Its name: Fear.
That is what happens if you don't know your enemy and get diffuse and controversial information.
But compared to the Brexit, which took the Maltese government long to give a guide line what to do and to tell what is clear and what will be decided later (in between they even took down the website with the important information for expats in Great Britain and the British living in Malta) the level of uncertainty now was much higher.
All we knew was: We have a common enemy.
The gaps of information were very often filled with nonsense and misleading information. People started sharing pictures of empty shelves from other countries. That initial spark was enough to cause a severe fire in almost all bigger Maltese supermarkets.
Toilet paper, pasta, flour - whatever people could stockpile, they did.
I am not saying everyone stockpiled and calculated what the best pasta - toilet paper ratio might be. Perhaps not even the majority. But lots of people who could afford it did so.
People feared that closed borders and suspended planes and ships means an interruption in the supply chain. It did not.
Shelves were easily refilled, but the exceptional high demand remained.
The employees in the grocery stores had very hard times. They adopted. But the next rush followed soon.
Healthminister Chris Fearne announced new measures on a press conference on Thursday:
[...] elderly of over 65 years and people suffering from chronic diseases [...] are being asked to remain at home in all occasions.
They are only asked to leave home if they have medical appointments or if they have a special disposition by the superintendent of public health.
Stop the fear by informing yourself properly. Don't share, forward or distribute unverified information. Don't believe what year hear or read apart from the official websites like the World Health Organization (WHO), the Johns Hopkins University (JHU), the Robert Koch Institut (RKI) or our Ministry for Health
