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Does living away from large cities and crowds make you feel safer.
The below statements are based on assuming you refer specifically to COVID-19.
It only takes one infected visitor to any place...any close contact with such a person.
Tourist season is about to ramp up in many states.
Living a prepper lifestyle, however, probably reduces the risk more. And if you live where residences are far apart AND you never get near other people who “circulate,” the risk is probably lower. This virus doesn’t carry far or linger a long time in the air, unlike measles virus.
Living in a rural area does make you feel safer, however, rural areas also do not have ample police protection. It may take the law 30 minutes to an hour to get to your place.
For the coronavirus, I think it is a false sense of security. You have mail carriers and package deliveries. People go to larger cities during the day and back to the rural community. Effectively, it delays it some, but, as noted, it just takes one person to spread it. In reviewing the map, you can see that it is now surfacing in rural areas throughout the U.S. These are confirmed cases, so it is likely already in many other rural areas.
Living in a rural area does make you feel safer, however, rural areas also do not have ample police protection. It may take the law 30 minutes to an hour to get to your place.
Here in our town, the Sheriff Deputies normally drive through our town once a week.
We have lived here for 15 years, during which time I have called 911 twice. Both times were for automobiles flipped over upside down in the ditch on my land. Both times the Law Enforcement response was to come out here on the next business day.
Living in a rural area does make you feel safer, however, rural areas also do not have ample police protection. It may take the law 30 minutes to an hour to get to your place.
True, but on the other hand, the authorities encourage self-help and preparedness, so your neighbors are unlikely to get desperate and try to raid a neighbor's homestead for powdered milk and aspirin -- they have their own, or they wouldn't have survived the last three blizzards with their accompanying power outages and road closures.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Rivertowntalk
For the coronavirus, I think it is a false sense of security. You have mail carriers and package deliveries. People go to larger cities during the day and back to the rural community. Effectively, it delays it some, but, as noted, it just takes one person to spread it. In reviewing the map, you can see that it is now surfacing in rural areas throughout the U.S. These are confirmed cases, so it is likely already in many other rural areas.
Even if infected people work in the city and bring COVID-19 home with them at night, the low population density greatly reduces the opportunities for person-to-person transfer. No crowded buses and sidewalks (in fact no buses, no sidewalks).
Even before the pandemic, anything non-perishable dropped off by a package service, sits out in the sunlight and/or desiccates in the winter wind before I get around to opening it.
Answering based on the title of this thread - not really for all the reasons stated:
DH still works in a high traffic job in the next County over, population ~55,000.
When he shopped on his way home from work today, at the Walmart on his way home from work, he said the shelves were so bare, it looked like the store was going out of business.
People were waiting in line to grab stuff off the pallets as they were being unloaded from the WalMart semi.
That all said, we are not people who subscribe to “Chicken Little The Sky Is Falling”. I was raised on a dairy farm where practicing cleanliness was paramount and I never grew out of that. DH is a city kid but thankfully equally as cleanliness anal.
We are in our early 70’s but a lot healthier and hardier than many our age, so for us it is business as usual in terms of cleanliness and hope to Sam Hill the fool hardy will not stock so much paper towels & toilet paper they will have enough to last them into the next three lifetimes.
The below statements are based on assuming you refer specifically to COVID-19.
It only takes one infected visitor to any place...any close contact with such a person.
Tourist season is about to ramp up in many states.
Living a prepper lifestyle, however, probably reduces the risk more. And if you live where residences are far apart AND you never get near other people who “circulate,” the risk is probably lower. This virus doesn’t carry far or linger a long time in the air, unlike measles virus.
The virus lasts at least 48 hours on surfaces. If I have the virus, and touch a can of chili at the supermarket, then put it back on the shelf, that can will be infectious for at least 48 hours.
The next day you come in, and unlike me, you love that brand of chili, and place it in your cart, theoretically, you, the can, and parts of the cart are now infectious.
You shop then go to check out and place the can which has been in contact in some way with other items in your cart, on the checkout conveyor. The cashier touches all the items on the now theoretically infected conveyor....and so on.
This is just an example of how the virus spreads. Bear in mind, I never touched you or even saw you. We didn't even go to the supermarket on the same day.
Chances are you will at some point before the dust settles come in contact with the virus - unless you plan to squirrel up in place for 6 months or more just to avoid something that you might not even notice you were exposed to. Then if all is well, you wont even notice and your body will develop antibodies to it and life will go on.
Being rural or isolated means less people which is a positive, but it also means less services, and infrastructure can breakdown faster - like if everyone at the Volunteer Ambulance Company is sick the day you need them, etc. which would be a negative. I think I would overall prefer to be rural right now, but Im not sure it really matters.
Last edited by ComeCloser; 03-15-2020 at 08:40 AM..
Does living away from large cities and crowds make you feel safer.
I used to live on 10 acres, could (If desired) take a whiz off the porch...I could lay out in the shade bare naked and I also did shower (During the summer) outside.....
In the city, you are being watched......by everyone and police. How do you think they caught the Boston marathon killers so quickly?
It's not more of "Feeling Safe" it's more of "Being calm and not fearful"
The virus lasts at least 48 hours on surfaces. If I have the virus, and touch a can of chili at the supermarket, then put it back on the shelf, that can will be infectious for at least 48 hours.
The next day you come in, and unlike me, you love that brand of chili, and place it in your cart, theoretically, you, the can, and parts of the cart are now infectious.
You shop then go to check out and place the can which has been in contact in some way with other items in your cart, on the checkout conveyor. The cashier touches all the items on the now theoretically infected conveyor....and so on.
This is just an example of how the virus spreads. Bear in mind, I never touched you or even saw you. We didn't even go to the supermarket on the same day.
Chances are you will at some point before the dust settles come in contact with the virus - unless you plan to squirrel up in place for 6 months or more just to avoid something that you might not even notice you were exposed to. Then if all is well, you wont even notice and your body will develop antibodies to it and life will go on.
Being rural or isolated means less people which is a positive, but it also means less services, and infrastructure can breakdown faster - like if everyone at the Volunteer Ambulance Company is sick the day you need them, etc. which would be a negative. I think I would overall prefer to be rural right now, but Im not sure it really matters.
We live in Cook County and that's where all but one of the reported cases is. I will not go anywhere public in Cook County now. We drove an hour to a rural grocery store to shop yesterday. I was the only one with gloves on in the store. Yes I'm worried about contamination on the purchases. That's why I did most of the stocking up about a month ago. Having a small dose exposure might not be such a bad thing. It could create a natural immunity. That being said, we still wash our hands every time we touch something from the store. If there is virus present then hopefully some of it transferred onto the gloves after I touched it. I feel sorry for the checkers and baggers. They are the most at risk. Keeping track of where the virus is will determine where we shop for the next two months or so. At least it gets us out of the house for a nice ride with Joe our dog. I love the wide open fields.
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You have mail carriers? Luxury!
We live in Cook County and that's where all but one of the reported cases is. I will not go anywhere public in Cook County now. We drove an hour to a rural grocery store to shop yesterday. I was the only one with gloves on in the store. Yes I'm worried about contamination on the purchases. That's why I did most of the stocking up about a month ago. Having a small dose exposure might not be such a bad thing. It could create a natural immunity. That being said, we still wash our hands every time we touch something from the store. If there is virus present then hopefully some of it transferred onto the gloves after I touched it. I feel sorry for the checkers and baggers. They are the most at risk. Keeping track of where the virus is will determine where we shop for the next two months or so. At least it gets us out of the house for a nice ride with Joe our dog. I love the wide open fields.
