Well in fairness the reason why shelves are empty, is because everybody is panic hoarding. If people just kept buying their regular stuff, instead of buying a nuclear winter's worth of toilet paper, there wouldn't be any problem at all with supply shortages.
As unfortunately people can never be trusted to act rationally, the best thing to actually do is exactly what you did: hoard before all the others.
A limited percentage of the population is merely
preparing while the majority of people are still asleep.
The problem is the "just in time" logistics of typical western economies with exclusive focus on penny-pinching profits.
Hence, those few people (around here according to polls some ~15% absolute tops) are already more than sufficient to break the System.
Now imagine the other 80%-85% realizing that "the music stopped playing" and seeking their seats in the dance room - only to realize there aren't enough seats for everybody. Never were.
That principle works for global high finance, just as it works for benign things such as canned food or toilet paper.
And the music? It indeed stopped playing. It stopped weeks ago already - but only the smartest realized it and acted accordingly and in a timely manner.
The rest is just the usual "can you trust to public to act responsibly?" and spread out their preparation over a longer time, so that the supply chains aren't overstressed and more people can get what they need?
lol .... hell no. Of course not, at least not with typical western Millenials, Generation X or Generation Z that never even heard of a crisis, other than watching it on TV occurring elsewhere and then zapping to another channel.
South Korea for example? Comparably
very disciplined people, due to long-standing tensions and proximity to North Korea the government retained all typical stockpile requirements and preparedness on a national level.
Most western countries disbanded and lost that critical capability a few years after the end of the cold war. And that now comes around to bite. Unexpectedly - but that doesn't matter.
In the western countries, the real panic hasn't even set in yet. We haven't seen
anything yet - but it's coming, so much is guaranteed.
Short of some medical or scientific wonder popping up, that is.
Old AirForce motto I retained :
hope for the best - but plan for the worst
Still true and 100% valid.
PS.
Based just on the numbers, we (Germany) will hit contamination levels that match or exceed the point where the Italian healthcare System collapsed in roughly 6-7 days. Maybe 10 days if we're really lucky for some unknown reason, 14 days would be exceedingly optimistic and highly unrealistic.
But looking around? The typical civilian acts as if this wasn't Mar 2020 - but Mar 2019. Or 2018. All normal-normal - with the exception of public events being all canceled, Schools/Universities etc. closed and an increasingly annoying shortage of various supplies.
Those will be the ones spreading the contamination with geometric speed - and they'll be the ones who'll be hit the hardest.
(all in lieu of a total nation-wide emergency lockdown - which IMHO can't happen soon enough)
www.nytimes.com
