Just because you can leave your home doesn't mean you should. I don't say this just for personal precaution. I saw this so people can act selflessly and self-quarantine at the first sign of problems. Most of the people reading this are probably healthy people in their 20s-50s. The virus doesn't pose too much of a threat to us. But these people can also be prime carriers of the disease and increase its spread. If you or someone in your house gets sick, you really shouldn't be going out in public to buy groceries even if it is technically still possible to do it.

And for the record here is a 12 day old article that says Italy has had 650 cases and 17 deaths[1]. The CDC website currently has us at 647 cases and 25 deaths [2] and plenty of other places are reporting higher numbers[3]. I don't think I am raising a false alarm here.

[1] - https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2020/02/27/8099845...

[2] - https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/cases-in-us.html

[3] - https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/live-blog/coronav...

For reference, relatively live updates of stats worldwide https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/#countries

Thanks for posting that site. I hadn't seen it before. Comparing Italy and the US we appear to be roughly 9-12 days behind Italy depending on which specific metrics you look at like total cases, total death, new cases, or new deaths.

It's 2020, you don't need to leave your house to buy groceries...

Until the VC money runs out.

Or the shoppers get better at math.

Or I have some personal pride. That one usually wins.

The point of stocking up on food is to avoid the need to go to the grocery store during the highly infectious phase of the pandemic.

The best way to minimize the chance is to not leave the house. The best way to avoid leaving the house is to have enough supplies in for a few weeks.

I'm surprised that the comment like this even had to be posted.

That's exactly why you do it

I don't think his issue is with lack of food in stores. I think his issue is that you would definitely not want to go to do your daily grocery in a city with such large outbreak as Wuhan. Better stock up and when the high infection ratio hits in your town, (if ever (?) then at least you don't have to expose yourself by going outside.

While panic buying isn't advisable, buying larger amounts certainly is. I guess most of us have gotten used to being able to go shopping every day. Reducing that to once a week can greatly help reducing the spread of the virus. If everyone starts that at once it will cause shortages for a few days but not much longer.