Panic buying Is it survival instinct or greed?

Has the survival instinct taken over? Are we like the squirrels that hide their nuts? Is that why we as a population are behaving in this idiotic way? How long does a bar of soap or a soap dispenser last? I think more than a week, even with a lot of hand washing, and don’t people usually have a spare in their homes anyway? Cleaning materials, suddenly we are all spring cleaning? Toilet paper rolls, what the hell are people buying a massive surplus for? Not to mention fresh vegetables, has everyone gone vegan?

I couldn’t believe it yesterday when my granddaughter called me yesterday and told me that the shelves at her local supermarket were empty. All the soaps and cleaning materials were gone, also the long life milk and fresh vegetables. The toilet paper aisle was empty.

I later found out that the same thing had happened in our supermarket. Why do people hoard toilet paper rolls, we just self-isolate for a week? What are they going to do with dozens of toilet paper rolls? Tissues would be more appropriate with flu-like symptoms. When I heard about it earlier on TV, I thought it was an isolated incident, obviously not!

Now I can understand a bit of food hoarding, you’re not likely to be hungry with a virus, but a few extra eggs or a two can of soup, a loaf of bread for the freezer, etc. It would make sense and be reasonable, because most people have enough of most things in their freezer to last them a week. We are only told to isolate ourselves for 7 days!

It’s a bit like Christmas or holidays where people leave the store with horribly stacked carts only to come back two days later for more. Does the surplus go to the dump for the landfill, or is that why so many people are obese or there are too many supplies?

I was a wartime baby and for several years we survived on meager rations sustained by home-grown vegetables. This developed ingenious measures of housewives producing nutritious meals from next to nothing. I remember bones for dinner, it was my favorite, which was a light and flavorful soup made from bones and vegetables. However, the nation was not obese and certainly much healthier. We as a population have become selfish and greedy without much of the spirit of wartime, let’s hope that when the virus really hits, people will start to stop and think before emptying the supermarket in the future, and start thinking about their neighbors and the elderly.

Now, both my ninety-nine year old mother and I are in the high risk zone, but we can only act sensibly, not visit crowded places, etc. and I hope that the fact that we live in a village gives us a degree of protection. Or maybe if we’re going to get the virus, now is the time before hospitals are overwhelmed. Whatever it is will be?

Travel accelerated the rapid spread of the virus, but even in the Middle Ages, a trader brought the Black Death into the country and it soon spread like wildfire.

I’ve been reading some suggestions from an alternative medicine book and it seems that garlic is an excellent viral inhibitor, as is selenium, which is found in Brazil nuts. Vitamin C and E are immune boosters. Maybe we should all be drinking multivitamins as a precaution and eat more fruit. Garlic is also available in unflavored pills. Perhaps buying these instead of toilet paper rolls would be more helpful!