On the one hand, people come to their favored news outlet to seek out information. You might be looking for a traffic report, information about a new business that’s opening or something that’s being built along your commute to work, or information about what’s happening in Washington.
On the other hand, people are getting frustrated with constant stories about coronavirus. They say some media outlets are hyping the panic. At the same time, we do need to let people know what’s open and what’s closed, the steps large institutions are taking to try to slow the spread, and what scientists are learning about the virus. Also, some of your neighbors are racing to stores to corner the hand sanitizer market.
Loyal Scaiaholics will recall this is a balance I’ve been trying to reach for some time.
An associate is a trucker for Wal-Mart.
Then this afternoon, he had arrived at a distribution center near Louisville, Kentucky to fill his truck with bottled water.
I may never have mentioned this before, but I’m one of the smartest people on the planet. To prevent me from bloviating during a presentation today [at a Pi Day Celebration!] at the Museum of Science and History, Fort Worth declared an emergency to prevent large crowds.
So instead, I’m writing a blog. [“Hasn’t North Texas been through enough!?“]
Dallas County had already done the same thing [declare an emergency, not write a blog]. They’re not telling people to panic; the goal is just to slow the spread of the virus. By trying to limit large gatherings, people with more medical training than me have learned they can slow the spread of disease.
But we’re packing grocery stores because we’re all telling each other everyone else is buying all the toilet paper, so we need to get toilet paper right now. And also write about it in italics.
We’re also concerned about bottled water. I don’t know about you guys, but I’ve got this stuff comin’ right out of the tap.
It almost looked like Black Friday at a Walmart in Pleasant Grove Friday as customers stormed cases of bottled water as soon as it was unloaded from the back. https://t.co/D76082RiTS pic.twitter.com/B5KM8VPzmd
— NBC DFW (@NBCDFW) March 14, 2020
Even the governor had to hold a press conference to tell people this is serious, and the state and local agencies are doing what they can to contain the spread, but a hurricane is not bearin’ down on Texas.
So since I had the time, I went to the store to buy actual groceries. Oh, what a lawless wasteland!
Earlier this week, I wondered if all the panic-buying was a precursor to some sort of I Am Legend situation. One Scaiaholic replied, “No, this is a The Stand situation.” He was right to do it. He was the Nick Andros to my Tom Cullen, as it were.
I was planning a trip to Italy with the fam at the end of this month. We had to cancel, and now I wish we were still going because they seem to be handling it with strangely stereotypical aplomb.
Sicily has figured out this whole self-isolation thing.#COVID19 #CoronavirusPandemic pic.twitter.com/93whPVtQcR
— John Nichols (@NicholsUprising) March 13, 2020
