The Pandemic Begins…

To document what the “great Pandemic of 2020” has been like from my point of view…

In January we started hearing snippets of news items from China about a mysterious new illness putting people in the hospital. At the beginning of flu season here, it wasn’t something to which I gave much serious thought. It made an impression but there are similar stories about mysterious illnesses every year around this time, just as every year there are too many stories about “anti-vaxxers” who feel that because there hasn’t been a case of measles in the world in a long time (until recently!) they have the luxury of choosing whether or not to vaccinate themselves and their children. Valid medical complications aside, the safety and health of society as a whole sadly succumbs to these individuals’ feelings of entitlement. But I digress…

Especially with the recent pop culture obsession with zombies, end-of-the-word catastrophic events and other such apocalyptic story-telling, I feel like society on this side of the globe has been operating on the assumption that “one day” there would be a big epidemic that would threaten many human lives. My understanding or assumption has always been that this virus would most likely start in Asia since that is where the population is most dense. Alternatively, I thought somewhere in India where the population is also dense but sanitation poor or, perhaps, from the tropical climes of Africa (ie, Ebola) or South America (Zika). Did I really think it would happen in my lifetime? Yes, yes I did. Did I think it would happen this soon after the SARS episode? Perhaps not; but I wasn’t especially surprised when COVID-19 began to look as serious as it does right now. Did I think the world was prepared for a pandemic such as this? Nope, not at all. So far, I am just thankful this experience might yet only be a learning opportunity for the countries and governments of the world to better prepare for a more deadly contagion of the future.

News reports slowly became more plentiful throughout the first and second months of the year. They still seemed sensational and attention-grabbing pieces intended to evoke terror, nothing too seriously covered by reputable local news outlets. So, considering the barrage of “fake news” we are bombarded with these days thanks to the Trump era, I consciously tried not to take it too seriously. I particularly remember shopping in the dollar store near the end of February and passing down the hand sanitizer, over-the-counter medications and toiletries aisle thinking to myself that it would be silly of me to take a box of those and these and that home with me right then, before there was a clear indication of any true danger. I thought once there was a clear, valid acknowledgement there would be time to gather any supplies we didn’t have on hand. Now, I kinda wish I had grabbed those items which are now unavailable or in short supply. I realized that people over here had begun taking the mysterious virus rumours more seriously because the next time I went by, at the beginning of March, that same dollar store had a sign in the window alerting shoppers that they were sold out of hand sanitizer.

My next trip to Costco coincided roughly with more consistent local, reputable news coverage of the Corona Virus. That was on Friday, March 6th and I only undertook the despicable task of navigating the ungodly crowds as a favour to a friend who had just brought twins home from the hospital and needed a prescription filled. Despite the unfavourable timing of the shopping trip, I endeavoured to do all of my own bulk purchasing at the same time so that I would not have to enter the busy store again any time soon, especially once people started to panic buy in preparation for life with the corona virus and whatever that entailed. I did, indeed, anticipate that sort of behaviour – the panic shopping. It has happened before when tornadoes took out the local power plant and the city went without power for a week or so. Potato chips and comfort food, flash lights, batteries and camping supplies were in short supply then. #StormChips was a trending hashtag on Twitter.

While I was pleased to see that they had staff tasked with wiping down each shopping cart as it entered the store and told them so, I wasn’t yet too concerned about “catching” anything in a public space. It certainly was not the first time the need to sanitize shopping carts had occurred to me but I was definitely aware that this new effort on the store’s part was due to concerns of contagion. I noticed that there was quite a lot of stock in the store in the aisles, not unpacked or not in it’s usual location and thought this unusual for a traditionally busy Saturday. I was also flummoxed when the usual mountains of various brands of toilet paper were entirely absent from the sales floor. I even inquired of someone who clearly worked at the store, only realizing as I walked away and two other people also approached him for the same answer (“if there’s any in the store, it’s over there on the floor”) that the noted organized chaos was not just an unexpected occurrence for this particular establishment.

My habit is to make my bulk purchase of toilet paper (by which I mean one jumbo package of 40 rolls — two if there is a very good sale) when we open the last pack in the cupboard. So we still had enough butt wipe to get us through until the next Costco run (probably the following month, I thought) but I thought I would check to see if there were any good sales on TP at the grocery store or Walmart on my way home.

The grocery store was an eye-opener. There were a huge number of shoppers inside but, oddly, the store was very calm and quiet. It was disconcerting. People weren’t keeping large distances but they were clearly trying not to be next to others. While I was near the entrance to the store in the produce section, one guy entered with a female and made loud, disparaging remarks about crazy people panic hoarding which I thought were uncalled for in light of the decorum of the present shoppers. On the other hand… Bananas were sold out. The meat section had very few random packages strewn about the refrigerated cases. Milk, cheese and egg products were picked over but had a fair amount still available. One lonely half-stack of frozen pizzas adorned the top shelf of the last freezer. The paper products aisle was barren except for one 6-pack of kleenex; toilet paper, paper towel, napkins — all gone! The selection of canned goods was very picked over. The pasta aisle had been massacred. Out of curiosity, I checked to see how the snack aisle was faring – nothing out of the ordinary there! No hoarding of #StormChips, surprisingly. There were virtually no lines for checking out which I thought was odd considering how busy the store was. I paid for and packed my purchases without incident, though I do recall wishing the cashier wouldn’t talk to me lest his spittle stray in my direction. The dear boy was exclaiming how busy he’d been all day but that he’d been checking the news all day to see if his school had closed yet; it hadn’t when he spoke to me but, by the time I was on my way out the door, his next customer gave him the news of its closure.

I used the little bottle of hand sanitizer I carry in my purse to clean my hands before I drove to Walmart. This is something I usually do anyway after shopping but I felt more serious about it this time.

I arrived at Walmart to find literally zero shopping carts available which was alarming because even at Christmas there are usually a couple of carts to be found. This time, nada. They had a cart sanitizing station set up but I was forced to pickup a basket. I was keenly aware of the fact that they did not appear to be sanitizing those. Over the counter medications were almost entirely sold out. There were one or two of the items I needed to pick up but I didn’t get my usual luxurious choice of brand or price. The type of cat food we normally buy was sold out – so was the brand! So I bought two small bags of the closest available recipe and hoped that mixing it with the little “regular” kibbles we had remaining wouldn’t cause a problem. At this time, I happily discovered and commandeered an abandoned cart. Next, I made my way to the cheese section which was picked over. Milk was sold out. Juice was picked over. Paper product aisle was empty. Many cleaning supplies were picked over. Bananas were sold out and most fruit was picked over. The potato pile was more of a mound. Canned foods and pasta were mostly gone. The bread aisle was empty – in fact, one lady was talking loudly on her phone about how she couldn’t believe there was no bread so I informed her that there was still some at the grocery store I’d just been to. We all seemed to be in a state of shock. Aisles were clogged with shoppers but, again, the atmosphere was quiet and subdued. I couldn’t wait to be out of there.