Iris discussed with her family and agreed they would not stock up groceries unnecessarily. What were their thought processes? Our government had shared that our country has sufficient supplies to last us for a few years. They believed it. The grocery store closest to her was a 24-hour one, if they needed to get anything, they could easily get or they could make do with similar alternatives. Iris did not cook much as home, usually ordered in from outside, another reason not needing to get more supplies which she would not use or waste. Another factor was to practice healthy social distancing and queuing for a long time unnecessarily in a long line could be counterproductive to that. Iris shared about her brother-in-law going to the supermarket to get new supplies of diapers for his baby, before they ran out in a few days’ time. He was surprised to see extreme long queues and decided to leave without buying as he thought he could purchase from online. He went online to order and the delivery date was longer than usual. In fact, he had to keep pressing refresh on his computer to get a queue to get a delivery date which had not happened before. In that time, he was worried if the diapers they had would be enough for their infant.
Iris was keen not to let her thoughts run wild. When she began to feel that she might be crossing the line, she would find someone to talk to, usually her husband who was a rational cool cucumber and a biologist major and talking with him helped the doubts to pass. Most time, when it was not pertinent, she would not dwell on the articles. She also read news and articles that tell about the other side of the pandemic which were uplifting. About sea and air creatures coming back into Venice’s water, about the immensely reduced air pollution over China’s skies, about countries, organizations and individuals who are donating items or time to help others during this period and about the ozone layer healing during this period.
