is panic-buying selfish?

[cherryx30x]

so I'm sure this is going to be a very mixed opinion but hard hat at the ready. I'm not talking adding a few extra tins of soup to your trolley.

but to take packs and packs of nappies. and all the vitamins. all the medication like paracetomal and calpol?

someone on my facebook was unable to get calpol for her toddler who is actually ill because people had bought the lot in a blind panic. like she said her kid now has to suffer with a temperature because people have bought it over a virus they may not even get and that may only cause them a cough on the mildest end.

I think its extremely over the top to be wiping out the alcohol gel sanitizers (again I know someone with a premature baby who always has them on hand as she has to be a lot more careful who has been unable to find any anywhere), nappies, baby wipes, medications and vitamins

sorry but to me this is just selfish and takes away from people who actually need them. educate yourself and follow basic hygiene- dont wipe out the stores of stuff you probably wont even need and take away from those who currently actually need them

• [Please note, thread title edited by MNHQ - was originally 'Is prepping selfish?']

Just catching up.
Theres always one!
The majority of people are not away from water for hours at a time. I don't know anyone that is. This is bullshit.
Wrong. I can be away from it for 4hrs a day. Amazing how you know jack shit about other jobs for such an expert!

get a drink and wash their hands during the day like everyone else can.
Nope we have to hide our company provided water bottles, water only, at tills. We can't just fuck off when we want to.

I don't know anyone that works in a shop or on a building site. Most people I know are either working very low-paid office jobs
Then why are you stating the above as facts if you've no bloody clue?

5%are you just pulling figures out of thin air to make yourself look goid now?
I can ask to go.to the loo if absolutely necesssry but if i did that every time some idiot coughed or sneezed on the shopping or me or licked their fingers before handing over notes i would be up and down like a yoyo and take 10 minutes to go to staff loos and back at a time is a lot of time not working so i would be in trouble pdq!

Actually our store took on more staff in past 6 months. We can have 5 checkouts and 8 self service going at once for hours a day.
You obviously have no idea how
supermarkets work.

Hand sanitizers are completely sold out at all the boots! Online it's like £8 for a tiny bottle!!! The panic has already started.

What the fuck? The nappies!! No!

I really don’t understand some of the things people have been panic buying. I went to four separate supermarkets looking for rubber gloves (I hate doing housework without a pair) and literally all of them were sold out! Just why?

If everyone is buying everything why are the markets down? I smell a rat.

All our local stores have a limit of 2 paracetamol containing products per customer, so it would be lots of people buying 2 each, each time before the stock ran out. That's if the shelf was fully stocked to begin with.

"Hand sanitizers are completely sold out at all the boots! Online it's like £8 for a tiny bottle!!! The panic has already started."

Not the ones by us they're not. And dont worry, they can order more in!!!

Calpol is a basic medicine to keep in if you have children. Sometimes we would end up throwing away as past the sell by date but we always kept a bottle in regardless.

We’ve done a large prep shop online just in case this weekend, all will be used if we don’t get sick but I wanted peace of mind the children have everything they need if we can’t get out.

And dont worry, they can order more in!!!

I run a childcare business - our big suppliers can't supply hand sanitiser. They're replying to orders saying they are struggling to get supplies and it's likely to be weeks.

Much of it is made in China

Just use soap and water then!! Honestly, all this talk about panic buying, makes more people panic. The shops are full by me, no empty shelves at all.

That's great @TabbyMumz but it's not the same everywhere ,I live near the centre of a Large town ,there was loads of empty shelves in my local Asda yesterday ,as I said upthread I'm struggling to find age 8-15 night time pull ups for my disabled child whose in nappies full time and this has been the case for weeks now and it's all the supermarket,s

Unfortunately soap and water isn't terribly portable. We have to go outside our premises. The recommendations require hand washing/sanitising on arrival at the settings, but if the toilets aren't by the doors (which ours aren't) then the kids have to walk through the place touching numerous surfaces on the way to wash their hands with soap and water. So we do actually need hand gel.

Sanitiser is sold out around me, seems to be across the city from talking to colleagues. Even basic soap is getting hard to come by, as are antibac cleaning sprays (our large Tesco was completely cleared of it last night)

"Unfortunately soap and water isn't terribly portable."
Yes. It is. Ever heard of a bottle or even a big plastic camping water container, stick it in the boot of the car along with some soap. Much better than hand sanitizer.

Everywhere I went yesterday had handwashing gel and basic soap. All this panic makes it worse. You dont need anti bac stuff, it's a virus, not a bacteria.

You're using an imaginary car to transport it, for a start. I'm not talking about a childminder with

You dont need anti bac stuff, it's a virus, not a bacteria.

60% alcohol gel does work. This has been referenced numerous times.

@StatisticallyChallenged I don’t know your setting, so can’t comment on your new routines. However, in relation to trips, if you’re needing to buy huge quantities of hand gel, maybe outings that don’t include a venue with facilities need to be cancelled?

@WhatUmm I think the point being made was that you don’t need the 60% alcohol anti bac gel, if you have access to soap and water. They’ll do the same job.

maybe outings that don’t include a venue with facilities need to be cancelled?

How do you know the standard of facilities before you get there? Even some decent department stores/shopping malls have pretty dire toilets - sometimes no hot water, sometimes no soap, etc. As for railway stations and motorway services stations - the same applies - more often than not, they're not properly equipped. Local council run ones (car parks etc) are also usually pretty dire. For attractions, it's a lottery whether they'll have soap and hot water.

Ironically, I've found the best places to be are airports - usually plenty of loos, and nearly always clean and fully operational.

I think the point being made was that you don’t need the 60% alcohol anti bac gel, if you have access to soap and water.

I thought that was obvious and well known. Hot water and soap first, but if you can't do that, then use gel. Surely that's common sense.

Your post said “60% alcohol does work. This has been referenced numerous times”

I assumed you thought the poster was suggesting it didn’t work. Otherwise saying what you did was very random. I was pointing out that’s not what they meant.

We’ve been running down our Brexit stash (built up gradually during 2019) and were going to start increasing it again from about September 2020.

I have bought a few extras this week to build it up again (tins, personal toiletries and cold meds / painkillers) and think we would be ok (but living on a pretty boring diet) for about a month.

We have a couple of bottles of hand soap left and, as we are quite outdoorsy, I’ve found 2 full and 2 half full bottles of 60% hand sanitizer (in various rucksacks / pockets) that we’ll all be using when we are out and about (we’ll continue going out until we’re told otherwise). I’ve really been pushing hand washing - everyone now has to wash their hands immediately when they come into the house and we’ve stepped up the cleaning - wiping phones, door handles, light switches. This takes hardly any extra time and I’m hoping that this is doing our bit to stop it spreading.

"Unfortunately soap and water isn't terribly portable."
Yes. It is. Ever heard of a bottle or even a big plastic camping water container, stick it in the boot of the car along with some soap. Much better than hand sanitizer.

@TabbyMumz

please please please don't start this again.

Soap and water isn't ALWAYS portable enough or available.
I'm sure you can think of examples. Some of those people have been on here.
Shop workers
post men
bus drivers
building site workers
many people on public transport
people with disabilities who couldn't carry all the extras on a commute

I'm sure you could think of others Tabby

So for those people YES 60% plus hand sanitiser in a little bottle in their pocket is a great interim measure between soap and water washing.

These hand sanitisers break down the 'envelope' around the virus which then will degrade.

@user1497207191

If I take a class on a trip to a farm, that I’ve previously visited, know the facilities, and subsequently phone ahead to check you can still wash the hands of - large group - then I would be certain it was fine.

If I was taking a class on a walk round the local area, then using park toilets, that would be an outing I’d currently consider cancelling.... sorry if you thought I meant all outings for all people - I was referring to childcare settings and schools.

I’m not sure what the issue with hand sanitizer is?

Wash your hands in warm water and soap, for at least 20 seconds, if you’ve got access to it. If not, then use 60% alcohol hand sanitizer. We are washing our hands properly when we can but carrying hand sanitizer for when we can’t (after using public transport, for example).