How is the coronavirus (covid-19) impacting you?

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otseng
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How is the coronavirus (covid-19) impacting you?

Post #1

Post by otseng »

How is the coronavirus (covid-19) impacting your family, work, neighborhood, church, city, life?

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Post #2

Post by otseng »

Yesterday, my company announced a work from home policy starting today and asking everyone to work remote unless they have to be in the office.

Last night I went to Costco. I had to find a cart in the parking lot and there were tons of people in the store. Lines stretched all the way to the back of the store. Bread and steak were all gone. Couldn't find any toilet tissue. I was able to get one of the last batches of bottled water. There were no signs of panic and everyone was patient and friendly, even perhaps joking about the whole matter.

School for all my kids (college, high school) are now online only. All extracurricular activities are canceled.

Church activity has severely been cut back and I expect soon they will have Sunday service online only.

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Post #3

Post by Divine Insight »

I live alone and have always enjoyed my solitude. So lack of social interactions doesn't bother me as it's basically no change. I'm also retired so I have no job or work to worry about.

This might, on the surface, sound like this should then have little to no effect on me, but actually I've been pretty active this week preparing for it to come to my area. Based on everything I've seen on the news thinking that it won't eventually come to my area is simply unrealistic.

So like many other people I too have been stocking up on food and supplies. Not in an extreme hoarding way. But just in reasonable amounts. I bought mostly canned food. Like 10 cans of chili, 10 cans of Ravioli, 10 can's of tuna, and so on including canned vegetables and canned fruit. I'm pretty happy with the supply I have now. It wasn't extreme, at least I don't think so. The whole bill only came to about $130. A lot of people spend that much on a regular basis.

I'm guessing I have enough food to hold me over for 3 or 4 months if needed. Possibly more. My intention is to just settle in for the next few months and just avoid going out entirely.

I'm 70 years old and have COPD. This places me in a high-risk category. Also from what I hear about the virus from the CDC doctors, etc., it's not the virus that kills you, but rather it's secondary infections such as pneumonia. So I also went to my doctor and got a pneumonia vaccination. Something I hadn't had before but probably should have had it anyway since I have COPD. I also got some more breathing medicine so I can get in the best shape possible should I happen to get the virus.

So I've going through some preparations even though I live alone in a very rural area.

I live in Western Pennsylvania USA. About midway between Pittsburgh and Erie. Too fairly large urban areas. My exact location is quite rural. However there are a lot of camps near me, and those camps are typically empty all winter and only sparsely populated during the summer with intermittent campers taking vacations.

However, I am willing to bet that when the virus hits Pittsburgh and Erie in large numbers of infections, those people who own these camps are going to be fleeing the cities and moving up to their camps to evade the virus in the city. They will most likely be bringing the virus up with them.

So even though I will attempt to remain socially isolated, I'm guessing that this will most likely be impossible over time. I expect that I will eventually get the virus just like everyone else.

Hopefully, by then this pneumonia vaccine will have done it's job and in spite of my high-risk stature I might have a good chance of surviving an infection. Only time will tell on that one. I'll be truly surprised if I manage to evade the virus entirely. I'm bound to have to interact with people at various times in the coming months. And with the way this virus spreads I don't think it take much contact. One person with the virus could be the broken link in my safety chain.

~~~~

I feel for those who are also in a high-risk category but cannot socially isolate for whatever reason. Perhaps they have other people living with them. Most people do. Or they have social engagements they simply must tend to. Avoidance of this virus may prove to be impossible even for the most careful person. It's just too highly contagious. One mistake and that's all it takes.

I was even worried about going to my Doctor's office. Fortunately there was no one there when I went so I didn't have to wait in a waiting room filled with people.

I was also worried that I might pick up the virus at Walmart when I was buying my food and supplies. I actually did that over four days because I kept thinking of other items I'd like to have. I'm pretty happy with my current stock. But that was four chances to pick up the virus at the Walmart.

If I don't have it now, I should be ok for quite a while. At least until the masses start arriving from fleeting the cities. I'm not sure how that's going to work.

In any case, BEST OF LUCK to all those out there who are not in a situation to easily become socially isolated. Especially those who are in the high-risk category.

Those who are younger and in good health shouldn't worry too much about it. They will most likely get the virus, but may find that for them it's not all that bad. They'll just get sick, then recover, and it will basically be a free vaccination as they aren't likely to get it again after that.

So if you're healthy don't panic. And PLEASE, do your best to help prevent spreading the virus to those who are at high risk. Don't bring the virus home to your elderly parents or grandparents. It's up to YOU to protect them from the virus.
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Re: How is the coronavirus (covid-19) impacting you?

Post #4

Post by Adstar »

otseng wrote: How is the coronavirus (covid-19) impacting your family, work, neighborhood, church, city, life?
I live in a regional centre in NSW Australia.. The virus has not hit here as of yet.. Might be here by now but it might take a few days to show up??

Anyway there has been panic buying of toilet paper for some weird reason?? I would expect the selves in the supermarkets to be empty of canned foods and medicines and water and other more important essentials but nope people need to buy a years supply of toilet paper for some insane reason..

Anyway personally i am a diabetic so with the death rates for diabetics being near to 10% from this virus i may be getting an early mark out of this world soon.. I am in my mid 50's so that is also a bonus factor is getting wiped out by this pandemic.. Anyway i have been hoping for an early mark from God out of this existence for a while now but He seems to want me to stick around and share His message with people.. I cannot see many people listening these days but i guess while millions fall away from the truth maybe i will be blessed to take part in one or two coming to salvation, I am hoping my existence can be a blessing to someone before i am freed from this life..

My brother just flew to Panama.. Sydney to Los Angeles to Atlanta and then to Panama city.. Talk about a long way around to get to Panama.. Anyway he has sent us an email saying he has developed a sore throat.. So maybe being cooped up in international flight breathing in other peoples air has got him the virus.. We shall see if it is the virus or if it is from breathing Jet tube air for hours and hours..

My dad is over 80 and is getting chemotherapy so he is going to the hospital regularly.. So not a good time to be a regular hospital visitor.. It would be ironic if he dies from getting the virus because he was fighting bone cancer..

Looks like the end times are upon us.. Plagues earthquakes and wars and talk of wars, the falling away.. It is a good time to die.. But it's all up to the will of God.. His will be done..

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Re: How is the coronavirus (covid-19) impacting you?

Post #5

Post by benchwarmer »

[Replying to post 1 by otseng]

I'm in Ontario, Canada. My company has instituted mandatory work from home - which is fine by me as I primarily work from home anyway. Schools are going online only or simply cancelling classes until after Easter. The grocery stores are definitely showing signs of panic buying.

I'm pretty sure the toilet paper shortage has been entirely driven by the media. i.e. they reported that some people were buying large quantities of TP. Others read that and thought maybe they better get some before it runs out. Now it IS starting to run out in some stores so whatever is left is snapped up because nobody wants to be out of TP. Sigh.

I certainly stocked up on some non-perishable items so that I could stay home for a few weeks if I had to. I'm betting the grocery stores will recover fairly soon once everyone has done their initial stocking up. There's no point buying 1 months supply of everything once a week.

What really depresses me about humanity is the few (perhaps not so few) who take advantage of the situation. Like the couple in BC who basically cleaned out every Costco, etc they could of certain cleaning supplies and then went on Amazon to sell it for a profit. People who do this should be charged and made an example of.

Anyways, good luck to everyone. At some point we will probably all be exposed to it. Hopefully all the short term pain of closures and cancellations will slow the spread enough to get vaccines and treatment options available.

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Re: How is the coronavirus (covid-19) impacting you?

Post #6

Post by Divine Insight »

Adstar wrote: I cannot see many people listening these days but i guess while millions fall away from the truth maybe i will be blessed to take part in one or two coming to salvation,
If I thought that I could play a role in someone else's salvation that would be the most depressing thing I could ever know.
Adstar wrote: Looks like the end times are upon us.
Any true believers in the Abrahamic religions should be absolutely thrilled to think that the end days are upon us. Unless of course, they aren't convinced of their own salvation.

As an agnostic I often feel that I have far more trust in any God that might exist than religious people do.

I trust that no decent God would put me in a position where I could play a role in the eternal fate of another person.

And also I trust that if a decent God exists and has arranged for an end days theasco it certainly wouldn't need to be anything that I should fear.

But being an agnostic I'm inclined to believe that everything that's happening is more likely just the natural world unfolding.

After all, surely with all the previous historic plagues, wars, and threats of wars religious people seem to have always been thinking they were living in the end times. I don't see where today's situation is much different from thousands of years of human history. It appears to be the same old, same old, as far as I can see. Nothing much different today than has been happening throughout most of human history. Just another chapter in a repeating tale of the human saga.
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Re: How is the coronavirus (covid-19) impacting you?

Post #7

Post by otseng »

benchwarmer wrote: What really depresses me about humanity is the few (perhaps not so few) who take advantage of the situation. Like the couple in BC who basically cleaned out every Costco, etc they could of certain cleaning supplies and then went on Amazon to sell it for a profit. People who do this should be charged and made an example of.
Amazon is already cracking down on this.
Mr. Colvin is one of probably thousands of sellers who have amassed stockpiles of hand sanitizer and crucial respirator masks that many hospitals are now rationing, according to interviews with eight Amazon sellers and posts in private Facebook and Telegram groups from dozens more. Amazon said it had recently removed hundreds of thousands of listings and suspended thousands of sellers’ accounts for price gouging related to the coronavirus.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/14/tech ... llers.html

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Re: How is the coronavirus (covid-19) impacting you?

Post #8

Post by Adstar »

Divine Insight wrote:

Any true believers in the Abrahamic religions should be absolutely thrilled to think that the end days are upon us. Unless of course, they aren't convinced of their own salvation.
Well in a way Yes i would be thrilled because the end of days means the end of this stage of human history.. An end of all the suffering and misery that comes from having faulty humans running around on earth doing evil to each other..

And in another way No.. I am not looking with joy at the soon coming great suffering and tribulation that will be coming just before the return of my LORD Jesus Christ.. Things are going to get really bad and then they are going to get a whole lot worse then really bad.. Only after a lot of blood has flowed under the bridge will a better existence come into existence for the saved..

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Re: How is the coronavirus (covid-19) impacting you?

Post #9

Post by Divine Insight »

Adstar wrote: Only after a lot of blood has flowed under the bridge will a better existence come into existence for the saved..
And exactly what would the purpose of all this pain, suffering, and bloodshed have been?

Do you think it's impossible to create a heavenly paradise without first creating extreme pain, suffering, and bloodshed?

Why should that be necessary?

What will be gained by causing so many humans to experience such agony? And supposedly some of them will suffer for the rest of eternity in hell.

How does that help anything? :-k

Can you answer this question from a sound theological perspective?


Tell me exactly why this is the only way this can be done in a way that makes sense and perhaps I'll see a reason to believe it.

Here's your chance to "save" a soul.

Unfortunately if you blow the chance does this then mean that you share responsibility for the souls you were unable to convince. Or do you only get credit when you succeed, but no responsibility for them when you fail?

By the way, speaking of COVID-19. I just came from this thread: COVID19.

Over there I asked why it is that this God can only try to solve his problems using violent tactics like unleashing plagues on people. Perhaps you can address this question too:

Why is it that your God can never solve a problem intelligently?

I mean, why exactly did he unleash this virus upon us? And why didn't he at least tell us exactly what ticked him off so we can address it. The way things are now we can't even begin to guess what might have ticked him off.

How is that supposed to be an intelligent way to deal with a problem?

If someone came up and started whacking you with a bat wouldn't you want to know why they are doing it so that you can at least consider addressing the reason they are ticked off at you?
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Re: How is the coronavirus (covid-19) impacting you?

Post #10

Post by otseng »

[Replying to post 9 by Divine Insight]

Please start a separate thread for debating.

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