Keep calm but don’t carry on stockpiling
WELL, at least we’re not prone to indoctrination. You’d think after all the years of being exposed to the hundreds of products covered in the Keep Calm and Carry On slogan that we’d be conditioned to doing just that.
The not-so-subliminal message doesn’t seem to have penetrated, if the supermarket and chemist shelves are anything to go by.
There’s been no calm and a concerning amount of carry on – carry on stockpiling.
I genuinely needed to buy loo roll at the weekend but was too embarrassed to go to the shops after some of the mad scenes that were popping up on my Twitter feed.
People fighting over a 24-pack of Andrex. Folk storming Costco like there’s an approaching zombie apocalypse and filling their trolleys to tipping point with six-dozen rolls of toilet paper.
I didn’t want the same brush.
So I waited until nearly midnight on Saturday as I was coming home from the cinema to sneak into Asda Toryglen and buy some supplies. No luck.
The shelves were completely bare bar from some crumpled plastic wrap looking forlorn and abandoned.
Around the corner in the cleaning to be tarred with aisle the bleach was sadly depleted, and by “sadly depleted” I mean there was nothing left other than some really overpriced fancy stuff.
Which I suppose is another silver lining – that, despite behaving like they’re living through the precursor to economic collapse and rationing, people are still on the look out for a bargain.
Round at the soap aisle, you’d be silly to think there would be any left.
Paracetamol? Not. A. Chance. I bought a pint of milk – loads of that left – and went home to try another day.
There’s some issues here. Firstly, do people not normally wash? All the relentless reminders from the folks in authority (and quite right too, hand-washing being our best defence against disease) to wash our hands and suddenly there’s a run on soap.
What were people using before? Were they not washing their hands?
Hand sanitiser has become a hot commodity, selling online for above its market value. It’s a useful added extra but it’s not vital – just wash with soap and water.
Secondly, coronavirus is like the flu – it affects your respiratory system. Why are people stockpiling toilet paper? If it’s for blowing noses then, lads, tissues exist.
I suppose anxiety can give you an upset stomach but there’s really no logic behind any of it.
The problem is that some people start stockpiling and so other people worry the shops will run out of toilet paper and start stockpiling too.
Before long ... mass panic! And the mass panic is one of selfishness. Panic that you and your family won’t have toilet roll, soap and bleach.
If you’re that worried about the spread of coronavirus then it makes far more sense not to stockpile so that you can ensure everyone in your community also has access to the basic tools that will help prevent the virus from spreading.
If a select few have all the soap then they are doing nothing but increasing the likelihood of the illness spreading and more people becoming ill.
We’ve heard that the elderly are among those at most risk of becoming seriously ill and dying from Covid-19.
Yet the elderly are among the least likely to be able to stockpile amounts of toilet paper, soap and food. They are less likely to drive, and so able to transport all this stuff, and less likely to have the disposable income to buy it all.
They need to be able to pop to their local shop and find what they need, not have to miss out because they can’t traipse round several