“It’s the end of the world as we know it (and I’m feeling fine).” Clearly, nobody in the world today is actually listening to the sage advice of REM (though the band’s song by the same name is a firm favourite on Coronavirus music playlists).
Even as some people (from the West) duke it out over toilet papers and others hoard food and other essentials, there’s plenty of madness outside the supermarkets as well. We take a look at some of the stranger news stories from around the world, as people, places, animals, things come to grips with Covid-19.
Don’t Bottoms Up
While the Indian government may have declared the hand sanitiser an essential good to stop shops from driving up its prices and people from hoarding, other countries have a better idea to keep the supply running. Brewers and distillers across Europe and the US have turned over their production facilities to make hand sanitiser. While many of them are retailing their boozy lifesavers at a nominal price, others are doling it out for free.
“We are determined to do everything we can to try and help as many people as possible stay safe. It’s time to keep it clean,” tweeted BrewDog, a distillery from Scotland.
Down Stream
As many countries in Europe continue to struggle under complete lockdowns, with their citizens confined to their own homes, EU officials appealed to streaming services like Netflix and YouTube to reduce streaming quality in Europe to prevent the Internet from breaking due to over-usage.
With so many EU countries on forced lockdowns to prevent Covid-19 from spreading, hundreds of millions are working from home even as as many children remain out of school, officials have been worried about the strain on the internet bandwidth. Both Netflix and YouTube have agreed to do so for at least the next month.