Preparation for COVID resurgence anyone?

I shall just continue as the new normal!

JenniferEccles

People stockpiling led to shortages before so I hope shops will react quickly and restrict the quantities customers can buy if there is any hint of a resurgence of the virus.

@JenniferEccles I totally agree with you. I can’t believe that people are honestly having this conversation now when we are not even out of the initial pandemic wave. Are People saying they actually went hungry during lockdown or without something vital, or just they have no intention of letting it happen to them if we have a repeat wave this winter

I bought a second freezer just before lockdown, something I had been intending to do for some time to cope with the fruit and veg which arrive in the Spring/Summer. I am using it now for "basics".

Apart from the obvious loo-rolls, it seems to be difficult to predict what will be in short supply. ~The most recent are tomato ketchup and Marmite, and my regular on-line grocery delivery until recently permitted only three different items from the dairy section and only three tins of baked beans! What next, I wonder?

Living in Hove and Brighton by the sea, I feel like a small pickled onion in a fruit salad. Seeing the oafs continuing with hysteria over a winning a football match, I think it might be good idea to wipe out the whole human race and start again with Omoebas !

Parsley Box do vacuum packed meals to keep in a cupboard.

I have always had a good supply of food in my cupboards,I follow my grans habits.My mother said during the war all the 'posh' kids suddenly became best friends because they knew my gran would feed them when they came out of school.We lived on a small holding,so gran made butter,cheese,bread etc.and the garden was stocked with any vegetables which they could grow. So my mother followed her example and I follow them both, cupboards always full

Try Chemist Direct for soluble cocodamol. @BluebellWood

I always keep a sensible stock of food in the house but I shan't do anything special in case of a second bout of Covid.

There was no need to stockpile this time so don't think there will be next time either.

I am making sure my stores are well stocked, ( not stock piling) and am growing vegetables. The supply chain for food coped with the virus, but was under pressure. Another wave plus a no deal Brexit might push the pressure too high on, what is, a fragile -'just in time' - chain.

I am thinking of buying a small chest freezer, as the small fridge freezer is not really adequate now. We had family staying from time to time before lockdown and could barely keep up then but will be handy if we get ill or there are shortages again

I am preparing for the second upswing which will be worse when it happens in winter as we are leaving the common market and food will not get through easily.

Furthermore because of the Corona Virus throughout the world there are going to be shortages. I do not need rice as our local farms grow potatoes but I would like some pasta and some flour. So I am thinking what is going to still be local and what do I need to get in. Also I am keeping my supply lines open in duplicate a national firm delivering fortnightly, a local one once a month, a click an collect once a month, a personal shopper once every 3 weeks etc. the farmer delivering milk and eggs twice a week, Veg growing in the garden I am making sure that I have irons in the fire so that if or when there is a collapse I have an avenue of hope.

I am trying to enjoy the summer as best I can with carefully distanced meetings with friends and I expect next year to be very difficult.

JenniferEccles

People stockpiling led to shortages before so I hope shops will react quickly and restrict the quantities customers can buy if there is any hint of a resurgence of the virus.

I have to disagree with you on that.

It was almost entirely panic buying that caused the shortages, not advance stockpiling!
There is a huge difference between the two.

In fact, sensible advance stockpiling actually benefits everyone, because the stock is accumulated in times of plenty, then, if and when shortages occur, those who planned ahead don't need to buy to buy when things become scarce, leaving more for everyone else.

allule, the vacuum packed ready meals are delivered by Parsley Box, I find them very useful as they last for months in a cupboard and don’t need freezing. Excellent at the moment as I am waiting for my new freezer to arrive...
They are not large portions and would not suit someone with a large appetite but I pad the out with extra veg and salad. I also take them to my caravan.

I didn't change my shopping habits when it hit and I won't if it hits again. Anyway I think shops are more prepared now.

A friend’s daughter is a doctor and a researcher with Cancer Research UK. She has said that we had the first wave of Covid last winter and recent events were the second wave! Interesting that several people have mentioned being very unwell during the winter.

Social media has a lot to answer for. Australia imports toilet roll and were running out. The word spread world wide and panic ensued even though the U.K. manufacturers and exports loo roll internationally.

A young woman on a local Facebook group posted photos of her hall and living room full to the brim with loo rolls and recently tried to sell them for £17 a pack (of about 9). Hopefully someone told her that the world has moved on though she may have been on the beach in Bournemouth!

MamaCaz absolutely fantastic and logical comment. That was what I was trying to say but couldn’t put is as succinctly as you.

I suppose I shall make sure I have some toilet rolls and S R flour and a few tins, other than that I have shopped online, not supermarkets, and will continue to do so.

But the stockpiling wasn’t in advance was it ?

Week after week the loo rolls shelves in supermarkets were stripped bare.

Shelf fillers repeatedly told me that an hour previously there were plenty but people were filling their trollies with multiple packs. All the staff I spoke to made the point that there was enough of everything if only people bought their usual weekly amount.

As I said before I really hope shops get on top of the problem by restricting the numbers each customer can buy, and judging by a lot of admissions on here it may be needed even before the POSSIBILITY of a second peak.

We always keep a good stock of most things, we wait until things we want are on offer or reduced and then buy several. It's nothing to do with coronavirus, Brexit or anything else, it's what we've always done.

I don't exactly stockpile - just keep what my sister calls "plenty in". I have a store cupboard that has been nicknamed the Nuclear Winter cupboard. It saw me through the empty shelf syndrome, and includes batteries, lightbulbs as well as tins and packets and jars.
If there is another spike I hope the supermarkets react quickly and prevent panic buying.

That's where I disagree with you, JenniferEccles. The shelves being stripped bare was a result of panic buying - when asked by journalists why they were doing it, some shoppers even said things such as "I thought I'd better because everyone else is doing it"

There might also have been opportunists, who saw the chance to bulk buy then sell at a profit, but that is quite another thing.

Please do explain to me, if you can, how some people buying extra now, as a precaution (stockpiling), can possibly have a negative impact on anyone else if there are shortages or supply problems in the autumn or winter!

I see the point you are making MamaCaz but I do wonder if the mindset of stocking up a bit in advance could become so entrenched that it continues even when (if) we get a second spike.

I just feel that if enough people are like that it would inevitably lead to shortages.

I am making sure that I am replacing what I use so that I don't run down. I think its only sensible, I have not been in a shop for 3 months. I am concerned at the stats, the options that seem likely to me are that we carry on with this level of infection for months or there's a spike in autumn. I hope I am wrong, but this is not looking nailed by any stretch of the imagination.

I can see your point too, JenniferEccles, but just supposing that mindset did become entrenched - which personally I doubt will happen, because we all have different approaches to life and its challenges - I think the supply chain could cope with it.
The type of stockpiling I am talking about already exists, and always has. People buy gradually, so it has no effect on anyone else. Even if a lot more people started to do this now, I think its gradual nature is perfectly sustainable in normal times and, as I said, actually reduces demand should unforseen supply problems suddenly arise for other reasons.

The OP described how she is producing her own food as a precaution. There's definitely no way that sort of forward planning can hurt anyone else, so I think its a great idea.

Luckygirl

My main action is to try and get vastly overdue dental treatment done during this brief lull; I can then have my osteoporosis injection that has had to be delayed (by 6 months!) whilst awaiting the dental treatment (can't have both at same time).

Please re consider an osteoporosis injection. Honestly they cause more damage than they can fix, they cant grow new bone its a con. It only makes adexa look better as its old bone inside. Plus they do NOT stop fractures. And just think why you need dental work, its due to the risk of osteonecrosis of the jaw, and ear too as it happens.