Corona-virus - How worried are you? 3 March 2020 at 10:27AM in Coronavirus support and help 166 replies 15.2K views

pickledonionspaceraider

I have been reading on the news this morning about panic buying in supermarkets - pictures of empty shelves in Boots
Do people feel this is appropriate behaviour, in the circumstances?
Is it going to become difficult to get hold of a packet of paracetamol? 

helensbiggestfan

Concerned  but not worried. Worrying does not affect outcomes, so it's waste of time and energy, which could perhaps be put to better use.  

Re stocking up on essentials..........makes perfect sense.  If we are required to self isolate for a while then we will need food and OTC comfort meds etc. 

Ibrufrofen has been in short supply for a while now, long before coronavirus hit the scene.  Paracetamol was freely available a couple of ago when I last did a shop. 

spadoosh

I dont think its appropriate to immediately react to most situations. Panic buying will compound any supply issues to the most vulnerable. The time to be panic buying is long before there is a panic, stock flow isnt massively affected by people who buy a few extra bits to put away with each shop. Stock flow is massively interrupted when people go out and start doubling their normal shopping spends. 

If youre panic buying, youre encouraging the very thing youre trying to mitigate. 

Id encourage people to not panic buy but would encourage them to ensure they keep a supply of food/water/meds etc that can mitigate youre typical everyday scenarios, things like job loss, local supply issues, interim money problems. Obviously theres an opportunity cost attached to storing goods which i suspect is what puts most people off. You tend not to worry as much about bad times in good times. 

pickledonionspaceraider

I agree @spadoosh It will effect the most vulnerable. Those who don't have a bigger than usual amount to spend on stocking up.

helensbiggestfan

Well said Spadoosh.     That is actually what I meant but didn't really make myself clear.  

Panic buying and stripping the shelves is definitely not the way to go, but as you say, assuming someone has a little leeway in their budgets,  then keeping a little stockpile of essentials for emergencies is always a good idea. 

I think there are restrictions on how many packets of things like paracetamol you can buy in one transaction anyway.  Although of course that wouldnt stop some people going from shop to shop.  

thriftylass

There are 40 people infected in the UK. 40 out of 66 million!! Don't think it's time to panic yet. More people die from the flu and other things yearly and there are vaccines for those. Maybe I'm too relaxed but I think there is too much panic in the press especially.

pickledonionspaceraider

That is true.  I didn't realise Ibuprofen had been in short supply for a while.  I have tried to order them twice along with my shopping and they haven't come - thatll be why

pickledonionspaceraider

Panic buying induces more panic buying.
The lack of stuff will make more people panic buy as they didn't realise it was a thing until it was on the media - then if we hold back, will we have left it too late?

donnac2558

I was in the supermarket this morning doing my normal weekly shop.  In Sainsbury's the shelves full no panic buying there.

More people killed by normal flu every year.

annetheman

It is and should be a serious concern for many but I am not worried at all. 
All the people who have died were immuno-compromised or elderly. I've rationalised it in terms of my likelihood to a) get infected and b) become gravely ill/die. Both eventualities have a very low possibility of occurring. I'm about as likely to get Ebola (funnily enough, a "failed" (low efficacy vs comparators) Ebola medicine developed by Gilead is in clinical trials at the moment; it looks promising). 

I went to dinner with a friend who came back from Macau recently and survived /shrug/

justjohn

Not as worried as these people today. Don tell them hand sanitizer is just alchohol/ethenol/ipa lol  OR you could use vodka lol