Rumor Buster: Is it COVID-19 that empties supermarket shelves of toilet paper?

Shoppers in many Western countries, including Australia and Britain, have rushed to supermarkets to buy as many toilet paper rolls as possible because of coronavirus fears.

In Sydney, the largest city in Australia, supermarket shelves were stripped bare, forcing stores to limit the number of toilet paper packs customers can buy in one trip.

Why are people desperate to stockpile toilet paper?

Steven Taylor, a clinical psychologist and professor at the University of British Columbia, said that the force behind the stockpile of toilet paper is "fear."

"People, being social creatures, we look to each other for cues for what is safe and what is dangerous," Taylor was quoted by CNN as saying.

"When you see someone in the store, panic buying, that can cause a fear contagion effect," he said, adding that panic buying invites panic buying.

Katharina Wittgens, a psychologist at Innovationabubble, specializing in individual and group behaviour, said that customers overestimate the risks of the epidemic and that fears have promoted people to buy far more than they need.

Many experts said that social media plays an important role in novel coronavirus fear-spreading. On Twitter, #toiletpapergate and #toiletpapercrisis have gone viral. Images of empty shelves and shopping trolleys piled high with toilet paper packs have overwhelmed social feeds.

"You are not reacting to the virus, you are reacting to the fear of what's going to happen if people all panic buy and that's creating the panic buying which feeds the whole cycle," Emma Kenny, a psychologist, was quoted by Sky News as saying.

Will toilet paper rolls be wiped out in supermarkets?

Australian authorities have urged the public to stop panic buying as there is no shortage and most of the nation's toilet paper packs are made locally, BBC reported.

"We are trying to reassure people that removing all of the lavatory paper from the shelves of supermarkets probably isn't a proportionate or sensible thing to do at this time," Australia's chief medical officer Brendan Murphy was quoted by BBC as saying.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson earlier urged people to stop stockpiling and said he was "confident" shop shelves would remain stocked.

"I think it is very, very important that people should behave responsibly and think about others," Johnson told reporters at a Downing Street press conference.

Supermarkets Coles and Woolworths said there is plenty of stock, and many manufacturers of toilet paper said they are operating around the clock to meet demand.

People walk past empty shelves at a supermarket in Frankfurt, Germany, March 9, 2020.(Xinhua/Lu Yang)