Essential Service

A few days ago, I attended a video conference with the rest of my organization. I can now breathe a sigh of relief, because Extend-a-Family has, as an organization, been approved as an "essential service".  I have the paycheque to prove it.

It's the beginning of the fiscal year, which means we get our funding renewed, and it's a pretty anxiety-provoking time for that to happen. But we're keeping a flat rate on our funding from last year, which means that, hypothetically, I should be financially secure for a year.

I was pretty sure that "Famiy Home" which concerns itself with housing people, would be fine, because without it, many immunocompromised people would be left without financial support or homeless. In that vein, I felt that some Finance and Information Technology staff, as well as people working in high-end leadership positions would be alright.

But I provide front-line work and one of the organization's first moves was to close us down.

So what kind of "essential service" can I provide?

Looks like some of my work is being reallocated. So for example, Finance is especially busy right now, not just due to the change in work climate, but also because it's the end of our fiscal year. So apparently there's some work that I'm allowed to do surounding that.

Otherwise, we will be providing support to our members who are currently living in isolation by connecting with them socially via phone or video chat, helping them connect with their friends and support remotely, and giving them coping strategies. I think helping our members cope with physical distancing is the core of what we do now that is considered an "essential service".

We also get to make some decisions regarding funding. For example, we just got approved for a furniture grant. It's a really weird time to get that, because we're deciding how to furnish a building that no one is allowed to enter, but there's some discussion surrounding that. There's also some self-development stuff we can do, with recommended literature that is supposed to strengthen our competencies.

I plan on putting in a genuine effort. I wish I had the material here to buid a home office.

It's weird how much there is to talk about this. I haven't even talked about how the rest of the world is adapting, except that it started in China and Italy got hit hard.

The new hotspot is the United States, which has the highest number of cases currently. China, which used to have the highest number, is now number three, and their rate of new cases is really low. They may be on the other side of the curve at this point. It would make sense that they would get there first, since the virus originated there.

India is doing weirdly well. For a long time, China had the most cases, which made sense because they have the largest population, and the United States had the third highest number, which made sense because they have the third largest population. If that logic stands, you would expect India, the country with the second largest population, to have the second highest number of cases.

But number two is Italy. India is #41. They are crushing it, and making us Canadians look bad with our spot at #15.

Russia is also doing suspiciously well at #33. What's the obligation to report numbers? I know that actual numbers for infected cases are much higher, because some people may not be symptomatic, and some people with the infection are not tested because we don't have enough tests or manpower, so the numbers are influenced by how much testing is being done.

There was a cruise ship called the Diamond Princess that got infected and they quarantined the ship for a month. Do you want a ghost ship? Because that is how you get a ghost ship.

There was a game that used to be popular called Pandemic where you built a disease and tried to kill the human population. There was a meme about how difficult it was to get into Madagascar, because of how isolated it is and how quickly they would close their borders.

So I've been keeping an eye on Madagascar, and yeah, it has a few cases. Currently there are no cases in Iceland or our province of Nunavut. Humanity will survive! Because Iceland will repopulate us!

It's gotten into Mali as well, which I'm only talking about because I have a special relationship with that country. Honestly, I'm not too worried about them. Places like Bamako, Dogan, and Timbuktu might get hit, but the bulk of their population is in the form of scattered subsistance villages. I used to joke that Karadje would be the place I'd want to be in the case of World War Three, and the same logic applies here. No real travelling happens and they know how to live off the land. Only the educated Malians knew that World War Two even happened, because the so called "world war" never really reached them. I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of people over there don't even know about what's happening to us.

They have also dealt with pandemics in the past, and say what you will about the country, they champed Ebola. They were right in the belt that got hit the hardest, and not only did they not close their borders, they invited infected people and were imperative in the treatment and control of the illness. Obviously we have no cure for the Coronavirus yet, but at least they have shown as a nation, a strong competency in adapting to international sicknesses.

I got a smart comment on my previous post about my question regarding why liquor stores and hotels are considered "essential services" while vetiranary clinics are shut down. The likely reason is because a lot of medicine and equipment used at vets are transferable to hospital settings. So vets and hospitals are connected under the healthcare umbrella, and if hospitals are so swamped that they can't perform a scheduled prostate surgery on my roommate, there's no way they're going to prioritize animals. So it's uncomfortable, and I'm not commiting to a perspective but I have to respect the reality, and it's actually a pretty logical line of reasoning.

Community centres are now being used as temporary homeless shelters. That is probably very helpful for our homeless community and we should provide more services for them, and I don't mean to be callous, but is that really addressing this specific concern? We're bringing people together in crowds...

I realized that I didn't really explain what a State of Emergency in Waterloo Region means. It just means that they can enact measures further than what has been stated by the Ontario Government. The example they gave was to have bylaw officers patrolling and confronting people who aren't adhering to social distancing, but they haven't gotten that far yet. A logical next step would be to ban all non-essential travel in and out of Waterloo Region, but I'm not sure that they're allowed to do that.

One element that I forgot to speak on, was the forced closure of most religious gatherings due to the "no events of over fifty people" rule. There is such a focus on the right to religious expression in Canada, that telling religious folks that their practice is "non-essential" feels very uncomfortable. Most religious communities have a history of attempted oppression, and it usually doesn't work because people have faith that is stronger than fear to their bodily selves. Also, I'm sure that people now more than ever want to seek spiritual support and connection, looking at the higher urpose of all this, dealing with their fear and grief.

I actually haven't heard much religious drama. Lee-Anne's church already had an online service, and they are continuing their Sunday morning services online while in quarantine.

When I was asking her about it, I really learned about my ignorance to most things in that realm. I was like "Is your religious leader going to have to go on Employment Insurance because his service is considered non essential?"

And she was like "He doesn't get paid by the government Gryphon!"

"But how does he make a living, and how does the church make money for maintenance?"

"Through donations"

"People donate enough money to pay living wages and maintenance fees?!"

"Haven't you heard of the Separation of Church and State?!"

"No"

"Yes you do! You must!"

"No"

State of Emergency

Wow, everybody's doing nothing, and there's so much to say about it!

I keep trying to slip in a non-pandemic update, but things keep evolving so quickly, there's no time for it. As of this posting, this will become the month with the highest number of updates for 2020, that being five.

A couple of days ago, the Province of Ontario declared that they would be ordering the closure of all non-essential businesses. At face value, this is very alarming. What about my life or living style is considered "essential" in the eyes of the government? Is it simply keeping me alive? What about electronics, which keep me connected with my loved ones and allow me to stay informed about the current situation? I have a cat. Is his life considered as essential as mine? What about pet food? How about transit between cities? Am I now locked into KW?

Well, here is a link to the list of "essential services":  https://www.ontario.ca/page/list-essential-workplaces

Us Canadians are pretty generous with the term "essential"

Some takeaways...

Stores that deal with pet food and supplies are still open.... Vetirenary clinics are not. I am fortunate that I have one young, healthy cat. My family in Guelph has two elderly cats. They will probably be fine, but I worry a bit. I've seen some news about vets fighting for the right to be considered an essential service, and distributing equpment to pet owners so that they can provide at-home care.

I feel bad for owners of exotic pets... When you look at categories of pet owners, they are usually separated into "dog", "cat", and "other", and "other" is always represented by a rabbit. What about owners of ferrets, lizards, snakes, birds and fish?

Right here, I want to say, while I'm not personally a dog person... I dont condemn those who are choosing to walk their dogs during this crisis. When you adopt a dog, one of the questions you are supposed to ask yourself is, "can I bring it on a walk every day?". If you can't, that's a huge toll on the dog's health and wellbeing. So do your best to keep your distance, but so long as we continue to house dogs, their well-being is your responsibility. I get it.

The liquor stores are staying open. This is probably the most "what" inducing piece of this list, especially when you consider that in Ontario, we are allowed to sell beer and wine in our grocery stores. The logic I've heard behind this decision is that there are some people who are so addicted to alochol that their withdawal symptoms would cause them to require medical intevention when our hospital staff are already overwhelmed.

I've just got to say... I'm not above this ruling... I will likely choose to take advantage of our right to purchase alcohol... but if I were pressed... I would choose vet clinics to stay open over alcohol stores.

I think what is happening here is, we want to limit how closely people are connecting, but we are kind of walking a tightrope, because when you bother a large number of people a lot, you know what happens? Protesting. And you know what happens at protests? Lots of people crowding together, shouting loudly, spraying Covid-positive spittle everywhere.

Restaurants are staying open, but only for take out. This was already being enacated. Just looking out my living room window, I can see the local pizza joint and shawarma spot are still open. Our pharmacy is still going, as well as our convenience store. Tim Horton's consistently has a line in it's drive thru.

Hotels, motels, and shared rental units are staying open. This one's a bit weird, because we're supposed to not be traveling, and these servicers are for travelers. I have heard this is to help people stranded in Canada. I have also heard that truckers (a very essential service currently) make use of them. But business can't be good at this time.

I wish the government would partner with hotels and motels to temporarily house our homeless population. Where else are you going to find places that are meant to provide shelter to individuals for an impermanent amount of time? It's already happening, as a number of homeless shelters have made deals with hotels to temporarily house people when other resources are at capacity. Right now, homeless who are not able to socially distance are creating danger for us, and there is definitely a dip in people renting rooms. I know that many homeless will choose to wander from their rooms, but many would capitalize on the securioty of staying inside.

It gets a bit weirder though... While Canada and Ontario haven't declared a State of Emergency, Waterloo Region has, as well as many. other local regions

This has been a trend for many nearby areas. It means they can enact additional stipulations. Guelph (where my mom and brother live) had been doing okay, but now, the city has three cases

Pandemic Phrase Guide

It's March 23rd and there's snow on the ground... People stayed inside for a week and it fixed global warming.

I should mention that the most relevant people in my life who are inside the vulnerable age group (Covid 19 is much more deadly to people 65 years and older) are all in fairly safe areas. I won't go into too much detail, but one set of grandparents is in a community that has taken all the correct measure to protect their residents and the other set lives in a very remote location.

This pandemic has popularized a few new phrases. Let's go over our new lingo:

Social Distancing: This means reducing the amount of time you spend outside, not attending social gatherings, and being two metres away from other people whenever you can. Not directly related to the phrase, but I think people would also think of washing their hands frequently and not touching your face when going outside when they hear this term.

The media is really trying to make this phrase sound cool, promoting #socialdistancing.

My executive director sent an email saying that he doesn't like this phrase, and would prefer the term "physical distancing" while practicing social connectedness, which can be safely done by phone, text, email, or video chat. It's true, I've been more aggressively social during the time that I've been physically distancing.

Social distancing is a very frightening term for us social workers.  I mean, it literally means distancing yourself from everything I do. These policies have in fact, put me out of work during the pandemic. I really hope that after this is over with, people remember that social distancing is only good during a pandemic. I don't want people to think it's good general practice, and to keep isolating themselves because the world is dangerous and germy even after we're through all this.

Self-Quarantine: This just means staying at home. A quarantine is when you block off a person or people's access to the outside world because they have an infection and you don't want them infecting others. A self-quarantine is when you do that to yourself. Doctors have been prescribing "self-quarantines" to people with Covid-19 who don't have severe symptoms, aren't in the vulnerable age category, and aren't immunocompromised (The term "immunocompromised" has also spiked in usage recently, it just means someone whose immune system can't safely fight off the symptoms). The reason people have to self-quarantine is because we don't have the resources to clinically quarantine everyone who shows symptoms.

Because you can be contagious for up to 14 days before developing symptoms, everyone is encouraged to self-quarantine if they can. Especially so if you have recently traveled or have been in the presence of a traveler.

Staying away from people because you're sick and you don't want to infect people is pretty common sense, but I never heard the phrase "self-quarantine" before all this blew up.

Flatten the Curve: If you look at one of those graphs with an X and a Y axis, one representing the passage of time, and one representing the number of infected cases, right now it looks like a giant curved line, because people keep getting infected at a frightening rate. By slowing the rate of infection, we can make that curve flatten over time.

It sucks because the intended outcome is to have us hiding in our homes for longer than if we all just got it over with, but if everyone is sick at once, society will shut down. And even if the virus isn't deadly to most people, society shutting down is deadly to everyone.

Here's an article that explains the concept better: https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2020/world/corona-simulator/

Zoologic Spillover: This phrase isn't as popular yet, but I think it's rising. Apparently, they've found something very similar to Covid-19 in bats that live in Wuhan Province, China, where this virus originated. So the idea is that somehow, a person contracted it from a bat, and that's how things got started.

It isn't deadly to a bat, because they raise their body temperature as a way of burning energy. Being a flying mamal takes an immense amount of energy, so their body is built to handle those spikes in temperature. But for humans, we raise our body temperature to fight off infection, and so we are just much less suited to the symptoms.

That might not be entirely scientifically accurate, but I think the takeaway is that humans got it from bats, and it doesn't usually hurt a bat, and it usually does hurt a human.

A species contracting a condition from another species is called zoologic spillover. The article I read really emphasized that this is less the fault of the bats, and more the fault of humans. It's still thought that the virus originated in a Wuhan wet market ("wet market" is another phrase that's being used more, it means a market where both livestalk and freshly slaughtered meat are present). I don't think they've pinpointed exactly how the bat virus spilled into humans, but the idea is that these wet markets contained a ton of animals in varying conditions that wouldn't normally interact, and bringing them all together like that is a recipe for disaster.

Apparently viruses spread through zoologic spillover isn't all that uncommon, but in the past, the virus would sort of naturally be contained within the community it originated in. But nowadays, humans just move around a ton, and this has led the infection to spread over the globe.

Hoarders and Panic Buying: Society has had a bit of an obsession with hoarders for a while, but up until now it's meant people with a living style of collecting items to an unhealthy extent, and being unable to part with their possessions because of a psychological condition. The Pandemic Hoarder is someone who hoards food and living supplies, usually because of panic buying. This is frowned on and stigmatized because when people do this, it means that other people aren't able to access those supplies. People who aren't capable of buying in bulk because of finances or transportation limits are often the same people who are more vulnerable to the infection, those being the elderly and the immunocompromised, so hoarders are seen as selfish people who prioritize their own well being over others. The phenomenon of panic buying is the reason that there are so many grocery limits put in  place at the time.

We had an influx of panic buying when the government told us to get two weeks of supplies and hide indoors. I've heard that the issue of hoarders and panic buying is overplayed, and that our grocery stores were simply not built to handle the goverment's request. Think about it, if the average person purchases a week's worth of supplies at a time, the store is going to stock for that level of demand. If all of a sudden, a week's worth of customers all appear in the store at once, and they all want to buy twice as much stuff, the store is going to be overwhelmed regardless of the presence of hoarders or panic buyers.

This makes sense, but I do believe there is some panic buying going around. A friend of mine had a package of toilet paper ripped out of his hands while he was shopping. The fact that certain items get attacked en mass also reflects panic buying.

This is a little personal, but sometimes I feel like the general population sort of shares a wavelength that I'm just not on, and that seems true now more than ever. I feel like everyone collectively thought "toilet paper" while I was thinking "beans and rice" and then a bit later, everyone thought "ground beef" while I thought "apples, onions, salt".

It probably wasn't ideal that everyone mobbed the grocery stores right when events of over 50 people were canceled and we were told to stay two metres away from people.

There have been some instances of people panic buying toilet paper and then selling it at an increased price. Vultures of the apocalypse.

Anyway, that's the end of my phrase guide. Probably none of my six readers needed it, since you can't get away from it nowadays.

One element of this event that I haven't really touched on here, is how this will effect the economy. I won't say it's the most frightening aspect of social distancing and self-quarantining, because if it was we wouldn't be doing it, but if our population's health and safety is our chief concern, our economy is probably the runner-up.

I'm not an economist, but recently a lot of people stopped making money, and a lot of people started spending a lot of money in very different ways than they normally would. It doesn't take much imagination to say that will have some kind of effect.

Record number of people have applied for Employment Insurance.

Something weird that everyone has noticed but nobody I've talked to seems to understand the reason for is, gas prices have dropped immensely. Is it just because of lower demand because less people are on the road?

Apparently major airlines are predicted to go bankrupt within a matter of weeks with the borders closed. I wouldn't be surprised if one of the major takeaways from this is a great reduction in international travel. Between commercial flying companies going bust and a general fear of international viruses, I could see tourism dropping and international flights being far more government controlled.

This could lead to a large decrease in fossil fuel emissions, which would at least be a silver lining. I was joking a bit about global warming ending because everyone stayed inside for a week, but it is true that this could lead to some environmental benefits.

A definite benefit of the pandemic is that my rate of blog updates has increased. I'm going at a pace to surpass my New Year Resolution of a minimum 40 updates for 2020. Lee-Anne pointed out that it is kind of cool that I'm keeping a record of events during a historic event, and that it's something I will likely reflect on in the future. Assuming we get to keep the Internet after this.

Apocalypse Dining

So, since I last updated, the Canadian border has been closed to everything except non-essential travel, including visitors from the US and Mexico. This is a historic move.

Playgrounds have been "closed" in KW, which I kind of understand.  You close schools because children are existing in close proximity to each other and can't be relied on to be cleanly, and then in their new-found free time, you take them to a place where they interact in close proximity with even fewer guidelines?

I do kind of find it funny when a place with no barriers or security calls itself "closed". The local walking trail says it is "closed" between 11:00 pm and 6:00 am, but it runs along a residential street, offers no services, employs no security, and states no consequences.  When a location refers to itself as "closed" I just picture something closing or locking something. What's happening with playgrounds now seems more that they are "forbidden" rather than "closed"

My local walking track remains "open", though, so long as I distance myself by two metres from anyone I pass.

Bus fares are free now, and they're only opening the side door unless you need the accessibility ramp. I haven't gone anywhere beyond foot travel in recent times.

This is my fifth day of social distancing. Technically, I should be doing so for another nine days. Last weekend, I heard that my organization was shutting down temporarily. I let it slip that my brother had returned from California, even though he had not had contact with anyone symptomatic. But because he was a traveler, and I was someone who was "in contact with a traveler", even though we never touched, I landed myself in a 14-day self-quarantine.

What is really annoying is that I had scheduled a ten day vacation starting last Friday. I guess it's a mandatory vacation now. But what is really cool is that my work is honouring my paid leave, and is considering all work I do from outside of that as "remote work". Simply put, my financial situation isn't changing right away, despite the apocolypse.

Lee-Anne is sick. She caught it from a 4-year-old in her family during another kid's second birthday. She's got a sore thoat and cough. She maintains it isn't Corona, but it's enough that we can't be together.

My roommate who has a catheter in because of his recent kidney failure, had a surgery booked for the 25th, which has now been canceled until further notice.

In my last post, I described some of my purchasing behaviour as "panic buying". Both "horders" and "panic buyers" have developed a stigma in recent times, and I want to distinguish myself from them.

For example, in my last post, I wrote out a grocery list.

Despite saying I was "panic buying" you might notice I didn't  buy more than two of anything. I don't really consider that panic buying, especially since we were told to stock up for several weeks.

Today I realized that I had everything I needed to make pumpkin tarts except nutmeg (even ground cloves and tart shells) so I adventured out. I made the tarts, but have extra pumpkin puree. I'll probably make pumpkin loaf next.

I'm almost done with my bread, but guess what I do have? I have flour and yeast. That's right, ya boy is going to have fresh baked bread in the apocalypse #katimabread

So far, my dinners have been alternating between fried rice and pasta. The fact that I'm emulating the cooking style of China and Italy, the two locations that have been hit hardest, is not lost on me.

On my trip out today, I managed to score two bags of potatoes, two cans of tuna, two cans of crushed tomatoes, two jugs of vinegar, two boxes of salt, two bags of peanuts, two bags of oats a bag of flour...

Food Basics new restrictions include:

Limit of 1:
-Toilet paper
-Paper towel
-Dish soap
-Tissue
-Each type of cleaning product
-Detergent
-Hand soap
-Water

Limit of 2:
-Milk
-Eggs
-Butter
-Breadbuns
-Pasta
-Each type of canned food
-Oil
-Flour
-Vinegar
-Each type of meat

I have sort of limited myself to two items total, not just per trip.

I still want:
-Sriracha
-Onions
-Sponges
-Rice
-Eggs
-Tofu
-Processed cheese
-Flour
-Apples
-Tart shells

Panic Buying

It's only been a couple of days since my last update, but I already feel like I should apologize for it. The social climate has changed drastically in a very short period of tume, and the dismissive way I talked about Covid-19 now feels inappropriate.

Two days ago, I toured Zehrs and Food Basics in Guelph, not because I needed anything, but just to see the spectacle of people panic buying. Today I went to Food Basics in Kitchener and I felt like I was at risk every moment I was outside.  Me and my mother went for a walk two days ago, just for the joy of being outside, breathing fresh air, getting some light erxercise and enjoying the neighbourhood. Today, that seems like something I wouldn't want to admit.

I don't really know what changed. The symptoms and spread have been fairly consistent, but the response has been frightening. When it was mostly people panic buying, that was easy to dismiss as mob mentality, but a lot of action is being taken from powerful and informed people, suggesting that this thing is a lot more dangerous than it looks on paper. Is there something the public doesn't know?

Canada has closed its borders to everyone except the US and Mexico. Justin Trudeau said ominously "Let me be clear. If you are abroad, it is time for you to come home."

Many non-essential businesses have been shut down in KW, Guelph, and neighbouring cities, such as libraries, stadiums, museums and community centres.

My roommate has been to a Starbucks and a McDonald's in the past few days, and while they will still prepare your order, you are not allowed to sit down or stay in the establishment. My neighbour says Tim Horton's is the same.

And most ominous of all... Pokemon Go cancelled March Community Day! It was going to feature a Pokemon called Abra, but they should have just switched it out for Koffing.

This is a Koffing:

Get it? Because everyone is coughing!

So, I did my panic buying today. I snapped a few photos from my local Food Basics:

Remember how I said that the truly savvy would get rice and beans instead of toilet paper? Well, image three is the rice section. I feel this is fairly representative of the prominent Indian/Nepali population in my neighbourhood. I find it really funny that all the rice is gone except for that one specific brand, which is still fully stocked. I didn't even get any for myself, because I figured there must be a reason that rice afficianados who are in a state of panic still bypass it.

This was a bit disappointing to me, because while I still have three bags of rice, a personal desire of mine has always been to buy one of those giant burlap sacks. I can finally justify it, and they're all gone.

Flour, salt, and Sriracha were also on my shopping list, and I couldn't find them. Oats were also sold out. I checked the snacks and cereal sections, which were generally better stocked, but I believe Mini Wheats and Froot Loops had been panic bought. I guess what's happening is, someone buys something in a large quantity, and then everyone else feels like it's their last opportunity to have it, so they all pile on it.

Harsher purchasing restrictions were put in place since I checked at the Guelph location. The "Two item" restriction for paper products, water, and cleaning products were reduced to one, and there was a new two item restriction placed on pasta and canned goods.

I gotta say, poorly paid retail employees are sort of the frontline workers of this event. They are dealing with a panicked public and are being asked to enforce restrictions that allow everyone, especially those who are most vulnerable, to be able to access vital living supplies. I saw a young woman stare down a panicked man, and make him accept that he wasn't allowed to purchase most of the canned goods he was trying to buy.

I'm not joking about this. Some of them may be doing a better job of it than others, but retail workers are suddenly tasked with a very difficult and impactful duty, which they are not trained to handle. They are putting in long hours, risking contamination while many of the people they serve are being asked to hide. What many of them have been stepping up to do deserves respect and recognition.

Anyway, despite the the purchase restrictions and everything that was out of stock, I still managed to fill my bundle buggy and backpack. Want to know what I got?

-Eight kg of cat food (Selection brand.... I'm sorry Kieran, it's the apocolypse!)
-18 kg of kitty litter
-Four tubes of ground turkey
-Two jars of mayo
-Two jars of peanutbutter (wanted to get the club packs of this and mayo, but they didn't have them)
-Two cans of beans (what I used my can quota on...)
-Two bags of pasta (my favourite pasta shapes, rotini and fusilli were out, so I had to get some capelinni nonsense)
-Two jars of pasta sauce
-Two bags of frozen mixed vegetables
-A bottle of honey garlic sauce
-A big bottle of of cooking oil
-A tub of margarine

Cost me $80 on the dollar. No sales at this time. Americans, that might not sound too good, but my Canadian readers know how Canadian prices work, and I don't think I did too bad.

I was decently stocked before my purchases today, so I think I'm ready to self-quarantine. I just really wish I had more Sriracha.

On another note, happy St Patrick's Day! What an unfortunate time to have it! Stay at home and drink by yourself, please!

Coronavirus Covid 19

As you've likely heard, we're being hit by a pandemic as defined by the World Health Organization. It's a Coronavirus by the name of Covid 19. Symptoms include feverishness, coughing, sore thoat, and runny nose. It started in China from, if my understanding is correct, poor food handling (specifically markets where livestock and freshly slaughtered meat are both managed). It has since branched out to most of the world. Italy and Iran have both been hit pretty hard.

The vast majority of people who develop Covid 19 survive, although it is more deadly to people who are elderly or who have compromised immune systems. As of this posting, there has been 169,149 cases reported worldwide. There have been 6.494 deaths, and 76,618 recoveries. There have been four cases of Covid 19 discovered in Waterloo Region, which is where I live.

(Source: https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/)

Response has been significant. In the city where I live, schools will be closed for an extra two weeks after March Break (which kind of sucks, since there have been so many teacher strikes already this year). My organization plans to stay open, at least for the time being.

People are panic buying large quantities of supplies. I'm in Guelph right now, and both our local Zehrs and Food Basics were run out of toilet paper, water, and cleaning products. They had to put a limit on how much people can buy at a time as supplies come back.

I think it's really funny that the first thing everyone thought of when they decided to self-quarantine was toilet paper. It seems like such a First Worlder, last-minute Apocolypse-prepper thing to think. Like, "I'm going to have to hide from the world while this plague runs rampant. What's the most important thing I need to survive? Toilet paper! Can't have a poopy butt in the apocolypse!"

I hope this isn't TMI, but when I was in Mali, nobody used toilet paper, including me. You know what we did? We kept our fingernails short, we had a little tea pot that we would pour on ourselves while we did our business, we wiped with our left hand and washed thoroughly afterward. If you're expecting you'll have to self-isolate for a prolonged period, don't stock up on toilet peper. Buy a teapot.

I wonder if the bidet market is booming as well.

What should be flying off the shelves is beans and rice. Those are the staple foods of the world. They're a complete protein, they're cheap, and they can be stored for long periods of time. You just need water and a heat source to prep them. Canned goods will also stay good for well over a year.

If you're expecting to be sick, have some canned and dry soups on hand. Easy to prepare and light on the digestive system. This sickness isn't gastrointestinal at all, so I guess that's not too important, but I have heard that loss of apetite is reported by some people, and soup is easy to eat when you don't feel like eating. Chicken noodle and tomato are classic.

I really want to know what scale of disaster people are prepping for. The people buying cleaning products seem to be taking preventative measures. Like, they don't want to get sick, so they're going to keep their environment as clean as possible. The people buying water must be envisioning a world where they can't access tap water. Now that's an actual apocolypse. But if that's what you're expecting, honestly, the water you buy is less important than the containers they come in. You have tap water now, so take advantage of that and store up as much of it as you can while it's still good. C'mon, it's the apocolypse, you don't need bottled water.

I don't mean to sound callous, but is Covid 19 even worth this level of panic? It's symptoms, rate of recovery, and spread all sound kind of like influenza. It's like having a second flu season, but this one is a little weird. It sucks, but doesn't indicate an apocalypse.

That being said, my brother just came back from California, which is a bit of a hotspot for the virus. His work is requiring him to self-quarantine for 14 days, since it can be contagious before it's symptomatic. My mother had to cancel her visit to my granddad on the off chance that she gets it from Duncan and then infects a retirement community.

And even though I'm talking a big game about not being panicked, I am taking simple precautions, such as regularly washing my hands, not making direct contact with doorknobs, not using cash, and avoiding hand shakes and high fives, simply because I do work with a number of people who have compromised immune systems.

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....Actually, scratch what I said about my organization's response. I just got a text saying that my work is shut down until further notice.

Alright. I'm ready to panic. Glad I just wrote out this instructional. Time to invest in beans, rice, canned corn and peas, tomato and chicken noodle soup, and a teapot.