4 ms·

If nobody followed the news or social media, there wouldn’t have been runs on toilet paper to begin with, as there never was a shortage to begin with and it was

• roywiggins 1y ago
  It was never clear to me, but at least part of it was supposedly due to everyone pooping at home using consumer TP instead of at the office, using commercially packaged TP (two-ply, giant rolls for big dispensers). And that sudden shift started to empty shelves. If people had stocked up over a period of time, the empty-shelves situation that produced the fear probably wouldn't have happened. Of course in practice there really was plenty of it to go around, dollar stores seemed to be the most flexible at navigating the supply chain derangement and if you didn't mind buying it by the roll, it was never really hard to find. Also- you don't need to follow the news for there to be a panic, empty shelves will do that all on their own. Everyone deciding to stock up a little on everything was enough to deplete shelves, people walking in after saw empty shelves and stocked up more, etc. I don't think most people were following the "omg supply chain" news, they just saw depleted shelves.
  • wkat4242 1y ago
    I never really understood the importance of it anyway. People were locked in their home so they could just use the shower head if it came to it. Of course a real bidet would be better and cleaner but I don't think they exist in northern America or Northern Europe. It's also common in Asia (at least South East) they can survive without toilet paper :) The Japanese even have entire water jet massage toilets, they do it like a king. Or if you don't want to use water, you could use serviettes, tissues. Even newspaper. That's why I didn't understand the fuss about it. Sure it's annoying if you run out but not the end of the world especially when you're at home where there's always a shower to hand. I don't understand that people were so obsessed with toilet paper. What would be much more important is food, water (in my city the tap water is terrible so I don't drink it), medication etc.
• deleted 1y ago
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• timr 1y ago
  Yeah, the deep irony of the GP comment is that, had all of these supposedly knowledgable people just read the original report from the WHO (~early 2020), they'd have realized many things about the virus (such as the extremely skewed age distribution of the seriously ill) that would have greatly mitigated the overall panic. It literally took years for the chattering class in medicine to understand basic information that was available at the beginning of the pandemic. COVID was a perfect case study of mass hysteria, and how you can't even trust "the experts" in these situations, because the "experts" you hear from early on are also generally the ones who are the most willing to spout pure speculation for attention. Humans are gonna human, and a background in science doesn't change that fact.
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  • roywiggins 1y ago
    A million Americans did die of it, the lost QALYs was... a lot. A lot of people died who had more than a decade, actuarially. That's a big deal. But it doesn't matter for what I'm saying: paying too much attention to the news about a weird new virus from China would have clued a person in that something big might be coming, on whatever dimension you care to measure it.
    • lxgr 1y ago
      But would that have been actionable information for the average person? What would you have done differently on the first day, given perfect information? The Covid pandemic lasted much longer than would have been reasonable to prepare for via hoarding of supplies etc. In my view, that was the entire problem: Much of the world overreacted in the short term (hard lockdowns including fining people going for a walk by themselves etc.) and underreacted in the long term (limiting avoidable large indoor gatherings such as most office work, air filters etc.) Many governments did as much as people would tolerate for as long as they could (which meant, for some, doing nothing at all), rather than focusing on doing effective things they could actually keep up as long as required. Hindsight is of course 20/20, but I really hope that’s a lesson many learned from it.
• yurodivuie 1y ago
  Unfortunately, we do not live in the best of all possible worlds. One must plan for both the actual threat and the response to the perceived threat.
• platevoltage 1y ago
  I'll never understand why bidets are so niche in the USA especially after there are TP shortages every couple of years. Not to mention how gross cleaning yourself with dry tissue is.
  • wkat4242 1y ago
    Oh yes I was just writing the same. Water is much cleaner yeah. About half the houses here have a bidet. I think many people in countries like the US or northern Europe wouldn't even know what it's for when they see one :)
    • platevoltage 1y ago
      I would put it at 1% here. They are extremely rare. Bidet attachments have become relatively popular here over the past decade though. It's been life changing (or maybe butt changing). It's amazing how pretentious Americans can be while having such a gross habit.