Is COVID-19 Coronavirus Leading To Toilet Paper Shortages? Here Is The Situation

Some people may seem poop out of luck when trying to buy toilet paper, at least momentarily. That’s because the COVID-19 coronavirus outbreak has led to toilet paper hoarding and subsequent shortages in stores in different parts of the world, such as Australia, Singapore, Hong Kong, Canada, and the U.S. After all, when fear and panic are in the air, you tend to protect your loved ones, which, for some people, apparently are rolls of toilet paper. But before you start smuggling toilet paper, is this all really necessary in the end? Should you really be worried about toilet paper shortages?

To give you an idea of the situation, this Nine News Australia showed how shelves in stores in Australia have been, ahem, wiped clean:

Yes, you heard that correctly: 192,000 rolls were sold in half an hour. It’s looks like this buying frenzy has been due in large part to fears that lengthy quarantines may occur, even though the Australian government has made no announcements of such plans. There also may be fears of supply chain disruptions from import restrictions and factory closures in China. This despite no real warnings from the government that there will actually be a toilet paper shortage. That’s a lot of ifs, ands, and butts.

The discrepancy between what people are doing and what authorities are saying has made many on social media to essentially ask the toilet paper stockpilers, “what are you doing.” Or “what have you done” or dung, such as this tweet:

Before you wonder about what’s going on Down Under, keep in mind that Australia is not the only country where toilet paper stockpiling is occurring. For example, this KPIX CBS SF Bay Area news segment reported on how some South San Francisco stores reported being sold of water and toilet paper:

And here is what apparently is happening in Canada:

Indeed, this panic buying has made toilet paper quite a valuable commodity in some places. For example, a few weeks ago in Hong Kong, an armed gang tried to steal not money, not gold bars, not crown jewels, and not even Baby Yoda figurines, but 600 rolls of toilet paper. This South China Morning Post video covered this grand theft TP roll:

Not exactly the plot for Ocean’s 14.

Of course, toilet paper has always had value. After all, there is nothing like covering yourself in bed with a bunch of toilet paper rolls, right? Plus, when it comes to pooping, you don’t want to take matters into your own hands, so to speak. Nonetheless, scenes like the following may be a bit much unless an entire family has gone on an all-prune diet:

And how many people previously have checked in toilet paper at the airport:

It’s gotten to the point where people are parodying the recent surge in value of TP, such as the video accompanying this tweet:

And another tweet tried to put things in perspective:

One could argue whether toilet paper belongs closer to love and belonging.

Again this toilet paper buying frenzy has not been the result of real experts urging the public to buy as much toilet paper as possible. In fact, government officials in different countries have been trying to re-assure people that there will be no toilet paper shortage during the outbreak, that such stockpiling is not the way to proceed in preparing for a possible pandemic. For example, Frances Mao writing for the BBC News quoted Australia's chief medical officer Dr. Brendan Murphy as saying: "We are trying to reassure people that removing all of the lavatory paper from the shelves of supermarkets probably isn't a proportionate or sensible thing to do at this time."

However, this situation can be a bit like poop in a toilet that’s being flushed: a vicious cycle. If you see others hoard toilet paper, that may in turn may make you worried that panic, regardless of whether it is justified, will lead to actual shortages. Thus, even if you don’t necessarily panic about the new coronarvirus and don’t believe that quarantines will occur, you still may panic-buy toilet paper as well, because you fear that the fear of others may lead to no TP. Oh, TP or not TP. It’s the classic fear of missing out, except that it’s toilet paper. And the out is what will come out of your rear end.

Currently, there’s no indication that lengthy quarantines will occur in the U.S. or many of the countries where the toilet paper stockpiling is occurring. There also doesn’t seem to be any evidence that toilet paper supply chains will be disrupted anytime soon. So it doesn’t seem necessary to make your bathroom look like this:

Nevertheless, re-assuring the public that toilet paper will be available can be challenging. Rumors, fears, and conspiracy theories have been spreading faster than the virus. People will do what they do, especially when it comes to doo-doo.

While toilet paper hoarding may be the number one option for some, regardless of what officials are urging, there seems to be some number two options as well. For example, according to Google Trends, Google searches for the word “bidet” went up significantly over the past few days in Australia. Now, it’s not quite clear how many of these searchers will actually end up doing any emergency bidet installations. Some may be exploring other types of paper too such as:

And there’s even talk of, gasp, reusable toilet paper, as mentioned by Kelly Corbett writing for House Beautiful. This is toilet paper made out of something like cloth that can be washed and reused. Re-usable shopping bags may be one thing, but reusable toilet paper? If you do plan on trying such toilet paper, do not, do not, do not miss the word “wash before use” in the instructions.

Of course, just talking about toilet paper shortages could in itself trigger more toilet paper stockpiling. Keep in mind, though, that these reported toilet paper shortages seem to just be temporary stock-outs at stores. Just because a store is out of TP for a short time, doesn’t mean that replenishment will not come soon. There’s a big difference between a store saying that they happen to be out of stock today versus companies saying that toilet paper production is not meeting or won’t meet overall demand. Overall production and supply is the poop that you should be paying attention to and not what you are seeing at stores or hearing from those who are not in the know. During a public health emergency, rather than follow what other people are doing, it’s better to pay attention to what government officials and experts are actually recommending in the end.