I picked the worst time to enter work experience in a supermarket during this coronavirus outbreak. · 11:41am Mar 16th, 2020
It's overblown by our national newspaper tabloid, The Sun, ho-ho, what's new? It's gotten people riled up over here more than you'd believe, to the point where I'm actually going to confess I find it scary. You'd think the zombie apocalypse was coming. Next thing you know, it's going to be like Cabin Fever around here where they'll broadcast the following message on an endless loop, ''Don't drink the water! It's in the water!''
I've been working in Morrisons, my arch nemesis, my most hated supermarket brand. Seriously, I dislike them strongly. I only took the job because it was better than going in and out of the job centre so frequently. As luck has it, this virus appeared out of nowhere and it's chaos. If it's like anywhere abroad, people are going mental and buying bulks of toilet roll, hand sanitiser, tissues, hygiene masks, first aid kits, bundles of food, long-life milk, water, basically anything they deem necessary for quarantine. What is this, Resident Evil: Apocalypse, where the city gets completely cut off by armed guards? It's plainly ridiculous to think about it. The virus may be causing panic, but it isn't as bad as most make it out to be.
I had to work going down the isles in the shop, doing what's called carding, where you take the cardboard boxes / stands items were on and you crush them and toss them in a bucket to be taken to a baler machine. I couldn't get too far without somebody stopping me and asking me where long-life milk was, where hand sanitiser was, etc. That's all I'd get asked all day. It was nice to have just one or two people come to me and ask me where curry sauce was. (Mind you, I spent most of my time down the chocolate isle, for I am fat. I was even stacking certain chocolate bags while singing a random tune to myself before I spent the last couple or so hours of my shift giggling to myself!)
But yes, I don't know what it's like anywhere outside of England, but let me tell you, it's hardly hit us down here yet (which is the nice thing about England) but it's already being blown out of proportion. We hardly get anything bad over where I live, save for maybe floods and the occasional stormy weather, but it's not all bad. Our newspapers, local and national, have a tendency to completely blow these things up if it means making sales and getting others panicked. Daily Mail and The Sun, thank you very much, lads.
So, I will say that getting a job in a supermarket during an epidemic is absolute hell. It'll test your mentality and you'll question life itself. I had to restock tissues at the very front, the area I never work in, and the isles were packed with customers all the way to the very end. Every single checkout was open, manual and self, and everybody was being so inconsiderate and daft about buying so much bulk 'before it was too late' and causing unnecessary issues for everyone else, especially the elderly. I even ended up almost getting yelled at because one woman was asking me why the line isn't moving and if all the checkouts were open. So, I said, ''Well, it's very busy at the moment, as you can see,'' and I walked off.
I mean, seriously, lady, take a look around you! You're here for the same reason as everyone else and you're going to stand there, hands on hips, and ask me that? Oh, come on...
But I do have a newfound respect for retail workers. Damn, those people have nerves of steel. The one who trained me has been working there since 1992, back when another shop named Jacksons existed before it was bought out by Sainsbury's and then bought by Morrisons. I don't blame her for being fed up, I really don't. If anything, I understand. It sucks, yes, but I would assume it'd be miles better if people had common sense and at least some consideration for others. The shelves are so bare all the time that it's a nightmare to restock them! I stocked an empty shelf and it was bare again within an hour, probably less. Gotta keep on your toes.
Wherever you are in the world, hope you're doing fine over there. Stay safe, practice good hygiene and buy American. Oh, and if you're gonna be stuck inside all day, at least make sure you have an ample supply of food supplements and water. It might get pretty shitty at some point.
All the best, here's hoping we'll come out alive and well. And I also hear the US has made a vaccine! See, it ain't all bad! Hang tight, soldier. Whatever the situation, we'll be fine. After all, it's not like it's the black plague, is it? 
Long live The Brethren! 🇬🇧
Peace, love, empathy,
- Dan Ribe (FireRain) 💛
People are just going to get sick and tired of mainstream murdoch.
It's already happening.
I was just speaking to a guy in Canada - he is tired of it. I'm here Down Under saying the same thing.
People are getting more of their news from social media - where it has not been filtered.
Did you know that as early as 14th February, South Korea reported that oxygen delivery had brought back a number of death's door cases?
I mean... covid-19 is still a virus.
And... Oxygen + virus = dead virus.
I have yet to see this in Australian or USA mainstream media. They all hope for a magic vaccine.
Now I am not anti-vax.
Neither is my family.
But there are times when you should take pause and consider what may be going into your veins.
Because the last major coronavirus out of China was SARS back in 2003.
And after 17 years, that vaccine still nukes the person's liver as a side-effect. This is documented in the drug literature.
Vaccines take time to develop. They can't be rushed. But in Canada we have people being used as guinea pigs for an untested corona vaccine WITHOUT all the proven anti-viral protocols such as oxygen delivery being exhausted. Hyperbaric therapy alone kills disease like Raid to a cockroach. That includes nasty viruses.
It's awful when a medical system holds the profit of a drug company over the well being of a patient. That is how you create an anti-vaxxer. In fact there are times when I wonder if the vaccine choices I made in the past were the right ones. I had my flu shots like a good boy/young man for years and got sick for weeks up to two months at a time for each year I had them. I think my last shot was when I was 22. I had noticed the cycle of sickness and had enough of getting sick every time after the damn prick of a needle and decided to take my chances from then on. I'm now in my 30's and the only vaccines I've had since then are tetanus + diphtheria. And I've been a bloody healthy little bugger. No influenza. I received MMR from an earlier age and those last for a long time. Again, no fucking flu. And no periodic sickness after jabs.
Anyway, stay healthy mate!
There is no magic cure, but we do have proven medical knowledge of anti-viral treatments at our disposal. Keep your body healthy and your immune system up.
Yikes...a whole lot of yikes