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Right now, people are in the throes of panic pandemic buying. This is manifesting in the bulk purchase of toilet paper, feminine products, cleaning/sanitizing wipes, masks of almost all kinds, bottled water and some pantry staples (rice, pasta). The masks were first (I have mentioned this before), but people have branched out from buying online and have apparently completely cleaned out all the hardware stores as well. Given that we need to be doing a lot of construction right now if we are ever going to get rent to come down, that is unfortunate, because people doing construction do actually need masks for some jobs. Also, you know, actual health care professionals actually doing their jobs need masks of a more specific type.
It is less clear what to think about the rest of the list. We noticed the wipes being out, because T.’s teacher specifically requested people to send in wipes because of colds and flu making the rounds. I am normally not a wipes sort of person, but I felt like it would be reasonable to help out since T. has definitely been contributing to germ dispersal. But, nope, I will not be helping out after all.
Before every significant weather event, R. says there is a French Toast Emergency, in which everyone goes to the store to buy milk, eggs and bread (the ingredients for French Toast, hence the term). I understand why this happens - a lot of people eat basically all of their meals out, and when they will be trapped at home for a day or so, they need something they can eat and drink. They probably drink the milk, toast the bread and fry the eggs. But I like to imagine that they have a jug of maple syrup and blueberries in the freezer and cinnamon in the cupboard and are doing it up right as french toast.
But for things like a looming pandemic, or Y2K, or whatever, people start thinking longer term. And when it comes to buying shit to store, longer term is a different list than the French Toast Emergency. There is: buy an Emergency Medical Kit. There is the Earthquake list (bottled water is significant on that one). But toilet paper is always one I find a little mysterious, especially when bought in bulk along with bottled water. What is the theory here? I mean, you have water (so the toilet is usable and the paper needed) but it is not potable? (ETA: If you do not have water to flush the toilet, then I guess I hope that there is also a run on baggies / trash bags?) Maybe? I dunno. The feminine products is particularly interesting. This seems to reflect stores getting cleaned out in areas closer to where there is actual illness spreading in the community. But it all really looks more like standard hoarding behavior (“I heard there is about to be a shortage of beef. Must buy all the steaks!” That was a self-fulfilling one from the 50s, I believe.).
People give advice saying, well, if you might be stuck at home in quarantine for a couple weeks, you will not be able to go to the store, so stock up to get you through. I mean, maybe? But South Korea has quarantined a bunch of areas ... and they are still doing food delivery. Like, from restaurants, there.
Advising people to stock up on the things that are least likely to go to waste might give people who need to do Something a minimally harmful target. That is sort of like vitamin C for a cold. You cannot do anything for a cold beyond rest and fluids anyway, but vitamin C is unlikely to do any harm (it might help, who knows!), so when a person with a cold wants something to do, you ask if they have taken their vitamin C, they take their vitamin C, everyone feels a moment of satisfaction and respite from the nagging urge To Do Something. But while stocking TP and so forth is not particularly expensive and one is probably going to eventually use the TP (if after the pandemic you realize you have way too many cleaning wipes and they are going to dry out before you use them, I guess I will suggest you donate them to a local school, preschool, daycare, whatever). But of course if too many people go out with a little too much disposable money to spend on TP and so forth, then you can actually stress that supply chain with hoarding behavior. Maybe this is not the best advice.
Straight up BAD advice is suggesting people prepare for an unlikely eventuality (what if you have to take care of a loved one in your home and not get sick yourself —heck this happens all the fucking time, but we normally do not think we need to have isolation gear to do it for colds and flu and strep and so forth) in a way that disrupts the supply chain for things that are actually quite necessary for people who are doing the work to avert the thing that is feared. If health care workers cannot protect themselves, this whole thing becomes self-fulfilling.
Honestly, if this thing is That Bad, us normies do not have the training to take care of each other and not get sick. So we better not make it so the people in the hospitals do not have the supplies to deal with it pre-emptively. And if it is not That Bad — if it really is circulating pretty widely and no one realizes their cold is actually not an enterovirus or a rhinovirus or a flu virus or whatever, but actually COVID-19 or whatever the current term of art is — then we are really being mean to all the people who are really sick with other things, because we are panicking about the wrong thing.
Do not buy masks unless you were already in the habit of buying masks for need prior to any of us hearing about all this coronavirus stuff. If you were buying masks before January (because you are dealing with particulates, or if your immune system is suppressed, or whatever), I feel for you, because your life got way harder recently for really exceptionally stupid reasons.
Get plenty of sleep. It is harder to be anxious and engage in manic pandemic hoarding behavior if you are all caught up on your sleep and calm.
If you are thinking you must Do Something to prepare, maybe go for a walk because outdoor exercise probably helps your immune system, and will help you think more clearly.
It is less clear what to think about the rest of the list. We noticed the wipes being out, because T.’s teacher specifically requested people to send in wipes because of colds and flu making the rounds. I am normally not a wipes sort of person, but I felt like it would be reasonable to help out since T. has definitely been contributing to germ dispersal. But, nope, I will not be helping out after all.
Before every significant weather event, R. says there is a French Toast Emergency, in which everyone goes to the store to buy milk, eggs and bread (the ingredients for French Toast, hence the term). I understand why this happens - a lot of people eat basically all of their meals out, and when they will be trapped at home for a day or so, they need something they can eat and drink. They probably drink the milk, toast the bread and fry the eggs. But I like to imagine that they have a jug of maple syrup and blueberries in the freezer and cinnamon in the cupboard and are doing it up right as french toast.
But for things like a looming pandemic, or Y2K, or whatever, people start thinking longer term. And when it comes to buying shit to store, longer term is a different list than the French Toast Emergency. There is: buy an Emergency Medical Kit. There is the Earthquake list (bottled water is significant on that one). But toilet paper is always one I find a little mysterious, especially when bought in bulk along with bottled water. What is the theory here? I mean, you have water (so the toilet is usable and the paper needed) but it is not potable? (ETA: If you do not have water to flush the toilet, then I guess I hope that there is also a run on baggies / trash bags?) Maybe? I dunno. The feminine products is particularly interesting. This seems to reflect stores getting cleaned out in areas closer to where there is actual illness spreading in the community. But it all really looks more like standard hoarding behavior (“I heard there is about to be a shortage of beef. Must buy all the steaks!” That was a self-fulfilling one from the 50s, I believe.).
People give advice saying, well, if you might be stuck at home in quarantine for a couple weeks, you will not be able to go to the store, so stock up to get you through. I mean, maybe? But South Korea has quarantined a bunch of areas ... and they are still doing food delivery. Like, from restaurants, there.
Advising people to stock up on the things that are least likely to go to waste might give people who need to do Something a minimally harmful target. That is sort of like vitamin C for a cold. You cannot do anything for a cold beyond rest and fluids anyway, but vitamin C is unlikely to do any harm (it might help, who knows!), so when a person with a cold wants something to do, you ask if they have taken their vitamin C, they take their vitamin C, everyone feels a moment of satisfaction and respite from the nagging urge To Do Something. But while stocking TP and so forth is not particularly expensive and one is probably going to eventually use the TP (if after the pandemic you realize you have way too many cleaning wipes and they are going to dry out before you use them, I guess I will suggest you donate them to a local school, preschool, daycare, whatever). But of course if too many people go out with a little too much disposable money to spend on TP and so forth, then you can actually stress that supply chain with hoarding behavior. Maybe this is not the best advice.
Straight up BAD advice is suggesting people prepare for an unlikely eventuality (what if you have to take care of a loved one in your home and not get sick yourself —heck this happens all the fucking time, but we normally do not think we need to have isolation gear to do it for colds and flu and strep and so forth) in a way that disrupts the supply chain for things that are actually quite necessary for people who are doing the work to avert the thing that is feared. If health care workers cannot protect themselves, this whole thing becomes self-fulfilling.
Honestly, if this thing is That Bad, us normies do not have the training to take care of each other and not get sick. So we better not make it so the people in the hospitals do not have the supplies to deal with it pre-emptively. And if it is not That Bad — if it really is circulating pretty widely and no one realizes their cold is actually not an enterovirus or a rhinovirus or a flu virus or whatever, but actually COVID-19 or whatever the current term of art is — then we are really being mean to all the people who are really sick with other things, because we are panicking about the wrong thing.
Do not buy masks unless you were already in the habit of buying masks for need prior to any of us hearing about all this coronavirus stuff. If you were buying masks before January (because you are dealing with particulates, or if your immune system is suppressed, or whatever), I feel for you, because your life got way harder recently for really exceptionally stupid reasons.
Get plenty of sleep. It is harder to be anxious and engage in manic pandemic hoarding behavior if you are all caught up on your sleep and calm.
If you are thinking you must Do Something to prepare, maybe go for a walk because outdoor exercise probably helps your immune system, and will help you think more clearly.