Not in the bay area(San Jose, Coleman Ave). I was there a few days ago. Not as busy as a pre-covid Costco of course, but the aisles were still busy and only a couple of the shoppers seemed to have any awareness of personal space. When I went to Lucky market today, they at least had blue tape near the checkout to indicate proper spacing(although the guy behind me was oblivious). Costco needs to step it up.
At this point, given how poorly I've seen people respect social distancing, I'm beginning to question its cost to benefit ratio. We are not as disciplined as many other countries.
The alternative is a mandatory quarantine. No leaving your house, the national guard will drop off government meal packs and government toilet paper, and we'll figure out the economy later.
A society that has the willingness to abide by voluntary distancing measures wouldn't need it, but the US may not be such a society.
The alternative is recognizing social distancing isn't working. If browbeating people into it doesn't work, then we, as a free society, are stuck. People are, apparently, not responsible enough, as a whole, to follow best-practices. Those best-practices only seem to work if people are nearly fully complying with them. Half-measures are, seemingly, useless, and impose a significant cost. Maybe establishing a government delivery service and tax credits for vulnerable people to go into long-term quarantine is better? I don't know. Initially I was strongly in favor of social distancing, but it was based on an incorrect assumption of how socially conscious my fellow Americans are.
Americans are free spirits, unlike people from more structured or rigidly governed countries. They're not used to giving up their personal freedom when someone tells them its for the good of all.
So unlike the Chinese, who shutter themselves obediently and trustingly at the whim of their government.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought I remember videos of Chinese people, very unhappily, being forced to stay in their homes by armed guards, as opposed to them obediently trusting their government.
According to the WaPo, it's likely that far more people are infected in Italy than we know about, and therefore the true mortality rate is much lower. Apparently the government is only testing people with "severe symptoms":
> The actual Italian death rate, they say, is probably far lower than what the government numbers suggest. The unofficial estimates assume the actual number of people infected with the virus — people who have not yet been tested — is massive. In other words, several hundred thousand people in Italy may be carrying the virus.
> “It’s a huge iceberg,” said Fabrizio Pregliasco, a virologist at the University of Milan. “We are only looking at those who are sick.”
> Though Italian leaders touted widespread testing at the beginning of the outbreak, the government has applied tight guidelines for who can be given swabs. Health officials have been testing those who have severe symptoms and are in need of obvious medical care.
I’m definitely hoping it’s a statistical artifact. It would be very interesting if some country or ethnic group was genetically resistant to the virus, but that sort of invites the opposite to be true too, which I wouldn’t wish on anyone.
Still, if it’s 3% like everywhere else, that’s horrible enough that the point of the person who said 7% still stands, IMO.
I've been at home for four weeks (as of last Sunday) due to wonky immune system. I made my first trip (not counting walks with dog) to grocery store yesterday and while I was careful about spacing while shopping, when I got to the register I went on autopilot and I was an oblivious guy. I only realized it when I got forward to use my my payment card. I wish someone had said something.
I guess it depends on the Costco. Since before this thing was declared a pandemic my Costco was already handing out wipes at the entrance for people to wipe down their carts with and had a table with hand sanitizer for us to use. The first few days I saw them religiously wiping down the tables at the food court (someone was there full time), and then by the next week they had shut down the food court completely. Today I went there and they still give you hand wipes, but in addition to that they have spaced out their checkout lanes and added plastic see-through barriers between the cashier and customers (like what you’d see at a gas station in a high-crime area). I have pictures of everything I’ve reported here.
I was at that Costco earlier this week. They were cleaning carts and had a line along the carts to throttle entry. I was there pretty early though, so it was not very busy.
I should go earlier. I went around 7pm IIRC. My biggest problem was the people inside. I kept trying to stay out of people's way but it was impossible. People kept walking at me without giving me a chance to move. Other people were travelling down the middle of the aisle, effectively blocking anyone from going by. I think Costco needs to make aisles one-way for now, and tape off sections to give people a hint at the recommended spacing.
