Are you doing anything to prepare for a second wave?

[Emlou07]

Historically we are going to get one. Seeing pictures of places rammed is scary.

So if so, what are you doing to prepare? If only to make another potential lockdown a bit easier.

I've been picking up a couple of extra tins a week and some UHT milk. I've also put some bits aside for the kids to keep them entertained.

For those of us who got stuck with no food the first time round it’s not the worst idea to have a well stocked cupboard - I was actually ill for a month in March and April around lockdown and really struggled for food. And pet food hi h

I have stocked a cupboard of non perishables just in case but this is 2 weeks or so of food, so it is not ‘stockpiling’ which I would say is a lot more food than 2 weeks worth!

I don't think that MN has expanded into the after life yet, that's next year's update. maybe they’ll bring it in as part of Mumsnet premium....

would assume some people on here have very unfulfilling lives and want to feel needed. A second pandemic means there's more to threat about online, extra shopping to prep and store, scarves and gloves to buy in bulk confused. You get to say "I told you so" and the joy of these kinds of claims is they're so vague, you can claim that in most eventualities.

Or you could assume that some of us are at increased clinical risk, have children and other loved ones at increased risk, so have to consider the risks and take extra precautions to maximise everyone’s chances of emerging unscathed? And that some of us are in frontline, high-risk jobs and so are planning with that in mind?

I suppose that would just be too pleasant and empathetic a thought process for you to contaminate your murky brain with?

I’m going to buy all the soap, toilet roll, hand sanitiser, pasta, flour and eggs I can get my greedy little hands on. Fuck everyone else - they should have thought ahead and had at least 3 years savings. Did I just say that out loud?

@AlternativePerspective

Richard Doll, professor of epidemiology and medicine in the Nuffield Department of Population Health, University of Oxford, wrote this article:

www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/may/28/coronavirus-infection-rate-too-high-second-wave

What are your qualifications? You sound like you might just be guessing.

There weren't shortages in the shops due to people prepping, that was caused by people panic buying and being greedy! The preppers buying an extra couple of items every week had no impact whatsoever.

I'm doing a quick review of our larder and deep freeze today so I can restock what we've used most of and plan to use what we've used the least. There weren't any real issues for us luckily.

Nope. Nothing.

I also didn’t panic buy during the first wave and guess what? Absolutely no negative effects whatsoever. We survived!

They're not stupid, stupid people (although Im sure some are)....... they're just regular people trying to live some semblance of a life

So yesterday these non stupid people crammed themselves on to a beach which has one narrow steep path to enter and exit.

Hundreds of them (you can hear them) cheered and encouraged some extra-stupid people who were jumping from high up the arch into the sea.

Despite there being no life guards and the RNLI volunteers running very reduced services because of the risk of working together as a crew.

When inevitably two helicopters had to land to take 3 seriously injured cliff jumpers to hospital everyone on the beach had to be packed closely together at the bottom of the path to evacuate the beach so that the helicopters could land.

Meanwhile, despite the lack of rescue services etc, paddleboarders and kayakers were also out in force on the same beach.

I’d say there was a critical mass of stupid on that beach yesterday.

We've already got our logs and coal in for next winter. As soon as we can have tradespeople in the house again, I will get the sweep to come and sort out the chimney.

Have ordered a new freezer now they are back in stock - it's one specifically designed for keeping in a garage. I will be filling this with hearty food for the autumn/winter and lots of fresh pick your own fruit this summer to make pies, jams and crumbles later on.

My 'shop' of goods is pretty well-stocked now (cleaning stuff and tinned food and toiletries) so I'll just keep that topped up as necessary.

Booking groceries deliveries whenever I can get them - roll on September when Ocado takes on the M&S contract and I can at last get some of their food without going to the shop. Have not visited a shop since 10th March now!

Spain and Italy and others have come out of lockdown a lot faster than us with even restaurants and cafe’s open again and they haven’t seen surges in the virus

Very true but they got their infection rates way down first, our lockdown was so lax that the first steps out of it that Italy took put them where we were in late march in terms of restrictions.

With an R rate around 1, our 8000 community daily infections will not decrease, if you assume CV has a death rate of 1% (conservative) that's 80 early deaths per day until a vaccine is found or 8000 extra deaths every 100 days, Autumn/winter is 5 months or 200 days away, (16,000 extra deaths) going into the flu season with this virus very active in the community is madness but this is where we are heading.

TBF i think all of the above is now enevitabe, there is nothing that can be done to stop it, the public have no faith in Johnson, will obey the new rules and no longer fear CV as for 80% of us, its a mild illness.

@Rumtopf your username has just reminded me how to do fun fruit preservation. Thanks!

It's better to be prepared than not. We are normally prepared for bad weather or Brexit so this is not much different. If you've already got 6 weeks supply of toilet roll in the loft it means that what's in the supermarket can go to the old people or those who can't afford to forward purchase. I hope there isn't a second wave but we can't rule anything out.

No because it's people that do things like this lead to shortages last time VERY SELFISH

@Worriedaboutthefuture1 - Good one!

The issue here is people not understanding the difference between preparing and panic buying...

Buying a couple of extra tins a week is not panic buying. Going to the shops and buying 10 of everything, things you don't need and wont use, is panic buying.

An extra pack of paper and some more craft supplies for the kids isn't panic buying

But I do agree with PP's.. those who categorically say there will be no second wave absolutely live in cuckoo land.

Just because other countries haven't had a second wave YET, doesn't mean they wont.

There is no tin foil hat here, I'm just trying to he sensible incase other people start panic buying again and I can't get the things we would use week in week out anyway!

Thanks for the suggestions.

Spain and Italy and others have come out of lockdown a lot faster than us with even restaurants and cafe’s open again and they haven’t seen surges in the virus

Because the locked down properly and effectively and got the infection rate right down.

We didn’t.

Scientists say we are coming out of lockdown too soon.

Or you could assume that some of us are at increased clinical risk, have children and other loved ones at increased risk, so have to consider the risks and take extra precautions to maximise everyone’s chances of emerging unscathed? And that some of us are in frontline, high-risk jobs and so are planning with that in mind? but surely if you feel you need to take precautions then you do so regardless of what other people tell you you should be doing?

The problem with these threads are that they are designed to provoke fear. Rather than saying “what are you doing?” The message actually being portrayed is “you should be doing something. You should be panicking, if you don’t do something then you are at increased risk of running out.”

And it’s these kinds of threads which do provoke panic buying because they’re essentially encouraging it by saying that food etc will run out.

Why can people just not get on and do their own thing? Why do they need to find an audience to run their lives by?

And FWIW I am at increased clinical risk. I don’t need someone to tell me what I should and shouldn’t be doing. I know the risks if I catch COVID without needing to be hand-held through the process.

People talk about how we’re becoming the nanny state, and yet that’s exactly what some people want. Just because the government says you can go out, doesn’t mean you have to.

@Aridane

What’s the rationale in getting woolly hats? Clothes were easy to get at every stage of this.

Maybe there will be a run on wool hats as people lock down indoors and are trying to keep down heating costs????

That must be a joke ?

If not, that is the height of catastrophising. It was cold at the beginning of the lockdown but don’t remember a run on hats then.

As someone shielding a very clinically vulnerable child I'll listen to the experts thanks.

I'll make sure we have food, luckily as someone who grew up in poverty with not enough meals to go around I always have enough food to last us a while.

Everyone else needs to stop being so shitty, the government have handled this appallingly and as long as supermarkets keep their basic measurements in place to stop people buying a billion of everything there is no reason why people shouldn't put a couple of extra tins in their trolley to keep them going should they need to self isolate.

Soap, flour, medicines ( not just Paracetamol but for other ailments too), cards, stamps, kids next year school books just in case.

@Emlou07 thanks so much! You’ve just reminded me that I need to add biscuits to my massive ‘fuck you; I’m alright Jack’ list.

@AlternativePerspective

Why can people just not get on and do their own thing? Why do they need to find an audience to run their lives by

Why are you posting then? Why not just do your own thing quietly, as you seem to think everyone else should do?

We're trying to keep a week ahead, so we could do a week from cans, rice and the freezer if necessary. We have a UHT milk and a frozen loaf. This is in case we have to do 14 days isolation, as someone else mentioned. Beyond that, we're walking distance to about 7 supermarkets and have managed ok!

For goodness sake! The supply chain has only just recovered from the first bout of panic buying. Stop even thinking about doing that all again.

I’m also wondering why people are so sure a second wave will happen? I’m in Scotland and work for the nhs, at a meeting the other day we were told that they submit figures to command when planning for surges and have been told that the one in may hasn’t happened, the one in July isn’t looking likely now either and are now planning for September but I’m not holding my breath since I’m still waiting for the first 2, don’t get me wrong I’m glad they didn’t happen but I have serious fatigue now

Great point! Our stock has totally dwindled and as we have no car I'll have to try to bag a Tesco slot to stock up.