Toy restocks aren't really happening here that quickly. Household supplies are hitting shelves first (as they should be) so I'll just appreciate what I have for a while. Having played with the Classics Starscream mold in a while so may mess with that for a while.

GI Joe Snakes Eyes is shipping out now so clearly they're still up and running in some capacity.

 

I have Aspergers too. My Transformers collecting was what got me to get a diagnosis.

My young nieces and nephews love the Titanmasters, making them drive the vehicles and especially feeding them all to Trypticon.

That's a pretty flippant attitude given the current climate. Wasn't there some sports personality in America the other day who I dismissed the pandemic and arrogantly sneezed at some reporters when not long after he was diagnosed as having it?

Ireland is on lockdown. I haven't looked but I'd be surprised if any toy shops are open given that they're non essentials.

I've bought Siege Apeface, Spinister and Crosshairs in the last few weeks but as much as I'd like to hit EBay, I'm behaving myself. I'm already out of work with my back so kind of a small blessing. This is week 6.

Most of my collection is in storage but I did spend this afternoon going through the boxes and brought a few into the house.

I've over 500 Transformers so a lot of them get neglected. It's nice reacquainting yourself with the forgotten gems. Easier on the wallet and safer and more responsible too given the pandemic.

Still a lot of people not worrying about it. Most of us don't know if we're carriers so you have to consider the people you are in contact with. Retail Therapy shouldn't be indulged for the foreseeable future.

Don't be a hero/idiot. Consider everyone else.

 

My wife is going through the same thing. She's been an elementary school teacher for almost 20 years, and now her school has been closed for 3 weeks, while my kids' school (not the same school) is closed for 8 (!!!) weeks. She's not sure what she's going to do with her time, but it's the uncertainty of everything that's killing her. She's supposed to be looking into e-learning for her students, but most of her students come from a low-income part of town with minimal parental support and limited internet access, so that's just not realistic.

Me, I just had my birthday on the 12th. Went out to eat just a couple of days before they closed the restaurants, so that worked out. I have 4 new PS4 games to play, with an MP Sunstreaker on the way and possibly one more thing for my b-day, so I think I'm good for the time being  

EDIT: I didn't mention, government offices are still open and my state job is still going, and starting tomorrow I'll be teleworking, so I'll have that to do during the day.

 

This whole this is not a serious as the media is making it out to be. I've done the research, and look beyond what the news is saying. I is a virus and not to be taken lightly, but there's no need to be in the full on panic mode that so many people seem to be in. There's a middle ground in there some where, that's where we all need to be. Most of us could be going about our normal lives and the high risk people should be taking the recommended precautions.

 

Depends on what you mean by "worse".

H1N1 was more virulent, but not as transmissible. More virulent diseases (like MERS, SARS, and Ebola) tend to burn through their populations more quickly. These tend to put the host in bed or the hospital quickly, cutting off their contact with others, and creating their own "fire break." They also end up stimulating change in behavior that will let the population adapt and reduce opportunities to spread.

The diseases that linger (cold, flu) tend to be less severe. Hosts can stay up and about, allowing its hosts to mingle with the population, and making them easier to spread. And because they are familiar, people don't really change their day to day habits, urther facilitating their spread.

Covid-19 seems to be in a sweet spot right in between - significantly more virulent that normal flu (even at the most conservative estimates by a factor of 5-10x, but significantly higher by other estimates and certainly for the elderly and immune compromised), but also very transmissible with an R0 of 2-2.5 compared to the flu's 1.3 (R0= how many people an infected person can be expected to infect on average). Because it is less virulent than diseases like H1N1, people are able to move around for days or weeks without symptoms, facilitating the spread, and as you can see it is just not scary enough to get many people to stop doing things like gathering in groups on their own.

Making matters worse is the fact that Covid-19 appears to be able to mutate quickly. As a novel virus, our immune systems haven't adapted to handle it. Stable viruses run the same play book again and again. It is relatively easy for our body to adapt. The ones that are more unstable are much harder for our body to deal with, always innovating new strategies to survive our own immune responses.

There is a good reason we are shutting our society down and putting a choke hold on our economy when we didn't do so with those other diseases.

As for being on the "downswing" that is the case in China, which has been grappling with this since November. It is still growing in the US, and we don't know how long it will take for it to peak.

 

My gym is closed till when ever . So yeah ... I’ve been doing jailhouse workouts cause I refuse to turn into a fat shit before summer ..

 

I think, here in the US, we reacted fast enough for it to be at or near it's peak right now. Like I said before we made it through H1N1 with almost no reaction by the government. Not to mention Ebola, Bird Flu, SARS, and many others over they course of history.

 

So you missed everything else I wrote about why you can't use those diseases as comparisons to this one?

 

You act like doctors have never dealt with this kind of thing before.

 

I'm out of collecting for the moment already due to unemployment (which the economic effects of this certainly aren't going to help), but even if I was currently employed I'd still be putting it on hold due to this. Fortunately I have all these great Siege toys to help keep me occupied, because I really need stuff like that right now.

So retail therapy, no, but toy therapy, yes, absolutely.  

Well put.

 

We have a thread in GD if you just want to talk about the virus. Keep it Transformers-focused over here.

 

Not really putting energy towards Transformers right now. I'm looking for things that either entertain me for longer than a few minutes of opening a package and transforming it several times OR are more essential to living, like toilet paper that seems to never be on the retail shelf when I'm there. LEGOs are nice. Video games are good too. But honestly, I'm not stuck at home right now. I'm still working 8-5p for the time being.

 

I'm working from home full time instead of going to the office for half of each day. It's not terrible. The dogs are happy. I'd like some Transformer therapy but I'm staying in as suggested, and there's not really anything I want to order right now, anyway. It's all preordered. I'm just hoping anything scheduled to arrive between now and the end of summer actually does. Until then, I've got my job and all the spring and summer gardening and yard work to look forward to so I won't be bored anytime soon. I like being home and I have a lot of hobbies, so normal life hasn't really changed yet.

 

That has to hurt.

 

Yeah, the hyperbole of this is worse than the virus itself.

If I were 85, in a nursing home and halfway out already, I might be concerned. As it is, until a prominent personality [politician, athlete, celebrity, so on] of reasonably young age is declared dead solely as a result of this virus I will continue to live my life as is.

That or we get reports of people getting back up after being declared dead. Then I will be moderately more concerned depending entirely on how fast the zombies move around.

 

I started a news sales thread earlier this week and have made close to $700 from it.

All of it is spent. So yeah, I know all about retail therapy. Problem is, it’s all preorder stuff that I won’t see for months.  

 

Doctors aren't the problem. Political inaction and people being apathethic to the situation is. The United States has not underwent enough testing as they are actively denying citizens to, nor they have enough ventilators nationwide in case it becomes a fully fledged pandemic. It was all fun and games in Italy for a week until it exploded and now the country is on lockdown.

 

Even with the lockdown 475 people in Italy have died for coronovirus in a 24 hr span.