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Old 14-03-2020, 08:17 PM   #7
emma_mcraf
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Join Date: Jul 2010
Location: Devon
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I started adding extra things to the weekly shopping list as soon as it started spreading from China to Thailand and so on. The cupboards are stocked, the garage fridge and freezer too and I have a box full of noodles, soups and things like this in case we end up on lockdown and can’t get fresh bread (not that I eat it much as GF bread is so expensive!) so everyone can have these alternative things for their lunch instead of sandwiches, toast and so on.

I’ve stocked up on ALL my autistic son’s foods as he has a limited diet and so he wouldn’t just eat alternative. People say he would if he was hungry, but he doesn’t feel hunger or thirst in the same way, so he literally wouldn’t eat.
So we have boxes of his breakfast cereal stacked up in the garage, bags of his dried fruit selection (as he eats veg but isn’t a fan of fruit so this is a way of getting his nutritional needs met and luckily they last a lot longer), lots of spaghetti (his fav meal is spag bol) and I have root veggies stored to make soups, casseroles, top cottage pies and so on.

We have a sack of dog food in the garage too plus I got a big bag of Mazuri just in case I run out of weeds and flowers and I’ve got extra fish flakes, already had budgie seed in the freezer and guinea pig food, so the animals won’t run out of food either! The main concern would be my son’s tree frog who likes live crickets.

Hubby buys our kitchen roll and toilet rolls in bulk from Makro anyway, so we’re fine for that.

It’s all stuff we’d use anyway, and just by adding extras to the list for a number of weeks we’ve got a lot without a mad scramble at the supermarket like people are doing now.
I even have all the ingredients for the Easter baking and everything for the roast except the joint of meat. No harm in planning ahead just in case.

We even have sanitiser and face masks which hubby obtained through work back at the start of the year. He looked at me like I was mad when I requested them but now even the main supplier, Purell, has run out.

I think we could end up on lockdown conditions at some point. I would prefer for my family not to get it. I know they will prioritise those needing hospitalisation and ventilation and in Italy they won’t ventilate anyone with a cancer history no matter what age, so as my hubby had cancer 15 years ago and pneumonia last year, he probably wouldn’t be treated. Things like that play on my mind a bit but all we can do is try and keep ourselves as well as possible. Not being able to accompany loved ones to hospital is also a real worry because of my son with autism. He would be unable to communicate with medics as he would be so frightened and he doesn’t make much eye contact with anyone. He would probably be selectively mute, something he has now gone past the stage of for quite some while. He hates being touched too, so what would I do if he had difficulties breathing? The thought makes me sick. My heart would literally break if I wasn’t allowed to be with him.

Our government seems to want to try things differently to most other countries and have certainly taken their time in implementing restrictions, and even then they don’t do it with immediate effect but we have to wait a week. I do wonder whether the newborn baby being diagnosed will change Boris’s thinking as his fiancée is pregnant.
With WHO openly criticising our country’s non-active approach, I suspect we’ll see things step up a notch. Our main hospitals have closed the surgical wards and turned them into ICU wards and the mortuaries have had to find extra storage in case it is needed.

My take on getting extra groceries was in the event of a more Chinese type lockdown rather than Italy’s, where people are still allowed to the supermarket and pharmacy. If we weren’t allowed to leave our homes, I know we have enough to keep us going for a good few weeks.

My eldest son has lost about 90% of his main work in his day job. He has plenty of other business interests which will tide him over for the moment, but I think everyone will find themselves affected personally in some way or other. My husband’s employer has his head in the sand, my daughter’s employer has made lots of contingency plans and is keeping on top of hygiene at her workplace so is the polar opposite.

It’s very unpredictable and I’m not convinced by the herd immunity theory. We have flu jabs every year and every year scientists have to try and forecast which strains of flu will be more virulent and thus will be immunised against, but still people get other strains of flu. Covid19 has the possibility of mutation I would imagine and so even if we become immune to it by having and surviving it, what’s to say those people wouldn’t get it again as it mutates?

I don’t actually get the fighting over toilet paper. People have gone a bit bonkers with that.
Nothing like winding up people with your little stash, Clare.
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Emma

Testudo Hermanni 5.12.2:Theo, Tamara, Tabitha, Harriet, Isabelle, Clara, Oscar, Hugo, Oliver, Florence, Arabella, Esmé, Aurelia, Felicia, Claudia, Atticus, Celestia, Amaris, Tristan and Clementine
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