MM MD
The issue isn’t necessarily the supply chain. If people normally buy 3-7 days worth of food, spread between stuff that only keeps a few days and non-perishables, and suddenly everyone buys 3-4 weeks of non-perishables at once, they’ll run out. I mean, go to your local Home Depot literally anywhere and try to get an n95 mask or go try to buy hand sanitizer in Seattle.
Some food should still be available, but it may be hard to get canned goods and dry foods.
Grunching the last hundred or so posts.
Did we get past the panic over the virus getting into the water supply yet?
Funny how that hasn’t happened in China, with its low standard of public health, where diseased pigs were dumped into rivers and where no one drinks unboiled tap water.
Hobbes do you have access to broken down data on fatality rate by age combined with diabetes/respiratory disease/hypertension/cardiovascular?
My 78-year-old Dad doesn’t have those and I’m looking for something to calm him down.
Dear Doctor,
Informal opinion sought please. I’m in my 50s and had asthma attacks 30 years ago and none since. Does this put me at much greater risk than someone of my age without this history?
But I mean if you really think about it - is the US really going to let people starve in their homes because grocery shelves are empty? I guess at this point all restaurants are closed too?
If we get to that point it’s probably the same society-has-totally-broken-down-and-WAAF we’ve been mentioning anyway.
Stuff like hand sanitizer and toilet paper makes a lot more sense as non-essential-to-life staples that could be disrupted.
Thanks, that makes me feel quite a bit better.
That makes sense. A lot of young people with strong immune systems may experience this as ~a common cold and literally never know what they had, thus their mild cough or whatever could be COVID-19.
This reminds me of one of my old doctors I liked, he’d often answer those types of questions with, “Well I can tell you it’s not going to hurt you, so if it makes you feel better, go for it!” I’d always be thinking, “He’s telling me to enjoy the placebo effect in the nicest way possible, isn’t he?”
I used to have those lemon ones as a kid, I think. I’m a recovering fat guy (hopefully), actually went “mostly vegetarian” about a week ago and I’m loving the effects so far. Mostly vegetarian = not eating meat at home, if I dine out once or twice a week I’m going to leave my options open. So far, I’m loving it.
Thanks again for all the answers/thoughts!
I don’t think anyone was panicking over this.
I don’t think people are going to starve. I do think it’s going to become hard to stockpile non-perishable food in the near future in many areas, and that difficulty may last for a few days, or a couple weeks.
Ultimately that just means that people may have to make more frequent trips to the store rather than riding it out at home, thus making it a little tougher to avoid human contact.
I’m sure some/most restaurants will stay open to deliver even if they’re empty, although obviously this is a questionable decision. Free markets will dictate…
No , and I’d love to see the data. I’m ( as a lot of people know) currently being for treatment of cancer, and I have NO idea about how my risk is given my age of 64 and my known immunocompromised state. Having said that, since my only shot (and it seems to be a pretty decent one) seems the chemo/radiation route I’m doing it - but I could sure do without with the Coronavirus as an additional variable. I’d guess we’ll see some more data in the next couple of weeks.
MM MD
Yeah I thought people were stocking up on bottled water because they just couldn’t imagine going without it even while quarantined in their own home. Like no way I’m gonna drink out the tap like some pleb during the apocalypse. Besides the more bottle water people are grabbing at Costco the more hand sanitizer and Kirkland signature wipes I can buy.
Unless the virus mutates into something resembling the one in the movie Contagion - I don’t see people barricading themselves in their homes and avoiding all human contact like that.
In short I’ve just decided that hoarding food needed for life is kinda silly. But hoarding stuff that would suck to be without, but you’ll live - makes a lot of sense.
Almost certainly not - childhood asthma ( and since you seem immature, we’ll allow you to be 20 ) resolves with time. I wouldn’t consider you to be at risk beyond over the general population
MM MD
Somewhat of an aside, but a huge percentage of tap water in the US has hexavalent chromium in it at unsafe levels. That’s the cancer-causing chemical of Erin Brokovich fame. Brita type filters don’t remove it, you need a reverse osmosis filter. Counter top versions run about $450 on Amazon, FWIW.
Washington will give us a test case in the US I guess. I think locally when there are clusters and outbreaks, people will want to avoid going out as much as possible.
Unsure if any other forum Australians can chime in but I am getting laughed at by everyone around me including a doctor friend at even considering stockpiling. Willful ignorance or is Australia that much better placed given we jumped on travel restrictions slightly earlier?
I mean geographically you guys have an advantage, I would think. Stockpiling like two weeks of food is so easy, though, especially if it’s stuff you’d eat anyway. I don’t see the harm in that.
Oh I agree. I’m getting mocked like I’m down in a bunker by apparently educated and aware people.
Meh - we generally have a couple of weeks of water/food that I wouldn’t really want to eat but could get along on if we needed to - I live in a seismically active area where it would be a ginermous pain in the ass to have to ship in from California if the big one hits and I-80 was closed. Couple of hundred of bucks for piece of mind.
MM MD
Australia is extremely unlikely to suffer any disruption to food supplies, we export the majority of the food grown here. Hard to imagine the government restricting interstate food transportation to an extent that would matter. That said, stockpiling a small amount of food isn’t going to do any harm.