I stocked up a bit, and it's mainly in case of everyone being quarantined at the same time. But, being anxious, I started very slowly adding one or two items a week some time back (for the last Brexit date), and have only done one larger top-up, again once I saw what was happening abroad.
I don't think it's wrong to prepare sensibly like that, especially if you've had periods of poverty in the past, and especially if you also donate to the foodbank too. And people who have done, who were then incidentally being accused of panicking unnecessarily, are now not the same people who are emptying the shelves at the last minute.
It feels like we're all blaming each other as individual families for over-blowing the situation, or panic-buying, or being greedy - rather than asking why people who are ill or elderly or on low incomes are having to shop from day to day, why the social security system that we all pay into actually isn't adequate when we do fall on hard times.
An epidemic does need some kind of government support and organisation. They should be housing homeless people, they should be redistributing taxes well enough so that everyone can live in dignity and with something to spare for times like these. They should be arranging better SSP for those isolating, and help for the self-employed/unemployed/carers.
Sorry for the rant, but have been thinking about this all day and getting more upset that there's so much criticism out there today. All this anger is dividing us all even more. Of course people shouldn't be getting in 6 months' worth of toilet roll all at the same time, but if they weren't so fearful and unsure of the future, then they probably might not react like that?