Coronavirus (COVID-19): Why Are Australian’s Fighting Over Toilet Roll?

It’s not really surprising that after a traumatic fire season, growing climate anxiety and a lack of trustworthy and reliable leadership that Australians are starting to panic. Whilst coronavirus is worth understanding and needs to be taken seriously, it does feel like we are sometimes reacting in irrational and selfish ways.

Today I want to suggest a path forward that would create a more resilient and stable community that would benefit us all, not just through this pandemic, but also through other disasters we are likely to face in coming years.

It seems so absurd. Why are people stockpiling toilet roll?

Since 3000 Australians every year die of air pollution costing us $23.4 billion in health expenses, it would be much more sensible to start panic buying off-shore wind farms!

But humans aren’t always sensible, and toilet roll is just the tip of the iceberg. The giant mess underneath reveals a stretched and stressed public health system with no surge capacity, a casualised work force without savings or sick pay and an unstable economy on the brink of collapse. Medical and financial experts have been warning governments about this for many years, yet still, we find ourselves here, with no faith that our leaders can get us out of this safely.

Instead of pulling together and helping each other out of this mess (as Australians are known for) it feels like we are falling apart instead. What went wrong?

Let’s go right back to basics, and to my favourite topic – brain science!

What I think we need is a collective oxytocin-boost!

We live in a time and a place where multiple generations have experienced trauma in childbirth and postpartum, women and mothers are disrespected, and families and relationships are pushed to the edge of society rather than being central to our decision making processes.

We are now experiencing the resulting lack of social cohesion, our economy is on the edge of a recession and our trust in government is at an all-time low.

Oxytocin is not only essential to human health (leading world experts predict that the future of oxytocin research is in disease prevention) but it’s also the basis for a stable and moral economy.

One of the world’s prominent oxytocin researchers is an economist called Paul Zak. Yep, that’s right, nothing to do with birth or breastfeeding or motherhood, he’s an economist. And he uses what he knows about oxytocin to stimulate prosperity and enhance economic performance.

He’s created a model that he calls the Oxytocin Prosperity Cycle.

From his book The Moral Molecule:

“When people worry about survival, it not only inhibits their oxytocin release, it impairs their consumer confidence, which has often been the first step in economic downturns.

To thrive long-term, any market requires fair, clear, and enforceable rules of exchange that sustain the virtuous cycle of trust, oxytocin release, and reciprocity. This doesn’t simply make markets moral, it also makes them efficient – better at producing sustainable prosperity, the kind that doesn’t burn itself up in golden toilet seats for the few but leads to an increasingly expanding economic pie.

But even the most minimally intrusive and appropriate fixes at the top won’t be enough to maintain the kind of societal trust that can continue to drive sustainable prosperity. We also need a bottom-up approach that, through oxytocin release, taps into the virtuous cycle, and that removes the impediments to trust that corrupt and obstruct that cycle.”

This suggests there is a bottom-up solution to this toilet paper problem, excuse the pun!

We still need those top-down solutions, that’s the social contract. World leaders need to act urgently on medical advice and implement measures like social distancing, travel restrictions and investment in public health, appropriate to each country and ahead of when needed. We pay our taxes so our government can keep us safe.

But in terms of those bottom-up solutions here are a few suggestions.

Part of the problem is that the media wrote articles about panic buying that triggered more panic buying, and then only reported on the worst behaviour, not those showing kindness and compassion in these confusing times.

But kindness and compassion is happening every day, even if we don’t read about it in the newspaper. I was at my local Farmers Market last weekend for International Women’s Day and one of the stalls had a crate of loo roll out the front with a sign “Free, please only take one per person.” And there were no riots!

This is how we can start to shift into that virtuous oxytocin cycle.

Touch base your elderly friends, family and neighbours (without physical contact). Coronavirus affects people over the age of 65 much worse, so check-in and let your elders know they are not alone. Ask if they need some toilet paper whilst you are there!

If it’s safe support your favourite Chinese restaurant. This is my favourite if you live in Perth - best veggo dumplings I’ve ever eaten! Order take away if you are stuck at home or practising social distancing, or better still gift takeaway to a friend who is in quarantine or out of work.

Use this as an opportunity to get to know your neighbours and build resilient local communities, which we will very much need in coming years. A big shout out to Sky from the Australian Parents for Climate Action Facebook group for this thoughtful idea.

These kinds of bottom-up solutions are easy and free to implement, and you can start today. And the benefits of increasing oxytocin in a society are not only economic. This pandemic is the perfect time to start building resilient local communities and to reach out and connect with our friends, family and neighbours.

The silver lining of this global disaster could be that we travel less, consume less, revive cottage industries and start growing our own food. Will we use this as an opportunity to create a more fair world?

Or will we be reduced to fighting over toilet paper in the supermarket?

Underneath all of this, I feel, is latent climate anxiety, and especially the growing feeling that our world leaders are not keeping us safe. I think many people are waking up to the impending climate crisis, and it’s vital that we stick together. The climate crisis poses a far more grave threat than coronavirus (and the impacts of coronovirus are going to be horrific) yet our leaders are not acting with the same sense of urgency.

But what this global reaction shows us is that with determination and willpower humans can pull together to achieve great things.

It’s even possible that Coronavirus Lockdown May Save More Lives By Preventing Pollution Than By Preventing Infection.

But only if we pull together.

We need a healing, trust-inducing and prosperity-increasing oxytocin boost, and luckily there are plenty of ways of boosting oxytocin that don’t involve physical contact. Let’s get started.

Here are a few good articles on coronavirus, and please make sure you are getting your information from accurate and reliable sources like the World Health Organisation or the Australian Department of Health.

Read Why You Must Act Now and why coronovirus spreads exponentially and how to #flattenthecurve to learn about the importance of quarantining and social distancing and why it’s so urgent.

This is an excellent detailed Guide to Self-Isolation or Quarantine, and how to do this safely.

This is an explanation of the whole toilet roll thing from behavioural researchers and the perspective of a health care worker and what they want us to understand about coronavirus.

Here is a really interesting interview with Doctor Ranjit Brar with an insightful look at the value of funding public health systems, and how a society is only as strong as its most vulnerable members.

And finally, the Interim Guidance on Breastfeeding for a Mother Confirmed or Under Investigation For COVID-19.

I’ll be back next week with another post on what COVID-19 means for postpartum care in terms of social distancing, cancelling events and home visits.