The Panic!
Some observations:
For one, I am in no way in a panic. I have not felt the urge to stock up on toilet paper, and I do not feel that COVID-19 or SARS-COV2 as the military calls it, is something to be concerned about. There has been several whitepapers and disease vector studies which show so far that there is likely a lot more cases than the scientific and medical community actually know about, because of the lack of the ability to quickly test everyone. The fact that many people can carry the virus and never actually develop any serious symptoms is also a good reason to be very calm about this. With that knowledge at hand, given the fatality estimates for COVID-19 of 1% (comparable to a bad flu season) to 0.1% (comparable to a normal flu season), I really don't believe there is much to worry about, because all those other cases which weren't reported, would bring those numbers down even further. Not to mention that the virus seems to attach itself to an ACE2 enzyme in the lung, and the ethnic populations which have those enzymes are Asians. Europeans tend not to have that lung structure.
On Friday, I had overtime which kept me at work until 10pm. After getting out of work, I planned on going to Wegmans with Sable. Usually every weekend we would do a regular grocery trip, and this was the time that we decided to do it this weekend, assuming that maybe the stores would be a little extra busy on Saturday. Thursday and Friday the general trend in the media was a panic. Scaring the public into thinking that there was going to be a lockdown. Apparently one of the big fears people had, was that there was going to be a lack of toilet paper. And a lack of drinking water? Relax people... Society will continue to function. Supply chains are still moving. Stores will stay opened, and factories will keep producing. Even in Italy, where the Fake Media keeps reporting that there is a lockdown, and the whole country is shut down... Not true. There are restrictions yes, but people are still able to work, and shop.
Upon walking into Wegmans, I was surprised to see the vegitable isle fairly full of produce. But as Sable and I ventured further into the store, we noticed that all of the Bananas, and Potatoes were gone. Continuing through the store, we noticed a trend. Healthy stuff was still stocked. The cheaper stuff, and most unhealthy items were often completely out of stock. Also, pretty much all of the frozen food and the processed - or ready to eat food products were gone. Along with the toilet paper of course. And while Bleach was gone, a lot of cleaning supplies were still present on the shelves.
Despite this, Sable and I were able to find almost everything on our list. Sable cooks items from scratch and actually puts some effort into meals, so finding items to make meals isn't too hard.
We came to the realization, about the type of person who was likely panicing, and buying all the items. The gullible, impressionable, drama queens, who seem to allow things like this to become obsessive. Sheep, Drones, and Drama Zombies could be other terms used for these folk. Personally I would suggest that these people are people with swollen amigdalas.
Today, I went to Lowes to get more Plaster. I didn't really know what to expect. But What I saw was a normal experience. Normal people, calmly shopping for home improvement items. I only saw a pair of 2 black females who were rushing out of the store to their Escalade, carrying bathroom tissue in both arms. I didn't see anyone else buying bathroom tissue.
That being said. Sable and I have Corona... So...
