The wife and I are having a discussion. Are full-timers less or more susceptible to contracting COVID-19 (or any other disease) as we move about the country? We typically relocate every 3-4 days (except during our "wintering over" stays) and usually have only casual contact with other campers. So besides the weekly visit to grocery stores, we're pretty much loners.  Care to chime in?  Sidebar: Our fiver doesn't have a lot of extra space for 144 rolls of toilet paper.  FYI.

I've never been able to understand how hoarding toilet paper is going to benefit anyone.  As for safety from the disease, treat it like a serious flu event.  Wash one's hands regularly and avoid large crowds.  Like you, the wife and I are pretty much loners, although we do get together on Sundays with others at church that are in our "small group."  We meet in different one's homes instead of at the church building, which is where we have our morning services.

As an example, the wife and I have 7 full rolls of toilet paper in the cabinet.  That should last us for at least three weeks, if not longer.  And, other than an occasional trip to the grocery store, we don't do much "gathering" with a lot of folks.  We do get in our morning walks in a local shopping mall if it is cold or windy outside, but otherwise, we prefer to get our 3 mile walks outdoors.

Simple suggestion is to just take normal precautions and avoid crowds.  Some are saying that hotels and motels could be something to be concerned with, but we aren't too worried about that even.  When we go do the road surveying in Indiana again this year, we stay in the better hotels, so we probably should be OK there as well.

Terry

I was reading on another forum where they were speculating that people were buying up things in the event that they had to "self-quarantine" themselves.  Thus the need for extra toilet paper.

I also read reports that some people were buying up hand sanitizer, extra cleaning wipes and such, and extra toilet paper.  (My oldest son told us that he saw on Farcebook where someone was trying to sell bundles of toilet paper for something like $40 a bundle.)  However, due to some news stories about the hoarders that were trying to profit off of their purchases, Amazon and other online "shopping sources" were shutting down accounts where the people were gouging the prices.

Terry

Like Terry, I assumed the runs on items like TP is that people want to have what they need in case the have to quarantine. But it makes it hard for those of us that just need to resupply.

So what about the ripple effect? I got the last packages of rv TP the Walmart last week. Now I’m wondering if there will be some on the shelf when that’s gone. When I have to resupply it j may not be available. So should I make sure I have extra now? You see how it may go.

I’m not very concerned by the virus, but with the public panic.

edit:  does anyone know how to modify the rv toilet fora bidet feature?

PrairieRV wrote:

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Like Terry, I assumed the runs on items like TP is that people want to have what they need in case the have to quarantine. But it makes it hard for those of us that just need to resupply.

So what about the ripple effect? I got the last packages of rv TP the Walmart last week. Now I’m wondering if there will be some on the shelf when that’s gone. When I have to resupply it j may not be available. So should I make sure I have extra now? You see how it may go.

I’m not very concerned by the virus, but with the public panic.

 

edit:  does anyone know how to modify the rv toilet fora bidet feature?

-- Edited by PrairieRV on Sunday 15th of March 2020 09:52:59 AM

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 Patti,

Do a search here on the forums and type in "bidet."  When I did it, I got a few different threads, at least two of which were related to bidets.

Here is one, and if I can do enough editing, I'll post one or two more links for you.

Best Modification Ever

EDIT: In looking at the four links that I saw with that search function, it appears that "The Bear" posted information on a bidet addition in each of three of them.  So, the link above is probably going to give you the information you need.  However, I would do a separate search for the bidet product as I've seen it at two different prices.

EDIT #2:  Probably better just search on the internet for such a product.  The links that "The Bear" posted seem to all indicate "Out of Stock" or "Unavailable."

EDIT #3:  I did some more searching and found the product listed above in other places.  I used "RV Toilet bidet" as my search function and found some at build.com.  Look at the link below, and also scroll down below the product that came up to see the similar (or maybe the same) product that "The Bear" posted about.  According to that source, they have some in stock.

Brondell FS10

Terry

Just as an FYI, for any of you that might be concerned about clicking on an unknown link, I can recommend the video link posted above by karoleks.

That video was just uploaded to YouTube yesterday by a RV couple and has an interview with a doctor in Tacoma, WA that is dealing with the Covid-19 virus.  The doctor just happens to be the sister of the gentleman of the RV couple posting the video.  I would say that while it is pretty long (roughly 19 minutes of the interview), it would be worth watching, and I might even say that it would be a benefit for folks that aren't RV'ers, so don't be afraid to send the link to friends and family.

The interview pretty much supports my own thoughts on the virus and how to avoid it.

Terry

Rickl wrote:

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The “swine flu” in 2009 took estimates of 170,000 to 550,000 lives, but there wasn’t the panic we are now seeing on this out break. I’m not trying to be cavalier about this virus, but while as one poster stated many of us “reside” in that “concerned” group I believe practicing good health habits such washing our hands and just being aware will go a long way in protecting ones self.

Here’s a question I ask myself and many others, do you know any family or friends (not a friend of a friend) that contacted the swine flu or has the coronavirus right now? I think it is an over hyped crisis that has created a panic that is needless. Should we be made aware or the situation, hell yeah. But to the extent they are going about it leads me to believe there are other reasons for the mass hysteria being created.

---

 Embracing conspiracy theories can also lead to mass hysteria.

If someone is really interested in the current knowledge on COVID19: https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/index.html

Glenn West wrote:

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Haven't seen any tolit tissuse in stores in 2 weeks. Getting low at home.

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 I have seen some at the Dollar General Stores; but may have to search some there! The stores seem to get there early AM!

olderthandirt wrote:

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The posts on this thread make for an interesting read, and frankly, they concern me for how some are viewing this virus. 'Confirmed cases' are based on the number of tests performed and its logical to assume that the numbers only represent the tip of the iceberg worldwide when you consider total populations. Only now are we starting to ramp up testing in the U.S. so we won't know the severity here until our 'wave' reaches its crest. Italy should be a stark reminder of the potential of this virus. The wave still hasn't fully impacted Africa and other parts of Asia and there's always the possibility of the virus ebbing in the summer months only to return more potent next fall. We just don't have a good handle on it right now. Most of us on this thread are in the 'high risk' category, so my advice for whatever its worth to you, is to stay cool, be vigilant and be open to the possibility that it may eventually affect you. This is about more than just hoarding TP.

---

 Full disclosure, I am not a Dr. just an RVer.  The malaria drug that Trump has been so "hopeful" about has been deployed to NY and will be administered to the first patients on Tuesday (tomorrow).  There is anecdotal evidence that this can work ... the reason often given is that the very low incidence of disease in Africa is because many of them also fight Malaria ... they are already taking the Malaria drug and the anecdotal evidence suggests that the population of Africa is "protected" by this medication.  We should soon know as the Governor of NY seems to agree with Trump and is administering it to sick NYers.  The results should be know fairly soon.  Here's hoping.

RonC wrote:

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Barb ... you probably know more about this than I do, but I have heard that “immunity” only lasts 4-5 months (similar to more common strains of the flu). This is why the flu shot is an annual event because immunity is only for a relatively short period of time. They don’t “know” but it is assumed that covid-19 will behave similarly and be seasonal.

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 No one knows at this point whether the vaccine will be annual or not because they haven't got enough information yet about the rate and types of mutations of the virus.  If the mutations are small, then the vaccine will provide immunity and the strain will 'die' out, as it will not get transmitted.  Very important to know that viruses are really not alive, they need hosts.  So if you can get all of the possible 'hosts' immune, then the virus (think Smallpox) has not way to replicate itself and dies out.   If the mutation rate is larger then immunity may not be able to handle all of the resulting strains of the viruses, and thus lead to 'new' infections.   We just don't know.    Another way would be to get everyone to shelter in place for 1 month, that would cover the latency period, and those infected would die/recovery and with no hosts available, the virus can not replicate and disappears from the population.   

Rickl wrote:

---

The “swine flu” in 2009 took estimates of 170,000 to 550,000 lives, but there wasn’t the panic we are now seeing on this out break. I’m not trying to be cavalier about this virus, but while as one poster stated many of us “reside” in that “concerned” group I believe practicing good health habits such washing our hands and just being aware will go a long way in protecting ones self.

Here’s a question I ask myself and many others, do you know any family or friends (not a friend of a friend) that contacted the swine flu or has the coronavirus right now? I think it is an over hyped crisis that has created a panic that is needless. Should we be made aware or the situation, hell yeah. But to the extent they are going about it leads me to believe there are other reasons for the mass hysteria being created.

---

 1.  I got the vaccine for "Swine Flu" (H1N1) in 1975 because our daughter was a premie and with fragile lungs, she couldn't have handled any type of respiratory disease.  

2.    My cousin's husband (age 70) was just released from the hospital last week.  He is a Covid-19 survivor, and she is under 14 day isolation.  He contracted it from a fellow who was at a youth athletic even in Olympia, WA in February.  The guy flew back to Palm Springs and 3 days later was dead.     What makes this especially hard is that my cousin's mother (my aunt) is 96 and she's been taking meals to her house, etc.  They still do that, but limit any physical contact to just few minutes each day, so my poor aunt (who is very visually impaired and hard of hearing) is now very isolated.   Thank goodness for telephones.

3.   No, if you are ill, on a vent, it isn't being overhyped.  It is the speed of spread and the unknown that is so frightening.  Especially for those with underlying health concerns.   Yes, most people will not have a problem.  In fact, for a virus to be successful, it needs to be able to replicate (which leads to inflammation, build up of body fluids in the respiratory system with this virus) and then be passed along to the next host (which is the coughing and sneezing).  And it has to do it in a hurry because the body will develop anti-bodies, which render the viruses unable to duplicate and thus are passed out of the body and thus the strain 'dies' out.  If you have old cilia (the hairs in the lungs that move things up and out) or other underlying disease processed that impeded the body's cleaning mechanisms you get in trouble.  

 A lot of information being spread around, almost as fast as the virus. Some of it accurate and some of it not. Unless you're an expert in the medical field on epidemiology and viral science better to keep quiet and look like a fool than to open your mouth and prove it. Stick to what you know. Take prudent precautions, act like you already have the virus. Remain calm. You can only control what you do, nobody or anything else. JMHO

BiggarView wrote:

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 A lot of information being spread around, almost as fast as the virus. Some of it accurate and some of it not. Unless you're an expert in the medical field on epidemiology and viral science better to keep quiet and look like a fool than to open your mouth and prove it. Stick to what you know. Take prudent precautions, act like you already have the virus. Remain calm. You can only control what you do, nobody or anything else. JMHO

-- Edited by BiggarView on Tuesday 24th of March 2020 06:36:33 PM

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         I Attest!   And I have poor health; so I watch what the Medical Doctors and Researchers suggest!

LarryW21 wrote:

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Suchidog wrote: “But sometimes I feel there is a tendency to politicize things or "not let a crisis go to waste" regardless who's in charge”

The Arkansas Democrat reported today: “In early March, before First Assembly of God church in Greers Ferry, Ark., called off all of its activities to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus, just like other churches across the country, dozens of participants gathered there for a children’s program.
Now, 34 people who attended that event have come down with the coronavirus, according to a deacon at this rural evangelical church 75 miles north of Little Rock, who spoke to the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.”

That report isn’t political.

---

Of course not. I did not mean to imply that the virus isn't very real, very contagious and in a small percentage of cases, deadly. We all clearly see that and should take the appropriate precautions that we deem prudent to both minimize the spread and protect ourselves. The political part comes in assigning blame, and in trying to use this or any crisis to gain political advantage. Of course it is always the other guy's fault, regardless if they are from another country, the other political party, etc.  In truth, no one is to blame for this horrific disease. In retrospect, some things could have been done differently, starting with the initial response to the disease from China - not the Chinese people, but the Communist Chinese government who suppressed doctors initial reports and tried to use political propaganda to blame it on America, of all people.

I believe our leaders and medical professionals are honestly and diligently doing the best they can to safeguard the public, even though their unprecedented lifesaving efforts will likely send us into a depression - perhaps a worldwide depression if we can't get everyone back to work as quickly as possible. Hopefully the economic disaster resulting from our prophylactic, self-quarantine efforts won't be as bad as many expect, but my greatest fear is the deaths resulting from this economic collapse could rival that of the disease itself, especially in poorer, undeveloped countries. Someone with 10 million dollars may be able to afford to lose 9 and still survive. He won't like it, but he'll still live. However a guy who's living from hand to mouth now will probably starve, especially abroad where's there's no social safety net like there is here. Every response must be measured and balanced, especially our response to this pandemic. But sometimes we find ourselves stuck between a rock and a hard spot. Our leaders are damned if they do and damned if they don't - especially by their political rivals who are always hypercritical. It is what it is. Let's just hope we can all pull through this together without losing any of our ranks to either scourge, putting our politics behind us for a little while, even in an election year. They'll be time enough for that later. I promise. Just my 

Glenn West wrote:

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Haven't seen any tolit tissuse in stores in 2 weeks. Getting low at home.

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 Napkins…paper towels…newspapers…Sears catalog…then you'll have to (this is to the tune of the old Branded TV show starring Clint Eastwood back in the day)…Prove you're a man and wipe it with your hand.

Wife and I went for our normal 2 1/2 to 3 1/2 mile walk today and then stopped by a Walmart in Norman, OK, which is our "usual" stopping place when we go that way to walk.  There was quite a bit of Angel Soft and Cottonelle toilet paper and quite a bit of Bounty paper towels.  While we were down to about 4 rolls of TP at home, I picked up a 12-pack of the Angel Soft.  The stuff isn't as good as Scotts for breaking down in the tank, but we are in an RV park where they are on septic tanks.  Thus, we "use" the toilet paper and then place it in a trash can in the bathroom instead of flushing down the toilet.  Thus, we can use heavier TP if we want to do so.  Plus, we've found that we can go a full week with one roll of Scott's TP.  It is one ply, but it is a pretty strong one ply.

In the past few weeks when we were in Walmart stores, no TP was to be found.  Maybe the shortage is turning around.

The biggest bummer to us is that with the "social distancing" for prevention, we aren't able to attend church services like we normally would be doing.

Terry

Neil and Connie wrote:

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Glenn West wrote:

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Haven't seen any tolit tissuse in stores in 2 weeks. Getting low at home.

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 Napkins…paper towels…newspapers…Sears catalog…then you'll have to (this is to the tune of the old Branded TV show starring Clint Eastwood back in the day)…Prove you're a man and wipe it with your hand.

 

---

 Haven't seen a newspaper or catalog in quite a while. 

Yeah, it's all electronic now - and I don't think wiping your butt with a smartphone would work very well, especially if you receive a call in the middles of the operation.

Anyway... I second Terry and Jo's assessment of Scott 1000 sheet 1 ply - they are the longest lasting TP and decompose well enough. The fastest decomposing TP I've found is the Walmart Great Value brand. I remember reading a test where it compares favorably to RV tissue in its rate of breakdown and is 1/4 the price of those marketed specifically for RVs. It just doesn't last very long. It is a "special application" TP that we use when we're boondocking out west using only minimal amounts of water per flush.

Chip

Hi all,

We've been traveling from Florida toward home in Massachusetts since the middle of March visiting along the way. Everything was going well until we reached Virginia where we were required by state rule to camp for 2 weeks. No shorter stays are allowed. OK so we re-scheduled our four day visit for the required 2 weeks. We then received a call from our next scheduled campground stop in Delaware saying the state is now requiring a minimum stay of 2 weeks. This all would be extremely upsetting except for the fact that our home town campground in MA called to say we could not check in on April 1st because the town would not allow them to open until May 6th at the earliest.

The insane thing is, I had two friends traveling to Ma by car. One from Texas and one from south Florida. Neither had any trouble traveling and staying one night in any motel they wanted with no restrictions by any states. Even Virginia and Delaware will let you drive thru without issue. I just don't get it !

Gary 

That is ridiculous. I would think you are more prone to be infected or pass infection using hotels.  Great time to Boondock.  

Was good reading through everyone's comments. We are full-timers and were kicked out of a campground way back when this started. Basically we came to the conclusion we would have to react to changes due to the virus rather than to plan for them. In other words, set up our stops where we could stay long-term if necessary. Bought five pounds of rice and dried beans for our two week quarantine if that every happened.

Like others, we have spent weeks away from others for the most part and held up at two longer stays, one of which was a five week period where we had an entire 450 acre lake in a wooded campground with full hookups on a concrete pad. We stopped to think how lucky we were to have the spot where management said, we and the other three campers, could stay as long as needed. We could not have bought the view and experience for a million dollars. It was nice to see the various RV associations putting the word out to government to beware there are full-timers. That message got to at least one campsite who knocked on the door everyone needed to leave. But then granted an exception as this was our stay at home place. And that was a state run campground!

Beginning weeks ago we decided only full hookups for now to avoid public bathrooms. That is still the case for us until 6/11/20 when we are moving to our first without them. So far we have been in three states during all this news. We have been keeping up on press briefings by various Governors regarding their state we anticipated moving to at sometime during the summer. 

Just thought I'd pass along what we are doing in the near term. Be safe. We continue to do our best to live like it's still the first weeks of the virus, although I suspect it was running around the country weeks before we knew it was a problem.  

I'm finding comfort in reading about the history of pandemics as I try and guess what might happen during this one in the end. Apparently it's common that concern for pandemics to end when folks feel more comfortable and decide enough is enough, returning to a resemblance of life before the pandemic. That's happening now I suspect. 

My wife and I are going to stay reasonably vigilant. I'm hoping reoccurrences or flair-ups will be less concerning as we at least now know the virus is running around. Sure was a concerning time when we got the first knock on the door to move months ago. As a full-timer it's scary to wonder where you can go and live without tracking across the country. We are having no problem finding a home certainly between the 200 miles we like to travel a day.

at is going to perhaps get interesting is this fall during what is usually the flu season. When we start moving towards our winter locations and if the virus thing picks up again. Might force a decision do we stay north in the cold or go ahead and move south. We lived through changing plans when this thing first hit. Suppose we can live through it again if needed should it fire back up during the snowbird migration south.  Not sure yet what details I'll be watching to make the decision. Maybe if the kids are going to school and if so in which states. But more than likely I'll just base our moves off what we used moving north this year which was looking at Governors press briefings and if there were stay-at-home orders. 

olderthandirt wrote:

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The posts on this thread make for an interesting read, and frankly, they concern me for how some are viewing this virus. 'Confirmed cases' are based on the number of tests performed and its logical to assume that the numbers only represent the tip of the iceberg worldwide when you consider total populations. Only now are we starting to ramp up testing in the U.S. so we won't know the severity here until our 'wave' reaches its crest. Italy should be a stark reminder of the potential of this virus. The wave still hasn't fully impacted Africa and other parts of Asia and there's always the possibility of the virus ebbing in the summer months only to return more potent next fall. We just don't have a good handle on it right now. Most of us on this thread are in the 'high risk' category, so my advice for whatever its worth to you, is to stay cool, be vigilant and be open to the possibility that it may eventually affect you. This is about more than just hoarding TP.

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 This is the best advice I have read to date. Your a wise person! Stay safe 

The mask also prevents infecting others!

wise post 😉