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Empty freezers. Cleaned out shelves. Aisles totally empty, as if it were a going out of business sale. The chicken thighs, the frozen broccoli, the toilet paper are all feared missing. It’s slim pickings these days at supermarkets and convenience stores across the region as people are jamming into aisles to stock up on food, household goods, and cleaning supplies amid rising concerns they’ll be forced to self-quarantine for an extended period of time. As cases of the coronavirus continue to spread, industry experts promise that the virus won’t lead to a break in the food supply chain -- but...

I am in Cary, North Carolina. Here is what I just saw.Just came back from the Harris Teeter off of270 Grande Heights DrHarrison Pointe Shopping CenterCary, NC 27513This store is normally well stocked, and you never have trouble finding anything. This morning it was about 65% full. Cleaning supplies, TP, meat, milk and bread were all very low or gone. The body washes were low. There were lots of empty shelves.I was listening to the the employee at the cash register. She said there were a lot of people coming into the store and buying anywhere from $600 to $800...

Suburban Harrisburg, PA - March 14, 2020 I was somewhat dreading the weekly shopping trip due to all the news stories about shortages and hoarding. On the other hand I was curious to see what it was like. I wanted some fresh vegetables, meat and fish, so off I went shopping. Traffic was unusually light for a Saturday morning. I was thinking shopping might not be too bad. However, as I turned into the local supermarket (Karns, for folks in South Central PA) the parking lot was jammed packed. Actually, that's not too unusual for a weekend shopping trip.I get...

Do you have your "bug-out bag" (BOB) ready for when the "s*** hits the fan" (SHTF), or will you "bug in" for "the end of the world as we know it" (TEOTWAWKI)? This jargon is well understood within niche "prepper" communities, whose members spend their lives preparing for impending Armageddon -- natural disasters, pandemics or financial collapse. And the ideas that drive this culture are becoming increasingly mainstream as coronavirus panic sees people across the world stockpiling rations, sourcing gas masks and self-isolating at home. Now, "civilians" are turning to expert preppers in droves for help in getting ready for...

People who have underlying health conditions such as heart disease, kidney disease, or diabetes—particularly those who are elderly—should be cautious .....“It is a good time for any American who is elderly, by however they define it, and has a serious underlying health condition to think carefully about travel,”... If you’re a person who is in that category: think twice, even before you get on a plane for a long trip, or you want to travel, or you want to go to a place that’s crowded where there may be people who are in fact, have an infection of any sort—that...

US hospitals are preparing for 96 million coronavirus infections and nearly half a million deaths from the outbreak, leaked documents have revealed. The spread of the deadly disease could be far worse than officials claim, with 480,000 Americans expected to die from the virus and 4.8 million hospitalized, according to a presentation hosted by The American Hospital Association (AHA) in February. This puts the crisis on a level more than 10 times greater than that seen in a severe flu season. The shock figures fly in the face of claims made by President Trump who has maintained on many occasions...

I think that we should have one thread where everybody on Free Republic Can list their concerns about the Coronavirus. It’s simply becoming too time consuming to keep up with all the different Coronavirus concern threads that keep popping up every few minutes. This way, we can all be on the record on one thread with our concerns about the Coronavirus.

Don't watch this or read further if you're panicking about Coronavirus. This is a youtube blogger, that breaks down a lot of the news and the numbers on worldometers. Highlights: He and others are being censured. Goes through Worldometers but has good insights on things that don't look right. Thailand - showed a graph yesterday that looks like Thailand has a problem with "viral pneumonia". Washington State - already talking about triage-ing care and won't be testing all cases. Implies resources aren't available. UK only has 28 beds for most severe respiratory distress patients. Only 15 are available. (ECMO's available)....

Coronavirus panic has anxious New Yorkers swarming drugstores and supermarkets for germ-killers. And with public-health specialists stressing the importance of keeping your hands clean during a viral outbreak, hand soaps and sanitizers are flying off the shelves. SNIP “From what we know about this coronavirus, it’s similar to [previous epidemics of] SARS [severe acute respiratory syndrome] and MERS [Middle East respiratory syndrome], so it should not be that difficult of a microorganism to kill,” Dr. Nahid Bhadelia, medical director of the special pathogens unit at Boston Medical Center, tells The Post. “Soap and water, and alcohol-based hand sanitizers, can kill...

The U.S. government is taking wise measures to reduce the spread of the coronavirus. But, as the saying goes, we should pray like it all depends on God and prepare like it all depends on us. When I was in school studying infectious disease epidemiology, none of the cool kids worked on flu. We all wanted to chase Ebola, HIV/AIDS, drug-resistant tuberculosis, malaria, and other exotic killer bugs.Everyday, ho-hum killers like influenza, pneumonia, and other respiratory illnesses were just too mundane for globetrotting adventurers like us. Who wants to spend her life hand-sanitizing and finger-wagging about vaccines when you could...

As an outbreak of a new coronavirus causes some U.S. customers to fill up shopping carts and thin out store shelves, industry groups and experts say grocers can tamp down on “panic buying” by planning ahead and trying to stay stocked. Grocery stores, including Costco stores, have seen a spike in sales of household items like hand sanitizer, face masks and cases of bottled water in recent weeks. Sales of shelf-stable grocery items, including fruit snacks, dried beans and pretzels, are on the rise, too, according to late-February data from Nielsen. At U.S. stores, sales of fruit snacks were up...

I’m phlegmatic by nature. It gives me an edge up when mass hysteria seems to take up so much space in the news and the pronouncements of Democratic leaders. Looking at the best information available to me, I find it beyond question that the President has taken the right steps to deal with this variant flu; that few people in this country will perish from it; that while there may be some economic consequences of the supply disruption from China, the fact that we’ve been decoupling ourselves from China under this administration means they are likely to be smaller and...

Anxious shoppers have descended on California supermarkets, stocking up on supplies as Coronavirus panic grips the West Coast. The state has become a Cornoavirus hot spot, with more than half a dozen residents diagnosed with the disease in recent days. Late this week, two Northern California residents were revealed to be confirmed cases despite having no known contact with anyone else who was infected. State officials say they are bracing for similar cases of people contracting the disease from an 'unknown origin' and nervous locals are taking no chances.

Supermarket shelves are starting to be stripped bare as Americans prepare for the spread of coronavirus by stockpiling on medications and non-perishable items across the country. People have been panic buying items from stores ever since health authorities warned that Americans should start preparing for domestic acceleration of the virus, which has infected more than 80,000 people worldwide and killed nearly 3,000. There are now 60 confirmed cases of the coronavirus in the U.S. and the first case where the origin of the disease is unknown was confirmed on Wednesday. Supplies have been flying off the shelves countrywide this week...

President Donald Trump is considering invoking special powers through the 1950 Defense Production Act to ramp up the production of protective masks and clothing because…you guessed it… all that stuff comes from China. The establishment sold us out for money and this is one consequence. Now, Trump has managed to make corporations think about the China supply chain since day one but this emergency reminds us of how far we have yet to go. “Very little of this stuff is apparently made in the United States, so if we’re down to domestic capability to produce, it could get tough,” the...

As the person who posts the daily Live thread on COVIOD-19, I am often pointed at as a ring leader for the "hype" and "hysteria". I don't think its fair, but I get it. I want to make a couple of over arching statements based on my life experience working in hospitals, emergency management and along side municipal and federal emergency preparedness organizations and departments. My work experience in hospital emergency planning and working with local, state, and federal officials provides me with a perspective that is different than most. The planning for these is things is pretty unemotional and...

The U.S. does not have enough facemasks or ventilators stockpiled to deal with threats of coronavirus spreading, Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar told a Senate subcommittee on Tuesday. Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., asked Azar if the U.S. had enough facemasks stockpiled after he said the administration was seeking additional coronavirus funding "to support the acquisition of personal protective equipment, especially masks, into the strategic national stockpile." CORONAVIRUS PROMPTS FDA TO DETAIL SCREENING OF CHINESE-MADE PRODUCTS "Well, of course not, or we wouldn't be asking for a supplemental to seek more money," Azar said.

As global concerns over the coronavirus outbreak grow, the U.S. is taking steps to prepare for the possibility of a pandemic, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Friday. ........... "We are reviewing all of our pandemic preparedness materials and adapting them to COVID-19," Dr. Nancy Messonnier, director of CDC's National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, said Friday during a media briefing ................... "The materials will serve as a blueprint for the community interventions that we will use here in the U.S." ................ "That means ................."making sure health care workers have enough supplies"

Talk of the new coronavirus (COVID-19) is everywhere. Here’s what you should know and do to keep yourself and your loved ones healthy.Know the symptoms The new virus causes respiratory illness in humans, usually 2–14 days after exposure. Illnesses have ranged from mild symptoms to severe, including fever, cough, and shortness of breath. The virus is thought to spread mainly from close contact with an affected person. It spreads in the air, like flu, and through droplets from sneezes and coughs. The droplets can stay suspended in the air and can land on surfaces that are touched by others. Understand...

This study examined homemade masks as an alternative to commercial face masks. Several household materials were evaluated for the capacity to block bacterial and viral aerosols. Twenty-one healthy volunteers made their own face masks from cotton t-shirts; the masks were then tested for fit. The number of microorganisms isolated from coughs of healthy volunteers wearing their homemade mask, a surgical mask, or no mask was compared using several air-sampling techniques. The median-fit factor of the homemade masks was one-half that of the surgical masks. Both masks significantly reduced the number of microorganisms expelled by volunteers, although the surgical mask was...