OT: Panic Buying. When Will it End?

[Hero]

I suspect we will eventually see everyone wearing a mask or even bandana in public until a vaccine is available if ever

I went out today to a couple places and I'd say 95% of people were not wearing masks. Will see if this changes as we have a higher supply of them in the future.

[And1Skip]

where are you guys getting your masks? can't find them anywhere (not really going out much tho)

3 sources for most people:

friends who work in hospitals
online from china
people who had some lying around in the house

I had a box of masks from the 2009 swine flu scare. took me a while to find it. i personally don't see the need for it unless im standing close to people, which I don't do at all. i keep my distance

**** we will all be so paranoid going from here

Some Chinese stores in the GTA would have sold them before the closure of non-essential businesses. They've been selling them for months since word got out in January about the virus. Back then you could get a pretty good Level 2 pack of 50 for $45 and last I heard they were going for $65. You could also go to Walmart.ca an buy them online (most are sourced from China) and choose the one that would ship the earliest. I'm not talking about N-95 ones that the hospitals really need though....the general public don't need those. Surgical masks or even handmade ones will do.

And before anyone gets on me for being a mask supporter, I'm not hoarding and none of us have been hoarding. I even donated quadrupled the amount of money I paid for enough masks for my family to charitable group organized by asians in the GTA who have connections to Masks manufacturers in China and connections to hospitals in the GTA (ie., NYGH) to buy these hospitals not just masks but all forms of PPE. We're also buying them N-95 masks and not the crappy ones we use.

I only go out once a week for grocery shopping or pick-up medicine for various members of my family in my house, or the odd time my favorite restaurant I want to support is out of UberEats delivery range, so I drive there to pick-up my pre-ordered food, curb-side. I wear a mask in all these instances. I prefer to go to the more asian-populated supermarkets or Costco because 90% of the customers and staff wear masks (Costco employees don't) and you'll look out of place if you don't. I'm doing this out of respect for others that I may have it and don't want to spread to others when I'm out, and then of course for my family that if I don't have it, I don't want to get it when I go back home to my family.

[Raps in 4]

I suspect we will eventually see everyone wearing a mask or even bandana in public until a vaccine is available if ever

I went out today to a couple places and I'd say 95% of people were not wearing masks. Will see if this changes as we have a higher supply of them in the future.

You still can't find them anywhere, unless you order from one of the aliexpress sellers that import from China.

[CantStopTheRock]

We are well past the point where that would make much of a difference. Once you get to the point of mass community spread, individual contact tracing doesn't really matter. You do that to prevent community spread from happening.

Sorry, I meant to write next biggest problem right now (after how people social distance)

I am not sure how we are past that point that testing and tracking would not make much of a difference. Sure it is less effective now than early on, but that doesn't mean it is still not very important

We have 5672 confirmed cases of 37 million people, or 0.00015% of Canadians. Community spread accounts for 2/3 of cases, that is not mass community spread. Early detection and isolation and following up on contacts is very important. When you have community spread you do not have a good grasp of where the virus is or how to monitor it, treat it, isolate it. Essentially every Country is racing to improve testing for this very reason

What I am saying is that when you do testing early on, the goal is to stop the virus from spreading in the community. That's why you test and trace. You are trying to stop the genie from getting out of the bottle.

Once you miss that opportunity, testing becomes kind of irrelevant until you can do it on a massive scale. That's what we are building up to.

But in the interim, the value of testing is diminished, especially when you have stay at home orders anyway.

I agree with most of what you said but I do not think testing now is irrelevant. I agree it is less important than before community spread and is not important as mass testing, but it is still an effective measure to take against the virus spreading.

I realize it is a topic of debate in the medical field though, some Doctors, including the chief of staff at Humber River said “That window is largely closed”

But there is probably just as much (if not more) saying how crucial it still is

The WHO director released a statement last week “We have a simple message for all countries: test, test, test. Test every suspected case”

Infectious-diseases physician in Vancouver said we need should be testing more people, including those with mild respiratory symptoms who haven’t travelled outside of canada or come into contact with a positive coved-19 case.

“If we let this continue to spread into the community and we’re not going after these individuals with aggressive testing, we’re not going to have a handle on it”

Which I agree with. We 100% need to build up to mass testing, but testing in the meantime is not irrelevant. It still helps weed out potential branches of the virus. It is not like everyone is “staying at home”, practicing social distancing and practicing good hygiene. If that was the case I would agree with you, there would be no point. It is to help mitigate the potential spread of the virus where social distancing fails. So we do not have overcrowded hospitals filled with covid patients because we were waiting to mass test.

Japan is getting flack because of this, although they are supposedly doing well in targeted testing, they are only using 1/6th of there capacity to test. Their director of the institute for population health has been critical of this because they are predicting clusters may be popping up where social distancing is failing.

South Korea, Singapore and Taiwan have been doing well and many attribute it to their strict social distancing protocol and aggressive testing (but also how/who they are testing). A two prong approach.

I saw this in the Globe and Mail and I thought it was a good quote

“Each undetected case is like a smouldering ember left in a dry forest. Each undetected carrier has the potential to spark an outbreak of new coronavirus cases – in nursing homes, at curling clubs, in workplaces.“

[hankscorpioLA]

Sorry, I meant to write next biggest problem right now (after how people social distance)

I am not sure how we are past that point that testing and tracking would not make much of a difference. Sure it is less effective now than early on, but that doesn't mean it is still not very important

We have 5672 confirmed cases of 37 million people, or 0.00015% of Canadians. Community spread accounts for 2/3 of cases, that is not mass community spread. Early detection and isolation and following up on contacts is very important. When you have community spread you do not have a good grasp of where the virus is or how to monitor it, treat it, isolate it. Essentially every Country is racing to improve testing for this very reason

What I am saying is that when you do testing early on, the goal is to stop the virus from spreading in the community. That's why you test and trace. You are trying to stop the genie from getting out of the bottle.

Once you miss that opportunity, testing becomes kind of irrelevant until you can do it on a massive scale. That's what we are building up to.

But in the interim, the value of testing is diminished, especially when you have stay at home orders anyway.

I agree with most of what you said but I do not think testing now is irrelevant. I agree it is less important than before community spread and is not important as mass testing, but it is still an effective measure to take against the virus spreading.

I realize it is a topic of debate in the medical field though, some Doctors, including the chief of staff at Humber River said “That window is largely closed”

But there is probably just as much (if not more) saying how crucial it still is

The WHO director released a statement last week “We have a simple message for all countries: test, test, test. Test every suspected case”

Infectious-diseases physician in Vancouver said we need should be testing more people, including those with mild respiratory symptoms who haven’t travelled outside of canada or come into contact with a positive coved-19 case.

“If we let this continue to spread into the community and we’re not going after these individuals with aggressive testing, we’re not going to have a handle on it”

Which I agree with. We 100% need to build up to mass testing, but testing in the meantime is not irrelevant. It still helps weed out potential branches of the virus. It is not like everyone is “staying at home”, practicing social distancing and practicing good hygiene. If that was the case I would agree with you, there would be no point. It is to help mitigate the potential spread of the virus where social distancing fails. So we do not have overcrowded hospitals filled with covid patients because we were waiting to mass test.

Japan is getting flack because of this, although they are supposedly doing well in targeted testing, they are only using 1/6th of there capacity to test. Their director of the institute for population health has been critical of this because they are predicting clusters may be popping up where social distancing is failing.

South Korea, Singapore and Taiwan have been doing well and many attribute it to their strict social distancing protocol and aggressive testing (but also how/who they are testing). A two prong approach.

I saw this in the Globe and Mail and I thought it was a good quote

“Each undetected case is like a smouldering ember left in a dry forest. Each undetected carrier has the potential to spark an outbreak of new coronavirus cases – in nursing homes, at curling clubs, in workplaces.“

I don't disagree. Testing needs to be ramped up dramatically. But the benefits of doing so won't be seen until we reach a saturation point where virtually anyone can be tested. In the interim, we should be focused on testing medical workers, first responders, and elderly people who may have been exposed.

One thing that may change that is the availability of "point of care" testing, like the kit Abbot is producing that gives results in 15 minutes.

[Johnny Bball]

Read on Twitter

[Indeed]

where are you guys getting your masks? can't find them anywhere (not really going out much tho)

3 sources for most people:

friends who work in hospitals
online from china
people who had some lying around in the house

I had a box of masks from the 2009 swine flu scare. took me a while to find it. i personally don't see the need for it unless im standing close to people, which I don't do at all. i keep my distance

**** we will all be so paranoid going from here

It was 2 weeks ago, where the pharmacy next to my family doctor was selling mask. May need to call them and confirm. Their location is on Leslie north of 16th, inside a Chinese mall. I think it is name I.D.A. - Life Compounding Pharmacy

[Indeed]

I suspect we will eventually see everyone wearing a mask or even bandana in public until a vaccine is available if ever

I went out today to a couple places and I'd say 95% of people were not wearing masks. Will see if this changes as we have a higher supply of them in the future.

I went to Costco, mainly Asian people are wearing mask, which is around 15%. I went to a Chinese supermarket, and 75% of people are wearing a mask, within that, 30% of people wear a glove.

I think it depends on the population of Asian in your area, as they got mask much earlier (since their community are higher risk in early stage), and they have access to some Asian website that provides mask. For example, the Century Dollar Store (store in Pacific Mall 2nd floor and King Square Shopping Centre) website is all in Chinese, while they sell mask, just don't have English instruction and information to understand their capability (except the Epic branch which is sold out): https://thebestshop.ca/pages/search-results-page?q=%E5%8F%A3%E7%BD%A9

[Westside Gunn]

Masks and sanitizers are a lost cause in the gta right now

Gotta make your style of facial protection burqa/street gang style and for sanitizer use all the cologne you have.

I was reading Turkey was having a cologne shortage.

[PD28]

Things are worse than the media has let us know when it comes to number of cases. We have exceeded 10 k tests that still haven't been processed due to being over capacity. Graduate researchers can't really help the government on this one till they allow patient samples to be given to research labs.

Sent from my ONEPLUS A5000 using RealGM mobile app

[wtfbosh]

And before anyone gets on me for being a mask supporter, I'm not hoarding and none of us have been hoarding. I even donated quadrupled the amount of money I paid for enough masks for my family to charitable group organized by asians in the GTA who have connections to Masks manufacturers in China and connections to hospitals in the GTA (ie., NYGH) to buy these hospitals not just masks but all forms of PPE. We're also buying them N-95 masks and not the crappy ones we use.

Hey, would you mind telling me what group is this? I'd like to donate.

[And1Skip]

And before anyone gets on me for being a mask supporter, I'm not hoarding and none of us have been hoarding. I even donated quadrupled the amount of money I paid for enough masks for my family to charitable group organized by asians in the GTA who have connections to Masks manufacturers in China and connections to hospitals in the GTA (ie., NYGH) to buy these hospitals not just masks but all forms of PPE. We're also buying them N-95 masks and not the crappy ones we use.

Hey, would you mind telling me what group is this? I'd like to donate.

The one that we donated to was done through the Chinese wechat app group that my wife is a part of, don't have much info there. But here's another one that we're donating to http://frontlinemasks.ca/

[Wo1verine]

Read on Twitter

That young doctor who caught the virus and died likely murdered as well.

[CantStopTheRock]

What I am saying is that when you do testing early on, the goal is to stop the virus from spreading in the community. That's why you test and trace. You are trying to stop the genie from getting out of the bottle.

Once you miss that opportunity, testing becomes kind of irrelevant until you can do it on a massive scale. That's what we are building up to.

But in the interim, the value of testing is diminished, especially when you have stay at home orders anyway.

I agree with most of what you said but I do not think testing now is irrelevant. I agree it is less important than before community spread and is not important as mass testing, but it is still an effective measure to take against the virus spreading.

I realize it is a topic of debate in the medical field though, some Doctors, including the chief of staff at Humber River said “That window is largely closed”

But there is probably just as much (if not more) saying how crucial it still is

The WHO director released a statement last week “We have a simple message for all countries: test, test, test. Test every suspected case”

Infectious-diseases physician in Vancouver said we need should be testing more people, including those with mild respiratory symptoms who haven’t travelled outside of canada or come into contact with a positive coved-19 case.

“If we let this continue to spread into the community and we’re not going after these individuals with aggressive testing, we’re not going to have a handle on it”

Which I agree with. We 100% need to build up to mass testing, but testing in the meantime is not irrelevant. It still helps weed out potential branches of the virus. It is not like everyone is “staying at home”, practicing social distancing and practicing good hygiene. If that was the case I would agree with you, there would be no point. It is to help mitigate the potential spread of the virus where social distancing fails. So we do not have overcrowded hospitals filled with covid patients because we were waiting to mass test.

Japan is getting flack because of this, although they are supposedly doing well in targeted testing, they are only using 1/6th of there capacity to test. Their director of the institute for population health has been critical of this because they are predicting clusters may be popping up where social distancing is failing.

South Korea, Singapore and Taiwan have been doing well and many attribute it to their strict social distancing protocol and aggressive testing (but also how/who they are testing). A two prong approach.

I saw this in the Globe and Mail and I thought it was a good quote

“Each undetected case is like a smouldering ember left in a dry forest. Each undetected carrier has the potential to spark an outbreak of new coronavirus cases – in nursing homes, at curling clubs, in workplaces.“

I don't disagree. Testing needs to be ramped up dramatically. But the benefits of doing so won't be seen until we reach a saturation point where virtually anyone can be tested. In the interim, we should be focused on testing medical workers, first responders, and elderly people who may have been exposed.

One thing that may change that is the availability of "point of care" testing, like the kit Abbot is producing that gives results in 15 minutes.

Yeah right now we also have a back log waiting for results, that 15 minutes is a huge deal.

My friend who is a nurse, her charge nurse tested positive so she needed to be tested. She was off work for a few days just waiting to get the results back.

[carlosey]

In some places the panic buying has eased off slightly. I suppose those who went crazy now are stocked up for a very long time, and people are staying at home more.

[Brinbe]

was nice and quiet today. they're restricting how many can come in at once which helps people stay apart from each other and not go crazy hoarding and panacing. few people came in with kids and if possible, pls don't do that. the less people to deal with, the better.

and if you don't need to go out, don't freaking go out.

[NinjaBro]

Went to London Drugs this morning looking for a pasta maker and some gloves. Pasta maker was sold out. Got in line to pay for my gloves and there were 2 older people in line. We stood about 2 meters behind one another. Young guy walks up to the line and politely ask the lady if she was in line. She said yes, so he casually walks past her to stand behind the line behind me. He's about 1 meters behind me. Old guy is at the cashier paying for his stuff.

Old lady: You're standing way too close
Young guy: No I'm not
Old lady: You're too close to that guy (me)
Old guy: You have to stand 2 meters behind everyone.
Young guy: So I'm 1.5 meters apart
Young guy: He doesn't seem to mind
Old guy: It's the law now, you have to social distance. Idiot!
Young guy: You shut the **** up!
Young guy: So the whole world is going to die because I'm standing 1.5 meters behind
Old guy: You want me to call the police on you?
Young guy: Go ahead, seems like you care about it way more than this guy
Old guy: Goddamn idiot
Young guy: I hope you get the virus and die as*hole

At this point lots of shouting and staff came around to see what was going on to calm everyone down.

[raptor jesus]

Read on Twitter

I'm troubled and confused by the notion that this virus somehow blindsided the Western world. Undoubtedly China downplayed its severity, and likely went to nefarious lengths to do so, but by mid-January the warning signs were clear-as-day for the world to see that this had potential to bloom into a pandemic - and they largely went ignored. These doctors are definitely heroes, not only for working on the front lines, but for also trying to warn others; but I have a hard time believing the world would have heeded those warnings anyway, given the level of ignorance and incompetence we've seen from leadership the world over as this has played out.

[Raps in 4]

Read on Twitter

That young doctor who caught the virus and died likely murdered as well.

Yeah, it was way too convenient that a 34 year-old whistleblower died from this. I'm surprised this doctor didn't "catch" a fatal case of the virus too. She's either in a gulag or dead. If it's the latter, cause of death will be suicide via gunshot to the back of the head.

[Hero_Panda]

Went to London Drugs this morning looking for a pasta maker and some gloves. Pasta maker was sold out. Got in line to pay for my gloves and there were 2 older people in line. We stood about 2 meters behind one another. Young guy walks up to the line and politely ask the lady if she was in line. She said yes, so he casually walks past her to stand behind the line behind me. He's about 1 meters behind me. Old guy is at the cashier paying for his stuff.

Old lady: You're standing way too close
Young guy: No I'm not
Old lady: You're too close to that guy (me)
Old guy: You have to stand 2 meters behind everyone.
Young guy: So I'm 1.5 meters apart
Young guy: He doesn't seem to mind
Old guy: It's the law now, you have to social distance. Idiot!
Young guy: You shut the **** up!
Young guy: So the whole world is going to die because I'm standing 1.5 meters behind
Old guy: You want me to call the police on you?
Young guy: Go ahead, seems like you care about it way more than this guy
Old guy: Goddamn idiot
Young guy: I hope you get the virus and die as*hole

At this point lots of shouting and staff came around to see what was going on to calm everyone down.

I'm wondering why didn't you say anything.