No goo for you
Wash your hands! Come on, who hasn’t heard that order from a parent, or missed the memo in every food prep area? Well, I grew up in a time when soap and water sufficed, and I never got used to the squirt and go world of hand sanitizers.
However, we live in hurried times, and for many this is the go-to method. Except for one small hitch: sanitizers are a manufactured product, and right now supplies are short. That virus story? You’ll catch up. This evening, one of the lead stories on my local news broadcast came from a local vacuum cleaner business that also dabbles in furnishing commercial sites with bottles of goo (hand sanitizer, OK?) It seems that everybody wants some of the magic liquid, and shelves are empty. The representative from the company told the news team that a) he is quickly running out, b) his wholesale source is running out and c) people are hoarding. He had to refuse to sell all of his remaining stocks to one keen client.
So, a reminder to pick up a few bars of soap, because that will be the next product you can’t find.
Although I don’t tend to socialize, hearing the recommendation from the government to avoid getting together with others did catch me off guard. Perhaps this story has “feet”. Ditto on the decision of countries like China, Japan, Italy and others to close their schools shows that we’ve crossed into new territory here. Maybe this goes beyond the fear factor, and brings certain science fiction plotlines into play.
