8 ms·

I think its more likely than not that COVID-19 will progress into a global pandemic. I don't think its a bad or rash idea to begin preparing to self-isolate/qua

I think its more likely than not that COVID-19 will progress into a global pandemic. I don't think its a bad or rash idea to begin preparing to self-isolate/quarantine before panic-buying of supplies begins. Having a stock of non-perishable food, medication, masks, and disinfectants will definitely make things easier if COVID-19 can not be contained.

jerf 7y ago
There's two elements of prep work that anybody can and should do: 1. The cheap stuff that you may never use, but if you don't, isn't that big a deal: First aid kits, a supply of disinfectant, masks if it isn't already too late for that, etc. 2. Stuff you're going to buy anyhow, like canned food you already use, stuff you can easily freeze in advance without it being too big a deal, etc., that, again, you would have used anyhow. This is just pulling purchases forward rather than spending new money. After all, just because COVID-19 may in fact end up contained doesn't mean you're not going to be in a serious earthquake next week or something. Having this stuff widely distributed greatly increases the resiliency of society against all sorts of issues, means you'll be one less person draining valuable resources in case of some disaster, etc. Being at least a bit prepped is the socially responsible thing to do. Also, don't forget some of the specialized things for an extended in-home stay, which a lot of prep lists don't necessarily focus on (as a lot of them are assuming the problem is that you don't have a home anymore): Toilet paper, paper towels, salt & spices, etc. Anything you don't want to have to suddenly run out and get.
- Seenso 7y ago
  > masks if it isn't already too late for that, etc. I don't know about surgical masks, but N95 respirators have been nearly totally sold out at retailers for a couple weeks. I know there are questions abut the use of N95 respirators to prevent infection when used by nonprofessionals, but they seem more widely available to consumers (at hardware stores) compared to surgical masks, due to their use in construction.
  - cpascal 7y ago
    I went to a paint supply store and they had a good number of N95's in stock.
    - Seenso 7y ago
      > I went to a paint supply store and they had a good number of N95's in stock. What store was that? I just called my local Sherman Williams, and they're sold out. Was it a store that's little known to consumers? Personally, I managed to buy about 40 3M respirators about two weeks ago (shipped most to relatives in China). I've been keeping an eye on the stock at Home Depot ever since during my normal shipping, and they're totally picked clean at this point.
      - cpascal 7y ago
        It was a Benjamin Moore store. I must've been lucky.
    - justforyou 7y ago
      http://multimedia.3m.com/mws/media/601997O/respirator-comparisons-medical-health-care-vs-industrial-use.pdf http://multimedia.3m.com/mws/media/601997O/respirator-compar...
- allovernow 7y ago
  >The cheap stuff that you may never use, but if you don't, isn't that big a deal Not a bad idea to stock up on rice and beans. The proteins in rice and beans are individually to incomplete but together are sufficient for long term survival, and they're cheap and last for years if kept in a cool damp pantry. On a developer's salary you really don't have an excuse not to spend a couple hundred dollars on months worth of emergency food that will keep you (and possibly your community) prepared for years. Don't forget that such preparations are for any unforseeable future event. It's just good to do if you have the space and cash.
  - allovernow 7y ago
    Can't edit now but it should read "cool, dry pantry", not damp.
- mindcrime 7y ago
  There's two elements of prep work that anybody can and should do: 1. The cheap stuff that you may never use, but if you don't, isn't that big a deal: First aid kits, a supply of disinfectant, masks if it isn't already too late for that, etc. 2. Stuff you're going to buy anyhow, like canned food you already use, stuff you can easily freeze in advance without it being too big a deal, etc., that, again, you would have used anyhow. This is just pulling purchases forward rather than spending new money. I whole-heartedly second this. I'm reluctant to describe myself as "a prepper" because some of the connotations of that term get pretty "out there" (see the "Doomsday Preppers" show for example), but a certain measure of preparedness is a Good Thing. And there are plenty of very realistic situations that could come to pass, where that preparedness would be beneficial, without reaching into the realm of EMP attacks, etc. Natural disasters of all sorts (growing up in the Southeast, hurricanes are something I've had quite a bit of experience with), pandemics, global supply chain disruptions (caused by any number of thins, possibly including the aforementioned pandemic) and so on, are all real things.
cheese4242 7y ago
I strongly encourage everyone to stock non-perishable food, drinking water and whatever supplies needed to survive at least a month as a matter of course.
- ratsimihah 7y ago
  Do I need to stock on drinking water if I live in a country where tap water is drinkable?
  - mindcrime 7y ago
    Yes/no/maybe. It never hurts to stock up on drinking water, but... water is very heavy and takes up a lot of space. This limits the quantity that most people can realistically store. But what you can do, if you live in an area where any source of freshwater (lake, creek, stream, river, pond, etc.) is available within a reasonable distance (a day's hike?) is learn how to purify water and stock up on the supplies necessary to do so. There are different ways to purify water, but one of the easiest and most effective is still good old fashioned boiling. So if you have a decent vessel for boiling water in, and a means of starting a fire, and some supply of flammable materials, you can boil quite a bit of water. If you only live near a supply of salt water, or if you live near water sources that are especially dirty / polluted, distilling the water is a step beyond boiling. It's more complicated, slower, and requires more up front prep, but it's not completely outrageous to think of building / buying a distilling unit in advance of a possible failure of the public water system. The downside of this, of course, is that it requires you have a good supply of firewood or other burnable material, and a place to light a fire where you won't kill yourself with carbon monoxide poisoning. Chemical purification is another option... and in a pinch, you can get by with plain old (unscented) household bleach. And, of course, as others have mentioned, there are filtration options. If you go this route, it might not hurt to pre-filter your water (depending on what state it's in) with plain cotton cloth, a coffee filter, etc., to help preserve the life of your filter. The idea is the prefilter step removes the bigger particulates so the "real" filter never sees them.
  - jiofih 7y ago
    In case of natural disasters the water supply is one of the first services to go.
all_blue_chucks 7y ago
Respiratory viruses have a much harder time spreading in summer. If we can substantially slow the spread until then our odds of this having major impact in every country are much lower.
- cpascal 7y ago
  Should note that it's pretty warm in Singapore and they are definitely dealing with COVID-19.
  - ValentineC 7y ago
    Most Singapore buildings have A/C. The local clusters so far include two churches, a Chinese medicine store, and the Servomex business conference at Grand Hyatt Singapore. There's a good infographic of all reported Singapore cases in this article: https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/singapore/coronavirus-covid19-singapore-update-cases-tuesday-12441808 https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/singapore/coronavirus-c...
    - sitkack 7y ago
      They should shut their ACs off.
    - empath75 7y ago
      Most Americans also have a/c, so the point still stands.
  - deleted 7y ago
    [deleted]
- Fomite 7y ago
  There's some evidence out right now based on the current spread to suggest this won't fix things. http://www.people.fas.harvard.edu/~msantill/Mauricio_Santillana/Publications_files/Luo_et_al_2020_Absolute_Humidity_R0_COVID-19.pdf http://www.people.fas.harvard.edu/~msantill/Mauricio_Santill...

jerf 7y ago

There's two elements of prep work that anybody can and should do: 1. The cheap stuff that you may never use, but if you don't, isn't that big a deal: First aid kits, a supply of disinfectant, masks if it isn't already too late for that, etc. 2. Stuff you're going to buy anyhow, like canned food you already use, stuff you can easily freeze in advance without it being too big a deal, etc., that, again, you would have used anyhow. This is just pulling purchases forward rather than spending new money. After all, just because COVID-19 may in fact end up contained doesn't mean you're not going to be in a serious earthquake next week or something. Having this stuff widely distributed greatly increases the resiliency of society against all sorts of issues, means you'll be one less person draining valuable resources in case of some disaster, etc. Being at least a bit prepped is the socially responsible thing to do. Also, don't forget some of the specialized things for an extended in-home stay, which a lot of prep lists don't necessarily focus on (as a lot of them are assuming the problem is that you don't have a home anymore): Toilet paper, paper towels, salt & spices, etc. Anything you don't want to have to suddenly run out and get.

Seenso 7y ago
> masks if it isn't already too late for that, etc. I don't know about surgical masks, but N95 respirators have been nearly totally sold out at retailers for a couple weeks. I know there are questions abut the use of N95 respirators to prevent infection when used by nonprofessionals, but they seem more widely available to consumers (at hardware stores) compared to surgical masks, due to their use in construction.
- cpascal 7y ago
  I went to a paint supply store and they had a good number of N95's in stock.
  - Seenso 7y ago
    > I went to a paint supply store and they had a good number of N95's in stock. What store was that? I just called my local Sherman Williams, and they're sold out. Was it a store that's little known to consumers? Personally, I managed to buy about 40 3M respirators about two weeks ago (shipped most to relatives in China). I've been keeping an eye on the stock at Home Depot ever since during my normal shipping, and they're totally picked clean at this point.
    - cpascal 7y ago
      It was a Benjamin Moore store. I must've been lucky.
  - justforyou 7y ago
    http://multimedia.3m.com/mws/media/601997O/respirator-comparisons-medical-health-care-vs-industrial-use.pdf http://multimedia.3m.com/mws/media/601997O/respirator-compar...
allovernow 7y ago
>The cheap stuff that you may never use, but if you don't, isn't that big a deal Not a bad idea to stock up on rice and beans. The proteins in rice and beans are individually to incomplete but together are sufficient for long term survival, and they're cheap and last for years if kept in a cool damp pantry. On a developer's salary you really don't have an excuse not to spend a couple hundred dollars on months worth of emergency food that will keep you (and possibly your community) prepared for years. Don't forget that such preparations are for any unforseeable future event. It's just good to do if you have the space and cash.
- allovernow 7y ago
  Can't edit now but it should read "cool, dry pantry", not damp.
mindcrime 7y ago
There's two elements of prep work that anybody can and should do: 1. The cheap stuff that you may never use, but if you don't, isn't that big a deal: First aid kits, a supply of disinfectant, masks if it isn't already too late for that, etc. 2. Stuff you're going to buy anyhow, like canned food you already use, stuff you can easily freeze in advance without it being too big a deal, etc., that, again, you would have used anyhow. This is just pulling purchases forward rather than spending new money. I whole-heartedly second this. I'm reluctant to describe myself as "a prepper" because some of the connotations of that term get pretty "out there" (see the "Doomsday Preppers" show for example), but a certain measure of preparedness is a Good Thing. And there are plenty of very realistic situations that could come to pass, where that preparedness would be beneficial, without reaching into the realm of EMP attacks, etc. Natural disasters of all sorts (growing up in the Southeast, hurricanes are something I've had quite a bit of experience with), pandemics, global supply chain disruptions (caused by any number of thins, possibly including the aforementioned pandemic) and so on, are all real things.

cheese4242 7y ago

I strongly encourage everyone to stock non-perishable food, drinking water and whatever supplies needed to survive at least a month as a matter of course.

ratsimihah 7y ago
Do I need to stock on drinking water if I live in a country where tap water is drinkable?
- mindcrime 7y ago
  Yes/no/maybe. It never hurts to stock up on drinking water, but... water is very heavy and takes up a lot of space. This limits the quantity that most people can realistically store. But what you can do, if you live in an area where any source of freshwater (lake, creek, stream, river, pond, etc.) is available within a reasonable distance (a day's hike?) is learn how to purify water and stock up on the supplies necessary to do so. There are different ways to purify water, but one of the easiest and most effective is still good old fashioned boiling. So if you have a decent vessel for boiling water in, and a means of starting a fire, and some supply of flammable materials, you can boil quite a bit of water. If you only live near a supply of salt water, or if you live near water sources that are especially dirty / polluted, distilling the water is a step beyond boiling. It's more complicated, slower, and requires more up front prep, but it's not completely outrageous to think of building / buying a distilling unit in advance of a possible failure of the public water system. The downside of this, of course, is that it requires you have a good supply of firewood or other burnable material, and a place to light a fire where you won't kill yourself with carbon monoxide poisoning. Chemical purification is another option... and in a pinch, you can get by with plain old (unscented) household bleach. And, of course, as others have mentioned, there are filtration options. If you go this route, it might not hurt to pre-filter your water (depending on what state it's in) with plain cotton cloth, a coffee filter, etc., to help preserve the life of your filter. The idea is the prefilter step removes the bigger particulates so the "real" filter never sees them.
- jiofih 7y ago
  In case of natural disasters the water supply is one of the first services to go.

all_blue_chucks 7y ago

Respiratory viruses have a much harder time spreading in summer. If we can substantially slow the spread until then our odds of this having major impact in every country are much lower.

cpascal 7y ago
Should note that it's pretty warm in Singapore and they are definitely dealing with COVID-19.
- ValentineC 7y ago
  Most Singapore buildings have A/C. The local clusters so far include two churches, a Chinese medicine store, and the Servomex business conference at Grand Hyatt Singapore. There's a good infographic of all reported Singapore cases in this article: https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/singapore/coronavirus-covid19-singapore-update-cases-tuesday-12441808 https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/singapore/coronavirus-c...
  - sitkack 7y ago
    They should shut their ACs off.
  - empath75 7y ago
    Most Americans also have a/c, so the point still stands.
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]
Fomite 7y ago
There's some evidence out right now based on the current spread to suggest this won't fix things. http://www.people.fas.harvard.edu/~msantill/Mauricio_Santillana/Publications_files/Luo_et_al_2020_Absolute_Humidity_R0_COVID-19.pdf http://www.people.fas.harvard.edu/~msantill/Mauricio_Santill...