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So the WHO has declared coronavirus to be a pandemic and I'm curious how it's impacting the lives of everyone on these forums.

I work in a public library in upstate NY (1 confirmed case in the county) and we've cancelled all public programs through March. Some other libraries have closed for this weekend and will possibly close longer. My library's board meets next week to discuss what/why we may close. Hand sanitizer and rubbing alcohol have been sold out for about two weeks, and now people are panic-buying toilet paper and bottled water in massive quantities.
The library itself is extremely quiet, not nearly as many people are coming in.

Big sporting events, Broadway plays, E3, and St. Patrick's Day Parades are cancelled. That's not even touching the stories I've read about Italy and China.

I've always regularly washed my hands but am now using hand sanitizer more and am avoiding touching my face. I'm also thinking I should spend less time in the local arcade.
Is anyone here quarantined, self-imposed or otherwise? Is your work impacted? Are you taking other precautions?

I work in a university library, and we're extending our spring break and then moving to on-line only classes for a time, though the library will remain open and available for those who truly need it. My wife works at a hospital and if that hospital goes to "essential" staff only, my wife will be one of those who will have to use PTO and afterwards go unpaid when forced to stay home from work. K-12 schools around here will close for 3 weeks starting Monday, but we haven't heard if our day care will close. If that happens we'll have to split our PTO use to take turns staying home with the kiddo. It's going to drain us of all our time off reserves, and possibly (probably) some financial reserves as well, not to mention our sanity.

WarnerMedia closed its New York office on Wednesday, and today we were told the company is going Work from Home world-wide next week.

Also, this year's TCM Film Festival has been cancelled.

Schools all over the place are closing for a few weeks, quite a few universities have shifted to online only.

Once the F1 at Albert Park was cancelled yesterday pretty much every sporting event has been postponed or are playing without crowds.

However the biggest impact to me has been the panic buying of products.

All the big supermarket chains in Australia have a 1 item limit on toilet paper, tissues, hand towels, pasta, rice, tins of tomatoes because about a week ago people started panic buying and finding toilet paper at the moment is a joke. The hard thing for me is my wife and I have a almost 5 month old and nappies are extremely hard to find all of a sudden (apparently many Chinese people are sending them back home / people are worried they will run out).

Hording culture has well and truly kicked off here and it has brought out the ugliness in people with fights being recorded in supermarkets over toilet paper.

I have not posted here in a long time but read forums occasionally still. I felt compelled to chime in on this one. Public gatherings are cancelled, I am not affected, was not going anywhere LOL. "Stupidity" is what is having an impact on me. Had to go to the store last night and with the shelves getting thin I had to buy enough groceries to last me through the run on the stores. Though I think stores are metering out things to make it look like they are short on things. Grocery stores around the country are having their very own Black Friday right now! Thankfully I order a lot of food from Amazon nowadays, so I have months worth of certain things.

But I digress....

It is sad that the "idiot box" has gotten people to behave like this. This is what is affecting, stupid people doing stupid things. Fear mongering, or what have you. It is the flu, nothing more. People die from it, and all kinds of other things. So now they have gotten so many people stirred up that it is actually having an impact on me and others here. I am sorry to the people who are going to financially struggle due to this idiot epidemic, I may join in with you soon. Gas prices have dipped, so at least we are saving money with that. Final point though is that the long term effects this is going to have on so many things could simply be averted by people shutting off that idiot box, (or is it an idiot panel now?). So yeah, the mindless herd mentality has impacted me and for the most part will have some sort of impact on all of us. I got 48 rolls of toilet paper if anyone here runs out I can send you a few LOL. (our bulk from Amazon just came a few weeks ago. They are great on prices for some things)

Comments not demonstrating how I was affected were used only as a tool to show what drove the affecting situation. Please do not see these as anything else, do not want to derail the thread please.

Have a dry cough now so my boss is not letting me come into work today. I work at a retirement home so makes sense.

Lots of government workers in my city and they're all working remotely now.

wclem wrote: It is the flu, nothing more. People die from it, and all kinds of other things. So now they have gotten so many people stirred up that it is actually having an impact on me and others here. I am sorry to the people who are going to financially struggle due to this idiot epidemic, I may join in with you soon.

I will note here that this is NOT, in fact, the flu (and I'm not just being pedantic). The flu is indeed quite dangerous, but we have vaccines for that to reduce and constrain the spread. While some vaccine years are less effective and some years more, all flu vaccines, even the poorly-matched ones, reduce the spread and intensity of the flu. We also have widespread and accurate testing for the flu and can readily track cases and outbreaks. Our medical system is prepared for the flu and largely knows what to expect with it. We also know who is at greatest risk (the very young, the very old, and the immunocompromised). The death rate for the flu in the US is about .1% thanks to vaccines and the ability to prepare for it seasonally.

This new coronavirus, officially “SARS-CoV-2”, is something our immune systems are relatively unfamiliar with. Yes, it has a relationship to the corona viruses that cause SARS and MERS, but those aren't things that sweep through annually, for one. Also, we have no vaccine for SARS-CoV-2. And we were caught unprepared. When the flu strikes we've already started vaccinating, slowing the advance even before it starts to spread widely. With SARS-CoV-2 there's nothing to stop it from taking off like wildfire (you'll note that countries have been hit hard in only a couple weeks - the flu doesn't do that). Additionally, though data is still incomplete, the death rate appears much higher, between 1.4 and 2.3% based off two data sets from China. It is particularly deadly to the elderly, just like the flu though moreso, but appears to have a much weaker impact on the young, though still dangerous. On top of that, political interference has slowed the response from our CDC, meaning we're way behind where we need to be on being able to effectively test and screen people for this. That makes it harder to deliver targeted care.

The flu this year has been a bit harsher on us, meaning that hospital beds and medical care are already in slightly high demand, and now this rapidly spreading SARS-CoV-2 comes along and we don't have a vaccine to slow it down. That means that our system is going to be quickly over-burdened. A lot of health care workers who would otherwise be required to have flu vaccines and thus able to remain healthy at peak times are going to be falling ill with the very rapidly-spreading illness that they will have a great additional burden to try to treat. So you have a virus that spreads quickly due to a lack of vaccines coupled with a higher death rate. It means many more people have become and will become sick in a much shorter span of time vs the flu, a greater proportion of those people (10x?) will die than if this were the flu, and our health care system is not prepared to take this on. Oh yeah, and this is happening during flu season, so it's in addition to the yearly flu.

If you're looking just at symptoms, yeah, this looks a lot like the flu. But the devil is in the details, and the details are telling us this is not the flu and we can't just blow it off. Fear and panic won't help with this pandemic, but at the same time, failing to take this SARS-CoV-2 seriously is equally dangerous. Our society seems to have two modes as of late, On and Off, 0% or 100%. Both those responses are unhelpful right now. And if you're not an older adult with health issues and thus not in the highest risk group, you're still going to come into contact with other people, so don't take unnecessary risks, for others if not for yourself.

The only real effect here has been people toilet paper hoarding. It's unfortunate because I have a medical condition that means I go through a lot of toiler paper but I'm good for a while, I just hope either people stop being so crazy about it soon or stores start to impose limits. There hasn't really been any noticeable run on food.

I am a little sad about the effect it's had on the sports world, and all other public events, but I'll get over it.

Three "official" cases in Maine.

I haven't been employed for some time, so no changes there. I expect school cancellations to come very soon. Annoyingly, my daughters are in separate schools (and districts), so they might not be on the same page. Whatever the case, if my oldest has her school cancelled I'll simply pull out my youngest. I anticipate their sports will be cancelled soon too.

My wife is a doctor at a local hospital (outpatient care, thankfully), which seems to be taking many precautionary measures.

I have lots of extra food in the basement and freezer. I'm not going anywhere except to/from schools, and out to get groceries. Stopped shopping and eating at restaurants some time ago.

Stay safe, people.

You're like the non-prepper prepper.