Bored of the madness

[2dogsand1baby]

So now I can't buy toilet paper or nappies in my local store and can't book a doctors appointment...!

I get the "fear of the unknown" but seriously!?

It's no worse than flu! Flu kills too and (most) people don't panic buy every winter. COVID only seems to be affecting people with underlying health issues. The flu vaccine doesn't always work as influenza changes all the time. I don't get it.

I'm just so bored of all the drama.

Unless I'm missing some vital information that hasn't been shared publicly?????

Wow. I'm sorry I seem to have offended so many people.

I don't understand the need to get so nasty. Look how hard you all are behind your phones and computers 👏

I still maintain that this ridiculous level of panic buying is just that - ridiculous. Those saying you have elderly parents etc, how would you feel if they needed milk and couldn't get it because John Smith has bought a 6 month supply "just in case"?!

I'm not uneducated, I'm just expressing an opinion. Get over yourselves.

Thank you those of you that have expressed opinions in civilised manners without any sense of attack.

@todayisnottuesday - the voice of reason.

I don't understand the need to get so nasty. Look how hard you all are behind your phones and computers

I still maintain that this ridiculous level of panic buying is just that - ridiculous.

Well said OP - I couldn’t agree more.

I was a fit, healthy person with no underlying health issues when Swine flu swept the country.

I contracted it. I was very ill. I was hospitalised for 3 weeks. Had Sepsis and liver failure. My iron levels plummeted to dangerous levels.

It took me 6 months to recover.

So Coronavirus is not 'just flu'. It can kill people. We must all take reasonable precautions to avoid it.

We should not panic. But we must not be dismissive.

OP, did you read the post about NHS not having capacity to treat everyone who needs it?

People will die of this, and more people will die of things that would usually be cured.

Why do you think Italy has shut down?

And imo you are uneducated about this issue.

It isn't flu. It doesn't only affect frail people.

@picklemewalnuts You may be right. Which is why I have thanked several posters for articles they have shared links to.

But buying 6 months' worth of supplies is still not necessary or fair on others.

I also think balance is required, there is definitely some hysteria going on, the media is making it worse, but some folks have lost their heads and predicting end of world scenarios. It was similar with brexit. Yes it’s a concerning situation and reaction needs to be balanced and appropriate.

I mean there is even people fighting over toilet paper in supermarkets, some of the threads on here are batshit “ we are all screwed, it’s a disaster!” Kinda stuff. People panic buying like its Armageddon.

People feed off of each other’s panic, it’s always the same.

And I know of a person near us who has just booked a skiing trip to Italy. Sorry but I see that as selfish.

Completely agree with OP that the panic buying is insane. At the start, there was an old man at our local supermarket who filled a trolley with toilet rolls. Unless toilet roll has some magic properties we don't know about? Even if we all take an extra 1 or 2, it will cause shortages. Completely unnecessary.

^This is the other end of the scale though. How stupid would you have to be?

This..

some of the threads on here are batshit “ we are all screwed, it’s a disaster!” Kinda stuff.

That’s MN for you.

@2dogs at anytime, any one of us could be asked to self isolate. When that happens, I want to have two weeks supply of milk, loo roll, general food.

If one of us shows positive within that time, then it will be more than two weeks self isolation, and we will need a lot of paracetamol/ibuprofen.

That's not panic buying, it's sensible planning.

@picklemewalnuts Agree. We have extra in the freezer.

But this is different to 6 months worth!

I always have a loaf of bread, milk and a few other bits in the freezer 'just in case'. But not to the point where it prevents others from having necessities.

They have shut all the ski centres in Italy. They'd be better going to Scotland.

Ah so you are just being prepared, it's other people who are stock-piling.

@Porcupineinwaiting No more than I normally am though! At any time one of us could be struck down with flu. I had a URTI last winter and was off work for a week.

OP, when you ask people how they would feel if their elderly relatives couldn't get milk because John Smith had bought 6 months worth, this is where you are showing your lack of understanding.
If a situation unfolds, similar to Italy, everybody will have difficulty getting milk. Not just because John Smith bought 6 months worth a few weeks before the outbreak spread, but because stores are closed and people are told to stay in their homes and self-isolate.

Getting a bit of extra in now, while stores are open and delivery drivers are working actually makes sense. It's the 'only flu' who will be running around like crazy snatching everything if parts of the country go into lockdown.

Not everyone can afford to buy lots more now. Some people I know in the travel and events business have lost their hours and don't have income for the foreseeable future.

Not everybody has large fridges/freezers. So non-perishable items, such as toilet roll, pasta paracetamol and soap are in the news. My local Sainsbury's have had stock of everything and I haven't seen people panic buying (London). But I've put a few extras in my basket each time. Some stores had supply issues anyway because of lack of output from China.

I dont think there are many/any people suddenly buying 6 months worth of anything (exceptposdibly loo roll for some reason). I think an awful lot of people are getting in a week or two of long life food just in case, which is bloody sensible, and that's enough to empty shelves for a day or so.

And then another bunch of people come on an lambasted them for daring to plan ahead.

Say everyone buys one pack of pasta a week, one pack of toilet roll a fortnight, one pack of paracetamol a month. The shops know this and can stock accordingly.

Suddenly they think "I'm not going to panic buy like those idiots but I will make sure I'm stocked up" and pop two packs of pasta, two lots of toilet roll and two packets of tablets in their basket all at once. If everyone does that then that's twice as much pasta sold, four times as much loo roll and eight times as many painkillers sold than would usually be sold at that precise point in time, so yeah, shelves will empty even if nobody piles their trolley high and goes mad. And that's without people then seeing the spaces and thinking "ooh I'll get some just in case".

Nobody needs to go crazy or stockpile selfishly for shortages to happen. Every single person "getting a few extras in just in case" contributes to it.

mobile.twitter.com/jasonvanschoor/status/1237142891077697538

@michaelbaubles so when all of a sudden we go on lockdown like the whole of Italy did yesterday and you can’t get to the shop to buy anything and can’t feed your family because you didn’t buy a few extras just in csse, who’s door will you be knocking on?

The people who did take sensible precautions I’m guessing?

I really hope it's still boring you this time next week.

I'm not criticising - I did my stock up shop two weeks ago and always have plenty of toilet roll and medicine in the cabinets. I'm firmly pro-prepper!

I'm just pointing out that every person frothing about people "going crazy" and "stockpiling" has probably contributed to the shortages way more by just "picking up a few bits" than those of us who stocked up before this all started kicking off.

And if we don’t go on lockdown well hey, we don’t need to go shopping for a few weeks and can avoid having to be around everyone that’s coughing and sneezing all over the food in Tesco. Everyone who won’t take this seriously will be mingling in amongst it all and will be more likely to catch it. To me it’s just sensible to plan ahead methodically and not take my chances. Being in a high risk category and having a 1 in 16 probability of dying from this based on the stats out of China, I’d like to think I’d be forgiven for picking up an extra 9 toilet rolls so I don’t have to go out into a petri dish over the next few weeks.

Wow OP you're very ignorant.

Bookmarking to come back in a month when the exponential growth in cases explodes and the nhs is drowning ( like 100 x worse than now).