I believe lockdown of a city or region is inevitable in the US. The definitions I've seen could include:
All businesses closed other than grocery
All roads closed in and out
All public transit closed
No one enters or leaves without specific approval
What about the grocery deliveries?
The US (and plenty of other places) has settled into a "just-in-time" inventory system that maximizes economic efficiency but leaves us vulnerable to disruption.
The more we can provide for ourselves on a community scale, or regionally, the less we are dependent on outside sources and large-scale disruptions.
This has been part of my worry -- more than one crisis at a time. Accidents, natural disasters, crimes will still occur regardless of the fact that we are "occupied" with this CV situation.
This is a good reason, in my view, to lean toward being overprepared rather than underprepared, and to always be aware of when our choices leave us vulnerable or dependent on things that may not stay reliably safe.
Wash your hands to your favorite song
With people focusing on better hand-washing technique, the guidance is to sing "Happy Birthday" twice to ensure a good, thorough cleaning.
But that song gets old. So an enterprising developer created
WashYourLyrics.com, which will put the words to your favorite song to proper hand-washing routine.
Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody" works particularly well.
Coronavirus updates live: U.S., Europe brace for infection spread as Italy begins lockdown
Thank you so much! I was becoming really annoyed with the all-day-long Happy Birthday earworm that was resulting from just one conscious handwashing session.
I like the appropriate nature of these lyrics as well.
Concerning preparedness, I’ve been wondering about these
5 gallon jugs of water I have stored for several years now. Was concerned if it could have somehow gone bad.
According to the information in the link, it will be fine. Has anyone here had any experience with drinking bottled water that is several years old ?
Does bottled water go bad?
I've always heard that once open, even if not directly contaminated by someone drinking from the bottle, water should be consumed within six months. If it's been longer, use it for flushing the toilet or watering plants instead.
(Boiling would probably make it safe to drink but I'm not an informed source on that).
If you are storing factory-sealed jugs of water for long periods ie earthquake prep, it's probably a good idea to use/replace that water, perhaps annually. Or least on some kind of schedule. Considering how cheap water is and how many varied uses it can be put to, that seems like a prudent idea to me.