A retired doctor interviewed last week said he wouldn't go back unless his wife and family agreed, precisely because of the increased risk. If you're in your 70s and enjoying a well-earned retirement after a long career in the NHS I think we can all understand why it wouldn't be an appealing prospect for some.

Some other members have explained the toilet roll thing but people seem determined not to notice.

It's fairly obvious. It's human nature. One of the less common symptoms of Covid-19 is diarrhoea. If you get the virus and have to self isolate, the last thing you want to run out of during 14 days locked up at home is toilet roll. Plus people have heard that there is panic buying of toilet roll which means that a lot of people will start to panic buy it.

It really isn't that difficult to understand. I continue to be surprised by the inanity of some of the posts on this subject

I know, it's silly - but don't dare criticise it, otherwise a mod will call you a "twat". There is simply no need to do it, even if other lemmings are doing it. I wonder what'll be next? Deodorant, shower gel? That's also stuff you would buy perhaps once a month, but if everybody were to panic-buy it then of course the shops couldn't cope.

EDIT: And yes, Justin, I get that some people are idiots. It's just a shame that there are so many of them, causing more people who aren't usually idiots to panic-buy.

FWIW, in my local Tesco it's just the hand sanitisers that are sold out (I've seen conflicting advice on whether they're even effective against viruses - the ones I usually buy are quite specific that they're antibacterial, as opposed to antiviral, despite having 62% ethanol in them).

Bar soap (which I use at home, incidentally, the same old Imperial Leather that my mum used to buy in the 90s) seldom seems to sell at all in that store - there's hardly any variety, even, wheras there are dozens of liquid soap dispensers.

Breaking: 42 new cases in England as of 7am - 7th March

21,666 people have been tested

21,460 negative

206 positive

You think that people who stock up on toilet roll are idiots, Darren.

i don't

As Nick said*, it's partly understandable: if you think you might have to self isolate for at least 2 weeks, then you try to stock necessities. Above all though you think that since other people are panic buying it, it might not be available when you need it (the vicious circle). 

* there was no need at all for Nick to call Darren a twat and he should apologise for it.

Pleasing to see that we continue to keep the numbers relatively low, long may that carry on.

He will be re-elected

If the Dems don't pick Bernie, I will be backing Trump again. He makes me laugh

I haven't had much to laugh about in recent years! 

I have to say that I have been extremely impressed with the official UK response so far.

Hopefully domestic impacts in terms of exposing their healthcare system and helping Sanders

I think we should have gone to phase 2 by now and restrict large gatherings and copy what the Koreans have done. We seem to be reactive rather than proactive.

If the numbers suddenly explode in the coming days and weeks, its too late, if the intention is to save the NHS from collapse

As has been said, cruise ships are a pretty good place for propagation but I'm also inclined to think this is now a lot more prevalent "in the wild" than the numbers would suggest.

On a  personal level, it may be difficult to know when to dial 111 if you have  "a bit of a temp  followed by a cough" if it soon abates (which by the sound of it,  might be a fairly common response in those   up  to middle age without an underlying condition).  Of course if not in isolation  you will have passed it on to x number of others. We will only be able to tell if this is going on by random testing of the population.  I'm not sure  that will be seen as a priority  at the moment.

The real problem is keeping it away from the high  risk groups - maybe we should be looking at trying to isolate the old / vulnerable (until community  immunity has been achieved or a vaccine developed)  instead of trying to contain something that probably isn't going to be containable ?

Apologies to Darren. It was a typo. I meant to say "knob".

I think you could do with some time away from the forum, Nick. You of all people shouldn't be breaking the code of conduct, should you?

I think you've lost your sense of humour in regard to this last post.

As for the first one  - yeah, it was OTT - but you don't even seem to realise why I did it, judging from your long post above. It had nothing to do with those buying loo rolls and everything to do with the fact you made a snarky post about me not understanding something when what I'd written was about an entirely different matter.

The idiots are those who buy packs and packs of toilet rolls even though they don't need anywhere near that much - as seen in that Aussie video clip that's doing the rounds, for example.

The person who thinks "I was going to buy a 9-pack next week, but I'll buy it now instead" isn't an idiot. Realistically, all you would need is a 2 or 3 week supply... which is what I tend to do anyway (and I'd imagine most people do, too).

Correct.

I have always  got a spare "9 -pack" in addition to my usual consumption. Corona virus/ Brexit or anything else hasn't changed that behaviour since I first set up a house of my own in 1998.  That's enough for  for 2-3 weeks normal usage on top of the "ebb and flow" of a fortnightly shop   for such things.

The insanity (and real problem) is mass hoarding and panic  shown in the vids   further up the thread -  aided and abetted by Social Media  (IMHO)

Americans are being very sensible in what they stockpile, imagine if they tried to lockdown cities there 

Ammunition Sales Soar in Response to Coronavirus Panic - Ammo dot com https://t.co/XXqyV0JewC pic.twitter.com/3b7kPpXZWF

— Sam Ro 📈 (@SamRo) March 6, 2020

Why do I always get this tune going through my head when we talk about Americans   and their ruddy guns.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gsC4kf6x_Q0

LOL

The difference between reality and social media....

But I'm amazed that nobody ran screaming from the building as you walked in...