I am busy learning what we have too much of and too little of.

Mrs, H and I are actually in pretty good shape, The cornerstone of my preps is getting ready for a big disruptive earthquake which would render affairs hectic for at least a couple of months, so there is sufficient food on hand.

The infrastructure is undamaged and I can access ETS. The biggest disruption for me is that I should right now be waking up from a hip replacement, which is postponed until elective surgeries resumes.

I feel for medical professionals, now exposed on the front lines of this mess. Talking withmy doc three days ago and I asked how the office was fixed for masks. They were short, and I offered some of mine (about 100 - i didn't realize I had that many). Glad to see that construction companies are urged to donate masks to hospitals, etc. This is just enlightened self interest. We keep them healthy so they can return the favor.

I hope that we (society as a whole) can pass this test.

One of my best friends is an EMT and his wife works in a hospital. He was at their recent emergency meeting and were told all further meetings were now cancelled. And the county is short of masks, gloves and other vital supplies with no restocking possible in the foreseeable future. They anticipate a bumpy ride.

question for any virologists or informed souls... in time of short supply can a N95 style mask be sanitized by ozone (O3) or UV?....would allow individual users to sanitize their own masks without cross contamination... possibly if there is enough water in the protein sheath of the Wuhan strain to be destroyed by a microwave...or high wet or dry temps?... just questioning

This is Equipped To Survive. Everyone here should already be prepared.

Edit: Granted, there are some things I don't know how to do, and I still don't.

Jeanette Isabelle

No idea. CDC has guidelines on general reuse, but no advice about sanitising them.

https://www.cdc.gov/niosh/topics/hcwcontrols/recommendedguidanceextuse.html#respreuse

My view is that people around me are not changing their behavior beyond school and restaurant closures. I see people traveling unnecessarily, city workers stopping to chat with a landscape crew, and buyers way too close in grocery store and gas station cashier lines.

I think maybe they're watching the news and assuming it's not in this county (yet) so no real concern.

Oh on top of that, I just heard that the hospitals in Green Bay are currently at 95% capacity partially due to the flu, and are redirecting patients.

I know some are saying that this virus isn't as dangerous as being reported, but it is not worth risking lives.

We had an embarrassing amount of TP before this all started. We live a pretty simple life. We're OK.

What's bad, is that we can prep for many things. Big stores of food, water, medicines, and gear. All ready to live on our own for a year or more. Then a stupid virus comes along. One that you really can't protect yourself from. And you die on one or two weeks. I want a refund on my prep gear!

Luckily, most of us who get it might not even realize it or have symptoms no worse than the common cold. Then we will wonder how the person next to us was diagnosed with it, and four days later was dead.

Funny, last Thursday, six days ago, everything was mostly normal in the US. A bit light on the toilet paper at the grocery, but that was about it. Now, restaurants are closed, people are out of work, all our entertainment activities have been canceled, nobody goes into the office, we've lost half of our retirement savings (at least on paper), those with parents still around find them locked down inside their senior living facility, TV news is telling us "You're gonna die, then your friends are gonna die, then you're gonna die again".

Things sure went downhill pretty fast.

I'm not incredibly worried about the economy. Yeah, it's serious. But where lives lost can't be regained we can rebuild the economy. We need to flatten the curve and try to make this pandemic run more like it has in South Korea and not like it has in Italy. There the fatality rate is around 10% and they're basically stacking the dead like cordwood- they haven't even been able to collect them all. As I read a day or two ago: In the beginning of a pandemic everything looks like an overreaction. After the pandemic nothing seems adequate.

Two of the reasons for the high death rate in Italy that I have seen reported are:

(1) The average age of the population is markedly older than other countries

and

(2) A lot of people smoke there, so there will be much more pre-existing lung damage