like milk and eggs and fruits. I know they aren’t long lasting but if I keep my eye on what I need to replenish, then I should be good for an extra week or two, if needed.
@doschicos Love the footshake but now can’t unsee the Hokey Pokey.
I have friend who is Chief of ID at a major medical school. He has been doing the same for years, especially during flu season. There’s a lot of handshaking that goes on at large scientific or medical conferences. I don’t think he’s alone in the practice of having the hidden small bottle of hand sanitizer. 
Btw, I was reading earlier in the thread that you have a kid that goes to Beloit College. Have been on that campus many times. Lovely place.
The elbow pump sounds so awkward. I think I’d just stick with a smile, head nod and “nice to meet you”.
Again, when is hand shaking ever a good idea in the midst of flu/cold season???
I have stocked up my pantry so if we had to stay in for a couple of weeks we would be fine. However, we have not altered our activities or cancelled any of our recent travel plans…we were at a Billy Joel concert in NYC last month and we are currently in Disney World and heading to Club Med in Florida for a few days on Friday.
Any of you watched the late night Jay Leno show back in the day? He would do handshakes with the audience then stuff his hands into the pockets and begin his monologue… he definitely had some sanitizer wipes in the pockets that he used to clean his hands while he was telling those jokes.
Scored 2 RT tix to Hawaii for May. ?
Great price?
Yup! Alaska is running a special. We are MVPs so can cancel without penalties.