A year in lockdown: The remarkable scenes you never thought you'd see

[Celerity]

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/0/coronavirus-lockdown-year-anniversary-photos/

A hallmark of any disaster film is the gradual unravelling of normality – until the scarcely believable becomes the everyday. So it proved with Covid. What started as a mystery virus in a far off Chinese city soon turned into a tide surging across the western world – one that would in time engulf us all. When Prime Minister Boris Johnson held a press conference on March 23 to announce the imposition of a new national lockdown, it was clear our lives would be fundamentally altered.

Over the ensuing 12 months our world has changed, almost beyond recognition. We have witnessed abandoned city centres, empty motorways, sealed off playgrounds, field hospitals and makeshift morgues. Our only connection with distant loved ones has come from behind a computer screen or pane of glass. A year in lockdown has precipitated scenes never previously imaginable; a disaster in which we all have played a reluctant role.






























snip

[Treefrog]

1. I never did understand the big panic over TP. I never ran out either, but the disease is respiratory

I never got the point of hoarding TP.

[SallyHemmings]

2. That was always a head-scratcher for me.

[maryellen99]

3. It may have something to do with the tv show The Walking Dead

The very first episode dealt with a pandemic I think and one of the characters was hoarding TP.

https://movieweb.com/toilet-paper-hoarding-the-walking-dead/

[bucolic_frolic]

4. Preppers gonna be preppers & early-on wiping hysteria

Recall March-April 2020 they seemed not to know, or didn't want to say because they had no masks, how it was spread. We were told to wipe everything. Retailers were fumigating surfaces every day. Contractors had fumigation backpacks and went from store to store to fumigate handles on shopping carts. You couldn't find peroxide or rubbing alcohol. Wipe, wipe, WIPE!

[smb]

7. There Are Two Separate Incompatible Supply Chains

The institutional supply chain (generic-packaging jumbo rolls that don't need to be changed often and are bulky enough to discourage pilfering) got backed up by lack of demand as offices closed up, while the home supply chain (the familiar logo-packaging small rolls) was quickly wiped out be increased demand as people stayed home. It took some time to restore regularity to the situation.

[tanyev]

13. Also wouldn't be surprised if 'enterprising' resellers snapped up a lot of it

before stores imposed limits. I'm especially thinking of the guys who drove to a bunch of dollar stores (in Kentucky?), cleaning out their stock of hand sanitizer so they could 'help people' by selling it on Amazon. The hyper inflated price was just to repay them for their troubles, doncha know.

Where most people see catastrophe, the sociopath sees opportunity.

[Ms. Toad]

20. Not to mention that people were home, on average 33%more than pre-COVID

So home toiletting needs increased by roughly 50%

[NewJeffCT]

9. There were a lot of shortages a year ago

toilet paper, paper towels, kleenex, clorox wipes & anything with bleach in it, meats in grocery stores, frozen foods, eggs, etc

TP is easily understood and you can buy huge packages of 36 rolls at places like Costco or Sam's Club, so it's also visible.

[ShazzieB]

15. Yeah, I remember that.

Going to the grocery store was a crap shoot. You never knew what they were going to be out of, but there was always something. Big gaps on the shelves, and you didn't know what they were going to be out of til you got there. It was weird.

[BumRushDaShow]

10. "but the disease is respiratory"

One of the symptoms for many people (reportedly in some research, upwards of 1/3rd), was gastrointestinal, since there are ACE2 receptor sites in the gastrointestinal system.

For example -

Science News
Coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 infects cells of the intestine

Date: May 4, 2020
Source: Hubrecht Institute
Summary: Researchers have found that the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2, which causes COVID-19, can infect the cells of the intestine and multiply there. Using state-of-the-art cell culture models of the human intestine, the researchers have successfully propagated the virus in vitro, and monitored the response of the cells to the virus, providing a new cell culture model for the study of COVID-19.

FULL STORY

Researchers from the Hubrecht Institute in Utrecht, Erasmus MC University Medical Center Rotterdam, and Maastricht University in the Netherlands have found that the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2, which causes COVID-19, can infect cells of the intestine and multiply there. Using state-of-the-art cell culture models of the human intestine, the researchers have successfully propagated the virus in vitro, and monitored the response of the cells to the virus, providing a new cell culture model for the study of COVID-19. These findings could explain the observation that approximately one third of COVID-19 patients experience gastrointestinal symptoms such as diarrhea, and the fact that the virus often can be detected in stool samples.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/05/200504091438.htm

However I think the issue here is that companies that make products like TP are setup for "just in time" inventory/delivery so they rarely have any "surge" capacity to produce more nor do they carry much if any excess stock in a warehouse. They keep track of stats like number of units ordered (however the rate - per day, per week, per month, per year) and tailor their production to meet that stat, perhaps with a little overage of some preset amount. They also segregated their manufacturing processes/inventories for "consumer" product vs "commercial" product, which have different regulated product sizes/configurations and packaging requirements. I.e., there are commercial TP rolls that are not made to fit on a regular consumer's dispenser/rod.

So once shelves emptied (due to a few percent of hoarders) that resulted in triggering the rush worldwide... And once restocked, the continued demand upset their complete business model. Meanwhile those who were fine for the month or so soon discovered when it came time to casually buy more, there was no stock. So eventually the desperation set in and when they did find some, they added to the rush to get some "extra" too if they could.

It wasn't until late summer/almost fall when they got somewhat close to a "normal" stock of TP on the shelves (at least around were I am).

[IronLionZion]

12. People buy up tp when they think they'll be home for a while

so when there is a snowstorm coming, people buy up bread, milk, eggs, and tp so they can make french toast and poop it out.

My neighborhood is urban and liberal so our stores never completely ran out of TP or disinfectant or flour and people shared if someone ran out. The Asian/ethnic markets and convenience stores still had supplies while the suburban crowd bought out the big costco type stores.

[dameatball]

16. Toilet paper just got the publicity. Just about any food with a long shelf life was also targeted

and became scarce in a hurry.

[luvtheGWN]

18. In my little corner of the globe,

it was fresh eggs! No one could explain the scarcity (they ARE perishable) but I finally found a beef farmer who also kept hens, and I managed to buy a dozen eggs from him. My last trip to a BIG grocery store was March 13, 2020, just a day or two before the big lockdown. Meat shelves were almost empty, and so were the laundry detergent shelves. Still lots of TP though.

I wonder if that's the real difference between Americans and Canadians? Maybe because we produce multi-tons of TP here from our abundance of trees, we never worry about running out!

[live love laugh]

23. And TP companies really tried to take advantage and maximize their profits

They took nearly six months to get near normal restocking levels.

And even then they put out the mini TP 🧻 rolls.

Mini TP rolls are even stranger to me than the hoarding.

I really wish there were alternatives because I would stop using TP altogether.

[JI7]

27. It was people thinking they would not be able to get out

[Neema]

32. I think people were worried they wouldn't

be able to leave the house at all due to increased lockdowns, or would get sick and be bedridden for weeks. I was personally more interested in making sure we stocked up on food.

[femmedem]

33. I wanted to have enough of everything in case I had to quarantine.

So where I would normally have a one week's supply of everything--TP, cat food, my own food--I wanted about two and a half weeks on hand. I also wanted to minimize how many times I went to a grocery store, back before there was curbside pickup and deliveries.

If everyone doubled what they kept on hand, that meant stores were initially caught off guard. And that probably drove more buying because the first time someone walked down a grocery store aisle and saw the empty TP shelves, they'd decide they needed to buy it while they could.

[dalton99a]

5. Kick

[Roc2020]

6. the graveyard burial

is really sad and jarring

[DFW]

8. The most startling for me has been my train trips

The train from Köln ("Cologne" ) in Germany to Brussels is usually so crowded that I always had to reserve a seat in advance.

Yesterday I had to run over there and back, and the car I was in from Köln to Brussels, sparsely populated as it was to the Belgian border, emptied out to leave all of me and one other person from the border to Brussels. There were more Belgian cops to meet the train and check the passengers than there were passengers. Where I had to go is actually slightly outside of the center of town, but it was no sweat to get there at all.

In the evening, on the way back to Düsseldorf, the segment from Liège in eastern Belgium back to Köln had exactly one person in the whole car: me.

[appleannie1]

11. I don't like the cheaper brands of TP and paper towels.

I always buy those two things at Sam's Club. In fact, I buy soap products and some canned goods in bulk too. I visit Sam's about 3 times a year and spend between 3 and 4 hundred dollars when I do. I only buy TP around twice a year. I had just gotten some right before the lockdown. When I saw what was happening, I made one out of normal trip and bought TP, towels, disinfectant products, canned soups, canned tuna etc. I have only been back one other time since and again completely loaded my car. I never ran out of anything and have not had to shop weekly for anything except fresh produce and dairy products. As a result, I have spent limited amount of time in public places for a whole year and only for necessities. I just got my second shot and am looking forward to being able to go places again but masks and sanitation are now normal for me and will be simple to keep doing automatically.
The closest Costco to where I live is almost an hour drive or I would probably be a member there also. I live in the country and it is just how I shop.

[marble falls]

14. Couple breath takers there. And not in a good way. Thankyou.

[Marthe48]

17. T.S. Eliot:

This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
Not with a bang but a whimper.

Last lines of The Hollow Men by T.S. Eliot

[ailsagirl]

26. Yes

[AllaN01Bear]

19. i remember the lack of air polution . striking

[lindysalsagal]

21. I couldn't figure out why the stores had no paper towels?

Now they're back.

[Mr.Bill]

24. Initially, people who couldn't get toilet paper

were using paper towels. Eventually, I think factories shifted from paper towels to toilet paper to get the supply chain going again.

[appleannie1]

22. I don't like the cheaper brands of TP and paper towels.

I always buy those two things at Sam's Club. In fact, I buy soap products and some canned goods in bulk too. I visit Sam's about 3 times a year and spend between 3 and 4 hundred dollars when I do. I only buy TP around twice a year. I had just gotten some right before the lockdown. When I saw what was happening, I made one out of normal trip and bought TP, towels, disinfectant products, canned soups, canned tuna etc. I have only been back one other time since and again completely loaded my car. I never ran out of anything and have not had to shop weekly for anything except fresh produce and dairy products. As a result, I have spent limited amount of time in public places for a whole year and only for necessities. I just got my second shot and am looking forward to being able to go places again but masks and sanitation are now normal for me and will be simple to keep doing automatically.
The closest Costco to where I live is almost an hour drive or I would probably be a member there also. I live in the country and it is just how I shop.

[Skittles]

25. those of us in Texas could add a few more

blackout during single degree weather comes to mind

[LanternWaste]

28. Yup... both remarkable and scenes I'd never thought to see.

Some chilling, some heart-warming, but still... never though I'd live to see the day.

I keep going back to mid-March of last year during the first week after I'd been furloughed from work, and took a walk early one Friday morning when and where I should have seen the warehouses teeming with trucks pulling in and out of the area. It was the so eerily quiet, and empty, and silent.

The closest I think I've been to a ghost town.

[BobTheSubgenius]

29. Amazing compilation!

The overhead shot of the all-but-empty freeway. Eerie.

[Xavier Breath]

30. One of the stranger things I remember is the haunting footage of the jellyfish

swimming though the clear waters of a Venice canal.

[electric_blue68]

31. Seeing photos of NYC's empty Midtown

I'm a NYC'r. Seeing my city like that was so surreal.

I'm still down about 93% in my out of the house activities. And proper masks, distancing etc

[Thyla]

34. The last meaningful trip out as a family

A little over a year ago was on a Friday after picking the wife up after work, she was finally convinced to bring her laptop home from work because rumours were circulating of an impending lockdown. I had been saying it for weeks but wasn't taken seriously.

Anyway, on the way home we stopped at the supermarket with the kids and I'll never forget the display of greed and fear on show as panicked shoppers stripped the shelves bare and fought amongst themselves. My kids will never forget that day either, they still mention it and should never have been exposed to it. The weekly shop was something that we all enjoyed now changed forever.

The next day lockdown was officially announced and while President Sanchez was on TV giving his speech we ducked off to another shop and it was dead but at least they had some stock left.

And that was that, a year wasted. My kids have been great but we have done literally nothing this past year. Everything we need we order online, food, drinks, birthdays, etc... It wears you down and I'm still angry but also you realise how pointless much of the pre lockdown life was anyway. And you also realise how special some of those little things where that you can't do now and what is truly important.