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?']

cookiecrumble8888

there is 500mg in one paracetamol. A spoonful of calpol has 125mg of paracetamol in. So depending on the age of a child a 500mg broken in half would be double the dose safe for them. Hopefully anyone who considers using that advise compares the dose of a childs liquid paracetamol dose first. Children under 4 need 125mg. An adult does is 1000mg

It depends on the age of your child. Obviously a 10 year old can have a larger dose than a 3 month old for example. You will need to work out the dose suitable for your child's age.

I went Asda yesterday to pick up my normal bits I’m not a prepper as such but I always have extra supplies just in case. I think it originated with mum running low during the petrol strike for anyone who remembers!

Yesterday hand wash was low, painkillers were low. I didn’t notice if anything else was but it was busier than normal.

I saw a couple with a trolley full of muller rice but assumed it was for a community event but with hindsight maybe not?

Yep I agree. Just thought I'd state that because some people would not think!

I am pharmacy counter trained. Lady came in once to buy baby aspirin for a toddler. I had to tell her baby aspirin did not mean it was for under 16s it meant it's a low dose. People are not always smart.

The amount of people saying calprofen was confusing them too. Well read the label not the brand. It's ibruprofen made by the Calpol brand. Just like Calpol is paracetamol.

Wasn't a dig at you just a point to anyone who would just crush half a tablet thinking that was the same dose as 5ml of calpol.

Are people actually 'panic buying ' though?
I went out and bought some ibuprofen/ paracetamol to cover two adults, two kids for 2 weeks. That's 4 x more than I would buy in a year usually but just a few of packets, couple of Calpol.
And if most people do this - which seems sensible given that we are on a verge of a major breakout of a virus that can be alleviated by those products - then of course the shelves are going to be looking empty as the supermarkets hadn't planned for that change in buying pattern.

Most of the shelves are still stock well with most items ( hand gel aside) where we are.

'Lady came in once to buy baby aspirin for a toddler. I had to tell her baby aspirin did not mean it was for under 16s it meant it's a low dose. People are not always smart.'

Bit harsh! I wouldn't have known that 'baby' aspirin was low dose rather than something for kids. But that's why pharmacists are there, right? To steer us idiots right.

Yep that's why I stated to not just break a paracetamol on half and crumble it as it's 250mg! Might not be something people consider.

Nothing harsh about it. Low dose asprin is or any asprin is not for under 16s. Low dose asprin is often used to thin blood etc. That's why it's behind the counter and can't be purchased from the shelf. Not sure what made her think it was a tablet for toddlers. But that's why we have to be careful with medicines and doses.

@slippermaiden

There's been a shortage of both for a while. And people need paracetamol for things other than tooth extraction.

I've made sure I've got a months worth of prescribed and OTC (ibuprofen funnily enough) meds in stock.

No one can mass buy calpol or paracetamol its sale is limited per customer so your 'friend' not being able to buy it I find very strange. I've just stocked up on it after reading this thread and both are available everywhere.
Bulk buying loo rolls and rice etc tbf the shelves will empty if people increase their purchases by at little as 5% as our country runs on a just in time supply chain. These selfish people don't exist it's just normal people buying a bit more and the shops struggling to catch up.
Lastly peppers are totally different we were already stocked up.

*peppers 😂

Yes it's very selfish, I couldn't get any hand soap this morning as part of my normal shop and some things I didn't need (luckily) were completely unavailable such as toilet paper, pasta, tinned tomatoes and baked beans.

Thankfully we don't live hand to mouth and can drive to other shops/look online etc. Panic buyers need to consider others without such flexibility when they're clearing shelves.

You legally cannot buy two calpol.....the government brought in a clause so that you aren’t allowed to be sold two packs of paracetamol
You can buy 2 pks of anything with paracetamol in it at once. You cant buy 2 pkts of paracetamol and a bottle of calpol or anything else with paracetamol in it together.

@cherryx30x honestly you’re wasting your breath. They’ve joined a cult. It’s contagious and the madness just gets more extreme. I’m hoping though with every person who starts a thread like this it might provide a bit of balance to the ones that are spreading panic.

This from the person who has been ranting like a lunatic and being vile to other posters on another thread!

You can't mass buy calpol. There are restrictions. Have been for years.

You can only buy 16 paracetamol at a supermarket

And 32 at a chemist.

You shouldnt be allowed two packets at a supermarket at all. There are restrictions imposed.

The restrictions are meaningless. I can go to Tesco, then Boots, then Superdrug, then Sainsbury, then Wilko, then every shop that sells them and buy as many packets as I like. What are you talking about?

Nothing at all wrong with buying the odd extra item, i.e. 2 packs of loo rolls instead of 1 or a couple of 4 packs of beans. It's what most sensible people do anyway, i.e. buy more when on offer or to prepare for winter etc over several weeks.

People buying several packs of loo rolls or a trolley full of baked beans are selfish and stupid and the shops need to stop them doing it. How about a blanket ban on buying more than, say, 4 of the same item so there'll be stock for all?

Why is it only selfish to hoard hand gel and cleaning products? Why are people not complaining about people hoarding money, or designer handbags, or trainers, or houses, or land or anything else that money can buy?

The only reason you think like because you have been brainwashed and programmed to think like this.

Hand soap totally sold out here. Even the expensive method stuff.

I'm sure you can use shower gel, bubble bath etc as hand soap as the ingredients are basically the same. Just decant it into a hand soap bottle. This is what I'm planning to do when we run out of soap.

In a real pinch - washing up liquid. It's highly concentrated so you can water it down.

I've got neck from tescos today there was no 6+ calpol left very little baby calpol left no hand gel etc fortunately all I wanted was neurophen for kids which was low stock and a brand I've never seen before

You shouldnt be allowed two packets at a supermarket at all. There are restrictions imposed
The tills decide how many packets you are allowed. They allow 2 pkts of any paracetamol based product at a time. The maximum amount of paracetamol in a packet is 16. Pharmacists can sell more attheir discression.

You can buy two products at one place Containing paracetamol. If you want more you go to another shop or pharmacy. It's abit daft but I guess it slows people down at least. If you need a large amount you can be prescribed a large box of 96 etc.

There are at least 50 places I can buy paracetamol within a 15 minute walk of where I live. In an hour or two I could buy 50 boxes if I felt like it. The restrictions are meaningless. Why are you even bothering to discuss this?

Well, I went to Sainsbury’s after reading this.
Zero anti bac
Staff trying to fill the empty shelves of toilet roll and all paracetamol , inc calpol. The only single one I found was the Calpol 6+ meltlets.

I got to the check out and got ID’s and the staff said “you’re lucky you got those”

Fuck sake 😬

We accidentally have 8 big packs of loo roll. Everyone in the house thought "oh I'll just grab a couple" 😂

Yes you can make the conscious decision to walk into several pharmacies and supermarkets and buy more paracetamol, but the restrictions are in place to ensure that a single place doesn't sell a lethal amount. In the years following it's introduction, overdoses reduced dramatically, even if the data is flawed and some of it is down to coincidence, the figures are high enough to suggest at least some correlation (there isn't up to date data so possibly no impact now). In my opinion it is still worthwhile, I used to work in a pharmacy, and if I had sold as an individual person an amount to someone vulnerable (obviously you can't tell just by looking at someone to make that judgement) who had then had an overdose, that would be hard to live with. Perhaps that is selfish, and to be honest even if it stops one person (accidental overdoses also reduced) then happy days. If you require more than 16 or 32 you can have them prescribed; if you wish to pay for them instead of for a prescription as it costs the NHS so much you can have up to 100.

Anyway.