Covid-19 and toilet paper hysteria

[Delphic Oracle]

Caught a few moments of our mayor being asked questions this morning. Someone asked about having people departing planes immediately sanitize their hands. Took him a while of meandering to point out the FAA would make that call. Was likely totally not reassuring to anyone who didn't already understand that.

Someone at work now rolls around all day with a cart full of wadded up paper towels and a couple of spray bottles, they are wearing gloves.

A friend of mine took a friend of theirs to a procedure this morning, said they were taking face temperature scans at the hospital entry and asking questions about if they've traveled recently, etc.

[Crocoshark]

My mom works at costco and has asked multiple people why they're buying toilet paper.

They said they didn't know.

I guess it's just one of their program directives from the chips that Chamin implanted in their head.

[TragicMonkey]

Ah, gloves. I love the people who misunderstand how gloves work. Okay, you've got a barrier between your hands and everything else. That just means whatever you touch gets on the gloves...which you then touch to every other surface, including your face, you dirty pig. You've achieved nothing except preventing viruses being absorbed through your hands, which isn't actually a thing. The point of gloves is to wear them to touch something, then when you're done, remove the gloves. Replace with another pair, if you want to, but same thing applies. Wearing one pair of gloves everywhere is not going to help you unless you manage to a) never touch anything, in which case you don't need gloves anyway, or b) manage to control yourself to never touch any uncontaminated surface after touching a contaminated one. Option b is really, really difficult. It's why hospital staff go through a lot of gloves, and only wear each pair for a short time and specific task within a defined space.

tl;dr: wearing goddamn surgical gloves to the grocery store isn't going to do a damn thing except make you look stupid, and possibly cause you to get a latex allergy. You do not want a latex allergy. In this day and age, a latex allergy is a very bad allergy to have. It can literally kill you if you ever need medical treatment. It makes medical treatment more difficult. And neither sex wants to discover they have a latex allergy while using a latex condom. It is the worst time to find that out. The very, very worst. Think about it. The worst time.

[cullennz]

Originally Posted by TragicMonkey

Ah, gloves. I love the people who misunderstand how gloves work. Okay, you've got a barrier between your hands and everything else. That just means whatever you touch gets on the gloves...which you then touch to every other surface, including your face, you dirty pig. You've achieved nothing except preventing viruses being absorbed through your hands, which isn't actually a thing. The point of gloves is to wear them to touch something, then when you're done, remove the gloves. Replace with another pair, if you want to, but same thing applies. Wearing one pair of gloves everywhere is not going to help you unless you manage to a) never touch anything, in which case you don't need gloves anyway, or b) manage to control yourself to never touch any uncontaminated surface after touching a contaminated one. Option b is really, really difficult. It's why hospital staff go through a lot of gloves, and only wear each pair for a short time and specific task within a defined space.

tl;dr: wearing goddamn surgical gloves to the grocery store isn't going to do a damn thing except make you look stupid, and possibly cause you to get a latex allergy. You do not want a latex allergy. In this day and age, a latex allergy is a very bad allergy to have. It can literally kill you if you ever need medical treatment. It makes medical treatment more difficult. And neither sex wants to discover they have a latex allergy while using a latex condom. It is the worst time to find that out. The very, very worst. Think about it. The worst time.

It's why those stupid masks are a bit pointless unless you put them on those that have it instead of normal people (not medical) wondering round with them looking like idiots.

[Elagabalus]

Wore a decidedly fashionable 9 mil black pair of gloves yesterday and today I wore the 5 mil baby blue ones. Of course, I only wore them while I was in the store - managed to snag a couple hand sanitizer wipes on my way out so I could wipe off my credit card (and my gloved hands just in case) when I got to my car. And yes, change them often.


Latex? I already have that allergy.


Nitrile, bitches.

[rjh01]

Originally Posted by Ian Osborne

I'm not selfishly hoarding ridiculous amounts of supplies, but I'm buying a little extra to make sure I can last a month without going to the shops, and have something to fall back on if I run out of essentials while the shelves are still empty. Is anyone else doing this?

Been doing this for a few weeks now. Slowly increasing stock. Just bought a 1kg packet of powdered milk. Will make 10 liters of milk. So will not run out. Will not buy any more long life milk. Can give some long life milk to the neighbours. Or maybe TP. Discovered have enough to last us for the rest of the year. Have not bought any this year. Bought 40 rolls sometime back, even though I had plenty at the time. I wonder if they have what I have forgotten about?
Bit worried about how much meat I have. Still some in the shops. But took heaps of photos in two supermarkets of empty shelves. Most long life food products are gone, as well as other essential consumables. TP and tissues are history.

[DevilsAdvocate]

I was at the store and saw a woman buying 26 two-liter bottles of Mountain Dew. I counted them while I was standing in line. I assume this was all the store had in stock. Strange hoarding choice. But I guess if you absolutely need to have Mountain Dew in two-liter bottles when the apocalypse comes, then it is better to be safe than sorry.

Also, there was one and only one package of toilet paper on the shelves. Nobody seemed to be interested.

And there was a big sale on soup. Cheap prices. I don't know why they are marking down stuff that is going to sell anyway. The soup section was almost empty. But a bunch of chunky New England clam chowder. My favorite. And I'm out. That's why I went to the soup section in the first place. I grabbed all they had, which was about 5 cans. A good deal.

I needed some distilled water for my CPAP. I'm out. I hate to not have it. I use a lot. The stock wasn't low. But I bought twice as much as I need. Because...reasons.

I also bought tissues. I'm low on stock. They still had some boxes of the good stuff. I bought more than I need. I've been sick before without tissues, and it is not fun. I can get by without toilet paper if it comes to that. But if I am sick I want quality tissues.

They also had a sale on frozen pizzas. I'm not sure why. They didn't have any other similar frozen foods on sale. I bought the last few pizzas because it was a good price.

[The Don]

Buying tinned soup makes sense to me. If you and your family are feeling unwell then it's an easy way to get some hot, soothing food inside you with minimum effort.

Nearly 30 years ago Mrs Don and I had typhoid and cholera shots before we went on honeymoon to Kenya. Although only a small proportion of people are supposed to react badly to them, we both did and were confined to bed for 3 days with flu-like symptoms. At one point each offered the other "a million pounds" to make a cup of tea.

Thankfully we had an ample supply of tinned soup.

edited to add....

Mrs Don plans to pop into Lidl after going to the gym this morning. She'll pick up a couple of litres of UHT milk (which doubtless we'll throw away in a few months time), a couple of packs of pasta and/or rice, some frozen fish and/or meat and, it being Lidl, probably a 3 ton capacity car jack, a pair of welding gloves and a surfboard.

[The Great Zaganza]

how many Mentos did that lady buy?
Sounds like a case for the ATF to me...

[DevilsAdvocate]

Originally Posted by The Great Zaganza

how many Mentos did that lady buy?
Sounds like a case for the ATF to me...

She did have a package of Orio cookies, which seemed to be her only other purchase. I'm not sure it has the same effect unless you get TOTALLY RADICAL SODA COOKIES CARBS SUGAR XTREME AWESOME in the scientific analysis of the possibilities of the products.

[Darat]

Originally Posted by a_unique_person

Still no TP. Who is buying it all?

A few more people than usual. Remember all the big store operate on JIT, so they probably hold no more than a predicted week of supply of toilet paper. Even without anyone "hoarding" TP if say 20% of people buy a pack of TP earlier than usual it will be enough to empty the shelves. I can't see the TP manufacturers ramping up their production lines, it makes no sense for them, TP isn't perishable so people in a months time won't be buying TP as they usually would and they'd end up with a glut.

[novaphile]

Originally Posted by Darat

A few more people than usual. Remember all the big store operate on JIT, so they probably hold no more than a predicted week of supply of toilet paper. Even without anyone "hoarding" TP if say 20% of people buy a pack of TP earlier than usual it will be enough to empty the shelves. I can't see the TP manufacturers ramping up their production lines, it makes no sense for them, TP isn't perishable so people in a months time won't be buying TP as they usually would and they'd end up with a glut.

This is a good theory, but unfortunately does not match what we're seeing here in Oz...

People are buying huge numbers of packets of 24 rolls per packet, and then going psycho at any store worker who dares mention the 'one packet per customer' policy.

That policy is good and all, but doesn't seem to be working.

Bought some more dog food after work today, and asked about the TP. Was advised that the store hadn't had any since the middle of last week.

[rjh01]

And then instead of refilling the supermarket shelves with TP any big orders by companies get priority. I am shocked that people can buy TP at all. Have only seen it once in the last few days.

Ditto for lots of other products.

[carol1]

To prevent covid-19 the best way is using hand sanitizer and hand wash

[alfaniner]

Originally Posted by carol1

To prevent covid-19 the best way is using hand sanitizer and hand wash

Good advice. Welcome to the Forum!

[a_unique_person]

Originally Posted by novaphile

This is a good theory, but unfortunately does not match what we're seeing here in Oz...



People are buying huge numbers of packets of 24 rolls per packet, and then going psycho at any store worker who dares mention the 'one packet per customer' policy.



That policy is good and all, but doesn't seem to be working.



Bought some more dog food after work today, and asked about the TP. Was advised that the store hadn't had any since the middle of last week.

Heard from my wife from a coworker whose son works at Woolworths. A customer filled up a trolley and made a run for it through the entrance. Staff tried to stop him but he got away and threw money on the floor to pay for it.

[Armitage72]

People in this area are going into the freight delivery area of the local supermarket (where they aren't allowed to go) to grab toilet paper as soon as it's unloaded from the delivery truck.

[varwoche]

There's always corn cobs. Or a passing goose.

[EHocking]

Originally Posted by TragicMonkey

Other alarming answers:

"I've given it up for Lent."
"Now that I do yoga, I don't need it."
"What is it for?"
"I've just been reusing what I already have."
"Why buy when you can rent?"
"I only do that in season."
"It's cheaper to buy it used, online."

i recycle mine by hanging it on the clothesline and beating the **** out of it

[Drewbot]

It's too bad most of the states have instituted price-gouging laws to prevent charitable business owners from pricing out people who are luxury-buying inordinate amounts of supplies.

Raising prices removes luxury buyers from the equation, leaving product for people who actually NEED the product, albeit at a higher price.

[Distracted1]

Originally Posted by Drewbot

It's too bad most of the states have instituted price-gouging laws to prevent charitable business owners from pricing out people who are luxury-buying inordinate amounts of supplies.

Raising prices removes luxury buyers from the equation, leaving product for people who actually NEED the product, albeit at a higher price.

I am not certain we live in that world anymore.
Economic stratification may be pronounced enough by now that a cost high enough to make a product unattractive for the impulse buy of an upper middle-class buyer will also put it out of the reach of a working class buyer.

[JoeMorgue]

//Slight hijack//

Not that any of this excuses price gouging or stupid panic runs but is toilet paper really one of those products that people purchase on such a small margin?

I mean TP is cheap, not bulky, and doesn't go bad. I never pegged it to be one of those things that people go "Okay I use 7 sheets per trip to the bathroom, I make an average of 1.7 trips to the bathroom per day, minus the trips I make at work, the average roll contains 400 sheets, adjust for windage, convert to metric, factor in the capital gains tax and... I need exactly 4.8 rolls to last me from now until next paycheck" with.

I've never gotten just enough toilet paper to make it through the immediate future.

[Meadmaker]

Originally Posted by JoeMorgue

//Slight hijack//

Not that any of this excuses price gouging or stupid panic runs but is toilet paper really one of those products that people purchase on such a small margin?

I mean TP is cheap, not bulky, and doesn't go bad. I never pegged it to be one of those things that people go "Okay I use 7 sheets per trip to the bathroom, I make an average of 1.7 trips to the bathroom per day, minus the trips I make at work, the average roll contains 400 sheets, adjust for windage, convert to metric, factor in the capital gains tax and... I need exactly 4.8 rolls to last me from now until next paycheck" with.

I've never gotten just enough toilet paper to make it through the immediate future.

I buy a Costco sized pack, and we have a spot for it in the pantry. When it starts to get low, we buy another Costco sized pack. I think it lasts us about four weeks. Maybe six. I really don't know. I do the Costco shopping, and I buy it whenever my wife puts it on the Costco list. I've never tracked the rate of use.

Fortunately, I got a Costco sized pack a week before the frenzy set in.

I must admit I'm starting to get depressed about this whole situation. The possibility of getting sick is one thing. I can live with that. The possibility that I might not be able to buy toilet paper, or eggs, or basic things that we pretty much take for granted though, is very depressing.

I haven't made a purchase in a grocery store since Thursday, but I assumed that by this coming weekend things would be back to normal except for specific products like disinfecting wipes. It looks at the moment like I will be wrong about that.

[Joe Random]

I bake my own bread on occasion because I enjoy it. The shelves have been out of yeast for a while so that's not an option. However long down the road it is for this to be relatively under control I'd love to be able to do a survey of people who panic-bought yeast :

1) Have you ever made bread before in your life (half point if you've used an automatic machine)?

2) Did you end up throwing away that yeast because it expired before you used any of it?

bonus question:
3) Did you know bread is not a substitute for TP when you bought the yeast?

[The Don]

Originally Posted by Joe Random

I bake my own bread on occasion because I enjoy it. The shelves have been out of yeast for a while so that's not an option. However long down the road it is for this to be relatively under control I'd love to be able to do a survey of people who panic-bought yeast :

1) Have you ever made bread before in your life (half point if you've used an automatic machine)?

Yes both with and without a bread machine.

I've used dried yeast, a live sourdough and made soda bread and flatbreads when yeast was unavailable.

Originally Posted by Joe Random

2) Did you end up throwing away that yeast because it expired before you used any of it?

Not so far.

Originally Posted by Joe Random

bonus question:
3) Did you know bread is not a substitute for TP when you bought the yeast?

Depends how the bread turns out. Some of my denser bread can be used to prevent pooping when used as a tompion.


edited to add...

Just re-read your post. If you don't have yeast you can still make soda bread or unleavened bread and if you're willing to wait a little while you could make your own sourdough starter:

https://www.thekitchn.com/how-to-mak...e-kitchn-47337

[SuburbanTurkey]

Originally Posted by Joe Random

I bake my own bread on occasion because I enjoy it. The shelves have been out of yeast for a while so that's not an option. However long down the road it is for this to be relatively under control I'd love to be able to do a survey of people who panic-bought yeast :

1) Have you ever made bread before in your life (half point if you've used an automatic machine)?

2) Did you end up throwing away that yeast because it expired before you used any of it?

bonus question:
3) Did you know bread is not a substitute for TP when you bought the yeast?

Also noticed the lack of yeast with some curiosity. My jar of active dry yeast is about half empty.They were out of the jars of yeast but had the individual single-serve yeast packets left. I didn't buy any of those packets because it's pretty expensive way to get yeast. That might turn out to be a mistake. Hoping my supply lasts until my big resupply day in a couple weeks and that the yeast in back in stock.

I still have baking powder, so I guess I can still turn flour into something half decent should I need to.

[JoeMorgue]

This mentality is old news to Floridians. Or as a meme once put it

"Y'all (expletives) survive on 2 sodas and 4 beers a day the rest of the year but a hurricane comes toward ya and all of a sudden you need 48 bottles of one specific brand of virgin blessed spring water a day to survive."

[Ian Osborne]

Originally Posted by Joe Random

1) Have you ever made bread before in your life (half point if you've used an automatic machine)?

Would you (and everyone else) recommend getting a bread-making machine, or can you manage just as well with a set of loaf tins and the oven?

[crescent]

Originally Posted by Ian Osborne

Would you (and everyone else) recommend getting a bread-making machine, or can you manage just as well with a set of loaf tins and the oven?

In cold weather, I let the bread rise in a slightly warmed oven. Turn it on its lowest setting for a few minutes, then turn it off again. Then put the bread dough in.

Later I just cook in the oven like normal.

I can never, ever get the knack of kneading the bread myself. My mixing machine has a kneader attachment (looks like a squiddidly metal rod) that does it pretty well.

[Dave Rogers]

Originally Posted by Ian Osborne

Would you (and everyone else) recommend getting a bread-making machine, or can you manage just as well with a set of loaf tins and the oven?

Get a bread-making machine. It's not exactly a difficult process making it yourself, but it's more complicated than slinging the ingredients in the machine and pressing Go. Bread-making machines more or less guarantee you an edible loaf, whereas I've made bread without one that ended up more suitable for garden walling.

Dave

[JoeMorgue]

The problem with breadmaking is people making it too complicated.

Anyone can smash together a halfway decent loaf of passable sandwich bread in a pinch given basic ingredients with, at most, a couple of tries.

A "Shelter in Place" scenario is no time to be making your first loaf of artisan whole wheat rye quinoa five grain.

[Joe Random]

Originally Posted by The Don

<...>

Just re-read your post. If you don't have yeast you can still make soda bread or unleavened bread and if you're willing to wait a little while you could make your own sourdough starter:

https://www.thekitchn.com/how-to-mak...e-kitchn-47337

Bookmarked the hell out of that page - THANKS!

[carlitos]

Originally Posted by TragicMonkey

Ah, gloves. I love the people who misunderstand how gloves work. Okay, you've got a barrier between your hands and everything else. That just means whatever you touch gets on the gloves...which you then touch to every other surface, including your face, you dirty pig. You've achieved nothing except preventing viruses being absorbed through your hands, which isn't actually a thing. The point of gloves is to wear them to touch something, then when you're done, remove the gloves. Replace with another pair, if you want to, but same thing applies. Wearing one pair of gloves everywhere is not going to help you unless you manage to a) never touch anything, in which case you don't need gloves anyway, or b) manage to control yourself to never touch any uncontaminated surface after touching a contaminated one. Option b is really, really difficult. It's why hospital staff go through a lot of gloves, and only wear each pair for a short time and specific task within a defined space.

I wore latex gloves to vote today. Received the ballot and signed my name in my leather gloves, went to the booth and pocketed the leather ones, put on the latex ones from my pocket, did the ballot, handed it and the marker in, opened the door and tossed the latex ones in the trash. Swabbed my leather gloves before and after.

What's my grade?

[Joe Random]

Originally Posted by Dave Rogers

Get a bread-making machine. It's not exactly a difficult process making it yourself, but it's more complicated than slinging the ingredients in the machine and pressing Go. Bread-making machines more or less guarantee you an edible loaf, whereas I've made bread without one that ended up more suitable for garden walling.

Dave

Agree with this sentiment. If you plan on making bread because you need to hunker down or the shops are out of fresh, a bread machine is an inexpensive way to get something simple that you probably won't render inedible unless you don't pay attention. But if you're doing bread for the fun of it nothing beats the hand process, especially if (like me) you enjoy things like coarse, rustic round loaves or the like. About 2/3rd of what I do is on pizza stones or the like, and not in regular loaf pans.

But yeah, if you've never done before and your needs are Covid based then get a machine. Just good luck finding the yeast. I'm down to two packets of an oddball specialty yeast I got as a gift at work a month ago. Yes, I know : 1st world problems.

[TragicMonkey]

Originally Posted by carlitos

I wore latex gloves to vote today. Received the ballot and signed my name in my leather gloves, went to the booth and pocketed the leather ones, put on the latex ones from my pocket, did the ballot, handed it and the marker in, opened the door and tossed the latex ones in the trash. Swabbed my leather gloves before and after.

What's my grade?

Not very high. Your leather gloves were contaminated by touching the ballot and pen. Your hands were contaminated by touching your leather gloves when removing them. Your pocket was contaminated by putting your leather gloves into them. Everything that's been in your pocket since has been contaminated.

You can't win, basically. Unless you are in a sterile area of a hospital with every motion planned out you can't avoid contamination.

[calebprime]

The gloves are just a tactile reminder not to touch my face.

I wear rubber gloves, disinfect gloves with 91% iso. alc. after leaving store.

alc. is already in my coat, I don't have to touch door handles.

I also wash down my debit card, which I've kept separately.

I wash my hands with alc.

I put on other leather gloves to drive. no face touch.

I only shop at co-op every 5 days. otherwise no contact with anyone.

[carlitos]

Originally Posted by TragicMonkey

Not very high. Your leather gloves were contaminated by touching the ballot and pen. Your hands were contaminated by touching your leather gloves when removing them. Your pocket was contaminated by putting your leather gloves into them. Everything that's been in your pocket since has been contaminated.

You can't win, basically. Unless you are in a sterile area of a hospital with every motion planned out you can't avoid contamination.

Thanks. I figured it was something like that. Math-wise, maybe I reduced transmission likelihood one way or another though...

ETA - also this:

Originally Posted by calebprime

The gloves are just a tactile reminder not to touch my face.

[Trebuchet]

I've got to go to the store today to pick up prescriptions, so I guess I'll see what else I can stock up on!
If we really get desperate there's a whole turkey in the freezer. I got it for $0.69 a pound right after thanksgiving.

[JoeMorgue]

As of Sunday the food seemed all to be normal stock at our local Publix. The hand sanitizer, toilet paper, disinfectants were all picked clean but none of the food supplies looked all that picked through.

I think at this point we're just in the self feeding part of it, where the only think being bought up is stuff we're being told is being bought up.

[casebro]

Or get a yeast starter going. Easier than a sourdough. Do it before you need the last of your yeast to do it. Yeast flour, warm water, the day before, next day use half to make your bread, refrigerate the other half. Yeast counts double in 20 minutes. When I brew wine I buy a pack of yeast once per season, use the dreck from one batch for the next.

Practice now, or be prepared to eat your hard tack mistakes.