SAN DIEGO COUNTY, Calif. — The coronavirus outbreak is starting to look more like a worldwide economic crisis. Anxiety about the disease emptied shops and amusement parks, canceled events, cut trade and travel and dragged already slumping financial markets even lower on Friday.
If the disease known as COVID-19 becomes a global pandemic, economists say the U.S. and other global economies could fall into recession.
In San Diego, some residents are bracing for the worst.
It started with masks, but concerned consumers are stocking up on essentials like pain killers to bags of pasta.
“During the Cuban missile crisis, my mother stocked up, and my sisters and I thought it was just so silly,” said a San Diego resident.
But as silly as hoarding may be to some, many health officials are advising people to stock up on a two-weeks supply of non-perishable foods, prescription medicine, and sanitary supplies.
“The grocery stores are packed all the time. It is not going to cause a shortage of food,” said another San Diego resident.
In Italy, supermarket shelves have been left bare. A Crowded Costco store in Hawaii shows the urgency.
San Diego psychiatrist Dr. Michael Lardon said it is real.
“In a way it is like psychological terrorism,” said Dr. Lardon.
He said anxiety is contagious, and as coronavirus spreads, so does the fear. Dr. Lardon said he has seen it in ten to 15 of his patients daily.
“What I try to do is help them understand what is neurotic, where they are spinning, and what makes sense, and [I] try to ground them,” he said.
San Diego nurse Arlene Vannest does not plan on stockpiling anytime soon except for, perhaps, soap.
“Really, it is all about washing your hands, cover your face, and you know, protect yourself. You know, keeping up a good immune system and that is really what you have to do,” said Vannest.
A lot of shopping lists can be found online for how to survive a pandemic. Face masks top the lists even though the CDC does not recommend wearing one if in good health.