Meh, I'm in Italy and there's not much going on: some small panic in some parts of the population, school closed and stuff. Nothing worth preparing for. All the deaths were very sick people
Edit: apparently OP by "other countries that are affected" meant "the most badly hit places in Wuhan" and thinks it's going to happen everywhere in the world. I repeat that in Italy there's no apocalyptic scenario going on
Mortality in the west is way lower than what's been reported in China, healthcare and hygiene are very different, as is the distribution network. Even in wuhan the situation is stabilizing
Mortality in the west is way lower because the scale of the disease has not yet reached outbreak proportions. When it reaches outbreak proportions, such as what we saw in Wuhan, hospitals get completely overrun. There are not enough ICU beds or ventilators to support patients. Mortality rate spikes.
You are totally mistaken if you think that this cannot happen in the West. But by all means continue to bury your head in the sand.
By the way, you are in a country where the cultural norm is to greet one another with cheek-kissing. You're really in no place to lecture anybody else on hygiene.
I'm sorry if the comment about hygiene sounded offensive, as a non native speaker I hope my tone was more polite than yours, please let me know if it isn't so I can edit the message
That's because we still have plenty of reserve ICU capacity. As soon as that is maxed out the picture changes, rapidly. So better hope we never reach that stage.
Ironically, when I considered the likely outcomes, the one that convinced me to stock up on food was not actual supply chain distruptions (which I see as possible but fairly unlikely), but that mass hording will lead to shortages (which I see as very likely).
Shortages of what? Supermarkets in northern Italy have been restocking without problems, there is a shortage of N95 face masks on amazon, but they're not even proved to be useful for healthy people
I grew up in a hurricane-prone state in the US. 95% of the time people stock up and panic and nothing happens. I'm talking about gas shortages and empty aisles in the grocery store. But the 5% where something does happen you wish you stocked up because you're not even able to leave the area because there is no gas. Not debating N95 masks effectiveness but I would rather be at least slightly repaired because things go south really fast when people get hungry.
There aren't shortages until there are. All seems normal until the tipping point. Don't go out and buy up 2 months of supplies in one swoop, unless you want to raise eyebrows and lead to the perception of shelves emptying and then causing it to come true. Buy a weeks worth of extra supplies every other day for a week or two.
Mass hoarding is a supply chain issue. one in which the supply chain cant handle the peak demand. Whats worse about mass hoarding is it can cause feedback that amplifies it.
Not overreacting: This is not the flu, current estimates are ~20% of cases require hospitalization. Where it has hit with full force, hospitals fill up and people drop dead in the streets. China has shut down big parts of their economy and put major cities into quarantine.
Not hoarding: Empty shelves are how capitalism sends signals to producers that they need to increase production, much like how packet loss tells TCP to cut back on its rate of sending. My local Lowe's has been out of N95 masks for a month.
> Not hoarding: Empty shelves are how capitalism sends signals to producers that they need to increase production, much like how packet loss tells TCP to cut back on its rate of sending. My local Lowe's has been out of N95 masks for a month.
You should look into the beer distribution game [0]. Empty shelves don't always signal what we think they signal. And increased production cannot be scaled back as easily as TCP packets.
Some measures are easier that others. It is important to have at least a basic level of preparedness. E.g., get sleep and eat nutritious food to keep your immune system optimal.
Well taking measures is a broad range. I'm boosting my dry food buying schedule. aka spend 10 bucks more on beans I'll eat eventually anyway. Apocalypse here I come