Freddie Highmore was a guest on Jimmy Kimmel, I think to promote the end of season three of The Good Doctor, which airs at the end of this month. He’s a fun interview, I last covered him in the fall when he joked about not knowing he was on a date and just assuming a friend had asked him to hang out. Freddie just turned 28 on Valentine’s Day, and the show threw him a big party driving around the lot complete with emergency vehicles from the show accompanying them for some reason. It was bizarre but he has some prankster friends. Freddie talked about the fact that people are stealing the surgical masks and antibacterial soap on set and that producers had to ask everyone to stop because they need them for filming.
The biggest concern at the moment is actually the Coronavirus. It’s affecting us in a different way. They called us all in to set and said ‘we know you’re all really worried about the Coronavirus, but you’ve got to stop taking the surgical masks from the set because we’re running out.’ The surgical masks have expired. They’re all out of date. Antibacterial soap they’ve been stealing. It’s a virus that’s completely useless.
[From Jimmy Kimmel Live via YouTube]
The CDC has said that surgical masks are not needed in people who don’t have the Coronavirus, but it seems like they would at least help you stop touching your face. Also soap works against viruses because of the mechanical aspects of cleaning your hands, not because it’s antibacterial. That doesn’t matter against a virus as Freddie mentioned. People are still panicked and taking supplies.
This reminds me that Meghan McCain shared a photo of some hand sanitizer on the set of The View with a note that stealing it wasn’t worth someone’s job. Would View producers really fire someone for stealing some hand sanitizer? I feel like they would.
Honestly I am sick right now with some unknown infection. We got flu shots a few weeks ago and my son still got the flu afterwards, he tested positive for it a while ago, so it’s probably not that. I am only coughing a little but am more achy and am trying to take it easy. I live in rural Virginia and my son came home with cold symptoms. One of his teachers has flu-like symptoms after a trip to a major city. That teacher tested negative for flu. There are no tests for Covid-19 available here and my son’s pediatrician said that there may be some available in Richmond on a case by case basis. How is it that so many other countries have tests available but they’re not in the US yet? That’s somewhat rhetorical, we know it’s tweedledee and tweedle pray-it-away’s fault. I saw on MSNBC that the CDC insisted on developing their own test and that’s why there’s such a delay in the US.
Here’s a link to US Magazine’s coverage of some major events which have been canceled due to the Coronavirus, including SXSW and many scheduled concerts.
Here’s Freddie’s interview:
Here is a good article from Johns Hopkins that can help people who are wondering about flu vs. COVID-19:
https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/health/conditions-and-diseases/coronavirus/coronavirus-disease-2019-vs-the-flu
Washing your hands, sanitizing high-touch areas regularly (for instance, if people who come into your office routinely sit by your desk and put keys on it or touch it, that’s a great place to use the sanitary wipes), and taking the best possible care of your immune system are all ways to actively do your best to not get infected.
Stealing hand sanitizer and hoarding toilet paper are not going to do much to avert infection, on the other hand.
People are not hoarding toilet paper to prevent infection. They are stocking up because they’re being told they are likely to need to self quarantine for weeks if they get sick with the new virus.
It may look like hoarding because everyone is buying it at the same time.
Getting tired of people scolding people, it won’t help. Let’s share facts and resources.
Yes. This. Buying a bulk supply of toilet paper is not a bad idea if one day you’re told to stay home and not leave your house for a few weeks. Have your freezer and pantry stocked as well. If everyone does this then if areas do get quarantined the virus is less likely to spread by people breaking the quarantine guidelines.
How much toilet paper are people going to really need/go through through in 14 days? Buying out Costco for toilet paper is panic buying for some sort of apocalypse.
@Ali: agreed! It’s a 14 days quarantine IF you ever need it. There’s no reason to buy 96 rolls of TP. And at worst, just wash yourself with soap and water, or buy a bidet to install it on your current toilet…
And I hope this is going to fast-forward the conversation about universal healthcare coverage in the US. I’m pretty sure that part of the reasons why there isn’t as much panic in Canada is that we know that, should we get sick and need to be hospitalized, we won’t throw our family into debts for the next 3 generations. It probably helps staying calm
Ok, stock up on essential like toilet paper. But why on earth are people at Costco buying 2 and 3 packages at a time? How much can you possibly need.
Not only TP but Target was cleaned out on feminine products (all the pads are gone! Really, you’re gonna go through multiple cycles to use up all that stock), Costco rotisserie chicken (some buy 4 at a time. I waited for 45 minutes for that one chicken). Cans of spam were gone too.
I know this is well intentioned and I’m not aiming this comment at you, but just generally, I wish people would stop acting like others are wrong for preparing and buying some extra home and food items.
The reason I’m stocking up isn’t because I’m overreacting or thinking the world is ending. I just don’t want to make unnecessary Target runs when there are a lot of people sick in my area (more and more are popping up around me every day now). I have asthma and my mom, in her late 50s, has severe respiratory issues. It would be bad for either one of us to get something like this, and I especially don’t want to risk passing it on to her. No, this isn’t as serious as the flu, but we get the flu shot every year to prevent getting it! Unfortunately we can’t with COVID-19, so we’re doing what we can to stay healthy. Which includes less public outings until this blows over.
I agree. My sil and I got into the same argument. She doesn’t understand the need to stock up. But with two young kids at home, so I am. Depending how it runs through our household, we may be looking at 4 weeks at home quarantined. So yes, I bought an extra package toilet paper from Sams (where we usually get it), bleach, trash bags, peanut butter, jelly, nutella, and tuna fish.
My concern is keeping my family at home as necessary to keep those at risk for complications safe.
@Nicole Exactly! This weekend I stocked up on some extra pasta, extra soup, and a few more frozen meals than I’d typically buy, in addition to some extra cleaning and house supplies. All stuff I’ll use eventually! Another consideration is that it might not be a good idea to eat out or even order in if the virus is spreading in the area — food workers likely don’t have the luxury of being able to take off if they’re under the weather, and that’s a sure way for sickness to spread. Nothing wrong with keeping some extra food at home.
Wow, that’s really scary and frustrating about the teacher and you being sick and unable to be tested for coronavirus. Good luck!
Please don’t buy masks unless you are already sick. If you are young or otherwise heathy, your risks of complications from this are very low. I work in a hospital in a semi-rural area of Indiana and we are already short on masks, in part because people have bought them in such bulk numbers in a panic. Reach out to people who are vulnerable and share your resources, don’t hoard them if you are low risk. It puts healthcare workers and our patients at risk otherwise. And wash your damn hands.
My husband is a dentist and isn’t able to order any masks right now due to the shortage. He has enough to last until the end of the month and then he will be out of work. The hoarding is having serious impacts on health care providers!! And a dentist isn’t really an essential service – imagine when you need surgery and the surgeon is out of masks. It is quite scary.
Masks could cause someone to touch their face even more, if they are not used to it or wearing it incorrectly and constantly adjusting it. I know this is wishful thinking, but the media needs to be very clear about the fact that paper masks do NOT protect anyone from anything- they only reduce the chance of someone who is already infected from spreading germs.
And at that, only an N95 mask or tighter, not the more basic mask.
Yes!!! Masks are annoying! You get hot and sweaty when it’s properly fitted, it’s not comfortable and you end up touching your face more than usual.
Plus there are shortages for personal protection equipment for researchers and medical workers already. I’m running out of gloves and I work with blood, fecal samples and transformed retroviruses on a daily basis: I can’t do my work without them. One of my friends is a medical technologists, she’s the one running the diagnosis tests at the hospital, she needs N95 masks when working with a potential TB sample and similar pathogens. Because other infectious diseases still exists and we need to treat them too and need the proper equipment to do it. And we don’t take those items home because normal precautions are good enough in our everyday lives.
Yes, a couple of times in the past I’ve gone to the doctor with some kind of cold/flu that is causing respiratory problem and they always ask me to wear a mask in the waiting room, etc. and it is SO ITCHY. It takes major effort not to constantly scratch and adjust it around. I just can’t see how casually wearing one around if you aren’t sick or required to wear on for your job is going to cut down on face-touching.
If it helps,CB,aches and pains are said to be associated more with flu whereas the hallmark features of the diseasefrom the new virus are fever and dry cough. Flu is no funeither, good luck.
We can call our elected officials and demand that they get test kits for hundreds of thousands. That pressure has to go to the top.
Yes, I heard last night that aches are not one of the COVID-19 symptoms, also that a high fever is common, too, with COVID, which I hadn’t realized. My son and I both had cold symptoms last week, runny nose and cough, but no fevers. So I assume we just had colds. But all our coughing for a few days made us both cringe a bit. Luckily we were at home on a staycation.
This does help a lot and I appreciate it! I’m just going to assume I have the flu. Dayquil is helping but I’m still really tired.
I had the flu this year despite a flu shot, and never got the hallmark (or so I thought) high fever, although I had a cough, severe body aches, and was generally exhausted and felt like I’d been hit by a truck. No fever, so I assumed it was the worst cold in the world. A few days later, my younger child started running a fever and looked unwell, so we went to the doctor, and we both tested positive for flu A. My husband caught it too, although we managed to keep our older child healthy (so. much. handwashing). Husband and daughter got Tamiflu within the 48-72 hour recommended window and bounced back much, much quicker than I did.
All of this is to say, if you’re still within 72 hours from the onset of symptoms CB, Tamiflu could help. If not, Dr. Teal’s bath salts in as hot of a tub as you can stand will help you feel a little more human. Feel better soon!!
Took my mom to her doctors appointment and the nurse told us that the patients have been stealing masks (a whole box of 50 masks), some gloves, and sanitizer. Smh, people should be ashamed. He was upset because they’re putting restrictions on how many masks the doctors can order now.
Honestly, this is a good hard lesson in what we should all be preparing for. I’m not a full on prepper, but this is what William Forschten has been warning about. People should take note of this chaos.
I am geriatric nurse in Germany (examinierte Altenpflegerin) and at my workplace our disinfection products and masks are now being kept under a lock, because we noticed that people were stealing them. It’s absolutely crazy what this panic about Corona Virus brought upon us. I am afraid it’s only going to be worse. People went mad.