I'm really surprised there's 300 comments (with lots of panic) and nobody mentioned the official WHO guidelines https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2... especially the part about "How to cope with stress during 2019-nCoV outbreak"
I commented below about doing what I am doing to not worry about it. Naturally it and was immediately dismissed by a panic induced response.
FUD is extremely powerful people.
If you want to stock up on some extra water and food - cool beans. But stay conscious of your own fears and manage your stress levels. Do what you can to stay calm about things and handle your emotions wisely.
I'm wondering how realistic a water or power shutoff is, those seem like much bigger concerns for a hurricane or earthquake. For covid-19 it seems like the municipal authorities will be able to keep at least the handful of people working that are required to keep the grids up (even if just about everyone gets infected, it sounds like ~80% of cases only have minor symptoms).
Restaurants shutting down and grocery stores running low on food seems like a more likely scenario.
Regardless, I've now stocked up on 2 weeks of water and about the same of food. Which is a good idea anyway for earthquake preparedness, but something I'd never gotten around to actually doing. So I'm feeling a good balance of prepared but not too stressed about it.
Everyone keeps saying that, but what does it mean? What food did you buy, and how much water? I can't get a handle on how much that is. I'm not panicing, at all, I just want to have enough when everyone ELSE panics.
I also hate the thought of boredom, so I'm trying every canned fish I can to see what I like, so I at least have some variety and flavour for those two weeks.
> Everyone keeps saying that, but what does it mean?
It's not rocket science. Take what you eat in a day and multiply it by 14. Go for non perishable things of course (pasta, rice, lentils, canned fruits etc.)
I mean, realistically speaking you could probably go two weeks with <1k cal a day without much trouble.
> If you want to stock up on some extra water and food - cool beans
Honestly, more people should be doing this anyway. If you live in an earthquake zone and don't have an emergency preparedness kit, you're in trouble if significant infrastructure damage happens in an earthquake. Likewise for snowstorms, floods, power outages, etc.
It's probably not going to happen, and it's probably not a big deal, but if there is an emergency at some point I don't want to have to tell my neighbours they're on their own for a week because we (minimally) prepared and they didn't.
I personally can’t really imagine the water or utility systems going offline. Is there a realistic risk or recent precedent of that? Eg, I never heard of that happening in China for example and I think we have better infrastructure here
While I recognize there might be a good number of people who experience FUD, I imagine there's another segment of people who couldn't be bothered. Procuring extra water and food for something that has a low likelihood of occurring (food and water insecurity stemming from COVID-19) sounds onerous.
It's more an isolation strategy than an actual shortage. If there is news of an outbreak in my immediate area, there will be a run on the grocery store, and they will sell out of items immediately in stock. I'd rather not stand in line, in close contact with strangers in my community, at that moment.
