It's actually more or less normally stocked now, although it's still hard to get pasta and rice. Two weeks ago and there was almost nothing on the shelves as people panic bought. I suppose they are past that point now.

ok

Not as bad as it was a couple weeks ago. Still shortages of eggs, bread, paper products, and some canned stuff. Plenty of fruit, veggies, meat, and seafood. It is getting better.

Living on the coast as I do I have seen depleted store stocks due to hurricanes. What I saw yesterday is a different thing.

Today is the 1st of the month. There are a lot of people shopping on the 1st of the month (food stamps?) and the condition of the store yesterday makes me think even if they restocked all night last night there is not going to be nearly enough to support today's demand.

I gotta go out today and pay my rent and water bill. I still have a few things I need to pick up so I might try Walmart (depending on how full the parking lot is). If I think of it, I'll post again as to what I experienced.

I'll be looking at product stock levels and virus awareness and prevention tactics of store staff and shoppers. I'm curious to see a one day difference so I might pop into my local grocer as well.

I do notice there are more cars on the road today than yesterday outside my home. This is curious because yesterday it was in the 80s and today its 10 degrees cooler and higher temps supposedly slow down the virus spread rate.
You would think with the cooler weather there would be fewer people out and about?

tell that to the family of the 13 year old boy (with no pre-existing conditions who died from covid recently) . I have a lot of respect for you notbeold but your thinking and attitude about covid could do with a readjustment . Happy you have the time to do what you love .. enjoy

China .. the next phase

http://amp.theguardian.com/world/2020/apr/01/china-pivots-to-tackle-silent-covid-19-carriers-as-us-says-a-quarter-of-cases-may-have-no-symptoms

Went by Walmart but the parking lot was packed, didn't go in.

Paid rent and the landlord gave me 4 packages with facemasks (that was nice).

Went to Froogles (a small cost+ grocer) and finished my list except no toilet paper, still.
The shelves were low on stock but there were more items available than at the name brand grocer.
Saw one woman with gloves and a facemask, no I didn't wear mine.

I took the long way home, went down the beach road at the strip.
None of the fishing piers had anyone fishing or there at all.
The boat ramp was full of empty boat trailers so there were a lot of people out on boats.
The beaches were populated but the groups were small and spaced apart.
A few picnics happening.

I paid the water bill and was not allowed inside the building, I paid at a window.
On the door were multiple notices of different meetings concerning COVID 19 and standard prevention lists. The court cases have all been suspended till May.

Lots of cars on the road, heavy police presence.

Casinos, bars, indoor restaurants and churches are closed, schools remain closed, including the college.
Fraternity row was eerily quite.

I saw lawn maintenace crews, construction crews and city maintenance crews working normally.

Has anyone noticed ... that you hear the stories of the areas... say in the US ...that have the Virus ... but is their anyone once they say someone has or had it ... how or when and where ...did they get it ... more like a specific person and are they contacting those that might have been around those people ... or should you try to get tested if you where near those places ...

Kinda like if someone has aids ...you try and tell the partners of that person ... who find they have it ... just wondering if that is the case ... with this virus ... I am talking mainly about visits to public places ...
you may go to ...

For health privacy they cannot publicly identify the people tested. They also won't identify any contacts or specifically where the infected person is located, again, privacy. They do publicly identify the location by county. When the number of cases in an area is small, they do attempt contract tracing to identify people who may have been exposed. They then want those people in a 14 day quarantine starting from the contact day. When you get a higher case load, it just isn't feasible.

Personally I think there is no telling where you contract the virus because you could have it and not know it till you exhibit symptoms or get tested.

This means even if you don't feel sick you might be spreading it.
Plus there is the whole surface contamination.
Someone contaminated but not sick touches a door knob and later you touch the same door knob.

Perhaps I'm wrong. Perhaps there is a way to trace transmission but to do that ya gotta be paying attention to fine details and have access to video or traffic details.

If someone is sick on a plane, and transmits the virus by surface exposure only the people on the plane could be infected.
But, if someone sick touches a door handle at a store, you have to track down each person who might have touched that same handle.
If you are in a city and someone sick touches a post on a sidewalk, there's no telling who might have touched that post over the duration of time the virus remains infective.

With AIDS, for example, there are only so many ways you can contract the disease. AIDS is a blood-borne pathogen, you don't get it by surface exposure.

This spreads more like the common cold than AIDS.

Shelter-in-place has multiple levels of prevention.
It not only helps prevent person to person direct infection it prevents surface infection by limiting the number of people coming in contact with infected surfaces.
It also limits the number of infected people from infecting common surfaces.

Hopefully I understand this correctly, perhaps a chime in from someone in the know (blondey111?) can clarify.

This virus existed before it was discovered in China!Please don't use your ignorance to shift the blame to China.China's achievements can be seen all over the world!

Most chinese people would tend to agree with you.

definitely not what trump says. listen to the doctors not the media

Came from Wuhan Bio level lab 4. Chinese espionage in 2019 from winnipeg university of hazardous biological material. An upgraded version of the Sars virus which has been researched since 2010. in 2015 a blockop was formed due to a breakthrough and is now being used to either enforce a form of government control or cause mass disaster in which not many will survive resulting in global armageddon if you will

Since the 9/11 attacks nearly 20 years ago, national security has been dominated by terrorism. But there have been voices over the years who have argued the notion of 'security' should be broadened and the coronavirus crisis has raised a significant question about whether global health security should be a more central part of national security.

Under the last review, an international pandemic was classed as a Tier 1 national security risk in the UK - meaning it was judged to be of the highest priority - but that has not been reflected in the resources or the way in which the issue has been tackled when compared with the other three threats at the same level - terrorism, war and cyber-attacks.

But just as in the wake of 9/11, there are people who feel they were not listened to when they warned the lights were blinking red about our health security.

For spy agencies, adapting may take a significant gear change. A priority for policy-makers will be knowing the ground-truth about the health situation in another country.

For agencies like MI6 and the CIA that recruit human sources, it may mean ensuring you have agents in the right place who can report back on what is really happening.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-52122991

I think you mostly have it correct. The social distance (6 foot) mostly will stop the actual transmission between 2 people. The common surface transmission is a method but not as often. With the surface transmission you both need to pick up the virus on your hands or other ways and transmit it to your mouth, nose or eyes. If the virus is not transmitted to your eyes, nose or mouth, you will not get the virus. That is why the hand washing and not touching your face are important.

A human being touching their own face is a spontaneous habit often done without realizing it. Its extremely difficult for anyone to change a natural habit.

If you think you have it mastered, put some ink or grease on your hands and fingers and wait a bit while watching TV, then go look in a mirror.

And that is why it is important to clean your hands after you have touched something in public. Use a foot or arm to push open that door when you can. When you wash your hands in a public restroom, use the paper towel to open the door. Gloves are only useful if you don't touch your face with them and then remove them properly. Trying to keep your hands clean however you can will help!

Conspiracy Theorists Unite!

A premeditated global pandemic could happen but I imagine it would be a viral agent with a different pathology. (pathology? right word?)
There are far more effective viral agents in the world's bio-threat arsenal than COVID 19/Coronavirus.

If population control is the reason there are far deadlier and faster spreading viruses available.

If global society distress is the goal a computer virus which targets financial and utilities would be more effective. Imagine what would happen if the world had no money, no electricity, clean water, fuel or natural gas.

This virus is just another way nature tries to cull an over-populated species. Like other natural culling, we will outsmart it and our population will continue to rise. Our species intelligence, ingenuity and technology exceeds nature's equalization.

As our population continues to grow, natural culling will continue to get more virulent. Our high population allows these natural culling attempts to spread faster. Luckily, we have been able to stay just ahead of the onslaught. At 8 billion people.
At 14 billion people (20-30 years?) who knows how we will fare?

And the source of your information is . . .

Seriously, cite your source.