Pani Shoppers

                                                Pandemic Panic?

         It was just another shopping day for us. The South Beach Diet, that we are on, calls for lots of fresh ingredients. It seems like you eat enough for two every day, but the diet does seem to help in reducing body weight. We were shopping at the local Publix Store, in Estero, Florida.

          The parking lot wasn’t particularly crowded, so we didn’t suspect much was going on. It was inside that we got our first clue. Most of the aisles were well-stocked, with the exception of hand sanitizers, bleach and other disinfectants. Most had disappeared with the first wave of pandemic panic. There were still toilet paper supplies available, but in almost every shopping cart, we saw several rolls of this basic necessary commodity.

          A few of the very old and most susceptible to the virus had a wary look in their eyes. They also had drums of bottled water, rolls of TP and other supplies that they might need if the world ended tomorrow. You can’t really blame them, I guess. They are on the front lines of the latest health scare over the Corona virus. Many of them were here in Florida, away from family, friends and domestic health networks. No wonder they feel insecure.

         Native western New Yorkers, Mary and I are well-familiar with panic shopping. Every winter in WNY, when a particularly onerous blizzard is forecasted, bread, milk and basic supplies empty form the shelves in just a few hours after a media report. There is a palpable sense of apprehension in the air and in some down-right fear of” what is coming.” The media has to shoulder some of the blame for this. Scare tactics from some few “less than responsible reporters” do in fact create a “stampede effect.” It is true that the media is basically a well-balanced and helpful source on needed information, to the general public, in times of emergencies. They just have to be more careful in their delivery. Any cattleman knows that it doesn’t take much to “spook a herd” that is already edgy. 

       One older gent, in the cashier line, asked me “so what do you think?” My answer was “I don’t really know much. I don’t think anyone does. Just take reasonable precautions like you would during cold and flu season and see what happens. After all, you could have an overstocked house with every foodstuff and disinfectant on the earth available and then get hit by a bus while crossing the street. We will all get through this. It isn’t our first rodeo with hard times.”

       I don’t know if the pandemic panic will deepen. I suspect it will. Like the virus which we all dread, fear spreads throughout a population wildly, stampeding the herd. So, do what you need to do to protect yourself and your family. But remember, that we are among the richest countries on the planet. We aren’t sequestered in some far-away primitive outback. Whatever shortages in consumer goods that appear, will shortly be restocked by an amazing network of suppliers who represent the full bounty of a civilized society. And the only people who need great quantities of toilet paper are the politicians, who seem to generate more doo doo that the rest us combined.

                                             -30-

                                      (557 words)

                                Joseph Xavier Martin