What's Behind The Intense Stockpiling?

The real reason people are panicking over toilet paper …

- Alix Nicholson

When the toilet paper aisles were first stripped bare all over the country, it left a lot of Aussies scratching their heads. Yes, the coronavirus pandemic was looming – and it has since arrived – but given that COVID-19 is closer to the flu than a gastro-type disease, there didn’t seem to be a need to bulk-buy loo paper.

And yet, for weeks now, it’s been tough to get your hands on any. Fights havebroken out in supermarkets over the stuff, leading to police being called in; public restrooms have been ransacked for their rolls; and bootleg packs are going for amounts in the hundreds on eBay.

While making sure you have enough soap and pasta to keep you going for a couple of weeks makes sense, the complete buying-out of other seemingly unrelated items has many flabbergasted. So why has everyone suddenly gone nuts for TP?

“In times of uncertainty and threat we tend to do what we can to control a situation,” Melbourne psychologist Briony Leo tells WHO. “A great deal of this is out of our control. As humans we tend to need some sense of control over a situation, which helps relieve our anxiety. Psychologically, this is really necessary for us to feel safe.”