The Battle of the Bog Roll

Mob behaviour is a strange thing.

So here we are on the brink of a global pandemic. The coronavirus appears to be the latest pariah to blight humanity. Up there with Ebola, SARS, AIDS, bird flu, swine flu and anti-vaxers, we now have the coronavirus, or COVID-19.

If you read the more official channels you'll find out:

• This started in China
• It's now getting some legs in Japan, Iran, Italy and Korea
• Children under ten don't appear to get it
• It's got a higher morbidity rate, but really, most healthy people under 65 will get a mild dose of the flu and that's about it. If you're old or have a compromised immune system, things are a bit grimmer, but still. 
• Part of the reason there is the scare is that unlike world hunger or bad sanitation, this directly effects and scares old, privileged rich people.
• Washing your hands properly can help keep this at bay
• Lots of people will die - but lots of people die every year from the flu.

So basically, though there are issues here, living in Australia, we don't really have a reason to panic.

I've had advice from a G.P to maybe stock up on an extra month of prescription drugs, just one month, just as a stand by - as many of these come from China, which is currently under lockdown with little getting in or out.

But why, oh why, has there been a run on loo paper? I mean, loo paper. This flu doesn't even give you the shits - yet people are hoarding the stuff. The website www.whogivesacrap.com.au has sold out of the stuff.

It's bog roll!

I needed to see this for myself, and knowing I'm genuinely getting low on the stuff (Down the the last full roll - that's when you get bog roll in my place) I went to the shops after work.

I only ever buy six rolls at a time. I get the environmentally friendly, unbleached stuff with the frogs on it - none of this Quilton or Sorbent for me. None of the generic Coles stuff either. Anything other than the unbleached stuff bites me - which is not pleasant.

True to form, the shelves were all but empty. I managed to get the last six rolls of my favoured frog paper. And that was about all that was left.

As for tissues, also needed - there were some crappy Sorbent ones, one of the ones I normally get with the labrador puppies on the box.The tissues were all but gone too.

Stupid thing is, most loo paper is manufactured here. 

So why the run on this bog standard necessity? Mob mentality? Stupidity? Do the hoarders know something we don't know?

What I don't get is that we live on an island nation, with excellent health care. The Government, bless it's little cotton socks, got a jump on this, restricting travel, instituting quarantine and generally acting in a half decent way (surprising for this Federal government).

Seriously - how many dunny wafers do people need?

It's absolutely ludicrous behaviour.

And I'm glad I have my six rolls now sitting on the toilet shelf, waiting for the madness to subside. 

Today's song: