Coronavirus - worldwide spread and control

[Hoopoe]

Can your neighbours get tested, @strategist?

The instructions are to not contact doctors until there is fever and breathing problems. Which there aren't. So it could just be a normal flu, or maybe in the future we're going to discover that this new virus will often just cause these mild symptoms.

 

[Jonathan Edwards]

Between uses, something like this needs to be stored in an outside shed, and nowhere near any heat source, and don't use your meths soaked rag anywhere near a heat source.

I agree you want to keep alcohols (probably any of them including 70% isopropyl ) away from naked flames but you don't need to keep meths in a shed. For thirty years as a rheumatologist I always had a 250ml bottle of meths (the colourless hospital sort) in my clinic room and liberally splashed it on people I was intending to give injections. Lighting a small cloth soaked in meths gives a pop and a blue flame but it is not quite like a Molotov cocktail! More like lighting a Christmas pudding, which is after all with much the same stuff.

 

[Trish]

I take your point, @Jonathan Edwards, but I'm not sure about recommending its use in the home, especially for ME sufferers who may not be steady on their feet and have a tendency to spill and drop things.

 

[Invisible Woman]

Yes, I understand this as I have also bought extra. But what I'm seeing on t.v is that people are hoarding tons, and I mean loads in 2-3 carts at the check out. It's become a bit of a panic.

Yep. There's a huge Tesco up the road from my brother's. He went to get his shopping yesterday and said there was absolutely no pasta left and almost no loo roll, though he saw a few people's trolley with umpteen rolls.

So he reckoned he might as well join in the panic buying and filled his trolley with beer. Any excuse!

I suspect he's making a dent in his stock watching the rugby this afternoon.

 

[Mij]

 

[Wonko]

Surely 3-4 days after the food runs out people will have little need for toilet paper?

 

[Invisible Woman]

Surely 3-4 days after the food runs out people will have little need for toilet paper?

unless they eat it?

 

[hinterland]

Zoonotic I think is the word you mean.

My Google-fu must be strong today, as I managed to find the opposite term: anthroponotic.

We need to start rustling up something between ourselves soon, to get them bats back!

 

[Mij]

Some found use for the Daily Mail

 

[AliceLily]

the very last thing we would want to run out of would be loo rolls.

Haha, no one wants to run out of toilet paper. We bought 2 packs of 16. Also about 4 packs of tissue paper and 2 double packs of paper towels in case we are unwell and need to isolate. I just need to get some cough mixture in case we get the lung symptoms of Covid 19

I'm just going to use bleach, janola for wiping things down. Sharing a laundry with other tenants is going to a problem. I should be wiping things down in there now.

 

[Barry]

Surely 3-4 days after the food runs out people will have little need for toilet paper?

Lost a good friend and colleague to cancer a while ago now, and there came a point where he was not eating anything, yet he was still going to the loo. His specialist explained that a significant component of poo is your own discarded body cells - part of the natural process. In his case of course he just lost lots of body mass because he could not replace it.

 

[Barry]

I take your point, @Jonathan Edwards, but I'm not sure about recommending its use in the home, especially for ME sufferers who may not be steady on their feet and have a tendency to spill and drop things.

Yes, it's if the lighted cloth is in proximity to a larger source of meths giving off fumes.

 

[Webdog]

Stanford University has canceled in-person classes for at least the next two weeks, as well as large group events.

https://healthalerts.stanford.edu/

 

[ladycatlover]

Researching this further, it seems if you want something stronger, cleaning products containing diluted bleach are recommended.

For the USA:
https://edition.cnn.com/2020/03/05/health/epa-disinfectants-coronavirus-trnd/index.html

For the UK:
https://www.thesun.co.uk/fabulous/11112200/coronavirus-beat-using-bleach-cheap-tesco/

Sorry @Trish, but you quoted The Sun. Nobody who lives in Liverpool will hit that link. Our taxis have messages on them to say Do not read The Sun. It's a Murdoch rag, but given how The Sun has treated Liverpool nobody from Liverpool will touch the bastewards with a barge pole. Any "information" they give is likely to be rubbish anyway.

 

[Trish]

Sorry @Trish, but you quoted The Sun.

Fair point, and I wouldn't normally quote a tabloid as a source of valid info, but I quoted it because it was quoting and expert who sounded like he might actually be an expert. If you can find a better UK link, I'll delete mine!

 

[Evergreen]

Why are people stockpiling tissue paper and water? Last I heard COV19 doesn't cause diarrhea

I hadn't heard diarrhoea mentioned as a symptom either, but this paper mentions

"gastrointestinal symptoms, including nausea, diarrhea, poor appetite, abdominal pain, belching, and emesis"

reported by 39.6% of a sample of 140 patients in Wuhan, China.
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/all.14238

They break it down further in table 2. Looks like 11-15.8% had diarrhoea, depending on whether they were less or more severe cases.

I found this interesting too:

Allergic diseases, asthma, and COPD are not risk factors for SARS‐CoV‐2 infection. Older age, high number of comorbidities, and more prominent laboratory abnormalities were associated with severe patients.

 

[Forbin]

This article has a list of FDA (US Food and Drug Administration) approved disinfectants that kill coronavirus.

The article also links to a pdf of products that "have been pre-approved by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for use against emerging enveloped viral pathogens and can be used during the 2019 novel coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak."

The publishers of that list, The American Chemistry Council's (ACC) Center for Biocide Chemistries (CBC), say that they themselves "cannot make a determination of the effectiveness of a product in fighting pathogens like COVID-19."

This is a direct link to the EPA's list. Somewhat oddly, the cover letter refers to these products as "pesticides," but I think most people would call them "disinfectants."


[ Fun fact: The official name of the disease is "COVID-19," but the official name of the virus is "Novel Coronavirus SARS-CoV-2" or just "SARS-CoV-2" for "severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2." Unofficially, both just seem to go by "COVID-19." ]

 

[shak8]

For women only, if you fear running out of loo tissue : use an od rag to wipe off the few drops of (sterile) urine. Keep it by the toilet and rinse rag every other day in hot water.

This works and isn't gross at all. This can decrease the amount of tissue used by half.

I'm doing it for fun and ecology.

Looking on the bright side: might lose weight during the shelter in place phase.

Might also have to wean from coffee habit (although I hope not).

This is one instance of loving the single life, no other variable (aka partner) to figure into the clean or contaminating equation.

 

[NelliePledge]

If loo paper runs short and you’re using the loo at home one option would be to wash with water and soap use the loo as an improvised bidet keep a plastic bottle by the loo you can fill with water to wash and rinse. You would then just need a small washable towel to dry with. ETA obviously this is easier in a one person household.

 

[NelliePledge]

This article has a list of FDA (US Food and Drug Administration) approved disinfectants that kill coronavirus.

The article also links to a pdf of products that "have been pre-approved by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for use against emerging enveloped viral pathogens and can be used during the 2019 novel coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak."

The publishers of that list, The American Chemistry Council's (ACC) Center for Biocide Chemistries (CBC), say that they themselves "cannot make a determination of the effectiveness of a product in fighting pathogens like COVID-19."

This is a direct link to the EPA's list. Somewhat oddly, the cover letter refers to these products as "pesticides," but I think most people would call them "disinfectants."


[ Fun fact: The official name of the disease is "COVID-19," but the official name of the virus is "Novel Coronavirus SARS-CoV-2" or just "SARS-CoV-2" for "severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2." Unofficially, both just seem to go by "COVID-19." ]

I looked up on Dettol and Zoflora disinfectant websites although they haven’t yet been able to test against the new virus their products are also effective against similar viruses so there’s a good chance they will work. https://www.dettol.co.uk/about-us/understanding-coronavirus/