This weekend I ventured out for groceries. I knew I was likely exposing myself, but had little choice in the matter. The shelves were bare of toilet paper, hand soap, dish soap, and llaundry soap. Also bread, rice, hamburger helper, and cat liter. Venturing away from major stores and going to dollar stores yielded everything but soaps and toilet paper. I have the empty shelve photos.
http://instagram.com/p/B9xEny-pO3y/
Local schools are closed. A ton of people have to remain home because of their kids. As a result they are losing their paycheck at a minimum - and I would assume many their jobs. Medical transport companies for the large FL nursing home populations are laying off employees because those people aren't allowed to be transported.
In very short order those who don't have a financial safety net are going to be climbing the walls - and breaking bad.
Wife's county job is not closed, yet. She works in a department that manages paperwork for elderly programs. They are having significant issues. Home health aids and meals-on-wheels delivery services are falling short. Drivers are refusing to go to homes for meals-on-wheels, either fear of exposure or fear of passing the virus. Her job's health clinic is apparently now able to test for COVID19 and is testing 9 people from her building as of today. All of them are displaying fever, cough, and other symptoms. One of them is coughing up blood.
She is doing her best to stay in her office, and wash and sanitize every chance she gets. We are low risk factor for complications (late 20s, healthy, non-smokers) so she is going to stick it out as long as she can until they close. If she doesn't it is unlikely that many of our communities elderly will get the in home care they need to survive from non COVID19 issues. She more or less handles the red-tape bureaucracy required for billing services.
I recently ended my job without another lined up. Unfortunate, but required. My son is home from daycare with pink-eye anyway. I think we're pretty set to weather this thing, but I'm concerned about society at large.
-Cory