haresfur wrote:
 

It's like the admonition to not touch your face... only causes people to touch their face more often.

 KurtfromLaQuinta wrote:
 
To put the best light on it, people don't tend to keep a prudent amount of supplies on hand until they are confronted with a crisis then try to fix it and often over-react. Also, people need to feel like they are doing something about a problem so they don't feel helpless. That's not entirely a bad thing until they go overboard or start fighting over TP.

Yeah, I made sure I had a modest stash of things in case I get stuck inside for a couple of weeks. Had a friend stuck in self-quarantine after returning from Italy. Luckily he made the trip without his partner so she moved out and was able to pitch supplies over the fence to him (ok, actually she left them at the door).

 cc_rider wrote:
 
Yeah right. The number of times I've been in a takeout place here or the US where the person assembling your food, wearing plastic gloves, pauses to take your money without taking their gloves off...

 ScottFromWyoming wrote:
 

Money? You mean that stuff you see people carry in old movies? I'm liking my fitbit pay.

Google Scrubs Coronavirus Misinformation on Search, YouTube

 KurtfromLaQuinta wrote:
 
Bottled water...don't get it.
Paper towels?  No idea.

Toilet paper...Not something I want to do without. 

Logic tells you not to worry....they'll be plenty...but logic isn't always a self-serving way to make decisions.  If every idiot in your town thinks they need 6 months of toilet paper instead of the 6 weeks they normally have on hand when buying at Costco, then Costco will sell 4X the normal amount of TP.  If you run leaner...2 weeks of inventory, then you start wondering if you have to join the panic.  Add in the fact that the entire country is at risk (unlike a natural disaster or storm), and the mind wanders into all types of crazy scenarios.

I'm not a gun person, but having seen how people reacted during superstorm Sandy, civilization is always about 3 days away from chaos.  I ended up driving 5-gallon gas cans to friends and co-workers in the worst-hit areas, and I could have sold them for $50 or $100 each.  In the time it took to transfer 10 cans to a friend, I had 4 people stop and ask if I was selling it.  I filled them up 20 miles away without waiting...my area wasn't impacted.  That week around here...people were running for empty gas cans the moment Home Depot opened at 6am.

Scenarios like these require intelligent, trustworthy leadership.  Electing a President shouldn't be only about abortion and the second amendment, it needs to include some trust in times of great distress and chaos, and prioritization of having teams in place to address the issues immediately when needed.  Political "yes men" without the experience and skills needed to solve complex problems are going to get a lot of people killed someday... 

 KurtfromLaQuinta wrote:
 

We live in a just-in-time world. Most grocers have about 3-days worth of inventory...if there was a 'crisis'towns and cities  would run out of food pretty quick. One of the problems of living in an 'efficient' society. 

 KurtfromLaQuinta wrote:
 
So no current crisis?

 black321 wrote:
 

I went to Costco yesterday to get some paper towels. Mind you... this was just getting some because we were running out.
I was shocked, SHOCKED at the paranoid people buying toilet paper, paper towels and bottled water by carts (plural) full!
They ran out of bottled water in the 5 minutes I was there... right after they opened!
So explain to me: does corona virus cause massive amounts of diarrhea where you need to hoard toilet paper? Why the paper towel hoarding?
And don't get me started on the bottled water.
What would happen if there was truly a crises here?
Really?

Governor of New York has activated the National Guard

 rgio wrote:
 
sounds reasonable.
I also wonder if they are taking steps to clean those dirty security tray bins.  
And yes, i am flying soon. 

 black321 wrote:
 
It's not an effective way to identify the virus, as it takes 2 to 10 days for the first signs to appear post-infection.  It also has the potential to create panic (the guy in front of me....) and falsely trap healthy people (I just ran from Terminal B...).    What do you do with the people who are running hot in the middle of your airport?  Even if you catch them outside....they've been in line next to all of the others.

These things are really hard to stop unless you isolate everyone for 2 weeks.

I wonder, why aren't the airports taking passenger temperatures yet? 

 ScottN wrote:
 

Wow. O'Hare is an airport I've been through many times, and it was always packed.

 ScottN wrote: 

 black321 wrote:
 
Yeah, several local stores are out of, or rationing, bleach. Which has the potential for, uh, 'unintended consequences'. Many of us out here in the 'country' have aerobic septic systems that use bleach to sterilize the effluent before spraying it on the yard. Without bleach, people could be forced to spray under-treated effluent on their yards: sure sounds like a public health hazard to me. It's a fairly low risk for now, the systems use a pretty small amount of bleach. But still, panic-buying of bleach (or anything for that matter) could cause problems at least as bad as the virus.
c.

Spotty sick leave policies limit options for avoiding virus

Supermarkets are now rationing many staples, and looking for new ways to service the demands of self-isolating consumers. Delivery sales, which were only about 4% of sales, are rising. 
There's going to be pain for a lot of borderline retailers, smaller regional chains...

 ScottFromWyoming wrote:
 Okay, not the image I wanted in my head this morning.

But yeah, didn't some lab swab a bunch of bills from circulation, and found all manner of bad stuff on them? I'm pretty sure hand-washing after handling money is already a required food-safety procedure (in the US anyway).
c.

 Red_Dragon wrote:
 

It's pure cotton and gets carried in pants. Not washing your hands after handling bills is roughly equivalent to fondling raspy's undershorts then going for a sandwich.