How Is Covid-19 Impacting Life in Your City?

[austlar1]

I am starting this thread here in City Discussions because I think it would be interesting and informative to learn about the impact of the corona-virus threat on a local level as the disease makes its way across the globe. How are folks reacting on a local level? What is the impact on daily life where you live?

Here in Austin there have been no reported cases yet. Two days ago it was announced that one possible case was being investigated, but there has been media silence since those initial reports.

The big news is that as of today the SXSW tech conferences, film, and music festival is still likely to happen. Major corporate sponsors and participants, including several tech giants, have pulled out, and a petition with over 30,000 signatures has been circulating asking the festival management to cancel the event, which draws in tens of thousands of attendees (overall attendance including music events is in the hundreds of thousands over 10 days) from around the country and the world in a normal year. Several newspapers, including the Houston Chronicle, have also editorialized in favor cancelling. The economic hit to Austin would be huge with a revenue loss of at least a third of a billion dollars estimated. SXSW officials and local politicians are cautiously optimistic and say the show will go on.

Meanwhile, life around here is happening as usual. A few germaphobes (mostly seniors like me) are taking precautions, but most people seem pretty convinced that they won't be impacted. I suspect that is likely to change a bit once we get our first few local cases. I was planning an April trip to NYC. Now I am not so sure that I want to go.

Anyway, hopefully others will jump in and post about what's going on in their neck of the woods as we head into uncharged territory with this scary bug. What are the medical, social, and economic implications in your home town?

[dave8721]

The Ultra electronic music fest was just cancelled.

[park123]

Restaurants in Manhattan are definitely slowing down. It’s not a collapse (yet), but it’s visibly less busy than 2 weeks ago, even though the weather is beautiful now. You hardly see any face masks, but whereas a week ago I would go the whole day without seeing even one mask, or maybe just a few, these last few days I definitely see people wearing masks here and there.

[Obadno]

For now the biggest impacts are in big convention center area

Orlando, Vegas etc. I would guess Seattle is looking pretty dead out there right now as the cases there keep ballooning.

Luckily the spread in the USA is quite limited still but I'd guess it will go up significantly in coming weeks.

Phoenix was one of the first cities to get a case but it was a Chinese national and we dont appear to have gotten any transmissions from him so there was no panic here.

yet.

[hauntedheadnc]

People are buying hand sanitizer and people who aren't buying hand sanitizer are joking about buying hand sanitizer. The director of the county health department, and the food writer for the local newspaper both recommended stocking up on a couple weeks' worth of food, and the paper published a handy guide.

Otherwise, rumors. The hospital is putting new screening procedures in place for all visitors, but rumors were going around yesterday that it had been confirmed there. Because the hospital was recently bought by a for-profit corporation that is busily driving it into the ground, people are genuinely scared to go there for treatment and are talking about going to Greenville, SC for care. The flu is still rampant here, and allergy season is getting ready to explode when the pollen does so I expect a lot more chaos within a month.

But it's fairly calm at the moment.

[iheartthed]

Originally Posted by park123

Restaurants in Manhattan are definitely slowing down. It’s not a collapse (yet), but it’s visibly less busy than 2 weeks ago, even though the weather is beautiful now. You hardly see any face masks, but whereas a week ago I would go the whole day without seeing even one mask, or maybe just a few, these last few days I definitely see people wearing masks here and there.

There aren't any face masks because you can't find them anywhere, lol.

Considering that the CDC has barely tested anyone, I have a feeling we've already been living with this virus in the U.S. for a while. All of these quarantines might be a futile effort.

[JManc]

We had our first case this week but the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo is going on as planned and not sure if less people are going. It usually draws in a couple million people.

[The North One]

SXSW will only go on so they dont have to pay anybody back their money, next to nobody is going to show up though.

Seattle seems like it's being hit hard.

[park123]

Originally Posted by iheartthed

There aren't any face masks because you can't find them anywhere, lol.

Considering that the CDC has barely tested anyone, I have a feeling we've already been living with this virus in the U.S. for a while. All of these quarantines might be a futile effort.

There have been videos of Asians being assaulted or cursed at for wearing masks in NYC, circulating in the various Asian communities here. You actually saw a lot of masks right after that lady in the CDC said we should all panic (this was about 1 week ago? Or maybe 2? I forgot). Then the masks came off. And now you see some people wearing them. Lots of Asian people for example keep masks. If you work in a hospital you can get them too I guess.

[chris08876]

On the transit side for the tristate area, NJ Transit along with MTA and Amtrak lines are encouraging cleaning protocols. Sanitizing the trains, NYC is cleaning the subway. Even buses as well, every 3 days.

[mousquet]

423 cases and 7 deaths here in France so far.

It makes much more noise than it should do all over the place, like some wimps get paranoid out here.
They're talking about canceling any event that would gather over 5k people indoor, things along these lines.

Bon, it's easy to be careless when you're healthy and you know it wouldn't kill you. You'd recover from it if you were healthy anyway.
In most cases, you wouldn't even realize whether you were infected or not. Your antibodies and whole immune system would just do the job for yourself, then you wouldn't even be aware.

That said, we are concerned about elders, 'cause that nasty thing that is likely to have come from a bat in Wuhan, China would likely be to kill a lot of them.
Who the hell eats bats by the way? I'm wondering. Especially when actually cooking it would've most definitely killed the virus messing up the world right now.

The very first person to be infected would have eaten a bat that wasn't even cooked enough!
Good Lord, that's disgusting! It is unbearable just to think about it.

Who wants some uncooked bat for dinner on here? Hey, uncooked bat for sale in my French luxury restaurant! Want some?

[jd3189]

California has a lot of cases, but it’s not affecting my daily activities.

[austin242]

I think you'd have to be irrational to cancel your travel plans because of this virus at the moment. The chances of you contracting it at the moment in the US
(considering 100 cases and the US pop) are 1:3,270,000. Death 1:32,700,000
At least in 2014 the likelihood of dying with HIV was 1:50,000
As well there is a 1:2,672,000 Chance of getting mauled to death by an animal.

[Buckeye Native 001]

Not much here in Flagstaff, AZ. The only thing Ive noticed are the supermarkets and drug stores limiting the purchase of hand sanitizer and masks to five per person.

I flew into Phoenix from Cincinnati on Monday. People in masks walking around both airports. Our flight to Phoenix was only half full.

[sopas ej]

My partner and I were gonna go to the Nowruz (Iranian New Year) Festival at UCLA this coming Sunday, but it was canceled "due to the evolving risk associated with the COVID-19 outbreak." We're so disappointed; it's always a fun event.

[emathias]

I really haven't notice much change in Chicago, and I live and work downtown. A friend of mine is going to New York for the weekend and doesn't seem concerned.

My brother who lives in the suburbs of Seattle, on the other hand, says his office is moving toward fully working from home.

My office has discussed what we'd do if one of us came down with the virus or if the building closed, but it was a pretty basic discussion, not panic-driven, mostly just driven because we're in the financial services industry, so part of our planning has to do with reacting to the market's extreme volatility last week and this.

I have a small supply of masks at home but never wear them. The CEO has had a couple people buy hand sanitize and bring it in. An event our company is hosting in Miami today and tomorrow is going on and I haven't heard of any significant cancellations related to it.

[Handro]

A couple major conventions in Chicago have been cancelled, but day to day life is the same. Lots of people in masks. I'd say it comes up in conversation pretty disproportionatly, too.

it's hard for anything to break out of the 24-hour news cycle these days and really cross into the zeitgeist, so this feels like a bigger deal to a lot of people than it actually is (so far)

[LosAngelesSportsFan]

Originally Posted by austin242

I think you'd have to be irrational to cancel your travel plans because of this virus at the moment. The chances of you contracting it at the moment in the US
(considering 100 cases and the US pop) are 1:3,270,000. Death 1:32,700,000
At least in 2014 the likelihood of dying with HIV was 1:50,000
As well there is a 1:2,672,000 Chance of getting mauled to death by an animal.

You're basing your math on the reported numbers. The actual numbers are many many many times more. No one is being tested.

In LA, you notice things are a bit quieter, more people wearing masks, but life going on. Just got to Vegas and it's the quietest I've seen it in a long time

[Boisebro]

It hasn't had much effect here yet, though I am eating a lot fewer raw bats these days.

[Gantz]

Originally Posted by austin242

I think you'd have to be irrational to cancel your travel plans because of this virus at the moment. The chances of you contracting it at the moment in the US
(considering 100 cases and the US pop) are 1:3,270,000. Death 1:32,700,000
At least in 2014 the likelihood of dying with HIV was 1:50,000
As well there is a 1:2,672,000 Chance of getting mauled to death by an animal.

Well, the number of cases in the US is off by at least a factor of 20 if not more. The reason for the low number is simply because they are not testing, not because people are not getting sick. Even as we speak, there are people currently in hospitals, who exhibit all of the symptoms, who tested negative for flu and strep, and they are STILL not getting tested. This is the case in NYC. The number of deaths is also underestimated, as they just put "cause of death: pneumonia" without testing for covid-19 for 99.99% of cases. For people who can recover on their own, the doctors flat out say it to your face "We have ruled out everything else, I am 99% sure you have it, but we can't test you, so just self-quarantine yourself for a couple of weeks in your own house".
Also, I don't know about you, but if HIV spread via air I'd be freaking out....