I want to hear about how you left your mail in the box for several days before you picked it up and stuff like that.
I changed literally nothing other than wearing a mask in public and I never got sick from anything. Not even a seasonal cold.
There was a severe mask shortage where I lived (Netherlands), so any masks, gloves, etc went to the hospitals.
The government also did not advise masking up for that reason, they only recommended staying at home, distancing and sneezing in your elbow. So that is what I did for the first wave of the virus. Stay at home, and when I needed to go out for food I distanced myself as much as possible.
I mostly managed fine. People were pretty good at keeping distance, and I didn’t catch the virus till a year orso into the pandemic.
Though, there is one interaction I recall at the cash register at the Lidl. I am keeping 1.5m distance to the guy in front of me, so I put my items at the end of the conveyor belt. The guy behind me clearly does not appreciate that and stands as close to me as possible. After about a minute orso of him breathing down my neck, I try to politely ask the guy to please keep some distance, after which he threatens to beat my up in the parking lot for even daring to ask that.
I never went back to that supermarket for the rest of the pandemic.
Edit: There is also an interaction I recall where I was the asshole. During the early days of the pandemic I occasionally went cycling (since outdoors exercise was one of the few activities that was advised)
Two ladies are stopped at a traffic light, with some distance between them. I was just cycling on autopilot, so I stop slightly back from them between them, the way I always would. In hindsight it was obviously too close, but I didn’t register that immediately at the time.
They obviously call me out on that and ask me to please stay back, after which I had to awkwardly reverse and apologize.
Masks, frequent handwashing, hand sanitizer, more distance from people than usual, less frequent grocery shopping, stopped going to public places except transportations and hospitals.
I lost my uncle in the early days of Covid, due to hospitals can’t take in any more patients.
Also I fear for the lives of our cats, even though they are all house cats. There were cases pets get killed by fearful residents. I fear the government would cull your pets like they did to the minks.
But on the lucky side, we didn’t find anything lacking in most cases. We already had abundant N90/FFP2 masks and some surgical masks, they were from previous flu seasons and for DIY jobs. We always had a habit of changing clothes once home. Most of the things that were hard to find, we already had spare. Until later there was a food shortage, but that was another story.
I would have masked up, but it wasn’t possible to get masks in the UK. So I caught Covid and Long Covid instead.
PS. Mask up. It’s not gone.
I started hearing about covid on reddit back in December 2019. In another life, I worked at FDA and what I was hearing really scared me: my sister was immunocompromised, and I was terrified she’d contract the virus and die. So when I talk about what I was doing, recognize that we had to be taking extreme precautions, to avoid my sister getting infected by this virus that would kill her and that no one knew how to treat. Because of her health, we absolutely had to be a couple weeks ahead of whatever precautions were being taken by everyone else, and we took extreme precautions during the early months of the pandemic.
In a way being ahead of the curve was nice - everything we needed was easily available. But we were operating ahead of official advice, so we had to figure out our mitigation strategies ourselves. I bought a lot of stuff: N95 and surgical masks, surgical gloves, hand sanitizer, bleach, Lysol wipes, UV-C lights, copper foil, garbage bags, plastic wrap, medication for any ailment I could think of, extra prescription medications in case of supply chain issues, pulse oximeters, blood pressure cuffs, overfilled my pantry with various staples, etc.
You mentioned handling groceries. In the very early days, when they were really worked about fomite transmission, I was the “outside contact” for my sister and a couple other friends with health issues. When someone needed something we didn’t have, I’d collect lists of whatever anyone needed from that store. I’d make two versions of the list: one master list for when I was in the store, and a separate per-person list that was stuck to the refrigerator for later reference.
I’d wear a long-sleeved shirt, long pants, surgical gloves, an N95 mask, then a surgical mask over top of the N95 to help filter out larger particles and extend the life of my N95 masks [more on supplies later]. I’d go to the store, buy whatever we needed, and put it in the trunk of the car: the trunk was the hot zone, where all the non-sterile stuff went. I’d open the car door, use the hand sanitizer to clean the trunk and car door handles and my car keys, then remove my gloves and toss them in a garbage bag the trunk as well. I’d take off my masks and put on a fresh surgical mask.
I’d get home, put on fresh gloves, prop open the doors, disinfect the handles, leave my shoes outside the front door, and bring all the bags into the kitchen; everything got piled into one section I’d taped off on the floor that I called the hot zone. Once everything was inside, I hung the used masks on a pole across the ceiling of the utility room, disinfected the trunk and car door handles again, along with my keys and the steering wheel, and disinfected the knobs on the front door.
I went into the utility room, removed my gloves and scrubbed my hands and forearms like a surgeon. Then I stripped my clothes off directly into the washer, scrubbed my hands again, and disinfected the outside of the washer. At this point, the only contaminated stuff should be the items I’d just bought - and myself. I brushed my teeth, used a disinfectant mouthwash, took a shower and scrubbed thoroughly.
I put on another mask, got dressed into another long-sleeved shirt and surgical gloves, and de-bagged everything I’d bought onto the counter in the hot zone - being very careful not to step onto floor in the taped-off “hot zone”. The empty bags went into the garbage out back, I changed my gloves, the doorknobs were decontaminated, and I mopped the floor with bleach, then removed the gloves and scrubbed my hands again. Now the only potentially contaminated stuff was on the hot zone counter.
I put on fresh gloves, and started disinfecting whatever we’d just bought. If it had a plastic covering, was a jar or can, it got washed with disinfectant. If it was cardboard, it got wiped down or scrubbed with Lysol wipes. Once something was clean, it got moved to the clean zone.
Odd-shaped items were an issue - think things like broccoli. I’d finish the all regular cans and boxes, take off my gloves and shirt, scrub my hands and arms, put on a new long-sleeved shirt and fresh gloves, and bring the odd-shaped items into the UV-C “chamber”. This was a large shelf that I’d lined in all directions with tin foil, with plastic wrap on top of that, that had a UV-C light strung across the top. [I don’t remember the specific technical details, but I remember obsessing and making sure I was buying a light in the correct range to kill viruses and stuff.] [Continued next comment]
I’d put the items in the chamber, turn on the light, and close the lid. After 15 minutes, the side facing the light would be fully decontaminated; I’d take them out, put them clean-side down on a sterile counter, throw out the plastic wrap that was on top of the tin foil, remove my gloves, scrub my hands, put on new gloves, put down fresh plastic, and put the items back in the chamber with a potentially contaminated side up, remove my gloves, close the chamber, set it to run another 15 minutes, scrub my hands, sterilize the counter where I’d put the item(s) down, then scrub my hands again. After doing all “six” sides, I deemed the item(s) sufficiently decontaminated and moved them to a “mostly sterile” section. If you’re keeping track, it took about 2 hours for each set of things to go through UV-C decontamination, so it was slow! Once all the UV-C decontamination was done, I’d wipe down the tin foil with Lysol wipes, let it dry, then put down a fresh layer of plastic wrap, ready for next time.
Once all the items were decontaminated, I’d scrub down the “hot zone” counter. Then I’d scrub my hands again and change my shirt and gloves, put on fresh sneakers, then I’d get out fresh bags and, using the lists on the fridge, re-pack the items per-person.
As mentioned, aside from myself, I was handling buying stuff for my sister and two other friends. I’d pack up everything going to one person and put it in the back seat of my car: the trunk was the “hot zone”; the front seat was the “I’m potentially infected” zone; and the rear seat was the clean zone. Whenever I was in the car, I’d open the front passenger-side window, and the rear driver-side window; this created a natural “wind” barrier between myself and the items in the back seat, to minimize the risk of my accidentally reinfecting the items. I’d also wear a mask and gloves, to be careful; I didn’t want to infect and potentially kill someone I cared about.
I’d go to my friend’s place / my sister’s place and drop everything off six feet from their front door, and stand back while they brought everything inside.
Then I’d go home, disinfect car doors, keys and doorknobs, leave my shoes outside, strip off my clothes directly into the washer, scrub my hands, start the laundry, take a shower, put on fresh clothesc and yet another pair of shoes, and drop off stuff to the second person. Then home again, more disinfecting, another change of clothes and shoes, another shower, and the final drop-off. Then home, * more* disinfecting, another change of clothes, and another shower.
Honestly? It was fucking exhausting. I was so glad when they decided fomite transmission wasn’t the big risk they’d thought it was!
Damn! Not OP but thanks for taking the time to bang all that out. That DOES sound exhausting! As the only person in my community still masking today, thanks for going to those efforts to keep your friends and loved ones safe. You rock!
What I always do, avoid society.
Masked up.
Isolating with my wife.
After grocery shopping, I would change clothes in my detached garage and wait 30 minutes before going in the house. Since the grocery store was 30 minutes away I would piss in a bucket in the garage.
Wow and here I was thinking I was being thorough by cleaning my phone with lysol wipes when I got home
You know its kinda funny. Im a masker but during the pandemic I was amazed at things people seemed to do or say they do. On the one side you had neighbors using their dog to trades stuff and its like. Um a big warm biologically active surface. Not the smartest. Then like people don’t seem to understand distancing and masking in terms of math. Outdoor is different than indoor and ventilation matters. I had some people saying they did not go outside during lockdowns (not lockdowns like someone actively had it in the household but city wide ones). Its like you can go outside just don’t get within ten feet. That being said really early on when we did not know shit my wife would spray down deliveries with lysol and only opened them to check what they had but left them be until needed rather than putting them on shelves and such.
A guy came into the clinic I work in wearing a spray paint respirator mask with a beekeeper’s veil overtop, and with dishwashing gloves that he had pulled ordinary latex gloves over. It was wild.
A spray paint respirator might work better than an N95. My paint mask is a P100.
Stay at home… easy to do since I was like 17.
I don’t even touch the mail, literally just hid in a room xD
Then I got suicidal and got a bit carless about covid since I really feel like dying… so I got covid… and I thought my mom would care about me… but then she blamed me for “infecting the family” 🫠 Average Asian parenting… It’s fine, I got used to it…
Probably the final thing that triggered the start of my depression.
Thanks, CCP.
That shit caused so much Anti Asian hatecrimes…
I basically just browse the internet all day…
The only reason I even got infected is because mom wanted me to work for two months in summer 2021 before school started, this time in person, again, so I got infected at work…
so yea, my entire family had to stay home and quarrantine because of covid
My my mom blames me for getting infected because she wanted me to work a job during covid… how does that make sense?
But I didn’t die, that’s the closest to a “suicide attempt” I’ve tried, don’t have the balls to actually jump from a bridge lol
I hope you’re doing better now.
Older, more responsibilities…
Is that “better”?
My parents really make me wanna hate my own race sometimes
I have a negative association with Cantinese because of all the truama…
I’m not sure I even wanna teach my future children my language, I kinda just wanna forget it.
This way I create more “distance” between us, so my mom cannot go to my kids and try to manipulate them because of language barrier that will make it harder.
Idk I’m just thinking out loud
I was aware of COVID-19 since November 2019. As a comparison, the first MSM news in this regard appeared somewhere around January. I got to know about it beforehand thanks to… well, sources.
For context, I was, at the time, residing in a hostel-like shelter. And I’m Brazilian. Brazil has this nationwide event, Carnaval, something I dislike because I always got a repulsion when it comes to overly crowded places and parties, two known traits of carnivals, meaning that a pandemic would just make things worse. So I tried to warn my neighbors and everyone around me. While they didn’t call me crazy, at least not explicitly/directly, they dismissed my warnings with the typically Brazilian way of thinking: “relaxa, Deus é brasileiro” (“calm down, God is Brazilian”). During the carnival days, I was the only weirdo to stay in the shelter: literally everyone else went “partying”.
The… sources… I used to follow, started telling about the likelihood of a full lockdown quarantine (even before WHO announced the pandemic), and how that could mean closed grocery stores, food out of stock or extremely rationed. This, alongside having watched all those (fake) videos where someone was puking red liquid inside a train (allegedly because of COVID-19), made me full panicked at the time so I began stockpiling rice, beans, noodles, sugar, salt, mineral water, all inside a wardrobe in my bedroom (the house was shared among the co-living, except for the bedrooms, which were individual). I’m extremely slim and I don’t eat much, so this means my stockpiling wasn’t just for me: I was thinking about my dismissive neighbors too, I was stocking food for them, should they need it.
Meanwhile, Brazilian MSM was only telling us about “suspected cases” before announcing the first Brazilian confirmed case conveniently during the last carnival night. Days later, March 11th (oh, how can’t I get to forget this hauntingly specific number… 11.3 33), WHO announced the pandemic.
What happened after that, especially after the first lockdown mandates, was quite curious: I began calming down (bc, well, it happened, it finally arrived as I was told, there was nothing I could do, so, whatever) while all my neighbors went full panicked. I remember seeing 'em rushing back from work, visibly scared, to prepare their laptops for WFH, while I was calmly doing remote DevOps job the way I was used to years prior to the pandemic. As someone who’s used to indoors since I was born, I tried to counsel and help them, talk with them, handing 'em food and water, etc. But they went so, SO panicked, that I once witnessed, hearing from afar from inside my bedroom, what almost became a murder case inside the house during a fight between them bc of their disagreements on whether they should stay home alongside some tantrum involving romantic jealousy.
Six years later, I still remember these days so clearly… Can’t get to forget it or let it go: it was never gone.
Oh, I also used to be in the last semester of a compsci degree back then. I couldn’t help but to continue attending the classes, so I rushed to purchase PFF2 face masks the very next day after the carnival ended. Prices went through the roof because, seemingly, many people were trying to do the same, purchasing masks like it was the end of the world (and it turns out, it really was, this world was never the same again), alongside the low stock (because masks were already demanded worldwide). I managed to purchase a pack of seven masks that was returned from someone who decided to give up on their trip to Italy on that exact Monday, and I used it to go to the university. I was the only one wearing a mask across the entire university. Colleagues pejoratively nicknamed me “coroninha” (“lil corona(virus)”) and I didn’t care. A few weeks later, the uni temporarily shut down classes.
Only shopped for groceries every 2 weeks.
Only left the house at all once every 2 weeks.
Didn’t see anyone at all for 3 months straight, and even then it was only twice between March, and July of 2020.
I still don’t think I’ve fully recovered from that tbh.
I was considered an essential worker, and so I toddled off to work every day as usual. I remember while my spouse was driving me in how eerie it seemed with how quiet the city was, and seeing 68 cents per liter gasoline prices was such a shock. The quiet was what really got to me.
I was, too, they just sent us to work from home. I had some contact with coworkers, but not very much, and it was on a recorded phone line where professionalism was expected, and an average handle time was enforced, so not like you could have any real conversations
Wore kf94 masks every time we went out, and it wasn’t often at the height of the pandemic. Always carried hand sanitizer and applied it after we touched anything (i.e. door handles). Wiped down groceries with isopropyl alcohol wipes (we still do today). Fruits and vegetables were submerged in water with vinegar for 10 mins before going to the fridge. Avoided standing downwind from other people.
Washed my pets paws with water and soap after coming from a walk for a few months. Washed ny hands everytime i got home, something i only do now before a meal.
In the very first days, that is, when I had read about that virus that appeared in China and threatened to infect and kill many in the whole world, I had to make a decision:
Should I fear for my life?
It took me a few days, and I decided against it.
Later I did not do so many of the crazy things other people did out of fear. I did what seemed reasonable, like some distancing, wearing masks, washing hands…
