Surely, his pandemic (COVID-19) has taught us a lot of things. From our daily dose of coffee and wine, How hard social distancing can be, and even how valuable toilet paper is to people.
Our daily routine consists of waking up, having breakfast and/or coffee only in the morning and then it’s off to work. At work, you’d have another coffee or two throughout the day and if you’re like me, I’d have another cup at night. However, during this time of quarantine breakfast isn’t an option for many anymore as most people wake up at noon. Coffee isn’t as essential as it used to be and believe it or not, alcohol sales have been skyrocketing with people day drinking and partying (alone) at home. Liquor stores have been deemed essential by some governments and sales for booze in the US alone have jumped by 243%. Imagine what people would do if alcohol stores would close down.
Secondly, we have been told ever since this pandemic began to practice social distancing and remain at least 6 feet away from people to stop the spread of this virus. We, as human beings find it really hard to self isolate and quarantine ourselves because it just feels unnatural and is contrary to our human nature. All these public events, malls, and parks are being closed down and people don’t have anywhere to go and socialize anymore. Restaurants only offer take-out and honestly, it’s been very weird. Despite the government’s effort on prohibiting us from seeing each other, there are still a lot of us not complying. My recommendation? Look for a new hobby, play video games or start reading those books you told yourself to read ages ago. You can even enroll in virtual classes and tutorials to learn something new. Do a quick google search and you’d be amazed at how much stuff you can actually do alone and at home.
“Where did all the toilet paper go?” That’s what everyone’s been asking when they’re walking down that aisle in the supermarket. On the day of the lockdown, people were walking out of grocery stores with carts full of toilet paper. It was one of the top headlines on the news besides the amount of COVID-19 patients. So, why toilet paper you ask? Quick research online and I found out the real reason why it has been deemed the most essential. A tweet originating from Japan wrote that China was on lockdown and toilet paper will run out soon since it was being produced in China and supply chains will all be delaying shipments of the said product. This hoax got people to start panic buying and stocking up which was the actual reason for the shortage and not the shipments. Today, a month after the lockdown we still have our supply coming in every day and it was never gonna run out after all.
This COVID-19 pandemic is pretty serious despite all these amusing things we’ve learned and seen which is why we should just trust our political and health leaders even if it is hard for us to do. Life will be back to normal soon as long as we comply.