Pandemic threat? Anyone else concerned?

From a local sports board...

My local Walmart has set aside 57 parking spots for pickup. They've had black trash bags over the signs for the last couple of weeks. This is in addition to the absurd number of dedicated pickup spots they already have and do not utilize 10% of the time. Are they prepping for another pandemic? Anybody else seeing this? :idk:

Response... "And they would have gotten away with it if it weren’t for you pesky kids." :paranoid: :p
 
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observant1 said:
From a local sports board...

My local Walmart has set aside 57 parking spots for pickup. They've had black trash bags over the signs for the last couple of weeks. This is in addition to the absurd number of dedicated pickup spots they already have and do not utilize 10% of the time. Are they prepping for another pandemic? Anybody else seeing this? :idk:

Response... "And they would have gotten away with it if it weren’t for you pesky kids." :paranoid: :p
Click to expand...
Wow 57? Heck in an adjacent bigger town to ours they probably only have 57 parking spots total, haha, it is a small Walmart. I will say I see these pickup spots at alot of places, other grocery stores for sure.

We did the Walmart pick up once. I will say not having to park with the crazys, go inside, deal with Walwarts (customers), stand in line, deal with the teenager behind the counter was kinda a nice change. Sitting there in our car was nice, they were pretty prompt in bringing our stuff and it was much less time wasted. But we only did this once so don't have alot of experience with this...
 
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I just had chest pain some two weeks and has somewhat subsided - but it coincided with the pollen surge outdoors. I never had allergies before in my life. Maybe its the Earth attacking back to reclaim what was taken by humans.
 
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In about 1991, I was working on a project that had to be finished by a certain date or my company would be subject to completion date penalties. I was working on it on a Saturday, and got a call from my wife saying that she and my son decided to start cleaning our garage and encountered a huge infestation of mice, and could I come home immediately to help. I couldn't. But on Sunday, we attacked it, and there were thousands (no exaggeration) of mice everywhere. We had a lot of carpet, dog food, bedding for pet hamsters, etc., and had created what amounts to a mouse hotel!

Anyhow, we took everything out, and, using a shop vac, cleaned up massive amounts of mouse droppings, urine, debris, and (don't judge me) even used the shop vac to suck up the mice themselves, having to dump the machine several times as it overflowed with live mice. We finally got everything cleaned out, scrubbed, and put what we kept back in place. I set 20 old-school mouse traps that evening, and we caught 20 mice overnight. I reset them and we caught 19 the next night. This pattern repeated until we were catching no more mice.

When we took a pickup load of stuff from the garage to the dump, and shoveled it out into the concrete pit in the building with the baler, mice scattered and ran all around the sides of the concrete baler "pit".

Anyhow, the punchline is that that very evening, the news broke about a couple of people being killed by Hantavirus in the four-corners area of the southwest. The details were gruesome, and the victims were young healthy athletic folks who had been exposed by sweeping in a shed where there were a few mice.

The news went on to tell everyone that you should never sweep, and especially never vacuum areas where mice have been because it will aerosolilze the urine and fecal particles and thus allow you to breath the virus and be exposed.

Naturally, we all assumed we would die.

Nobody got sick. We apparently didn't have infected deer mice in our mouse hotel.

Anyhow, this strain that is now in the news is alleged to be transmissible between humans, but requires "close contact". So I'm not very worried about it spreading the way measles or something like that does.

I guess we'll see what the "authorities" do, and what happens with the virus. I guess it's been around for a long time with no outbreaks. But there's nothing like a cruise ship for keeping people close together and thus make things that normally aren't a problem become a problem.

Moral of the story: When your cat sits next to the door to the garage tilting his head, take it seriously!

We let our big male cat out into the garage any time he wants now. Give 'em hell, Quincy!
 
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The Director of the World Health Organization, Dr. Tedros, says every country in the world is now expected to fall in line with his International Health Regulations because of hantavirus.

He says it is now a moral obligation for nations to submit to and believe in his Global Health Order.

"It's only when we support each other that we can respond more effectively to viruses and outbreaks."

"Countries are expected to cooperate based on International Health Regulations."
----------------------------------------------------

Fuk that bullshit.
 
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Waiting for that hantavirus dance by Cardi B
 
Cases: As of the end of 2023, approximately 890 confirmed cases of hantavirus disease have been reported in the U.S.

Geographic Distribution: Most hantavirus cases are concentrated in the western states. The following table summarizes the states with the highest reported cases:

State Total Cases (1993-2023)
New Mexico 122
Colorado 119
Arizona 86
California 54

Other States: Remaining cases.

Symptoms and Risks: Hantavirus can cause severe respiratory illness. Symptoms of HPS typically appear 1 to 8 weeks after exposure and may include:
  • Fever
  • Muscle aches
  • Fatigue
  • Dizziness
  • Nausea

Prevention Measures: To lower the risk of hantavirus infection, take these precautions:
  • Seal cracks and gaps in your home to prevent rodent entry.
  • Store food in rodent-proof containers.
  • Keep trash in tightly sealed bins.
  • Clean areas where rodents may nest or leave droppings.

Understanding hantavirus and its transmission is essential for prevention and early detection of the disease.


Get your wills up to date.....

:facepalm:
 
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Speaking of cleaning the areas where rodents nest or leave droppings:

Be advised that mice do not have a urinary sphincter. They're basically peeing at all times, and leave it sort of painted all over everywhere they walk. Where I used to work, mice could get in, and it was out in a prairie area. Anyhow, there would be mouse droppings and dried whizz all over my computer keyboard, etc. every day. The little guys can climb a lot better than you might think.

But anyhow, you're never supposed to sweep or vacuum the affected areas. Instead, you're supposed to soak the areas down with a 10% solution of bleach in water, let it sit for a while, then clean that up. And you're supposed to take the dead mice from traps and double bag them in ziplock bags before disposing of them by burying them quite deep. They actually advise that you throw the trap and mouse all away together. Do a web search, and you'll find a lot about it.

The strain that used to normally be around in the US is carried by deer mice. But I have no idea if that's changed. There have been some cases in Wyoming, but not a lot.

And look at the numbers of cases since 1993 listed by Observant1 above: 890 cases total. That's not very many.

This variant that's currently in the news is not the same as what we've had in the US. I won't call it a "new" variant, though. It's supposed to have been in the area where the bird-watchers contracted it for a very long time. And yet, there hasn't been any pandemic.

So far, I'm not all that worried about this.
 
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observant1 said:
The Director of the World Health Organization, Dr. Tedros, says every country in the world is now expected to fall in line with his International Health Regulations because of hantavirus.

He says it is now a moral obligation for nations to submit to and believe in his Global Health Order.

"It's only when we support each other that we can respond more effectively to viruses and outbreaks."

"Countries are expected to cooperate based on International Health Regulations."
----------------------------------------------------

Fuk that bullshit.
Click to expand...
Power, Control, everyone of these mice/rats want it...
 
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J Sigmo said:
Speaking of cleaning the areas where rodents nest or leave droppings:

Be advised that mice do not have a urinary sphincter. They're basically peeing at all times, and leave it sort of painted all over everywhere they walk. Where I used to work, mice could get in, and it was out in a prairie area. Anyhow, there would be mouse droppings and dried whizz all over my computer keyboard, etc. every day. The little guys can climb a lot better than you might think.

But anyhow, you're never supposed to sweep or vacuum the affected areas. Instead, you're supposed to soak the areas down with a 10% solution of bleach in water, let it sit for a while, then clean that up. And you're supposed to take the dead mice from traps and double bag them in ziplock bags before disposing of them by burying them quite deep. They actually advise that you throw the trap and mouse all away together. Do a web search, and you'll find a lot about it.

The strain that used to normally be around in the US is carried by deer mice. But I have no idea if that's changed. There have been some cases in Wyoming, but not a lot.

And look at the numbers of cases since 1993 listed by Observant1 above: 890 cases total. That's not very many.

This variant that's currently in the news is not the same as what we've had in the US. I won't call it a "new" variant, though. It's supposed to have been in the area where the bird-watchers contracted it for a very long time. And yet, there hasn't been any pandemic.

So far, I'm not all that worried about this.
Click to expand...
I thought of getting an UV Flashlight but if my OCD wife found it she would be scrubbing surfaces for days...:)

But for urine I think they would be pretty handy. Did a little research and found the 365nm seem to be the better...



Oh and we have caught dozens and dozens of field mice with the old school wood traps. Never use poison/bait, they will die in walls and places you don't want to try to retrieve them from. Took us a little while to find the right locations for the traps, along baseboards/walls, they like to travel next to walls...

One more thought, when we moved to our new house, the one before where we are now, we brought over our Refrig. from the house that had the mice. Well guess where we found a ton of mice droppings, in the bottom of the Frig. by the coils. You have to clean EVERYTHING with mice, they go everywhere.
 
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