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Food riots hadn't crossed my mind. But maybe crime, eventually, due to people being cut off from income sources. Desperation resulting from stress, like getting mugged for toilet paper, which there was an incident of somewhere in the US, a few weeks ago already.
It depends on the rural areas, re: safety. Some have a fair amount of meth and other drug activity going on, and so, aren't necessarily safe even in the best of times. Parts of rural Washington and New Mexico are like that. And then, in rural areas, there are issues of adequate medical facilities, which is especially a concern now.
It sounds like you're in an outlying area of the SF Bay Area. Do you mind my asking general where? North Bay? (Marin, Napa, etc.) Just curious, since I'm a Bay Area-ite, myself, originally. . My current town of 75,000 does feel like a "small town" compared to the East Bay.
We are around Mendocino. Very beautiful country up here; literally at the edge of the world.
Out in the sticks in winter-heavy states, it's not uncommon to be stuck home for days straight, so people are already stocked up and hunkered down.
Not every small town is also low-population-density, and it's the latter than I would expect to be more comforting -- I'd be more worried in a city where people take public transit every day, packed in like sardines, in dense housing and high rise buildings with shared lobbies, etc.
I agree Nonesuch; I currently reside in a rural farm community in south central Minnesota. Population of my town is less than 8K. I absolutely feel safer today, at home, than two of my kids living in the Twin Cities and Rochester, MN.
I am lucky, I always work from home, so not a whole lot of difference at home. I agree tho, we are usually stocked with supplies, given the climate we live in.
We do a lot of hand-washing, singing happy birthday twice at a regular (not hurried) pace. We use hand sanitizer in the cars after shopping.
I can't begin to tell you what a relief it is to live in one of the few counties left which still have no documented case of Wuhan Virus. (Northern Maine).
It is a worrying time, and I would be ten times more worried if the virus was widespread here.
The sheeple in the big cities (especially NYC) are realizing their folly, the hard way.
My parents are in my small, rural hometown area. They are senior citizens. My mom has an autoimmune disorder and is a recent stroke survivor. Definition of high risk.Their local medical clinic is a bare bones triage unit (the full-service hospital closed a decade ago, as is commonplace in rural areas). When my mom had her stroke, she had to be taken to a hospital 75 miles away. The local facilities are insufficient to properly address health complications that are increasingly likely. As has been documented with last pandemics, illnesses such as this take longer to arrive in low-population density areas...but when they do, they are devastating, due to insufficient resources and care.
I would much rather be in a rural county without the virus, than even a medium-sized city that has it.
I am from a small town, Myrtle Beach, SC and can tell you by far I am much happier living in a large city at a time like this.
They just opened our drive through testing.
Our medical facilities are amazing. I am within minutes of a Trauma I Hospital. Some of the best doctors and medical care in the country are located here including a Cleveland Clinic.
Our grocery stores are stocked, stocked and restocked. I haven't had a single problem getting hand sanitizer or toilet paper.
I would much rather be living in a large city in a time like this.
Still feeling that way?
1,500 cases today in Broward County. (including at least 13 deaths).
My county is the largest east of the Mississippi and has no cases.
Last edited by maineguy8888; 04-02-2020 at 12:42 PM..
So your little town has a manufacturing hub where you guys can get everything made in the town. The “we are safer in little town than big city....is a myth. In fact one 8nfected person stands the chance of infecting more people faster in a small town as people tend to congregate more as there are fewer of them.
So what happens when fuel isn’t available? Your tractor or combine is doa. Your tractors don’t break down? Your crops rot because you can’t get enough people to harvest it once the machinery isn’t running
You may not be able to pitch a tent in the stock market but a guy in the stock market can buy land. Then he can pitch a tent.
That's rubbish. We were told to start social distancing two weeks ago, and we had plenty of time to get the hang of it. Nobody here congregates any more. Nobody. (Unlike city parks, subways, etc.).
And we didn't have to worry about getting the virus while we got the hang of social distancing.........because we don't have any cases.
As I understand things right now, my PCP would have me stay at home and monitor my symptoms. So long as my symptoms remain mild, I would not be leaving my home.
It is only after my symptoms worsen, that I might be given permission to go to our nearest ER to be tested.
I am an older person, I have cancer and my cancer treatment has me in weakened or compromised health. So there is a very real possibility that if I had the virus, I might be one who needs to be on a ventilator. If I am deemed worthy of the hospital bed and ventilator, then I would be treated in the hospital.
In all of that scenario, I am not sure that I present any greater risk in a town of 235, than if I were in a big city of 5,000.
What I am saying is that even if there were one person in my town of 235 who had the virus, I do not see where that automatically threatens me.
I'm in a semi-rural location. I guess it's safer. Dunno. But I grocery shopped at WalMart, same as everyone else in the country. Semi-rural people are probably less careful, generally. And there are probably more older people. So that's not good. But then, less populated areas have fewer wacko young people who think they're impervious to illness & death, & fewer homeless & low income, who are harder hit, I guess?
I moved here from Dallas. I think it'd be the same or less dangerous in Dallas, since the people there are more educated (so they pay more attention to facts & read or watch the news more), and the businesses there would've taken more care earlier than here, I think. Here, some people don't watch the news, really (except Trump's pressers, where he says it's just a bad cold & will disappear in April like a miracle).
lol.............we've seen too many episodes of "Cops", "Rescue 911" and other reality shows to take that at face value...........
Now if we could just get that mentality to transfer over here. We are in ground zero here in Cook County and we are weeks behind New York, maybe ten days behind. I track the virus in each county and look for rural places to grocery shop that are not reporting cases. It seemed like a good strategy until the town chosen showed up on the list the next day. We drove an hour and a half a couple of days ago for supplies. I still wear an N95 mask and gloves in the store.
We have 102 counties in Illinois and 30 are reporting infections vs around 15 three weeks ago, and that's only from people getting sick. It is much more wide spread than we know, and the current news is already a week to two behind.
I had an appointment cancelled with my OBGYN oncologist in April and rescheduled for May 23rd, a month later instead. I'm guessing that they have a better pulse on what's going on and are deferring non emergency surgeries until after they feel confident that this virus will pass?
What I'm seeing in the grocery stores in these rural towns has me deeply concerned. These people are not getting it, and it will spread because of it.
No one is being "nervous Nellie" about this and the media is not hyping this. If anything, people are not taking this seriously enough.
I have a different perspective having worked through the H1N1 epidemic as a Respiratory Therapist. What I'm seeing with this virus is far more serious. This bizarre disconnect between political narrative and deadly serious reality is not helping the situation, and needs to stop.
I just finished texting with a fellow therapist friend working at the big box hospital and they are running short on PPE. The cases are just now starting to come in. Many health care workers are going to die because of this, and I'm not being a nervous Nellie when I say I'm deeply concerned and worried about my friends. She told me they are using the same N95 for the entire shift. It stays by the patient's room. It's a recipe for disaster. You could easily grab the wrong one and wear one that somebody else used.
Look, this pandemic started with one case and continues to grow case by case exponentially. This is not a political narrative, this is a deadly virus that is going o kill indiscriminately. Young,old, rich, poor, it doesn't care what your political beliefs are. It started with man, it will end with man. Take this very seriously.
When you cram 3 million or 8 million people into a little tiny area, bad things are bound to result. Of one sort or another.
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. My current town of 75,000 does feel like a "small town" compared to the East Bay.
(including at least 13 deaths). 
