General Chit Chat - #2

I did venture out to the grocery Thursday morning. I went to the actual grocery close to my house and avoided Wal-Mart. It was mostly older people in there and every one was good about maintaining distance with the other people. It wasn't overly crowded either. They had the main things I went for but I did see lots of empty shelves. Soup section funny to look at... you could tell what soups no one eats! Lots of the "cream" soups. I already have some of those that I use for cooking so didn't need any. The only thing I wanted but didn't get was 2 pounds of ground chuck. I'll try again next week. I picked some up last week and made mini meat loaves and I still have some in the freezer so I'm good for awhile. Got to talk to a cousin in the milk section. No hugs though!

I have been watching the governor every day. The press conferences are shown on our local PBS station so I don't have to watch it online anymore. Very, very informative. Yesterday started out sad. There were questions on Thursday about the first death but they wouldn't confirm it and it was still being "investigated". They confirmed it yesterday and turns out both the governor and the lieutenant governor knew the gentleman. He was 76 years old and the father of the chairman of the Lucas County Republican Party. He himself had been involved in state level positions over the years. Evidently he had been in California and returned home before getting sick and going into the hospital.

Official stats for the state are released at 2 p.m. every day. I'm seeing on the John Hopkins map that Ohio has several more cases reported and 2 more deaths. https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/map.html

Official age range of cases in Ohio as of Friday, 3/20/20: Youngest = 1 Oldest = 91. Median age of 19.
169 cases: 69 female, 100 male
28 counties out of 88 have cases

I have all the respect in the world for my governor. He got ahead of a lot of states and actually took some flack for some of the things he was doing as early as March 9th. That was the day that he announced a state of emergency for the state of Ohio. At that time there were only 3 positive cases in the state. On the 10th he made various requests that either shut down visitation (state prisons, nursing homes), limit the number of spectators at athletic events and the suggestions that higher education put some precautionary measures in place. March 11th is when he said a ban on the number of people in a single room/space would be coming. It did on March 12th, same day he closed K-12 schools (effective March 17th) for at least 3 weeks. And the list goes on as to what he has done to keep our state safe.

Ohio has a population of 11.7 million. Less than 200 confirmed positives. What can I say but kudos to a governor that makes the hard decisions.

Still ticked off about a certain governor in the south. His state population is 21.3 million not to mention the non-resident visitors from Jan-Mar. Confirmed cases there per the JH Map is 563.

@Sprite That has to be difficult for them to process. to you and all your coworkers.

Speaking of Timmy's, I'm not a Timmy's drinker but the other day I was running late, forgot to bring something to eat, I went through the drivethrough, which amazingly there was no one there!! Usually jammed packed and another reason I don't go. I stopped for a toasted bagel and the cashier was not wearing gloves. Total turn off!

I didn't go to No Frills yesterday because the weather was miserable. I'm going to venture out right now.

@HavaDrPepper We posted at the same time. Glad to see your Gov has been taking swift action. Cudo's to him and Gov of NYS, I'm following him because I'm so close to the border. Thanks for all the stats! Goes to show early on when they thought it only affected the elderly, we are seeing more and more younger ones infected.

I'm concerned about our March break now being over today and all those that are in denial. They are all coming home and IMHO it's going to just get worse.

The greed is obvious in Florida by their Gov. Greed over saving lives, it's pathetic. Concerned about what it's going to do to the tourism industry. The whole world is concerned, and BTW no one will be able to travel so what is the issue?

I am glad to see counties taking their own action by closing beaches and restaurants.

Forgot to mention that I have a friend that might be stuck in Australia right now. She left on a tour before the national emergency was declared. Another friend told me she was shocked when she saw her post on FB about her flights. I didn't even know she was going to go. She was still there when Australia put their ban in the other day.

She did post some memes on FB today but is ignoring questions from friends asking where she is. Makes me think she didn't get on an airplane out of there in time. Even if she did, she'll have to be in quarantine when she gets home. Oh yeah, she has a position as the county engineer (elected official) for the county she lives in.

A friend just shared a post on FB from a gal that is doing comparison charts for the timelines of Kentucky and Tennessee because of the similar demographics of the states. Very interesting. Appears Kentucky is taking the same trajectory as Ohio. She said she is sharing the chart on twitter as well. I don't have twitter but I did find her handle. https://twitter.com/StephanieJolly

@HavaDrPepper that's an excellent visual on the difference of taking action vs delaying action. I just checked the stats and Tennessee just confirmed their first death.

228 cases TN vs 63 Kentucky. Kentucky ordered schools close and all gatherings cancelled on March 11th TN waited until March 16th to announce close schools by March 20th. Prayers to all affected.
https://twitter.com/StephanieJolly
For those who may not be able to view.



I ventured out to the grocery store. It wasn't busy at all. Good social distancing going on. Some shelves were sparse but not many. Pasta and bread shelves in particular. TP shelf very sparse with a notice of limit. I glanced at the meat section, looked like there was a good variety. I'm ok for a lot of things but I got what I needed basically milk bananas cereal and tea.

@GuardianAngel @HavaDrPepper @Sprite
Thanks for continuing to share information and statistics. It’s becoming obvious that the leaders that are issuing and enforcing safe strategies have better results than those who don’t.
As far as kids being less affected than others, since the start I’ve been really reflecting on this. One thing statistic doesn’t cover is the logical pathways of contamination that seems to be excluding children. Example: the very first cases of reported illness were Chinese tourists in Italy, ( even 2 weeks before the ‘ patient zero’ made the news) then there is a businessman who travelled from Wuhan and Italy. You can see the progression of the contagion in Italy as these tourists were visiting sites from North to South, infecting people on their way down. the majority of tourists that came from China are adults, and they do go in restaurants, public places and sites that children are not around. They’re at school or at home. They do not take public transit on there own, same reasons as above. it took a while for the contaminated people to bring it home and since it’s from direct contact, only when it reached a certain level did it start affecting différent age groups.
So the conclusion that they are NOT affected is biased by the circumstances IMO and gives false readings and hopes to people. Same thing works in reverse with saying that only - or more- older people are affected. Its missing the point that MORE elderly people have health issues like diabetes, high blood pressure, cancer, etc.. so they are more vulnerable to the infectious nature of the virus because of a lower immune response.
I will come back gotta go get some fresh produce at the Farmers Market.
All JMHO

Astrobach wrote:
So the conclusion that they are NOT affected is biased by the circumstances IMO and gives false readings and hopes to people. Same thing works in reverse with saying that only - or more- older people are affected. Its missing the point that MORE elderly people have health issues like diabetes, high blood pressure, cancer, etc.. so they are more vulnerable to the infectious nature of the virus because of a lower immune response.
I will come back gotta go get some fresh produce at the Farmers Market.
All JMHO

The fact that this disease affects the lungs is the main reason why it is mainly the older people that are dying. They end up with pneumonia which is a killer of many older people. That's why older people are encouraged to get the pneumonia vaccine. I never would get bronchitis/pneumonia but 11 years ago I did. I was diagnosed with bronchitis and a week later when I wasn't any better, I went back to the doctor... full fledged pneumonia. Then 6 months later I got swine flu. 2009 was a bad year. My company had a health fair every year where you could get flu shots and those that were in the older ages could get a pneumonia shot. Since I had swine flu less than 10 days before, I couldn't get either shot. I was able to get both of them after a 2 week waiting period by going to our local department of health that administered them. My doctor pushed me to get the pneumonia shot since I had such a bad case.

Today's stats for Ohio:
Confirmed cases 247
Illness onset date range: 02/07/20 - 03/19/20
Age range: 1-91 years, median 51 years
Sex: 108 females, 139 males
Hospitalizations: 58
Deaths: 3
Number of counties (out of 88): 33

The hot spots in the state are pretty much located in the larger cities with only a couple of counties in what would be considered "rural" having positives.

I did some research through the governor's twitter and found that Ohio Dept of Health started testing on March 7. They made the sickest patients the priority (and still do). They announced the first 3 positives on March 9. In one of the press conferences Dr Amy gave a timeline. In early February several students that had been abroad for Miami University were tested and found to be negative but investigations in the state began at that time. Ohio's first test kits (Feb 7th) were the "bad" ones that were unusable. They received their next batch of test kits on March 5th with the testing started March 7th.

They emphasize that the VIRUS IS HERE AND LIVES AMONG US.

Interactive map showing how the virus has spread across the US

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/03/21/us/coronavirus-us-cases-spread.html?action=click&module=Spotlight&pgtype=Homepage

@HavaDrPepper I am more interested in the number tested vs the positives and negatives. The number of new cases is interesting but it's got to be put in context with a bigger picture. Those numbers are not being released.

I think the numbers aren't telling the whole picture when I keep reading there aren't enough kits for testing or they just aren't testing because of the outdated guidlines. That's why NYS's numbers are so high because the Gov is testing! 45000 tests so far! Same with Italy, people are dying at home without being tested. Those numbers being reported are actually much higher if that's the case.

He's doing an amazing job as are some other Gov's.

https://www.silive.com/news/2020/03/cuomo-expect-coronavirus-response-to-last-months-as-cases-top-10k-in-ny.html

ETA: NYS 45000 tested so far 10000 infected with more results to come in.

My boys arrived home today! They drove 7 hours from NorCal to San Diego.
They were at their apartment for a week, didn’t go anywhere.

As soon as they got home, we asked them to wash their clothes in the highest setting and take a shower. My husband and I sprayed and wiped their bags and the car.

Now I can sleep much better now

@sdmom I’m glad they are safe with you. Enjoy your time together !