With coronavirus continuing to dominate the news cycle, it’s hard to keep track of the hundreds of stories coming out daily.
Crikey takes a look at the tidbits that you may have missed — the good, the bad and the bizarre.
Some feel-good news, finally
Let’s start with some positives.
A 98-year-old woman has recovered from the virus in Wuhan, the epicentre of the outbreak. She had been in a critical condition when she was transferred to the hospital on February 13 but has since been discharged.
Like most outbreaks, the virus has had a greater impact on the elderly and physically vulnerable, though children are less affected (baffling health authorities).
Everyone is playing their part to combat the virus. The University of Washington is developing a puzzle game to help design antiviral proteins. The most promising solutions generated by users will be tested and possibly manufactured at the university’s Institute for Protein Design.
Elsewhere, the UN has released more than $22 million in emergency funding to help vulnerable countries battle the outbreak.
A date with hygiene
Dating app Tinder has a new pop-up which gives tips to help users protect themselves from the spread of coronavirus. One tip advises people “maintain a social distance” at public gatherings (despite a business model facilitating users to get very close indeed).
Google is also displaying help, information and safety tips when users search for coronavirus keywords.
Meanwhile, Amazon has also pulled more than a million products off its platform under its Fair Pricing Policy for price gouging or falsely advertising effectiveness against coronavirus. Sellers had been upping prices and adding exorbitant shipping costs to profit from the outbreak.
Loo-paper companies on a roll
As doomsday preppers and panic-buyers rush to stock up on household products, it seems everyone is overestimating just how much of one product they go through in a week: toilet paper.
The frenzy has been so widespread that Woolworths has introduced a cap of four packs of toilet paper per customer — prompting Crikey to wonder if a loo paper black market will emerge.
Australia’s largest toilet paper manufacturer Kimberly-Clark has responded by ramping up production, now running production lines 24-hours a day.
World Health Organisation director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus wants the world to stop stockpiling masks, gloves and other protective equipment, with misuse and disruption to the global supply limiting countries’ ability to respond. Will he weigh-in on the bog-roll?
Time for a holiday?
The thought of taking a relaxing cruise ship may not be at the forefront of everyone’s minds right now, but cruises are continuing to take place around the world.
Myanmar has turned away a cruise ship with over 400 passengers despite no one on the boat having any symptoms. The Silver Spirit had last docked at Phuket, Thailand, which has seen 43 cases of coronavirus.
There are also bargain holiday tours being offered, with low cost domestic and international trips. Flight Centre has advertised low-cost flights to Los Angeles and London, which is sure to help halt the spread of the virus.
“Will he weigh-in on the bog-roll?” Probably not. In many countries the idea of smearing your remnants around with a tissue and walking away is beyond disgusting. They follow up any use of a tissue with water. In the absence of tissue, as in most village environments, just the water alone does a good job.
My sister texted me today, “There is no toilet paper in any of the supermarket shelves here and we are down to 3 rolls…eeeeek! I ordered some online from ‘Mr Toilet Man’.” She lives in North Ryde, Sydney. Not an ideal scenario for a family of six.
Most of Australia’s toilet tissue is made here. This imported panic is bàsed on the mistaken assumption that no supply from China means no tissue. There is no shortage.
If your sister is desperate though she could buy several packets of home brand facial tissues for $1 a box. Each tissue can be torn in half making 400 wipes in the box.
Or run the garden hose with spray-trigger nozzle thru bathroom window(current water restriction settings may apply) , might sound drastic but it’s bidet than nothing.
Mac, go to your room.
Well done Mac, don’t take crap from anyone.
Here in the West, we have the “The West Australian” newspaper. As a correspondent in this morning’s “West” opined, if toilet paper was/is unavailable, that newspaper’s newsprint would make an excellent substitute as it ia quite absorbent and when moistened travels quite well through the sewerage system…
Nothing new about that. We were doing that on the farm 65 years ago using the West and the weekly magazines. The Women’s Weekly was a bit more scratchy if I recall correctly.
The Cairns Post and the Townsville Daily Bullsheet were good too.
I couldn’t bring myself to try and re-gift the copies of “Battle lines” & “Not your average Joe” I received one sad Xmas, what a relief to finally be able to put both to good use.
I believe the Daily Telegraph will later this week begin printing perforated copies for readers convenience (quite appropriate as there’s no shittier rag), they’ll be recognizable by the small print near the title that reads “we’re for poo”.
The preppers are symbolic of an era of hyper neoliberalism- “there is no society” so logically look after No1 as the government is my enemy and everyone else are rivals, not fellow citizens.