Corona Virus Gone Mad

DISCLAIMER Read but DON'T take any action! (all will be explained at the bottom of this article)

"It seems there has been an urgent recall of all unused toilet rolls because the cardboard rolls in the middle of them came from China and as a result, there is a very real risk of people getting the Coronavirus from using them or keeping them in their homes. Especially to those people who have bulk bought toilet rolls because it's been scientifically proven that the germs seem to procreate more swiftly the bigger the groups that they are in.

The recommendation is that you return all unused toilet rolls to the store immediately and proceed to immediately coat your bottom with deep heat to ensure that you kill any germs that might have taken up residency."

PLEASE READ BELOW...

The above article (clearly is a joke and not to be taken at all seriously) appeared on Facebook in response to people going crazy panic bulk buying handwashes, soaps and disinfectants, paracetamol and the food staples. The most puzzling and frustrating being toilet rolls. Clearly humor is raising its head in times of stress and so I wondered if anyone else has come across humorous situations, anecdotes, etc relating to the madness of the Corona Virus that they would like to share here?

To be honest, I don't like jokes or anecdotes about Coronavirus, though I suppose humor is a way for people to cope and try to get by when their surroundings (or especially news media) can be daunting and overwhelming and hard to predict what will happen next or any longterm solutions. Coronavirus has been the butt of jokes to people here in the States for the last few months, which I find insensitive to the thousands who have lost their life to it. I know at the end of the day, we can only do our best and take care to keep our immune systems healthy.

Many in the States have been downplaying the severity because I feel we have, especially in the Midwest, this mentality that we are invincible (pull yourself up by your bootstraps). Yes, I think that mindset is dangerous. Especially the people who don't even care enough to look up why COVOID-19 is different from the flu. Especially the people who can't even give enough of a damn to mourn those in China and other areas of the world. Again, what initially concerned me even MORE than COVOID-19 is the effects of Chinese censorship and the disservice and danger to the people there. Not to mention the whistleblowers who tried to warn the general public and were silenced instead.

That's terrifying, the history of censorship in China, but that's a whole other topic. It's chilling to think of those who tried to gain or share morsels of information yet dealt with backlash or, were just shut down.

I think sensitivity to the situation is important as well as understanding and a willingness to keep updated and not spread misinformation, or false statistics. It's concerning that there's no vaccine for this, many of us are so used to vaccines annually. To realize not even all the states here have test kits, well, that's another thing to take into play. And the new factors of it being community spread, not simply those who traveled overseas to the affected countries or areas where there are quarantines. That should have made people take this seriously.
That's not to say we need to panic or be so worried that we can barely sleep at night. We need balance. I do believe fear can be as deadly as a pandemic.

I'm all for preparedness, mostly mental though. There is nothing wrong with stealthy stocking, or at least knowing what you have around the house and not taking things like vitamins or supplements for granted. Granted, not everyone can afford keeping a pantry of nonperishables, which is ANOTHER aspect of this time. I fear for those dealing with poverty and those in prison, as I feel like the way history and our justice system have treated them in the past, they are viewed as expendable and their health not as much of a priority as others.

The social and psychological repercussions of this are a tad bit more frightening to me. Especially the inevitable xenophobia and racism that will be on the rise (and I say inevitable though it's already happened in real-life situations that have been documented online).

I heard on the radio today that we need to be reminded to use precautions and be smart with our choices in health and activities but to also realize we have to continue living life. We cannot thrive in fear. At the end of the day, we need an awareness of what's going on in the world, but we also need peace of mind to keep us grounded.

Yeah this whole Coronavirus thing here has gone mad. People buying so much toilet paper (God knows why) as though they're going to shit themselves into oblivion. Fights have broken out at shopping centres over toilet paper. One person pulled a knife out at another over toilet paper! Could you imagine being stabbed and dying over such a thing? The world has gone mad.

I personally think this whole outbreak is suspicious, though I could be wrong. I'll cop flack for this, but consider it as food for thought if nothing more:

China is a growing communist superpower. It has gained a lot of power and is a threat to the Western world. Iran is also a threat, though not nearly as powerful, but the USA (or Trump) were a hair's breadth away from going to war with it. Now all of a sudden, China has an outbreak that the media has been working non stop to flood our screens with. It's also now in Iran -the 2 countries with the highest concentration of infected, also the 2 countries that are a threat. One of the oldest tricks in the book is to take down your enemy indirectly. If you can get the world to turn on them and spread division to the point where, and very unfortunately, Asian people get harassed in public being told "go back to your country and take your disease with you"...you've won. Something as simple as that can destroy economies, as is happening with the current trade and travel bans in place.

Just as important though, is who's benefiting from all this chaos? Wall Street and the whale traders that make ridiculous profits from stock exchanges. For example: in trading, there are long orders and short orders. A long is when you buy cheap, and sell high to make a profit. A short is when you borrow from other traders/lenders and sell their stock high, betting that the market will drop so you can buy in again, after which you return the amount you borrowed + commission, and keep the additional stock that you were able to buy at a cheaper price. Same goes for crypto. Now on those orders, you can do what's called margin trading, or leverage trading. This is when you basically multiply your trade by 10/100/1000...whatever the exchange allows you to leverage it by. So you're taking out a massive loan and betting that the price will head the way you want it so you can up to 1000x your profits. The current markets have plummeted and the short orders put in from the guys at the top, who are usually privy to inside info, have made an absolute fortune. The longer the media pumps out the scares, the more your average Joe will panic sell their stock, the more the markets will drop, which means the more profit the guys at the top make at Joe's unfortunate expense. It's called market psychology and if you know how to read the charts, you'll see it happening all the time and can probably even pick out where the markets dipped in times of media scares.

Now we get to supermarkets selling out of toilet paper. The hardest stock type for stores in general to move, are the bulky ones. Heavy, bulky items especially. But toilet paper is light and easy to transport, but takes up significant shelf space, and quite a chuck of it is made in China. Supermarkets take advantage of this kind of mass hysteria, just like market movers do. Their focus is profits and moving stock. What better way than to use the 14 day isolation period as a scare to get people to panic buy? Better yet, let's get them to buy the items that are hardest for us to move! They know that most people opt to buy rolls from Chinese manufacturers because they're about half the price and of pretty decent quality. Big supermarkets like Coles & Woolworths (here in Australia anyway) don't stock these as they only stock brands that are manufactured here. But now China is bad, trade with them has stopped and there's going to be a shortage of TP! So in this case, people are of 2 mindsets:

The first - "I have to buy as much as I can of the Aussie stuff because soon it's all going to run out"

The second - "I have to buy as much as I can and when the shortage hits, I'll re-sell it at a premium"

The supermarkets are loving this. It's a win-win for them. They're making a killing out of what's usually slow moving stock, and the Aussie manufacturers and suppliers are now quite literally running their businesses 24/7 to meet the demand of people who are panic buying. Best part is, there is no shortage and the companies themselves said there won't be one, but it doesn't matter because the buying frenzy has started, so they'll just sit back and watch the coin roll in. Not to mention the extra TP and supermarket ads on TV now too. One big money making machine.

Now I'm certainly not denying there is an outbreak or that people are getting sick and some even dying. This is just how it looks to me, that a ridiculously massive amount of profit is being made on the back of a pandemic which is probably being blown way out of proportion to further all the money making. Even the average Joe is trying to squeeze some bucks out of it by hoarding toilet paper and re-selling it at a premium later.

Just my thoughts which I'll most likely cop flack for :)

Hmm, very keen observations actually. I don't think you should receive flack for this. It's not like you're saying everything's a conspiracy necessarily, just providing more info about the stock market and market psychology - which I am quite naive about, so this was interesting and enlightening. And also maddening to think of how many people WILL profit. I believe many people are too greedy to even care about their actions or intentions.

Did you hear about the kid who is selling hand sanitizer in his neighbor, like a lemonade stand?? I think people are and will be taking advantage of this kind of tactic.

I do follow some "preppers" threads online, and successful prepping is NOT panic buying in the middle of all of this. I highly doubt there will be a food or water shortage as result of this spread, as I can't find solid information other than predictors or suspicions, and yes it's better to be safe than sorry, but honestly I would be more concerned with the effects of government quarantining counties or what kind of rules they will put on citizens here. Being in America, I don't think quarantine like to the effects of China could ever work without ridiculous amounts of protests/riots. There's been a few confirmed cases here in Indiana, and I believe one of the men had symptoms and called the health department or whoever himself. Not all people are going to be thinking of that or frankly, care if they infect others.

In general, I would be more wary of keeping stock of food and things like that but buying it stealthily over time. I am curious to ask or talk to health professionals and their opinions on hand sanitizer being bought out, which we already have here in our city in places like Target, Costco, etc. It's all about taking preventative measures. Hand sanitizer is not a cure to my knowledge, and just last month there was a huge increase in online purchasing of masks, which can be more harmful than beneficial if worn improperly, not sized correctly, etc. My dad actually fed into this stress a few weeks ago and bought hundreds of masks. We already have plenty in our home, stocked in a closet. My understanding is that the masks are most effective only if we ourselves have the infection, to keep other people from getting our germs, correct? Not the other way around.

It's very telling what this says about healthcare too, because I do think, even with great technology and medicine etc, our hospitals still could be over-run. Granted, Coronavirus is inevitable if more cases arise that are community spread, but the point is to slow it down to not crowd places like hospitals. To deal with it slowly.

I already don't trust the government, so I very strongly believe they care about short term profit and not overall public health. The White House apparently was in the process of cutting funds or holding back funds to the health department? There also aren't many test kits, so it's wild to me that people are trusting when there are probably hundreds more who have Coronavirus but were not directed to be tested if at hospitals, etc.

Lastly, the work culture here. Many people live paycheck to paycheck and cannot afford to quarantine themselves for two weeks. A lot of companies do have policies to stay home when sick, and that's a great idealogy when applied, but to be honest I've heard horror stories about employers simply not caring, and employees being forced to work through sickness or risk losing their job and livelihood.

Haven't heard about the kid with the lemonade-like stand gig, but there are people here who apparently think they can sell toilet paper and hand sanitiser for $2000. I mean that price literally. They've posted ads on websites like Gumtree.

All the items you mentioned are also sold out here, or at least being restocked before being sold out over again. Glen 20 spray used to be about $4/can and now it's $8 in some places. Most supermarkets have introduced a "1 pack of toilet paper" per customer policy, as has Costco here. A couple of sachools have been shut down and some workplaces have been screening their staff before they walk in with heat sensors to check for elevated fever. My bro's workplace is doing that and have sent people home if they're sick.

Housing prices here in Sydney are ridiculously high, which includes rent. To give you an idea, a crappy (and I mean crappy) 2 bedroom apartment, or house if you're lucky, could set you back about $400/week. Our standard of living and pay rates are good, with most casual workers getting about $28/hr and full-timers about $23-25 (which is why many overseas travelers come to holiday here on a 6 month working VISA), but groceries and the like are quite expensive. Especially when it comes to smokers - you're looking at an average of $25/pack. I don't really smoke so never need to buy cigarettes, but add up the figures for people who go through a pack a day. Though our healthcare system is pretty good and free, aside from specialist doctor/surgery fees which for the most part Medicare still covers a little of, our bill and fuel prices are quite high. Even trying to get something from overseas to save money doesn't really pan out anymore because our lovely government decided to apply taxes to all imported items, not just items with a value over $1000 like it used to be.

That being said though, our OH&S regulations in the workplace are quite solid and well-enforced for the most part. Unless the people you work for aren't on the books, employers can't force you to work, but they do have the right to send you home if there's a valid reason. Fair Work Australia will often dish out punishments to employers if the employee has evidence that they're being mistreated. The only gripe is that most employers hire temps now, as there are laws here that if you work at a company for a certain amount of time, I think 6 months, you get the benefits of a full-time employee, which unfortunately many employers don't want to give. It's great for international visitors on working VISAS because there's more opportunity for them to work while on holiday, but it sucks bigtime for the citizens and permanent residents because there's more chance they'll be replaced by someone else if their performance isn't up to par. No tipping system here either, which I noticed is a huge thing when I visited the USA.

But in terms of prepping, like you said, build up slowly. Nothing wrong with stocking up, but no need to panic buy like people here, filling up their trolleys with 8 big packs of toilet paper and every sanitiser on the shelf. End of the day, it's a strain of Flu. Practice good hygiene like we already should be and be cautious about hanging out around sick people or crowds, but not to the point of racism. Don't panic and don't get paranoid. Those 2 are almost always the enemy because they often get you to resort to doing stupid things :)

THIS IS HOW THE ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE BEGINS!!!
That's why people are stocking up! Lol >.<

In all seriousness, Corona virus is a very serious disease and is not to be taken lightly. Some people are not so serious about it, taking the issue very lightly, on the other hand we have people stocking up like crazy and over reacting. Our country has stopped all educational institutes, including the school I work at. We got a 10 day break and now teachers and faculty are back, but students' break has been extended. My colleague, another teacher, has brought along about 5 sanitizing products to work and over-sanitizes everything! The thing is, sanitizers are anti-bacterial, not anti-viral. Anyone who coughs, or sneezes is suddenly under suspicion.

Lol would make more sense to stock up on food, if anything. Can't poop without eating, so why stock up on so much toilet paper?

Of course, take it seriously, but I take it about as seriously as the flu. There were some Australians who contracted the virus that were interviewed while they were under quarantine in Japan. They described it as being just like the flu, and at most times little more than a cold. They recovered and are now back home. I think the father or mother had mild pneumonia, but they said themselves that they were expecting it to be much worse after all the scare they heard in the media about it.

I personally look at it from a religious perspective: if I'm meant to get it, then no matter what I do, I'll get it. I just have to do the best I can beforehand to have at least tried to keep my family and myself safe. Whatever happens after that, was meant to be.

Sounds almost grim, but I find that this way of thinking makes me feel more at ease and far less prone to the panic and paranoia I've been seeing every day. Aside from the annoyance of not being able to find any sugar & flour in the stores. Need those for baking brownies, otherwise people at work will be waiting a while for their orders :/