Could someone catch Covid while driving?

[Goodspike]

Originally Posted by Morich

Did anybody in their right mind think stocking bottled water, paper towels, and toilet paper was anything more than cut and paste info from hurricane prep advice?

I actually had no explanation for that behavior until you provided this one. It was stupid either way, but I thought it was just totally random behavior driven by social media.

[Morich]

Originally Posted by Goodspike

I actually had no explanation for that behavior until you provided this one. It was stupid either way, but I thought it was just totally random behavior driven by social media.

As part of the old CBR training, we were told to follow the advice given by local authorities, so I checked the CDC website pretty early to see what they knew about how we should deal with this new virus and that is when I read the details, that listed stocking up on things as how to prepare for the coming crisis. At that early point the CDC was still in charge of making announcements but it was pretty clear that whoever was making the decisions on what info to release was pretty much a novice at emergency prepping.
If a hurricane is coming, stocking up is good but if it is a virus coming, it just creates a bigger problem of supply.
As far as I know the water supply has never been restricted so stocking bottled water was just some kind of hangover from hurricane prep, as far as I could see. The only way we were going to run short of toilet paper was if some goof told everybody to go out and stock up!
But the really disappointing part is that the ideas coming out don't seem to be a bit better, even after 6-7 months.
I'm thinking there will be no Christmas this year----unless the old boy has a few billion shots of anti-virus in the bag?

[Goodspike]

Originally Posted by Morich

A. At that early point the CDC was still in charge of making announcements but it was pretty clear that whoever was making the decisions on what info to release was pretty much a novice at emergency prepping.

And they probably had a second position helping the CDC prepare Covid-19 test kits.

[AJMike]

Originally Posted by Goodspike

I actually had no explanation for that behavior until you provided this one. It was stupid either way, but I thought it was just totally random behavior driven by social media.

I have always assumed that it was driven by the fear that the supply chain would break down and basics like TP would not be available.

Personally I did none of this. We went to Walmart and bought a single pack of TP last March because that is what we normally do when we only have a couple of rolls left and we were getting low, and I did not take the last pack. However, as much as I think hoarding TP is foolish and unnecessary, there is the rationale that if you buy too much it will still not go bad on you in the next couple of years.

[Morich]

Originally Posted by AJMike

I have always assumed that it was driven by the fear that the supply chain would break down and basics like TP would not be available.

Personally I did none of this. We went to Walmart and bought a single pack of TP last March because that is what we normally do when we only have a couple of rolls left and we were getting low, and I did not take the last pack. However, as much as I think hoarding TP is foolish and unnecessary, there is the rationale that if you buy too much it will still not go bad on you in the next couple of years.

This is a funny thing that my wife found when her Aunt and uncle both passed at near the same time. They were children of the depression years and we found they were still terribly in fear of running out so we found all sorts of things stocked in a volume that most would consider unreasonable.
We found that paper goods like tissue and TP do go back after years of storage!
The tissue we finally gave up on and threw it out as it smelled so strong. Just a musty decay smell that made it really unpleasant to wipe your nose. With the TP, that would have been okay but we did not want to store it in the house. They kept a very clean rational house and were not hoarders as such but lived in fear of running out.

[theSane]

Originally Posted by Morich

...
I'm thinking there will be no Christmas this year----unless the old boy has a few billion shots of anti-virus in the bag?

Supposedly the Feds are paying for the mass production of 4 different vaccines to be ready for distribution by then. (They are ramping up production now, with full production starting next month) No one knows if they work, but just in case one of them does, there will be doses available.

One of the ideas from the COVID task force. Government was pre-buying vaccines to encourage development, and decrease time to market.

[Topsail]

I really hope a vaccine is ready for production and has no serious side effects. But being first in line just doesn't sound too inviting.

[Morich]

And the idea of having a shot available brings the question of what do we do with it now?
Looking at testing may give us some idea of how well a shot will work out, doesn't it? Where are the testing supplies available first? Can the folks doing the dirty work of everyday living get the tests or are they much easier to get for pro sports teams, etc who have the money?
So we might as well just move to looking at numbers without getting into how long most folks will have to wait for a shot.
Say the plan is a really fine and well tuned plan, the shots get where they are needed within a few months and there are enough trained people to give the shots so that 200,000 shots a day are given and we only want to vaccinate 70% of the population?
I picked random numbers, since we don't know what shot nor how effective it will be, so let's go with wild guesses to protect a US population just over 328 million.
328 million times .7 gives 229,600,000.
Divide by 200,000 shots per day, it only takes 1148 days (3.1452 years!)
and that's if you are in the right line and have the right cash on hand! Less time if you have more cash on hand, of course!
It could go quicker if all the trained doctors and nurses get enough masks and equipment to stop dying off before we get a shot!
I'll get more optimistic over shots when they get testing up to the point we were promised in March, April, and May!
Looking at the testing situation, I see no reason to expect a shot to turn out much better.

[AJMike]

Originally Posted by Morich

And the idea of having a shot available brings the question of what do we do with it now?
Looking at testing may give us some idea of how well a shot will work out, doesn't it? Where are the testing supplies available first? Can the folks doing the dirty work of everyday living get the tests or are they much easier to get for pro sports teams, etc who have the money?
So we might as well just move to looking at numbers without getting into how long most folks will have to wait for a shot.
Say the plan is a really fine and well tuned plan, the shots get where they are needed within a few months and there are enough trained people to give the shots so that 200,000 shots a day are given and we only want to vaccinate 70% of the population?
I picked random numbers, since we don't know what shot nor how effective it will be, so let's go with wild guesses to protect a US population just over 328 million.
328 million times .7 gives 229,600,000.
Divide by 200,000 shots per day, it only takes 1148 days (3.1452 years!)
and that's if you are in the right line and have the right cash on hand! Less time if you have more cash on hand, of course!
It could go quicker if all the trained doctors and nurses get enough masks and equipment to stop dying off before we get a shot!
I'll get more optimistic over shots when they get testing up to the point we were promised in March, April, and May!
Looking at the testing situation, I see no reason to expect a shot to turn out much better.

Well, I would hope that vaccine shots would be administered more efficiently than the tests and I would suspect that there would be more than 200,000 administered every day. If there is an effective vaccine without serious side effects (if!) I would think that people are scared enough to line up for shots. There has always been some question about the tests - both with how the samples are collected and with the results. A vaccine would have less question about how it was administered, but perhaps more questions about the results.

When I first enlisted in the Army we would just walk through a room with medics lined up with and-held injection sprayers and in 30 seconds we would have received perhaps 6 or 8 shots. I suspect that they might do the same thing and I would not be surprised to see the daily rate of shots top 1 million. At least initially. As for myself, I think I would wait until I am reasonably sure that there are no serious side effects.

On the down side, there are reports that the immunity people get from recovering from the virus is short lived and so we might have to do this every year, like the flu. I just don't see an easy way out of this and I personally don't think that the whole idea of masks and lock-downs do anything more than spread out how long the virus will take to infect the entire population. But perhaps I am too much of a pessimist.

[Win10Bago]

What goes around comes around....not a dang thing we can do about it. I mean what you gonna do about the next one that comes around.
Not one single person hasn't been to the Doctor sick and he says " oh it's just a virus it will pass" it might kill you but not alot I can do about. Go home take 2 asprin or in this case 2 Tylenol and get better. If not come back in 10/14 days. I we will see. Wash your hands cover your cough. And hope for the best.

[Morich]

I also admire the organised and quick way the military gave shots but that is not going to be true of giving shots to the public as there are so many differences. One is that the public is not trained, nor are they inclined to do what is needed in any crisis. More tend to be like the crowd on the Titanic, perhaps? Second big problem is that it would be assumed to be a state by state issue, so there are likely to be massive differences in what each state is willing and able to do, which is automatic chaos when trying to explain why it is needed to those who resist any move, simply because it isn't their personal cause on that given day.
When I deal with the public, it often reminds me of herding chickens. Lots of noise and lots of flapping around but hardly anybody moving in the right direction! If they won't put on a mask to save their mother, why will they take a shot to save their father?

[Goodspike]

Originally Posted by Morich

When I deal with the public, it often reminds me of herding chickens. Lots of noise and lots of flapping around but hardly anybody moving in the right direction! If they won't put on a mask to save their mother, why will they take a shot to save their father?

No need to insult the chickens!

[Wyatt]

Originally Posted by Goodspike

No need to insult the chickens!

Ok, reminds me of cats...

https://youtu.be/m_MaJDK3VNE