Will this end up being the pandemic that cried wolf?

[pahoben]

To be fair, there have been 2 other human corona virus' and both were self-isolating. Meaning, people shows symptoms within a day or so of getting it and were easy to identify and treat. We didn't develop a vaccine for Sars and Mers because models predicted their roughly 8k and 3k case count. We got concerned enough about SARS to be worried, but once China started torching chicken farms and the new cases started dropping, the incentive dropped.

I understand but a Canadian company did test a SARS vaccine and had disastrous results.

 

[Heather07438]

Beside transmission only while symptomatic, I think SARS and MERS did not get a foothold because countries were on it like flies to... They tracked and traced like it was the unibomber.

 

[MATTERHORN]

Children die under horrible circumstances every day and the risk of a child fatality from this virus is incredibly low compared to other causes of death.

Incredibly low? I thought you said ZERO!

 

[mckennarose]

Well, after reading this thread I'm under the impression that:
1. people in other areas of the country don't have clue what it's like being in a hot spot with raising cases/deaths each day.
2. some people genuinely don't care about their part in stopping/curbing/slowing the spread. After all, if you're not "high risk" then why should you have any personal responsibility since it *shouldn't* affect you personally.

Just throwing out some facts from what I live in day to day...

I live in NE PA, 2 hours outside of NYC, in a hot spot and epicenter in my state. PA is currently #4 in cases, under NY, NJ, and MA. We have more cases than California, TX, and Florida. Transportation vans/cabs/rentals still drive daily to NYC for people to work or bring them here to work, which in turn brought the virus here. It's proven, not an opinion. Our local government has tried to stop them, and thankfully some have willingly complied, but others do not. No one coming back from NYC has self quarantined for 14 days, as per our state government's guidelines. I guess their attitude is "not my problem", right? They're not immunocompromised, elderly, high risk so why worry?

We don't have enough tests. Our cases in my county alone are estimated in the thousands with only approx. 1,800 tested positive. Our local hospital has changed the criteria for testing to 1. people with symptoms that are elderly, 2. people with symptoms that are considered high risk. No one can get a test if you're a " normal" person without a medical issue, even if you have symptoms. Also, with all the NY and NJ people here and testing positive, their numbers do not get recorded here... they get recorded as a positive in the state they reside in. Even if they are here right now. The numbers are massively skewed.

Because people can't get tests, they are actively spreading it because there is no legal mandate to keep them home in self isolation for 14 days. If you're suspected as having the virus, can't get a test because you don't fit the new criteria, you can freely go back to work whenever you feel like it because you are technically not positive. But again... if you're not elderly or high risk why should you worry? Right? People who are suspected positive don't have to alert those they've been in contact with, including those people needing to self isolate for 14 days.

There are MANY, MANY businesses that have deemed themselves "essential" and "life sustaining", when in fact they aren't and have continued to operate, and in turn have been hot beds for spread. There is no governing agency to oversee these businesses, their label of "essential" or "life sustaining" or a governing agency to even review what they do/produce as an essential or life sustaining necessity. As a result, these businesses have stayed open, (a craft distribution center? a clothing distributor?) and they are now dealing with a 40% - 70% reduction in their staff due to either contracting the virus, or leaving the business because of their fear of contracting it. Yet they still operate, with nothing done between shifts when someone tests positive, no cleaning or not adequate cleaning before the next shift comes in. Again, no governing agency, no mandates for a pandemic, no protocol.

Do I know people personally who have tested positive? Yes. Many at this point. Is it only those at high risk or elderly affected? No. One of my dd's friends is 23, no health issues and on oxygen right now from the virus. One co-worker of another of my children was late 30's, healthy, and died from it. No prior health issues. The 23 year old with it right now.... he had a very cavalier attitude about it since he wasn't elderly or high risk, so he attended a party two weeks ago with about 100 people. Now he's infected and has since spread it. He finally got a test when he couldn't breathe and was admitted to the hospital.

I am not interested in debates on what people's opinions are about this. I'm simply stating facts of what life is like in a hot zone. My husband is now in self quarantine for 14 days because a fellow co-worker was sick, unable to get a test as she didn't fit the criteria, and subsequently infected another co-worker who was able to get a test who had also been near my husband. But because the first co-worker never got a positive test (due to lack of testing and new testing criteria of only testing those with symptoms over 65 or high risk) he was exposed because the first co-worker didn't take it upon herself to be responsible to do the right thing and alert her co-workers of her suspected covid. After all.... no test... no positive result.... no need to self quarantine or alert people. Someone else's problem, right?

I am high risk; I have autoimmune disease and now my family is at risk because of other people deciding to not self isolate or even inform others of their suspected illness. So all this talk about people being able to chose for themselves to isolate or not is bs to me. You have the right, obviously, but what about those of us who didn't leave the house for over a month.... who followed the rules... who thought of others?
We are an example of how those at high risk can get exposed, even if I never left my house.

You have a right to do what you want, but don't kid yourself in thinking it's not a problem for the entire US. I know not all areas are in the situation like mine, and I'm glad. I am all for re-starting the economy. I'm just saying that we all need to be careful, RESPONSIBLE, and aware of how our decisions can impact others. Even if we "have the right to self isolate". It's surprising how I could be exposed when I had been self isolating and so, so careful.

I chose to self isolate for protection, which I was "free to do so"
My husband's employer deemed themselves "essential" and "life sustaining" and has stayed open
We don't have the luxury of just quitting his job and going without pay or insurance, or taking an extended leave
We don't have testing available here, even if you're symptomatic unless you fit certain criteria
No positive test, no reason to quarantine, nothing legal to mandate protection for others

See the issue? It's not as simple as "Anyone that wants to self isolate is free to do so." But that's not your, or anyone else's problem. I guess it's ours alone and we have to deal with it.

If you're not in a hot zone you don't understand. I hope other areas don't get to this point. We have a mandatory 8pm curfew, mandated to wear masks every day outside the house, no access to testing unless you fit certain criteria. It's not as simple as "I don't know why I have to stay home if I'm not sick or at risk".

The title of the thread is "will this end up being the pandemic that cried wolf?" For some... yes. For us it will be the pandemic that we didn't have enough support, resources or time to fight. I am thankful that recent studies and opinions have the death toll much lower than anticipated. I'm thankful that other areas of the country are not as bad as we are and are ready to get moving again. But that doesn't discount where we currently are, and the possibility that the virus can still spread like it has here, especially if people are not careful, personally responsible or cavalier. Our new reality is that we have to deal with this virus the best we can. But we still have to think of others and our country as a whole in the decisions we make.

 

[pahoben]

I think the difference in our views may relate to how many people we believe would want to isolate. I think the number is fairly high, as it would include not only high-risk individuals, but their entire households as well. There‘s no point in isolating if your spouse goes to work and your kids go to school, for example. And as someone else mentioned, companies are not going to pay for people to isolate. If they’re eligible to work but choose not to, and they run out of paid leave, they won’t be eligible for unemployment. Again, it isn’t as simple as “just stay home.”

Nothing is simple at this point. I can’t imagine that whenever it ends there won’t be households that prefer to continue and I understand that it will be difficult for households with a high risk member. Attitudes change with geography and some states that have had very little impact have a different attitude about ending then other states with higher impact. I guess at this point the best strategy is to minimize social unrest. At some point there will be more social unrest if the quarantine doesn’t end and that likely to start in the lesser impacted states. I consider the biggest losers with quarantine are children.

 

[Colleen27]

Than this virus must be so much more contagious than the flu, because way more people are dying from covid19 than the flu here. Funeral homes can’t handle the load.

The current estimates (which seem to change about every week or so) put it at twice as contagious as flu. But the other problem is that funeral homes and even morgues are running on lower-than-usual staffing because of people who are quarantined with the virus or who have been deemed non-essential for their own protection, so a system that usually runs on just-in-time principles with as close to exactly enough capacity for average conditions is running at lower than usual capacity under higher than usual demand.

Anecdotally, my brother died at the peak of the opioid epidemic in our area, and even that was enough to put a strain on the system. We encountered what I could only describe as bottlenecks at several points in the process, including autopsy capacity and finding a funeral home. And that was not nearly as big an increase in deaths per day as this has produced.

Georgia is looking for this Friday at opening up, among businesses, hair and nail salons, barbers, spas, tattoo parlors, body art studios, as long as social distancing is maintained. Hmmm, sounds tough to me. How does that work?

I think the idea is that these are businesses that can very easily limit their number of customers in the store at any one time - my tattoo artist, for example, operates by appointment only and usually the artist and customer are the only people in the room (with one other employee at the front desk for check-ins). So with masks, it can be managed with little risk. Same with salons - if stylists each take a day, rather than working side-by-side, and schedule their day to see one customer at a time, they're pretty low risk situations. Certainly less risk than, say, reopening a factory where 300 people work side-by-side with no protective measures.

This was an issue as we were shutting down. A lot of non-essential employees stopped gong to work. And states are totally overwhelmed with respect to processing unemployment claims. I read that Florida has processed 6% so far. And with tourism as such a huge industry there, residents are going to be in big trouble soon. Many will have no job to even go back to whenever they do open it all up and with unemployment checks far off....it's going to be very hard on families.

Yep. One of my boys got called back to work starting today (in violation of the governor's order, most likely, but many auto parts factories are ramping up because the Big 3 are supposed to be going back to work May 4 and so they need to be up and running for that to happen). His employment took three weeks to process, and while he'll get the back checks for those weeks, he was off work a full month without a dime of income. He's relieved to be going back rather than sitting around waiting (and borrowing money from DS22 fo get by) until unemployment payments actually start coming.

Yes, this virus will spread to every part of this country. Will it be as bad everywhere as it is right now here in the NYC Metro area, likely not. Our population density is much higher than a lot of the country. But, there are stories from all over the country where there were outbreaks before the lockdowns started. One that comes to mind is Albany, Georgia. There was a funeral there and a lot of people who attended that funeral got the virus. I believe one person at least died. The problem for people living in very rural areas is the lack of hospitals and staff equipped to deal with a critically ill COVID-19 patient.

And population density appears to play a huge role in transmission. Larger than is intuitive, IMO, but I'll freely admit to not being a science person and not having seen any studies yet on the issue so maybe there's an angle I'm missing. My county is largely rural but close enough to Detroit to count as part of the metro area. We share a long border with one of the hardest-hit counties in the state, and most people in the southern part of my county shop, work or both across that line (myself, my husband and one of my boys among them). But to look at the relative case rates, you'd think there was a wall along that border. My county (average population density 226 people per sq. mile) has 252 cases and 11 deaths, about half of those in a particular nursing home. The county where I grocery shop (average population density 1819 ppl per sq. mile) has 4,425 cases and 440 deaths.

People around here have been waiting for the other shoe to drop, so to speak, figuring that with so many people here being essential workers in that county, our closest major grocery being there, most everyone having family there, it would only be a matter of time until the virus started spreading rapidly here... but for whatever reason, that doesn't appear to be happening. Pretty much every community in the county has a handful of cases but no major clusters, hospitals have enough free beds that they were accepting patients from Detroit-area hospital systems when they were at/near capacity, and we've been sitting for weeks on the edge of a hotspot and only seeing a sprinkling of cases at a time (I think our daily peak was 22; now it is in the single digits).

People just have to look back to the 1918 pandemic where the people pushed the government to re-open (sound familiar) and when they re-opened (to early) the 2nd wave of illnesses was far worst than the 1st.

This isn't quite right. It was during the second wave that the push to reopen came and prompted a second spike within that wave. The first wave came early in 1918, was relatively limited in scope and scale and faded away with warmer weather. The anecdote about Philly and the parade took place fairly early in the second wave, which came in the fall when flu season normally starts. It also coincided with the mass movement of people as soldiers returned from war, which likely seeded the virus far more widely than during the first wave (hence the more severe second wave). Some cities handled it better than others, but the second wave was the most severe of the three even in those places with the most aggressive preventative strategies.

The model with no quarantine that was the basis of the call between Trump and Boris Johnson was 2.2 million or .7% of the US population.

With quarantine it was 100,000-200,000.

But that generation of that model also used a very high CFR compared to what the data collected since then supports. They assumed 30% of cases would need critical care and that half of those would die - data that was derived largely from Italy at the peak of their outbreak. The actual numbers that we're seeing now are far lower on both counts. Countries with the most aggressive testing programs are putting the rate around .5%, and preliminary antibody studies suggest it may be lower still.

 

[pahoben]

Yep. One of my boys got called back to work starting today (in violation of the governor's order, most likely, but many auto parts factories are ramping up because the Big 3 are supposed to be going back to work May 4 and so they need to be up and running for that to happen). His employment took three weeks to process, and while he'll get the back checks for those weeks, he was off work a full month without a dime of income. He's relieved to be going back rather than sitting around waiting (and borrowing money from DS22 fo get by) until unemployment payments actually start coming.



And population density appears to play a huge role in transmission. Larger than is intuitive, IMO, but I'll freely admit to not being a science person and not having seen any studies yet on the issue so maybe there's an angle I'm missing. My county is largely rural but close enough to Detroit to count as part of the metro area. We share a long border with one of the hardest-hit counties in the state, and most people in the southern part of my county shop, work or both across that line (myself, my husband and one of my boys among them). But to look at the relative case rates, you'd think there was a wall along that border. My county (average population density 226 people per sq. mile) has 252 cases and 11 deaths, about half of those in a particular nursing home. The county where I grocery shop (average population density 1819 ppl per sq. mile) has 4,425 cases and 440 deaths.

People around here have been waiting for the other shoe to drop, so to speak, figuring that with so many people here being essential workers in that county, our closest major grocery being there, most everyone having family there, it would only be a matter of time until the virus started spreading rapidly here... but for whatever reason, that doesn't appear to be happening. Pretty much every community in the county has a handful of cases but no major clusters, hospitals have enough free beds that they were accepting patients from Detroit-area hospital systems when they were at/near capacity, and we've been sitting for weeks on the edge of a hotspot and only seeing a sprinkling of cases at a time (I think our daily peak was 22; now it is in the single digits).



This isn't quite right. It was during the second wave that the push to reopen came and prompted a second spike within that wave. The first wave came early in 1918, was relatively limited in scope and scale and faded away with warmer weather. The anecdote about Philly and the parade took place fairly early in the second wave, which came in the fall when flu season normally starts. It also coincided with the mass movement of people as soldiers returned from war, which likely seeded the virus far more widely than during the first wave (hence the more severe second wave). Some cities handled it better than others, but the second wave was the most severe of the three even in those places with the most aggressive preventative strategies.



But that generation of that model also used a very high CFR compared to what the data collected since then supports. They assumed 30% of cases would need critical care and that half of those would die - data that was derived largely from Italy at the peak of their outbreak. The actual numbers that we're seeing now are far lower on both counts. Countries with the most aggressive testing programs are putting the rate around .5%, and preliminary antibody studies suggest it may be lower still.

Congratulations. It is good he has a job to return to and good news about the automotive industry re starting.

 

[karen4546]

OP, yes.

 

[Colleen27]

Congratulations. It is good he has a job to return to and good news about the automotive industry re starting.

Well, it is and it isn't. I'm honestly not too happy about it. First, it is in violation of the governor's order. His plant isn't producing anything even remotely essential (interior door panels for cars/trucks). Second, he told us today that they're not taking any extra precautions at all. It is just back to business as usual, no distancing or masks or even extra time to wash hands often. And third, I think the Big Three being allowed to reopen as planned is wishful thinking so this is putting employees at risk for a fantasy. I expect to see the governor easing some restrictions on May 1, when our current order expired, but I don't think that's going to include factories going back to business as usual.

But he really didn't have a choice, so back he went. If he'd refused he couldn't keep claiming unemployment, and his car insurance and other bills aren't going to pay themselves.

 

[Heather07438]

Well, it is and it isn't. I'm honestly not too happy about it. First, it is in violation of the governor's order. His plant isn't producing anything even remotely essential (interior door panels for cars/trucks). Second, he told us today that they're not taking any extra precautions at all. It is just back to business as usual, no distancing or masks or even extra time to wash hands often. And third, I think the Big Three being allowed to reopen as planned is wishful thinking so this is putting employees at risk for a fantasy. I expect to see the governor easing some restrictions on May 1, when our current order expired, but I don't think that's going to include factories going back to business as usual.

But he really didn't have a choice, so back he went. If he'd refused he couldn't keep claiming unemployment, and his car insurance and other bills aren't going to pay themselves.

I just cant understand. I thought in this time while we were down that plans would be developed to address ways in which we could stagger workers or alternate work spaces, and stuff like that. Very odd the way things are opening up. Wishing the best to you and your family.

 

[dvcgirl67]

Well, it is and it isn't. I'm honestly not too happy about it. First, it is in violation of the governor's order. His plant isn't producing anything even remotely essential (interior door panels for cars/trucks). Second, he told us today that they're not taking any extra precautions at all. It is just back to business as usual, no distancing or masks or even extra time to wash hands often. And third, I think the Big Three being allowed to reopen as planned is wishful thinking so this is putting employees at risk for a fantasy. I expect to see the governor easing some restrictions on May 1, when our current order expired, but I don't think that's going to include factories going back to business as usual.

But he really didn't have a choice, so back he went. If he'd refused he couldn't keep claiming unemployment, and his car insurance and other bills aren't going to pay themselves.

I hope that your son is able to stay safe. It seems to me to be ludicrous to open up manufacturing for autos at this point in time. Inventory is piling up.

And we only have to watch what is happening at food/meat processing plants all over the nation to understand that this virus spreads rapidly in tight, indoor work situations. Same is happening in prisons. Very large outbreaks.

Obviously, we have to try to keep food processing facilities running, hopefully as safely as possible. And understandably, this virus is going to spread in prisons, nursing homes...etc. But sending people back to auto plants to churn out autos that will be parked on car dealer lots for months and months, seems crazy.

 

[ffcheff]

In my opinion this pandemic is being over played by the Media. It is deadly, we needed to shut down. But we also have new data. The less affected areas can reopen with precautions. We are now just seeing reports from hot spots but they are just a small part of the country. If it was as bad as some would like you to believe there would not be one grocery store clerk left alive by now. Masks for everyone so we can limit the spread by the asymptomatic carriers, social distancing we should be okay to start reopening society.

 

[dvcgirl67]

Well, after reading this thread I'm under the impression that:
1. people in other areas of the country don't have clue what it's like being in a hot spot with raising cases/deaths each day.
2. some people genuinely don't care about their part in stopping/curbing/slowing the spread. After all, if you're not "high risk" then why should you have any personal responsibility since it *shouldn't* affect you personally.

Correct on both points.

Here's the thing, we're about to see what happens to states that locked down late and are about to open things up too early. Keep an eye on Georgia, about 2-3 weeks from this Friday when they open up spas, nail salons, barbers, hair salons, gyms, bowling alleys (really?), and tattoo parlors. Those businesses can open if they are able to apply social distancing. Ok, let's see how that goes. Do they have 6 ft long scissors for the hair salon?

And we'll see how far the governor of Georgia allows the number of positives and death rate to spike into June...before he'll have to reel things back in.

Or, he won't reel things back in, but because he'd look politically weak. But the spike in positive cases, hospitalizations and deaths will be all over the news. People will become fearful and many will avoid public spaces on their own. Businesses will still be hurt, and distrust in that governor's risk assessment skills will skyrocket. And so the second time he tells them that it's safe to open up, far less will believe him.

Isn't this all kind of obvious at this point?

 

[Colleen27]

I just cant understand. I thought in this time while we were down that plans would be developed to address ways in which we could stagger workers or alternate work spaces, and stuff like that. Very odd the way things are opening up. Wishing the best to you and your family.

Thanks.

Some workplaces are doing that. My husband's plant is also preparing to reopen if the Big Three does, but they're doing it with a deep cleaning this week, making what physical changes they can to the plant to put more space between workers, and otherwise working on how to limit employee exposure to one another. He's the head of maintenance, so he's been in on some interesting discussions this past week on how they're going to operate. But the company my son works for is, well... crappy even on a good day. The kind of place that keeps a revolving supply of temps for almost all of their unskilled jobs so they don't have to pay benefits. So I'm not at all surprised they're cutting corners. My main consolation with it right now is two-fold - I know another mother who has a young adult working there has already reported the premature restart to the state, and they pay so poorly that everyone who works there lives in our immediate area where there are almost no cases.

I hope that your son is able to stay safe. It seems to me to be ludicrous to open up manufacturing for autos at this point in time. Inventory is piling up.

And we only have to watch what is happening at food/meat processing plants all over the nation to understand that this virus spreads rapidly in tight, indoor work situations. Same is happening in prisons. Very large outbreaks.

Obviously, we have to try to keep food processing facilities running, hopefully as safely as possible. And understandably, this virus is going to spread in prisons, nursing homes...etc. But sending people back to auto plants to churn out autos that will be parked on car dealer lots for months and months, seems crazy.

It really is crazy. I can't imagine there's a market for the cars that would be rolling off the line right now! Heck, one bright side I'm seeing in this is that I'll probably be able to postpone replacing my van by six months or a year beyond what I'd been planning because we cancelled one 2000 mile trip over spring break and will likely end up cancelling another, even longer trip over the summer, and are putting so many fewer miles on in the day-to-day. I haven't filled my gas tank in a month, even with having to drive a hundred miles round-trip to replace my daughter's torn contact last week. Normally I go through a tank in a week or 10 days.

 

[SaintsManiac]

https://variety.com/2020/film/box-office/movie-theaters-georgia-cannot-reopen-1234585289/

 

[RamblingMad]

It really is crazy. I can't imagine there's a market for the cars that would be rolling off the line right now! Heck, one bright side I'm seeing in this is that I'll probably be able to postpone replacing my van by six months or a year beyond what I'd been planning because we cancelled one 2000 mile trip over spring break and will likely end up cancelling another, even longer trip over the summer, and are putting so many fewer miles on in the day-to-day. I haven't filled my gas tank in a month, even with having to drive a hundred miles round-trip to replace my daughter's torn contact last week. Normally I go through a tank in a week or 10 days.

I need to do more storage maintenance on my vehicle. First, my battery died. And like you I haven't filled my tank in over a month. I should probably get a fuel stabilizer. I usually reserve these for my lawn mower, not my vehicle.

 

[MillauFr]

I hope that your son is able to stay safe. It seems to me to be ludicrous to open up manufacturing for autos at this point in time. Inventory is piling up.

Boeing is starting up plane production again. Work started today. Even the 737 Max line is restarting.

 

[DisneyJamieCA]

Even though I know better, I'll bite.

Yes the hair salons may not see the immediate bump in business they hoped for.

And there is a risk in that. Two of my SILs are hairdressers and neither one of them want to be classified as essential workers for exactly this reason! If they are, they lose any unemployment protection, while not having the same clientele. They will end up losing and likely lose their businesses if this happens.

No problem. They can continue to self isolate.

So tell me how that works for my 11 year old son who's highly asthmatic. The schools won't let my other three stay home, nor will work allow my husband unless they're mandated to. So is your suggestion that I really self-isolate an 11 year old? For how long? Almost everybody has *somebody* in their family that falls within the risk group. So suggesting that ALL of those people continue to self isolate still leaves no work force!

 

[mckennarose]

So with masks, it can be managed with little risk. Same with salons - if stylists each take a day, rather than working side-by-side, and schedule their day to see one customer at a time, they're pretty low risk situations

If you're in a location without a lot of cases, then yes it could work. But for us, there's no way to safely do hair and maintain a distance of 6 feet, and wear appropriate PPE, which is not available. The amount of cleaning between customers, the complete change of PPE, sanitizing the instruments used all take time and money.

Second, he told us today that they're not taking any extra precautions at all. It is just back to business as usual, no distancing or masks or even extra time to wash hands often.

If I can give you advice coming from a hot zone... tell him to take whatever precautions he can for himself. Our state just mandated a HUGE list for businesses to take precautions, including providing masks for employees, mandatory hand washing each hour, rules for grocery stores, etc. But even before that, employers could not refuse an employee wearing his/her own mask and gloves if they brought them in themselves.

But he really didn't have a choice, so back he went. If he'd refused he couldn't keep claiming unemployment, and his car insurance and other bills aren't going to pay themselves.

Exactly where everyone here is... there's no choice. The poster you replied to is painfully unaware of the realities that we have to live in. (or chooses not to care) Do what you can to stay safe.

In my opinion this pandemic is being over played by the Media

I do agree with this. The media focuses on the worst stories. But it doesn't discount the reality of what some of us are experiencing. My hope is always in the positive outcomes of the virus, which we don't see enough of.

If it was as bad as some would like you to believe there would not be one grocery store clerk left alive by now.

Yes, and no. Our stores, for example, have 6 foot markers taped off, one way grocery lanes, our state mandated grocery stores to provide not only masks and gloves for grocery employees, but also every other cash register can only be open for one hour increments. Then the employees are mandated to wash their hands and go to a new register while the previously used ones are sanitized. And they are required to provide a barrier between the cashiers and customers. Customers must wait behind each other at the 6 foot taped off markers. No one is permitted in the stores or other businesses without a mask. Our curfew is 8pm so our stores will stop accepting customers by 7:30 pm. Our Walmart is blocked off from everything but grocery and pharmacy... no access to anything else. So, in a sense, the grocery stores are "safer" than some other businesses.

Keep an eye on Georgia, about 2-3 weeks from this Friday when they open up spas, nail salons, barbers, hair salons, gyms, bowling alleys (really?), and tattoo parlors.

I agree. And I'm going to be watching the FL beach communities. I fully expect a rise in cases just due the the Easter holiday.

 

[RamblingMad]

I just cant understand. I thought in this time while we were down that plans would be developed to address ways in which we could stagger workers or alternate work spaces, and stuff like that. Very odd the way things are opening up. Wishing the best to you and your family.

It's really hard. We're trying to figure out how to achieve social distancing when we open our main offices. The way most offices are setup are not conducive to social distancing. It's not like you're planning for a pandemic when you setup your office space initially.

I can't even imagine how warehouses and factories are thinking about social distancing.

And to keep it from spreading you really want N95 masks, which you can't easily obtain.

Reopening is a mess. And it's hard.