Swaps Looking for a swap

[Murray]

Willing to trade the below pasta for premium single words only

 

[DesD]

I can offer the following if anyone has any shit domain names to trade. Form an orderly queue!

 

[Siusaidh]

Form an orderly queue!

Only if you keep 2 metres apart.

Spam and corned beef on offer in exchange for single word .coms - much tastier than Murray's soggy spaghetti, which is only worth .org.uk's.

 

[Murray]

This is starting to get a bit beyond a joke now and concerning

I went to tesco last night, it's a huge one, one of the biggest in the country

Toilet paper
Pasta
Kitchen roll

All totally gone

Stuff like canned foods, cleaning products very thin on the ground, bananas too and some other fresh produce

And yet cereal aisle looked ok, breakfast bars you could get enough to live off for as long as you wanted

I'm not sure why people panic buy what they do or how it's decided

I'm hoping when all the hoarders have got their years supply of stuff then shelves can start refilling again and things will feel a bit more normal because it's getting out of hand

 

[starbird]

I kid you not, on Amazon bought 72 rolls last week end, £24 same "deal" this week was £129.99. I gave packs (12 rolls in per pack) to family so I had no intention of keeping this to myself. I was in Asda today doing the weekly shop, zero toilet roll, soap, spaghetti and even nappies were pretty much selling as soon as they were being replaced on the shelves.

Be aware this is only the start. Don't mention ebay, how they can allow such blatant price gouging in such a climate disgusts me. 50p hand sanitiser selling for £10 upwards. People selling used hand sanitiser and it gets over £10. Liquid soap is like gold dust, I have photos on my phone how empty the shelves are.

France capped the price of hand sanitiser to 2 euros. The government here needs to step in. The most vulnerable will suffer due to this. Trading standards said they'd take action, they could spend days going through the listings on ebay. iso alcohol 3 weeks ago you could get 5 litres for £12.50 now £80ish.

Let me tell you how greedy and selfish some are. In London a man took the few packets of pasta left, and elderly woman asked for just one (he had loads), he refused. If that doesn't choke you up you're not human. It will not get better. Here then is the problem, normal people will now need to buy more, not because they want to but because they have to.

The government needs to introduce laws for price gouging with heavy penalties (jail even) and limit items so everyone does not need to go without.

We see the best in some in a crisis, we also see pond scum in a crisis well.

Be safe, look after yourself, but give a thought to elderly relatives who will likely be without unless you help them.

 

[aZooZa]

All of this is freely available in Thailand. But shipping toilet rolls has to be a nightmare...any ideas? I'm not into profiteering though.

 

[diablo]

This is starting to get a bit beyond a joke now and concerning

I went to tesco last night, it's a huge one, one of the biggest in the country

Toilet paper
Pasta
Kitchen roll

All totally gone

Stuff like canned foods, cleaning products very thin on the ground, bananas too and some other fresh produce

Not seeing this locally (small town). Shops are busier, but plenty of toilet rolls, pasta, etc., today.

Do you think this panic buying is a big city thing? Where people feel anonymous and free to bulk buy?

Problem is the TV news is so London-centric that it spreads panic-buying elsewhere.

 

[webber]

I'm sure you've all seen this one

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In Cambridge area, from what I've seen, Tesco has empty shelves on a lot of long-shelf-life products.
In Lidl it was business as usual and plenty of stock.

Supermarket bosses and logistics managers have said the supply chain will fulfil this surge in demand fairly quick.
Expect full shelves in supermarkets in the next week or two.
Unnecessary panic

 

[bonusmedia]

I'm pretty certain we'll have some form of rationing before long, not because of actual shortages but because of panic.

It's very predictable, trying to hoard resources in a crisis has always happened and likely always will. At the level of individuals and families it is rational behaviour - "The Tragedy of the Commons". Panic buying toilet paper may be ridiculous but once it starts, the herd mentality kicks in, like FOMO with bitcoin etc.

For me the crucial question is how people react as the bodies start piling up. Right now we're at 21 dead. The government's policy involves letting hundreds of thousands of people die in the next 3-4 months, supposedly for the greater good. None of us have experienced anything like it in our lifetimes, pretty difficult to say how we'll cope with the army on the streets etc.

We've got 2-3 weeks at most before hospitals are overwhelmed. There are things we can do, we can turn factories over to producing ventilators, we can open army field hospitals, we can make every room in the hospital an intensive care room, but the major bottleneck is the lack of trained staff. It is inevitable we have to go to wartime triage and start prioritising those with the best chance of survival.

Unless you have underlying medical issues (especially anything to do with breathing) or are 60+, you shouldn't really be worried about getting it. You should be worried about accidentally spreading it. If you spread it to a couple of people and they spread it to a couple of people etc etc, it's not far down the chain before someone dies as a result. Current understanding is each case spreads it to between 2-3 others, likely on the higher side.

Incidentally some of the maths (viral coefficients etc) is the same as startups use with referral campaigns, it's actually pretty simple. Lots of factors that are harder to judge, e.g. what lockdowns happen when, but the underlying principle is the same. Exponential growth is counter-intuitive. Anyone saying 'it's just like flu' or pointing to how low the numbers are right now needs to have a quiet word with themselves.

BTW warning people of what is likely to happen based on the science and maths is not about doom-mongering or spreading fear. I'm sorry that some folks will feel patronised. I have found the best info I can and assessed it as rationally as I can. An awful lot of people, probably the majority, are still in denial/ignorance of the reality, and it's better to start facing it now than be in shock at the most critical point.

As for blitz spirit and British exceptionalism - lots of people will be extremely altruistic and helpful, lots of other people will be utterly selfish, the same as then. I think what we probably did have back then was much stronger communities. Maybe this will bring people together, disasters do have upsides.

Hope for the best, plan for the worst. Good luck everyone.

 

[bonusmedia]

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[webber]

Unless you have underlying medical issues (especially anything to do with breathing) or are 60+, you shouldn't really be worried about getting it.

On an individual scale this can be a tragedy.
On a macro scale it's just natural selection.

 

[diablo]

I

Unless you have underlying medical issues (especially anything to do with breathing) or are 60+, you shouldn't really be worried about getting it. .

That's actually a huge proportion of the adult population. It includes those with diabetes and hypertension for example. And given we all know or live with this same population, we should all be worried about getting it.

 

[bonusmedia]

On an individual scale this can be a tragedy.
On a macro scale it's just natural selection.

With respect, it's only natural selection when it involves people who are young enough to reproduce. The phrase 'survival of the fittest' is commonly misunderstood. It refers to genes, not individuals. The genes that survive and get propagated are the ones which create individuals most suited to successfully reproducing in any given environment. Evolution doesn't really 'care' what happens to people beyond child-bearing age, hence our bodies gradually lose the ability to repair themselves beyond that point, and we haven't evolved to live to be 200, etc.

 

[bonusmedia]

That's actually a huge proportion of the adult population. It includes those with diabetes and hypertension for example. And given we all know or live with this same population, we should all be worried about getting it.

Completely agreed. My point was that for younger/healthier people, the impact of the disease itself is really minor, it's spreading it to others that's the issue.

 

[Murray]

Not seeing this locally (small town). Shops are busier, but plenty of toilet rolls, pasta, etc., today.

Do you think this panic buying is a big city thing? Where people feel anonymous and free to bulk buy?

Unsure, I just got back from tesco and the shelves look a little healthier, still no toilet roll or pasta

Promisingly there were two large pallets of kitchen roll and no one seemed to be bothered by them and they were just sitting there so hopefully people are starting to calm down, or at least the people who went mad are happy sitting on their years supply

 

[Murray]

I'm pretty certain we'll have some form of rationing before long, not because of actual shortages but because of panic.

I'm hoping this isn't the case

I'm hoping all the people who panic bought have got everything they wanted and the people they panicked into panic buying also start to feel reassured by shelves gradually getting refilled and healthier

However if we have "lockdown" like they've done in Spain, where people are still free to work and visit the shops, but all other social gatherings are banned for 15 days then the country is going to go ******** mental and shelves will be stripped bare

I think Boris has done the right thing in not testing for coronavirus anymore, all it does it cause panic and people to strip shelves

I wish everyone would just use common sense, don't socialise, wash your hands, stay at home if you're ill, don't panic buy and everything will work out ok

 

[Murray]

All of this is freely available in Thailand. But shipping toilet rolls has to be a nightmare...any ideas? I'm not into profiteering though.

That's a kind thought, hopefully things will calm down here soon though in the next week or two

 

[ian]

Whilst this virus shouldn't be feared, it should be respected.

However, if I offered you 100 smarties and told you 3 would kill you, you would avoid eating them!

 

[bonusmedia]

I'm hoping this isn't the case

I'm hoping all the people who panic bought have got everything they wanted and the people they panicked into panic buying also start to feel reassured by shelves gradually getting refilled and healthier

However if we have "lockdown" like they've done in Spain, where people are still free to work and visit the shops, but all other social gatherings are banned for 15 days then the country is going to go ******** mental and shelves will be stripped bare

I think Boris has done the right thing in not testing for coronavirus anymore, all it does it cause panic and people to strip shelves

I wish everyone would just use common sense, don't socialise, wash your hands, stay at home if you're ill, don't panic buy and everything will work out ok

I think Boris has done the right thing in not testing for coronavirus anymore, all it does it cause panic and people to strip shelves

That's a tough one. I can understand wanting to avoid panic, but not testing means we're basing our reaction on limited information which is rarely good. They may well be able to extrapolate it fairly accurately without mass testing now. They can choose what information to share for now but they can't hope to hide the numbers of critical cases/deaths, so it may only be moving any panic further down the road. They may have good reasons to do that, I don't know.
I do know countries like South Korea have implemented massive, massive testing, and had quite a lot of of success containing it.
America is the other end of the scale with bugger-all testing, so they have very limited intelligence on what's happening. I think they are going to have carnage, they basically haven't got a functioning public health system, Trump closed down all the programs to prepare for this stuff, and their society is even more polaized than ours.

The UK is really out on a limb with our policy of 'building herd immunity', we've made a very different decision to the rest of the world to just let people get sick and only isolate those at most risk (and we aren't even doing that yet). I really, really hope it proves correct in the medium/long term. In the fairly short term I think the government will be despised for choosing a course that means more deaths.

I do trust that they are listening to scientists, but it's not like there is a consensus, the science is not settled, they are making the best predictions they can. For example, a key reason given for not implementing more social distancing, lockdowns, school closures etc now is that the behavioural scientists believe people will get bored and stop taking it seriously. A lot of other scientists disagree and it's reasonable to ask them to explain why they think that.
It also means that if you're confident you won't get bored and start mixing with lots of people again in a few months, stopping all non-essential contact now is helpful - like you say, common sense!

In theory the government is doing what the science says is best for the country, but that's not necessarily what's best for your relatives, or whoever else. It appears they may have decided that the deaths are going to happen anyway sooner or later, and it's better to keep a stronger economy to cope in the aftermath. Everyone else seems to have decided it's better to take a massive economic hit now to save lives. They are going to have a hell of a job justifying it and it's quite possible that they relent and bring in all those measures anyway, just too late.

Interesting times

 

[bonusmedia]

I've thought about putting some of these through doors, haven't decided yet. Worth remembering that the virus can live on cardboard for 24 hours so I'd have to make sure I make them/keep them as sterile as possible