As of writing this, there are 18 confirmed cases of the coronavirus in Latvia. Most of them travelers who returned home from other European countries. When dealing with an epidemic, people ought to be careful, yet there’s a difference between being careful and panicking.
I recently got the following e-mail from the government:
In view of the global situation caused by Covid-19 and the potential risks in Latvia, an emergency situation is announced in the country from 12 March to 14 April.
In order to limit the spread of the virus, a number of precautions will be taken during this period, incl. distance learning in all schools will be introduced from 13 March. The only exception is the centralised state exams, which will be carried out on site – in schools.
In addition, trainings, competitions and rehearsals held within the framework of cultural, sports and interest- related education programmes have to be discontinued during the period of emergency situation.
In order to attend pre-school educational institutions, parents have to submit a written statement to the institution on 13 March that the child and family have not visited the countries affected by Covid-19 and have not been in contact with Covid-19 affected persons. This statement should also include information that parents do not have any other possibility of providing childcare.
I’d say that nothing here tells people to start panicking and frantically stockpiling food. The fact that schools are getting closed doesn’t imply that grocery stores will close as well.
Today I went grocery shopping. My surgeon told me not to carry heavy stuff for at least four weeks after the surgery, which means going grocery shopping every few days (I don’t own a car, thus I have to carry everything I buy).
Here’s what I saw in a grocery store. The panic has started. This is the shop shelf that was supposed to have rice in there. Shelves with rice, buckwheat, oat flakes, flour, etc. grain products were pretty empty. So were the shelves with toilet paper. And a few other shelves.
Storing a bit of non-perishable food at home is reasonable. In case you get sick, you will need to sit at home for two weeks, thus some food reserves could be useful.
Unfortunately, I strongly suspect that this is not what I am seeing here. Buying whatever is still left at the shop shelf regardless of whether you even like this food is a bad idea, because you will probably end up throwing out said food later.
Personally, my normal diet is pretty incompatible with storing food anyway. I eat about a kilogram of fresh vegetables and fruits every day. Sure, potatoes, cauliflower, cabbage, carrots, pumpkins, zucchini, eggplants, etc. vegetables can be stored for a couple of weeks at the room temperature, but these foods would require a cellar for longer term storage. Never mind all the fruits, which usually rot after being stored at room temperature for a while. Nor do I have a large freezer for storing meat and fish. And fresh milk cannot be stored at all (powdered milk isn’t even available in retail here, because people prefer buying fresh milk instead).
Oh well, at least I also like the taste of nuts, seeds, dried fruits, beans, peas, and lentils. Rolled oats and buckwheat are also fine with me. I guess I could survive for two weeks on pumpkin seeds, walnuts, cooked legumes, and dried figs in case I actually got the virus. Conveniently, I already have those at home, which means I shall abstain from panicked grocery shopping.
I live 25 miles from a grocery store, and the town the store is in, is a small town although to me it seems big: 16,000 people, they say, and I swear they have to count the dogs too, to get to that high a number. And yet, we are seeing this too: empty shelves and now some stores are actually appearing on the news, reassuring everyone that there’s enough toilet paper, they are getting more in, not to panic. The company who fills my propane tank has also sent out messages letting everyone know they will continue to provide propane, not to panic.
Usually people don’t realize how much we, as a society, rely on one another. This perhaps is showing people just how much we do rely on each other.
Andres you can freeze fresh milk, we usually have some in the freezer for when I’m not well enough to go out and Paul can’t for whatever reason.
Some of the things people are panic buying at least make sense, any properly stocked larder should have rice, pulses etc, but why are they panic buying toilet paper? We haven’t bought anything outside of our normal patterns, I do periodically buy some dry foods from a wholesaler that will deliver to me, but that is as much because they have good quality products, some that I can’t find at all in the local shops, as that buying them in quantity is a lot cheaper, but I haven’t needed to do that since all of this started as we still have plenty of everything from my last order. I do realise I am fortunate in being able to send the money up front for lots of dry goods, I also know that my liking to have
a well stocked lardera lot in hand is partly related to the days when I had so little money that I did run out of food and money both at times.I’m having to restock due to back issues that made shopping difficult. Plus I’m remembering the time I was sick for two weeks with the flu and ran out of food. Luckily my sister visited from out of town. I get the flu vaccine every year now, but there is no vaccine for this.
I wonder how much profiteers have triggered panic buying. Apparently they targeted hand sanitizer and face masks, buying out multiple stores. Amazon and Ebay have been shutting them down.
kestrel @#1
Yep. I live in a city. My boyfriend lives in a town with less than 10,000 people. Yesterday he called me and told about how the town’s grocery store was emptied by panicking shoppers.
And, yeah, here we also had shop managers talking with news crews and reassuring the public that the shop shelves will be restocked the next day.
Jazzlet @#2
If you have a large freezer, which I don’t, because smaller fridges mean lower electricity bills.
For me it is vice versa, I don’t feel comfortable having lots of grains at home, because I fear that worms will eat them before I can. I hate throwing out spoiled food, which is why I prefer to store as little as possible. For example, I buy my rolled oats in 1 kg packages and I buy another package only when the one I have is almost empty.
Granted, I do enjoy having a wide variety of seeds, nuts, and dried fruits at all time at home (they make great snacks) and also various legumes, which is the main reason why I would have enough calories to last for two weeks without leaving my home.
The virus is going to stay here for months. Thus it would be impossible for me to stockpile enough food to be able to survive that long anyway. For now I am counting on having to stay at home only for two weeks in case I actually get sick, which would be the worst case scenario.
robertbaden @#4
This one really bothers me. Some people are making money from the disaster. Other people are being mislead and scared way beyond reasonable caution.
I haven’t seen this (yet, I presume) — albeit I also haven’t been out to the shops in several days (since before Macron’s speech on Thursday). However, France is going into lockdown in about 10 minutes time as I type this, which besides (presumably) disrupting tomorrow’s village market, could also be a trigger for local panic-buying. It should certainly “wake people up” in a sense; e.g., I haven’t seen much social distancing (nor any notable increase in hand-washing).
you can freeze fresh milk
Dry milk is surprisingly good. Also, ultra-pasteurized half and half keeps a very long time. I’ll spare a cup to make pancakes.
I have about 25 lbs of flour and equal amounts of rice. And several cases of heat and eat Indian food. If I had planned better I’d have gotten some eggs. I have about a 4 months’ supply of butter and jam so I may have to make bread. Lots of bread. Making bread is a magic skill.
Marcus @#7
Dry milk appeared in Latvian stores during the 2008 economic crisis. Afterwards, it disappeared from retail shops once again. Even though dry milk is manufactured in Latvia, it is available only in wholesale.
Various cheap and healthy foods aren’t available for sale unless some disaster hits. For example, oat/wheat/barley bran is currently sold in retail packaging by only one Latvian manufacturer despite the fact that pretty much every company that makes various grain products also ends up producing bran. Personally, I try to mostly avoid refined grains, instead I use for cooking either whole grain products or bran.
Locally here in France, whether or not there has been panic buying locally — I still don’t know (see @6) — I strongly suspect there will be tomorrow (Tuesday) morning: Starting at noon, fairly draconian measures come into effect, self-quarantine at home is mandatory (with exceptions for essential workers), you can only leave for a small number of reasons (and only for a short time) and you must have a (new) form on your person, or else be fined. I suspect there will panic buying at the shops before noon.
blf@#9
With such measures, hoarding food supplies start to sound like a reasonable idea. Oh well, at least online grocery stores still exist. Hopefully, they will be able to cope with the demand and won’t start raising food prices.