Short-term, the chain of events that have led to the exponential spread of the coronavirus is having a bigger and wider impact than I initially thought it would. Long term, I’m fairly sure the psychological reverberations are going to be both long-lasting and make a huge dent in societal behavior;

We are likely going to be very suspicious of each other and scan for symptoms of the disease like never before. This could last years.

• We’ll be even more wary about foreigners in general and Chinese tourists in particular.
• Hand hygiene will improve substantially – and not a day too late.
• It will become trendy to wear colorful, surgical gloves throughout the day and neon hues at night. If you’re in the mask, glove or antiseptic wipes biz, good for you.

That people are frightened about getting to close to potential carriers in crowded situations like public transportation, shopping centers, amusement parks, cinemas, restaurants, political rallies, concerts, airports, planes, and trains isn’t hard to understand. Even if you are healthy, who wants to be quarantined and isolated for up to two weeks, right?

Long-term, the effects could also mean that industries that aren’t fully automated might take a big hit. Farming and food production industries, their supply chains and the complex logistics of making sure fresh dairy products, meat, fish and produce are replenished in grocery stores and supermarkets might have to endure big disruptions in the next few months.

I can see this as something good, though. It’s the meat-eating population that got us into this mess, to begin with. I don’t want to point fingers, but I hope that a whole lot of people take note that the virus does not stem from a rotten carrot or an overripe head of cabbage. So, on some level, I hope that this scare does get our species to start reevaluating how we treat our host, Mother Earth, and our fellow planetarians.

Perhaps I’m reading too much press. Maybe it isn’t all that bad and I am allowing my vivid imagination to run amok. In any case, this deep rabbit hole got me thinking about what kind of stuff I would stock up on (hoard) if fresh food actually became a rarity or even a scarcity. Condiments aside, my list of favorite non-perishables would look something like this:
• variety of beans
• kalamata olives
• peanut butter
• all and any kinds of dried fruit
• sweet corn
• popcorn (non-microwave)
• brown rice
• all and any nuts (and legumes)
• oats (for my addiction to porridge)

The pile of chain links was shot here in Vejbystrand the other day.