Prepping for pandemic...

[wheresmymojo]

I was quite blasé about the novel corona virus outbreak but things I've read today have changed my mind.

I'm not usually a prepper but best things to stock up on for a pandemic?

Surgical face masks?
Latex gloves?
Anti bac wipes and hand wash?

October... That long ago. menopausal brain fade

I have a grab bag. It was meant for earthquake situations really. I went through the contents - it wouldn't help much for isolation. I suppose the wind up radio might keep you active...

I have copies of documents on my phone. I keep a big phone battery charger in my bag that would do 4 charges so that would last a while.

Also, I have loads of hand sanitiser that is a minimum of 5 years old. No use now?

@starfish4 @teta

I was talking about boarding schools as that’s where my experience is, not universities/other international schools. The current boarding school I’m involved with has a very high percentage of students from China (& Russia) all with a LOT of money. Most of the students prefer local accommodation over the holidays & rarely travel home.

But 🤷🏻‍♀️ Let’s just hope, whatever they all normally do, that they stay local for the time being. The fewer people travelling around & world & coming into contact with many people outside their usual environment the better IMO. Planes are bad enough at the best of times!!

I'm not working at the moment but we were all issued with go bags to keep under our desk at work.

We worked in central London so made sense from a terrorism perspective and I would definitely think about having my own go bag at work again.

Not sure I would have one at home as I'm in a rural village, not near anything like a dam that could lead to issues where we'd have to leave in a hurry.

Our main prepping needs are for snow here although we have a 4x4 so are usually the ones helping other people get places. Never thought I'd be prepping for a pandemic TBH.

Read up on national preparedness month at the time, but there was no record of it ever having been done before in Scotland- agree I think it was more likely to do with a no deal brexit.

We have a grab box in our garage (basically a box we store camping equipment in). No paperwork in it but most other things.

I'm wondering at what point they would decide to ask the public to stay inside in the UK. Response seems to be varying massively between countries. I did read an article (will try to find) a few days ago stating if the virus is in India, Africa, Pakistan, south America then there will be no way to control it as the infrastructure just isn't there currently in those areas.

A while back someone asked what happened about the cruise ship with a suspected case..

It would be concerning in India & Pakistan for the reasons you've mentioned, from a selfish perspective because of the amount of travel between the UK and those countries but also...I'd really worry for British Asians.

The far right here seem like a tinder box waiting for an excuse to explode and I feel like if Indians and Pakistanis were found to be bringing the virus over (or even just suspected) we could really see the EDL and other thugs kicking off

Breaking news - British people have been told to leave China if possible...

news.sky.com/story/coronavirus-britons-now-advised-to-leave-china-if-they-are-able-to-11926149

@justanothernameonthewall
Anyone else getting a coronavirus SOS sign coming up on Google searches
Yes, what is it for?

Downside is presumably incoming Brits from all over China won't be quarantined. Some won't quarantine themselves so increases the risk to home populations.

If they were being sensible they would make self-quarantine mandatory and phone at various times to check it was being followed(?)

This maybe a stupid question but if British nationals are advised to leave China how are they going to do that if China have put roadblocks up stopping people leaving?

Swedish news are reporting that the Belgian citizen with coronavirus was on the plane with European evacuees that arrived in France the other day. The same plane which had 11 Britons on it...

It has just been on sky news that the uk is advising its citizens to get out of China if they can.

I've just stocked up on disinfectant spray, wipes (not sure how effective they'll be!) and a few more tins for the Brexit Box, now renamed the Prepping Box. DH found some DIY masks yesterday in his DIY boxes but don't think they'll be up to much.

The hand sanitiser should be fine nearlyschool it's the alcohol base that kills it, and that doesn't go off.

I wonder if the UK is planning to stop incoming flights in the near future with the advice?

It's the knock on effects that worry me more than the virus itself. We can get snowed in some years and a couple of years ago there were ppl fighting over uht milk in our local supermarket. The shop had run out for 1 day...

Can anyone tell me the difference between SARS and the severe acute respiratory infection that this Corona is causing? Surely they're actually the same thing? Only difference is the last word on the name?

@justanothernameonthewall SARS is a slightly different corona-virus, this one has 76% similarity to SARS and 96% similarity to the already known Bat one that I can’t remember the name of. So they’re all in the same family of viruses.

I’ve got 6 packs of Milton wipes, 6 bottles of hand gel and a large bottle of spray. Figure the wipes we can use if it gets bad and we need to go somewhere. I’m feeling pretty prepared to bunker down in the house now and I’m kind of just waiting for the inevitable.

Yes, I topped up the emergency box today, stocked up on tinned food, cleaning supplies etc. All the hand gel at tesco was out bar some weird smelling pink stuff, but it'll do.

I've sat down with the kids and re-reminded them how to wash their hands properly and I've placed a full embargo on whinging about eating fruit and veg.

My local boots still had Milton hand gel

Pressed send too soon

Might be worth checking stores locally, I couldn’t buy it online but they had it in store today

SARS, one of the members of the coronavirus family does seem to differ in a few ways from this one. SARS appears to have been more lethal and less infective than this one. It also didn't seem to be infective before symptoms appeared.

MERS, the member that emerged from camels fortunately doesn't seem to jump from human to human. It's very fortunate as it has a high case fatality rate.

Then of course we have a small number of other coronavirus members that cause little more than cold symptoms for most.

This new one seems to sit between the existing mild ones and SARS in severity.

American Airlines have just announced that they are suspending flights from HK (to date it was just mainland).

If others go the same way it looks like @RevolutionofourTime left at the right time.