COVID-19 and FOG

Well I hope everyone has had a good winter. COVID-19 is here and it's going to be here for some time. How is that going to affect us and what are some good practices:
1/ First of all be really careful with social media, might even be best to just ignore it. Everyone who passed grade 8 with a D- now thinks they're a world expert on everything. The provincial health officer who is trained for these things will make reasonable rational decisions and recommendations. They will be posted here. Spreading false information and theories only causes more stress. Stress in turn decreases ones immunity and then guess what.
2/ Realise that it's going to be here for some time. Think in terms of months, not weeks. The few week school cancellation (and mass hysteria around it) is not going to halt COVID-19, it's just going to slow things down.
3/ A lot of us will get this.
4/ If there's a good chance I'll get this anyway why bother trying to slow things down/"flatten the curve"? A small percentage of people (especially those in the typical FOG age group) will develop serious medical issues. Normally they'd receive intensive care in hospital and most would recover. The issue is that there is not enough hospital capacity to treat those people if there is a sudden surge. Ontario for example has only one free ventilator for every 100,000 people (no info for MB, but won't be significantly different). Make no mistake, there will be a surge in infections. It doesn't take much to realise that if there's a typical pandemic surge, most of the people who require intensive care won't be able to get it and the results will be dire.
5/ Keep exercising. There is evidence that mild to moderate exercise is good for the immune system. On the other hand keep in mind that intense exercise weakens the immune system. Normally hammerheads and racers would be increasing the intensity of their rides at this time of year. Although I hate the term base building the best recommendation would be to do those kinds of rides (keep heart rate about 65% of max) at this time.
6/ Solo outside rides are still fine. Although outdoors is safer than indoors, groups, even outside are going to increase ones risk.
7/ When will we start Saturday rides? The board is monitoring developments. This year the decision on when to start group rides will likely not be dictated by when the snow melts, but rather by other factors. Realistically anything in April will be a real stretch.
8/ Yeah the trainer sucks, but exercise helps the immune system and will alleviate some boredom and if you get this you want to be as fit as possible. If watching bike racing helps pass the time FloBikes has an archive of most of the major races going back a couple of years. Everything that you'd like to know about watching cycling on TV can found on our website here.
9/ Gabriel Martins has some good fact based information here.