Year: 2020

Along with toilet paper, bottled water is the panic buyers most irrational purchase. Social media is full of images of empty shelves. But why? COVID-19 is not cholera. It’s not spread by our water supply nor does it live in our reservoirs and pipes. And unless you live in Flint Michigan, your tap water is perfectly safe to…

The image above is what Filipino’s call a ‘Tabo’; A small, hand-held pitcher, ladle or pan used in the bathroom and toilet. Until recently, many homes in Asia lacked showers. Even today many bathrooms in Asia feature a large bucket in the tub, that is filled with water. Bathers use the tabo to scoop up the water and pour it over their…

“America, welcome to Hurricane Shopping.” -my friend in Florida This is what the produce section in Whole Foods in Noe Valley looked like. Proving that even the Progressive, Well-Educated, Affluent residents of San Francisco, are just as selfish (and ill-prepared) as the rest of the country. In days prior, online memes were shared of people fighting over…

Read the NYT article here: https://nyti.ms/2TYIhuI My first reaction to reading about a Price Gouger was outrage. But then I thought: why is it worse for one asshole to amass 17,700 bottles and sell them, than leaving them in the stores so that 177 Panic Buyers can grab 100 bottles? At least the Gougers goal is to sell their inventory. The hoarders goal is to…

My advice to my neighbors is DO NOT start panic buying toilet paper or hand sanitizer or paying price-gouging prices for them. But while you are healthy, start stocking up now in a sensible and practical way. The bad news is that as of today, we are only at the start of probably 4-8 more weeks of worsening outbreak in the…

First off, COVID19 is not a truly deadly pathogen for a majority of healthy people. So avoiding the virus is not as personally important to me as recovering from infection. That said, for Health Care and 1st Responders who have to go into hot-zones frequently, it’s important. Here’s protective guidelines from the CDC https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/hcp/respirator-use-faq.html I…