I'm taking the coronavirus seriously enough to take steps to prepare and am curious if I'm over-reacting or if I'm on Team Smart. Things I've done so far:

Stocking up on canned goods. In particular large cans of Chef Boyardee ravioli ( an old college favorite), baked beans, soups and canned vegetables. I will start buying water and toilet paper (it'll be worth a fortune in trade) this week. I think that I'm prepared for two weeks if the worst happens. The really worst is if it turns people into zombies but, otoh, what a hoot that would be.

I'm concerned that I don't have enough weaponry. I might be the only person in Arizona that doesn't own a gun. What I do have is 5 large kitchen knives and 2 regular claw hammers and 1 5 lb. sledge. Problem is is that these are close up weapons so I might actually get a shotgun if the news turns really bad.

I know that I am likely taking this too far but maybe not. Is anyone else prepping and, if so, how?

Shotgun still requires being pretty close.

I recommend a bo staff.

I hear that alcohol kills germs, so I'm drinking a lot of beer.

My wife isn't scheduled to go to Asia until April. I guess I'll wait until she's gone and then move out before she gets back.

If you wade through the signal:noise ratio and listen to some smart, sciency people, this is going to be FAR WORSE than people think right now.

I personally wish I had bought some N99 masks for my family already like I wanted to a couple weeks ago, but unfortunately hadn't bought into the pandemic stuff yet. Now I know better and everywhere including Amazon is mostly sold out now.

IMO food stocking is not the big hurdle right now for prepping. The big stuff right now is getting any medication/respirators/isopropylene and other non-food stuff in order.

Very smart people are currently predicting that you need to be ready for a minimum 30 day self-quaratine, and most likely longer. It is not a matter of if it is going to be a problem in the USA#1, it is only when and how bad. Unfortunately I'm seeing a massive shitshow on a global level once the next wave hits. Which is soon.

I thought it was just a flu type of thing, now im getting slightly more concerned. I have a trip to LV in early june.

I am not sure how I can prevent it? I am not around a lot of people to being with

This just sounds exactly like the bird flu panic in the late aughts. Not saying it's impossible that this turn really bad, but I think the panic is way worse than the actual risk.

I am doing what I do anyway.. cleaning my hands obsessively when I am in public, especially in Asia. If you still play poker, you probably should use hand sanitizer after every hand. If anyone the dealer has dealt to was sick, probably safe to assume all the cards he’s dealing are infected.

Since there is always someone sick in a decently sized card room, just assume all the cards are infected and behave accordingly.

I know 27 is screwing around but anyway:

How to prepare for coronavirus in the U.S. (Spoiler: Not sick? No need to wear a mask.)

The CDC agrees, writing on its website: “CDC does not recommend that people who are well wear a facemask to protect themselves from respiratory diseases.”

"Common surgical masks block the droplets coming out of a sick person from getting into the air, but they are not tight enough to prevent what’s already in the air from getting in."

https://www.washingtonpost.com/healt...r-coronavirus/

Trump will straighten this all out at 3:30 pst today.

you guys think its gonna be ok to travel to WSOP in june?

The working number right now is 20x the flu.

Incubation period of ~2 weeks and the fact that both ends of you can infect people around you are also big issues.

Howard,

You need to add paper towels and duct tape to your prepper list.

I've already got plenty of that on hand.

Similar, but I'm widening my range from beer to bourbon just in case this stuff is immune to a particular form of ingested alcohol.

My biggest dilemma: I have a few people who are on my "ruh-roh if I am ever told I have less than six months to live" list. I can't quite decide where along the continuum of exposed --> very ill to pull the trigger, to borrow a metaphor.

FWIW, I work in health policy.

Although Howard / 27o are overstating things, they may not be as far off as you think.

Unless the virus itself changes drastically, this will be exceptionally difficult to contain--largely because it rarely leads to death, you can infect others before you even know you're sick, and it's hard to tell the difference between coronavirus and the common cold / flu.

I would cosign advice to stock up on medicines and canned food / bottled water, just in case.

If this all fizzles out--which it might--well, you've got enough Chef Boyardee / Campbell's / Dinty Moore to last you four or five winters.

But:
- Do you trust this administration to handle this pandemic appropriately?
- Would you rather buy supplies now, or when they start telling people to?

Again: Do you trust this administration -- which, not to put too fine a point on it, had Kudlow out there yesterday saying it's "locked down airtight" in an effort to keep stock market prices up -- to handle this pandemic appropriately?

Lol this administration as if Trump has any degree of control over this

Bat, obviously.

Sure. Just don't play at a table with any asian people at it.

should've kept his money in masks instead of bitcoins

damn

Yah we can't have stuff like that continuing in this thread without bans.

The only question is, are you seeing visions of Mother Abigail or The Dark Man?

VP Pence is on it. We're all good now.

Buying stock in Microsoft @ 155.