The Romans didn't have toilet paper - they used a sponge on a stick

What kind of irrational fear is it that provokes panic buying of toilet rolls, leaving supermarket shelves bare? Is it the fear of having to self-isolate during this Coronavirus crisis and horror of horrors, running out of bum wipes.


(Tip:  The Romans used a sponge on a stick, which they washed in a bowl of vinegar.)


Coronavirus is new and science has yet to figure out the likely impact, how to control it.

It’s the fear of the unknown. Media coverage has added to our angst.


Dare we introduce some perspective? I began to search the internet, there to find a whole manner of life threatening diseases and fates which kill millions annually and none have been flagged up in the same way as Coronavirus.


It is the very young and the most elderly, specifically those with underlying health issues, who are most at risk of dying, we are told.


The biggest killer is chronic obstructive pulmonary disease - claiming 3.0 million lives in 2016;

Lung cancer (along with trachea and bronchus cancers) claimed 1.7 million deaths; Diabetes kiled1.6 million people in 2016, up from less than 1 million in 2000.


Down there in eighth place overall in the death stakes are Road Deaths: In 2013 some 1.25 million were killed on the roads.


One person is killed in a road traffic collision every 23 seconds…tick, tock, tick, tock, and another one.

At 14.45 on March 11, for the example, the figure stood at 2,275 killed that morning and growing; 39,396 killed so far this month; 265,821 killed since the start of the year.

In the UK alone, Department for Transport stats reveal that 1,770 people were killed on the roads in 2018.


Road deaths are currently ranked 8^th    most unpopular way to go in World Health Organisation stats.

One of the biggest killers is pollution from vehicle exhausts, power plants and factories which cause almost 9 million deaths a year.



As of (March 12) 4,291 people had so far died from Coronavirus-  over 3000 of them in China where the virus originated late last year. There had been 10 deaths in the UK by Friday the 13^th May, an increase of four in three days.