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12th March 2020
03:25pm GMT

A new thing about a pandemic like this one in the era of social media is that not only are there panickers, there are also people who are performing panicking as if it's an identity. People who will see Instagram story after Instagram story of people who think they're gas, shoulder-barging their way through hoards of people so they can buy four crates of Guinness like it's 9.59pm on the evening before Good Friday, and say "Oh, I better not miss out on all this fun."
And the spike in demand becomes a cultural moment, spirals out of control, and ends with a self-fulfilling, self-engulfing flame.
Vulnerable people will go hungry or without things they need because people are panic-buying for the gram. People who struggle to physically make it to the shop, or spend the now-requisite hour in a queue, will be at a horrific disadvantage.
Sick people and old people will have to queue for far too long in the chemists because people are buying enough shampoo and shower gel to last them for years. People styling themselves as survivalists headed to the bunker for the end of the world. But this isn't the end of the world. If it was, you wouldn't be wasting your time buying 20 tubs of Pringles.
It's the same kind of affliction that affects those people who think they're "so OCD" because they like things to be neat and tidy, or people who self-diagnose with ADHD because they have trouble sitting still. Buying too much hand sanitiser and too many surgical masks does not make you a survivalist bunker-person. It makes you selfish.
The way to minimise pain and suffering during this complicated time will be to work together, as a community, even if that means staying far apart. It will mean listening to the advice of medical professionals and the people in charge of putting products on the shelves as they do. Day in, day out.
It is hard to only take what you need when somebody else is taking more. It seems foolish to only take what you need when everyone else is taking more.
That is how we will justify the panic-buying to ourselves, but our actions will have dire consequences that for people who can't afford our excuses.Explore more on these topics: