Corona (COVID-19)- is it affecting you?

Hope yall and your loved ones are staying healthy out there- this is just a quick check-in to see how everyone in the community is faring. I'm also curious if anyone's day-to-day has been affected.

I work at a fairly large teaching hospital in NYC and so far the only practical impact has been a call to reduce all meetings to 20 people or less, and a general price gouge on hand sanitizer and disinfecting wipes. That and this is on at low volume in my head at all times. No one I know is under quarantine- which honestly is a little surprising given most people in my circle take the subway every day.

What's it been like in your neck of the woods?

Also you should probably wash your hands. And stop touching your face!

The face-touching is a big sticking point for me. I'm a habitual nailbiter. That doesn't help matters in the first place. But it's CRAZY how much a person messes with their face when not considering it.

Our community just had the first of its cases confirmed over the weekend. A couple more sprouted up in the last ten hours or so. Multiple school districts have adjourned for the immediate future and multiple businesses, including the one I work for, are on the verge of instituting a non-essential workforce policy.

This is nothing like I've ever experienced in my lifetime. Post-Columbine school shooting paranoia. 9/11. Nothing. There's such a weird and delirious dread surrounding the whole thing. I would personally take something more of a blase approach to the whole ordeal, but those in my personal circle include the elderly and some with pre-existing conditions.

It's been a ride so far. That's for certain.

I am in an extremely rural part of Missouri, it seems somewhat unlikely to affect me all that much, at least on a purely personal level.

Nothing remotely serious, but lots of stupid little things. I tried to buy some isopropyl alcohol yesterday which I often use as a solvent to get rid of sticker goo and such. No dice. Every grocery and drug store in a 10 mile radius was completely cleared out of the stuff.

Not affecting us yet, but I'm getting super antsy about stocking up on water/tp/handsoap/whatnot before panic really sets in here in SW VA.

I'm not worried about it myself, but I'm in WA (where the majority of COVID-19 deaths have occurred in the US so far) and my father is in his seventies, so I worry about him quite a bit. Not hoarding anything, and from the look of various stores I've been to in my town since this started, it doesn't look like anyone else in my area is either.

Stay healthy, everyone. Also, stop touching your face.

It says something that "wash your fucking hands" and "if you are sick, stay the fuck home" is supposed to be this sage advice to deal with this. This is a new virus and the way everyone just jumped to the worst case scenarios is really sad/funny to watch. Get off Facebook, turn off the news for 5 minutes and take a fucking breath, world. And if it causes you to cough, use your elbow and then wash your damn hands.

Charlotte, NC area is still mostly business as usual - very few suspected or confirmed cases in the NC/SC area thus far. No crazy rush on household essentials or anything like that.

We do have policies in place at work to restrict all travel, including domestic US travel. In my role, I don't travel more than maybe half a dozen weeks in a year, so it's not much of an impact for me.

Things are fine in Chicago. But our long-planned trip to Italy in less than 4 weeks? A bit iffy, to say the least!

Hand sanitizer and sanitizing wipes are now limited to 2 per person and typically the shelves are somewhat bare for both.

However, we also had an event in my town over the weekend and downtown was flooded with people.

You do see more caution, and more travel-sized hand sanitizer being busted out, but it's still business as usual for now.

All new cases in Florida are still travel-related and until some community spread upticks I'm not too worried.

Here in Minnesota it's more psychological than anything else. While I would say the overwhelming majority of people are taking it in stride, those that aren't are having an outsized effect on broadcasting their anxiety to everyone else.

I have a co-worker on my team that comes in, looks on our company intranet first thing, and within 5-10 minutes will have put up a post about all the ways We Need to BePrepared and asking What the Company Is Doing to Keep Us Safe? It's gotten bad enough that HR had to step in to try and put things in perspective for him by pointing out that there have been about 2500 flu hospitalizations in the state this year compared to 2 coronavirus cases. They've also hinted that if he's really, super, super worried about it, he can always work from home, but he isn't having any of it.

He's honestly in more danger of someone on our team trying to kill him for being obnoxious than he is from the virus.

Although apparently even where I am it's becoming very difficult to find masks in stores.

Which is very frustrating. Please don't go out and buy a bunch of masks they do not help with this and may be needed for other legitimate purposes.

ugh, this attitude kills me. we have a few in our office that in normal cold/flu season will inevitably be hacking up a lung and still come in out of some perverted sense of obligation and/or duty- meanwhile everyone else in office is shooting them cut-eye and not so subtly suggesting, "you should really go home."

i know it's not a simple calculus if you're an hourly worker- but for those that can afford to- stay the fuck home. being out in the world only makes it more likely you'll infect someone who can't afford to be sick.

I am in the Middle East, all schools in the country were closed yesterday for the next four weeks. The first two weeks are our Easter break that was meant to be starting on the 26 of March. After that I have to deliver my lessons online for two weeks, hopefully by then the situation will have calmed down a good bit.

Everyone is pretty calm here, the only thing that is selling out is hand sanitizer, everything else seems to be in stock as normal. Toilet paper stocks are fine as most toilets have bidets here.

I am a little disappointed that I don't have Doom Eternal and Animal Crossing to keep me busy while I am on my break but I am using the time to catch up on some reading.

Seattleite here. This city already has a pretty bad outbreak, with a number of deaths already, so it's pretty serious. My work strongly encourages everyone to work from home if they possibly can, at least through the end of the month. I'm not too worried but I am feeling a bit guilty if I go out in public places with a lot of people as I have a slight cold. Mostly staying inside. So boring.

You cannot find toilet paper to save your life here in Victoria, B.C. There's a video floating around of Costco opening in the morning and it's a fuckin' go-kart rally with 30 karts all racing to the TP (located at the very back of the store). People Tokyo drifting around corners to shove 10 massive packages of TP in their karts, like a full years worth. Insanity.

I mean stock up within reason, be careful and all that, but you don't have to be a goddamn lunatic like the nukes are coming any day and it's the last helicopter out of Vietnam. You won't be hunkering down in a bunker waiting out the radiation for 20 years, relax.

I live in Korea, albeit a pretty remote island there. I haven't had anything directly impact me outside of taking precautions and basically self quarantining as best as can be done. I am a little more fortunate than most here considering how detached I am, but that just makes me more worried about traveling via boat and never knowing if my wife or I or just carriers. It seems like the country is really on the forefront of getting a hold on all of this and I hope it is true because a lot of my friends are scare shitless.

I live in WY so it’s not pressing but there’s some crazies out here already who bought Walmart out of hand sanitizer, tp, and paper towel over the weekend. Like others have mentioned, when it gets here I’m gonna be concerned mainly because of my grandma, parents, and elderly relatives. One of the few times living in a rural area of a rural state is a blessing.

Living in Japan right next to Yokohama, where the cruise ship was docked, you betcha. My language school moved final tests up a week incase it shuts down early, this final week is 100%, optional, and the start date for next session got pushed to the right.

Trains are much emptier though, which is kinda nice. I'm usually packed in like a sardine during morning rush.

We've only had a few dozen cases here in Finland so far. There are definitely a lot less tourists walking around town and some larger events like concerts have been cancelled. A few schools have been shut down and students placed in quarantine, which sucks for the people who were meant to do their matriculation exams (end of high school exams). People have pretty much stopped shaking hands, which can get a little awkward at business meetings etc.

People are definitely a lot more studious when it comes to staying home when sick. It's flu season now and I worked from home most of last week because of a sore throat and slight fever. Since coming back to the office yesterday, it seems that about 60 % of the people working at the company have chosen to work from home voluntarily or are doing so because of a slight flu. Usually you'd hear a lot of sneezing and sniffles all around the office during flu season, but definitely not now.

It's business as usual in southeast lower Michigan. The biggest difference I've seen is hand sanitizer out in places where it wouldn't be under normal circumstances.

I've been keeping an eye on the grocery store shelves during my normal trips. I haven't noticed anything specific out of stock. I've been low-key "stocking up" though. A couple extra cans of soup here, the larger package of toilet paper there. Just in case I guess.

Here in Austin, TX, there's a general uneasiness. We haven't officially had a case yet, but there have been a few in San Antonio, which is about an hour South of us. SXSW got cancelled, which has a large effect on everything local. Bartenders/waitstaff are probably hit the hardest, as many literally make like half their income in these two weeks. My work is preparing for potentially having us work remotely (which I'm completely on board with). My GF has it tougher than I do, as she works for a hotel and deals with booking large groups. With SXSW axed, most people decided to cancel last minute, which doubly sucks for her because she has to deal with all that in addition to now losing out on the bonus she earned. We are also scheduled to go on a trip together to Costa Rica in early May for my best friend's wedding, and I've already dropped over $2K on that which is non-refundable, so I'm really hoping that still happens.

The virus doesn't scare me, but people's reaction to it does. I rarely get sick, if ever, so I'm fairly certain that I could get it and be totally fine (I'd obviously take care not to spread it if I did). Obviously it's a different story for some, such as the elderly and immuno-suppressed. My mother is the latter as a kidney transplant recipient, and has cancelled a planned trip to California, which seems like a good call for multiple reasons. While I do believe that this near-pandemic should be taken seriously, I also think people overstocking on supplies is a rather silly overreaction. I don't like that there is so much focus on sensationalizing this thing, as panic doesn't help anyone. People are acting like we're all just days from The Walking Dead. It's going to be fine. Wash your hands, maybe go out a bit less in the coming weeks, and this will blow over.

My honeymoon to Greece from the US is in May. I didn't use travelers insurance on the purchases (a month ago). I have 13 grand sunk on hotels and plane tickets. So I'm eyeing quarantines and travel bans nervously.

Not on a personal level. I live in a country that has, so far, been free of the infection, but since other countries in the area are reporting some cases, it is not a question of "if" but "when"...

EDIT: Ok, now the cases are coming in and all hell broke loose. I am in a state of high anxiety and mild hypochondria. The worst part is that I have a newborn child in my house, and I feel paralysed because my worst fear is being contagious to him.

I was supposed to go to Japan this month for work, however that got canceled. Our parent company in Japan has suspended overseas travel.

I am glad my trip got canceled, not because I was afraid of catching the virus; I was more afraid I would be quarantined returning to the US.

I recently had to cancel a trip to Japan, including my airline ticket. My ticket was supposed to be non-refundable, however American Airlines let me cancel the ticket for a $300 cancelation fee. I am not sure which airline you booked with, however you might try to call them, should your trip get canceled, and ask for a refund.

To an extent. I have a medical condition in which my body doesn't make its own antibodies to fight off infection. It's helped via monthly treatments of serum created through donated plasma, which relies on the antibodies of others. Normally this means I actually get less sick than the average person(I get maybe a cold a year and haven't had the flu since like, 2006(since the detonators are required to be up to date on their shots).

Though with this new virus, obviously no one has any sort of immunity to it yet so that is sort of no good there. For now its same old same old precatuions. It wasn't until this past Friday that it appeared in our vicinity(St Louis, I live on the other side of the river just outside the city). We aren't in the immediate zone, but obviously people commute.

Our office has opened up its work from home policies so that has helped(and not dealing with the commute has been an added bonus).

The most annoying and immediately effecting thing is not knowing the state of everything since any form of news is skewed to some extent. Just yesterday on my aggregated news summaries I saw two stories, one said something to effect of, "this is going to peak soon and die down very rapidly" and the other was to the effect of, "the worst is yet to come" so...yeah. Pretty much just have to go to the CDC for any info, and obviously they aren't being to descriptive as not to incite panic.

Checking in from Singapore here, for the most part daily life continues as usual. The most obvious impact is that almost all offices here, mine included, are on a half office alternating work from home schedule. High traffic areas are noticeably less crowded, and from what I hear from friends working at the airport its incredibly empty. Overall the govt response has been good enough (with some areas that could've been improved) that there isn't much of an impact other than having to sign contact tracing sheets at quite a few places you might find yourself going to.

It's closing in, people have started to become affected in my area.. and in my organisation some colleagues have self-isolated (not near me), and also the company ordered in huge containers of hand sanitizers for everyone to use.

I went to Coscto today and a guy was wiping every shopping cart handle with an alcohol wipe as people went into the store.

Things have changed a little bit.. I have a feeling it's going to get worse for a while. I don't feel like I'm going to be affected as I'm generally able to avoid illnesses usually... But who knows!

I'm going to Costco tomorrow so I'll see what the situation is like there. I also picked up someone from Toronto's Pearson airport last week who said that people would all nervously turn towards anyone who coughed during the flight.

I live in a university town with lots of students from Asia and Southeast Asia who have been reporting a lot of overtly racist b.s.

From what I've read, the mortality rate is less than one percent from the virus, but as high as 7+ percent for the elderly and for those with diabetes and other health issues affecting the immune system.

Like many others, I'm moreso concerned for my parents and my grandma.

I live in Louisiana and I think we just got a confirmation that someone has it, so of course where there is one there are others as always. I'm really not worried about catching it myself because I work at home, but I am a bit worried for my parents who are in their late 60s now. They have been retired but still like to go to various places that could possibly have people who have it. I was also supposed to go on a cruise in June but I doubt I will be going on that now. I'm wondering if it will die off during the summer time though.

Not yet, I live on the Kansas side of Kansas City.

We have had a confirmed case on both KS and MO sides, but have not see further confirmed cases. I'm sure we will start seeing more, but I also know KCMO has few if any test kits at the moment. May be hard to know without testing capability.

Has not yet effected my work, or day to day. Just overall feeling of dread, and anxiety. Trying to wash my hands whenever possible, and learning to not touch my face but I am failing.

I forgot to mention it in my previous posts, but I am in Ohio in the US. We just had 3 confirmed cases in the Cleveland area (Northeast Ohio). While I think it is a slight overreaction, our Gov. declare a State of Emergency.

Also, this is both funny and stupid:

https://www.msn.com/en-us/foodanddrink/foodnews/corona-beer-has-nothing-to-do-with-coronavirus-these-brands-also-suffered-pr-nightmares/ar-BB10Jl2d

No cases in my town, but all of the Wal-Marts, Sam's Clubs, Costcos and basically every major supplier of goods are sold out of toilet paper.

I used to work in Infectious Disease Epidemiology research in the UK and in our hyper-connected modern world there's been worry that something of this magnitude could emerge for a long time now. In many ways I think the UK is likely to be quite well prepared for the disaster management side of things, and the rational contain, delay, mitigate, research approach they've adopted is the result of many years of pandemic and bio-attack preparation. I live and work in the US (Houston) these days and I'm a little less confident in the apparatus of government here. That might simply be because I know less about how those branches of government work in the US.

Overall the biggest test will emerge in the coming weeks as decisions are made that will have massive economic and public health repercussions. It has already begun with the cancellation and closing of large events. Imagine the economic devastation that would come about if all schools were mandatorily closed for a couple of months and parents were forced into childcare obligations. Never mind the inevitable losses of jobs that will accompany the downturn in demand for service-related industries as people stay home more and stop travelling around.

One point that I think is essential in framing thought about the virus is that the numbers we see today are a measurement of the number of infections that took place 15 to 20 days ago. Correspondingly we will only know when things are getting better once we see a run of more than 20 days with number of new cases declining day after day. We are a long way from that point so calibrate your expectations about how long this disruption will be going on accordingly.

Not me personally, and as I'm not too far from Charlotte, NC myself (hi @chaser324) it's not really a thing here yet (if ever).

But my niece has terrible allergies, and more importantly severe asthma triggered by those allergies. She's already been in the emergency room once this spring for a major attack, and been on breathing treatments at home several times in the past week. So the doctor recommended my sister get full refills on her daily and emergency inhalers, keep her at home if she seems even a little sick, and be ready to keep her out of school if even regular colds start up in her class, just in case another kid's regular cold turns out to be COVID-19.

Also extended-family weekly dinner (which includes some kids, a bunch of people that work in busy restaurants, and some older people with respiratory issues) is off for now. :/

I work in the media in the UK, so am spending all day every day digging into this.

I don't know anyone personally who has it, but a few individuals nearby have either tested positive or self-quarantined.

I keep hearing people blaming the media for over-hyping it, and all the time we are actually keeping quiet about the really scary stuff, such as crematoriums testing to see if the can run 24/7 in the event of a "civil emergency".

I dread to think how this is going to play out in the USA, where they don't have universal healthcare, but do have ready access to guns.

It's affecting my work because now we have to ask claimants about their travel history and health before we book them in. Also, our boss is making noises about continuity. I live in the North East of England and cases are relatively few and far between, officially.

I'm travelling to San Francisco next week and have been checking out where my nearest consulate is and what to do if I develop symptoms. I err... guess that means self-isolate in the hotel room? In terms of prevention, I'm washing my hands like I normally would, trying to stay at least 3 feet away from anyone who's got a persistent cough, etc.

I do think Italy's quarantine and travel ban will help but the rest of continental Europe remains open for business. There's a big onus on the people to do the right thing but I don't see that truly coming together.

I've already started shooting any and all strangers on sight. We all have.

:D

I live in Guiyang, in Guizhou province in Southwest China. It hasn't had that many cases of the virus, but we've been in a state of more or less lockdown for the last month. You have to scan a QR code that checks you into the public health bureau database when you enter any business or your apartment complex. Temperature checks are also mandatory. You won't be let in any stores or parks unless you're wearing a mask. Most restaurants have been closed or limited to takeout only. Masks are pretty hard to come by, but there hasn't been a run on basic supplies.

There are a lot fewer people in the streets than usual, but that's changing a bit. We haven't had any new cases in the city for the last 12 days, so I suspect things will relax a bit soon, but it's still too early to say. Schools are set to open on the 16th or the 23rd, about a month later than usual. That will be the real test for "back to normal."

@cyberbloke: We shoot at hurricanes to make them go away over here don't think we can't take out a fuckin' virus.

I take the train into midtown manhattan every day. I have been going about my business mostly normally and just avoid touching things/my face while on the train and washing my hands as soon as I get into work or home, but today is the first day I've started to feel pretty nervous. Where I work it would be relatively easy to switch to having people work from home but they had been very resistant to the idea until today. They told everyone to start taking their laptops home in case they call for a company directive to stay out of the office.... that's when things started to feel real.

Like most other people, I am less worried about my personal health or having to stay home than I am about others I know, general public health, and the outsized effect this could have on businesses, etc. I work in the ticketing industry and it is already having a tremendous impact on sales with all the events and tours being cancelled. The idea of sports teams cancelling games or playing to empty stadiums like in Italy is a serious looming possibility and it could have a tremendous negative impact.

Hmm... No? I don't think so. I live about 10 minutes away from the Life Care Center that's always in the news though here in WA. I'm not that worried about it, but it's a bit more worrisome than any of the previous viral outbreaks since it's so close to home, and one part of my job is being an attendant of events, so there could be around 150 people that I have to walk by. I'm not as worried about myself, but if I got it, I don't want to give it to others, especially in my family as I know my mom or brother might not be able to take it. I do think, however, that people are going a bit overboard with buying all these supplies off the shelf. It also shows me, as I already knew, that a lot of people don't know proper hygiene, or go way past what's necessary to a degree that'll make them worse off.

I just read that E3 is being canceled due to the coronavirus, which sucks. Well, kind of. Considering how many others dropped out of it already, I was still interested to see what Microsoft was going to be doing. Now I'm curious as to what they're planning now.

I live in South London, there's been a few cases reported locally but aside from a swell of buying loo roll everything is ticking over as normal - if a little quieter than usual. I think the biggest hurdle to deal with is the extreme dichotomy with which everyone seems to be reacting around it. Visibly at least, people around our flat either seem to be in full on panic buying/hoarding mode or convinced it's nothing and ignoring recommended steps. If there was a bit more sensible caution, particularly from the media here, we'd probably all be in a better place. More than any of these pandemics in the recent times I find it hard to trust so much of the information getting out to us - politicising diseases for public perception is just madness.

SF bay area like GB West! Although not quite San Francisco.

Work traffic is less, which is nice. Places are more sparse, but crowded places are still...well crowded, it is a metropolitan area after all.

I work in...let's call it medical adjacent industry. If possible people are encourage to work from home. People are definitely taking masks from work, and they started keeping track. Isopropyl alcohol and disinfectant are still plentiful...it is something I guess.

@relkin: Same, i'll be fine. My wife has an autoimmune disease and both of us have parents in their 70s +. That's where I worry. We live in lower NY where it's starting to spread.

Also my Brother lives in Snohomish county, WA. He says everyone is freaking out. He was supposed to go take a computer test but the testing facility shut down the day before because one of the employees was diagnosed with the COV.