Pandemic panic?

The trickle-down effects of this pandemic are going to be either a wake-up call or bring out “the uglys.” The scammers quickly crawled out from the mud and took advantage of the internet first. Easy to seed fear and capitalize on the subsequent reaction.

Downtown this weekend was pretty quiet. Worked Saturday. Sunday I took the bus (gutsy, huh?) and went to Walmart. Later Nordies downtown. Good thing I didn’t want toilet paper. There were a few rolls of paper towels but … come on. I thought, isn’t this a respiratory virus? Why stock up on tp? Lots of large empty holes on shelves.

And then it hit me. Families might be in the house, together, for a long period of time. When is the last time that happened? Will it bring loved ones, or, not-so-loved ones, closer together or … not? Shelters. The Plaza.

It will be a matter of days before layoffs occur in the hospitality industry as shoppers stay home. The only person I saw at Nordstroms was an employee. Every venue relying on a live audience has been canceled. Some retail stores are already closing, from days to probably weeks. Want to go to the movies? You’ll think twice and then decide to watch something on Netflix. But we need food. On-line? Delivery? Maybe. You don’t have to go out of your house cause you can order everything on the World Wide Web. But you can’t get masks or toilet paper. It’s way, way, way back-ordered.

You have to wonder, what and where are the seeds of a pandemic sown? Why? Once again we turn to the WWW for facts and soooo much fiction. Come to think if it, didn’t Tom Clancy ….

Jim Bickel

Spokane