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After two deadly outbreaks of the rare Marburg virus disease in Africa, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is warning US doctors to be on the lookout for patients exhibiting symptoms. In the agency’s health advisory, issued Thursday, officials urged clinicians to be vigilant due to the “potential for imported cases.” There are no reported US cases of the virus, and the risk here is low, the CDC said. Officials recommend doctors assess patients who develop hemorrhagic fevers. MVD can be caused by the Marburg or Ravn viruses, and has appeared this year in two seemingly independent outbreaks in...

Germany may face shortages of such staples as toilet paper and cardboard if Russian gas supply dwindles in the coming months, German outlet Zeit Online reported on Wednesday. Operating paper plants may become unprofitable if they are forced to produce at reduced capacity because of gas shortages, the publication cites Jürgen Schaller, Chairman of the Board of the Bavarian Paper Associations, as warning. Producing paper requires a lot of water, electricity and gas, Schaller explained, adding that the technology is tried and tested and cannot be changed quickly. “Many employees in my company are already very worried. I can’t blame...

The Russian central bank said it will suspend the buying of gold from banks from Tuesday to meet increased demand for the precious metal from households, its latest attempt to weather the storm on Russian markets in the face of Western sanctions. "Currently, households' demand for buying physical gold in bars has increased, driven, in particular, by the abolition of value-added tax on these operations," the central bank said in a statement. The central bank raised the key rate to 20% from 9.5% on Feb. 28 as the rouble crashed to record lows and people rushed to withdraw money from...

The very basis of the US superpower status- The dollar as only world reserve currency is under threat.The Colder War is a book by Canadian Author Marin Katusa—who is the Head of the energy division of investment advisory service Casey Research and this is a video describing some points of discussion.What makes the US dollar unique is the fact that since the early 1970s it has been, with a few notable exceptions, the only currency used to buy and sell oil on the global market. This began in the 1970s when US President Nixon’s administration began negotiations with the government...

The Russian government issued antihoarding measures and price controls, amid a slew of punishing economic sanctions from the West. Authorities said major retail chains could restrict the sale of a number of “socially important goods,” such as food staples, and limit how high they mark up their prices. The measures were aimed at possible speculation, the Ministry of Industry and Trade said Saturday.

No excerpt from Bloomberg allowed, ungated article here.

Costco confirmed it will start limiting purchases on essential household products for what has become a perfect storm of supply chain delays for many retailers. ...Costco's current supply chain and inflationary pressures, which include port delays, higher labor and freight costs, and shortages on everything from shipping containers, trucks, and drivers to various components, raw materials, and ingredients, have caused most of its general items to sell out within two weeks. ...

Our enemies now understand that you can completely paralyze America by taking out just a handful of pipelines. Even though all of us knew that any gasoline shortages were just going to be temporary, the shut down of the Colonial Pipeline caused a frenzied wave of “panic buying” all along the east coast. But if something caused the gasoline to stop flowing for a longer period of time, not being able to fill up our vehicles would be among the least of our problems. Trucks need gasoline too, and if our trucks stopped running for an extended period it would...

Price Hikes The maker of Huggies diapers and Scott paper products said the percentage increases would be in the mid- to high-single digits and take effect in late June. They will apply to the company’s baby- and child-care, adult-care and Scott bathroom-tissue businesses. Cheerios maker General Mills Inc. (GIS) said it will raise prices to partly offset higher freight and manufacturing costs, in addition to rising commodity prices. “Our competitors and retailers are facing the same thing we are,” General Mills Chief Executive Jeff Harmening said. Hormel Foods Corp. (HRL)said in February it raised prices of its turkey products, such...

A shortage in the availability of shipping containers could lead to another toilet paper shortage.

<p>Not much is known about the so-called “new strain” of the virus, but that hasn’t stopped the ruling class from using it to their advantage.</p><p>The latest narrative, which is being used as a vector for endless amounts of COVID-19 panic and fear mongering, is related to the claim that there is a new mutation of the novel coronavirus spreading, which is claimed to be much more contagious — a claimed 70%(!) increase in transmissibility — than the original dominant variant.</p>

With governors clamping down and closing their states due to increased coronavirus positive tests and deaths, some consumers are apparently worried they will never, ever be able to purchase toilet paper again and are stocking up until the next millennia, “just in case.” The result is empty shelves at the grocery store. And supply chains are breaking under the strain. Others are concerned they’ll never see another piece of chicken or grill another steak and are emptying meat departments. And with the evil virus on the loose, keeping your house clean to prevent the beast from taking up residence requires...

In announcing new statewide restrictions aimed at reducing the spike in COVID-19 cases, Gov. Jay Inslee on Sunday urged people not to hoard “supplies.” “Buying up everything really hurts everybody,” Inslee said, “and there’s no necessity of it right now.” But while the man didn’t specifically call out toilet paper, the toilet paper sure did call to shoppers. At some Seattle stores on Sunday, in a throwback to earlier days of the pandemic, people were already buying up stacks of bathroom tissue, which seems to turn to spun gold when things look grim. Costco ran out of the stuff over...

It’s like springtime all over again amid the spiking coronavirus pandemic as shoppers try to flush out large supplies of toilet paper, paper towels and disinfecting wipes, according to a report. Several leading grocery chains are reimposing purchasing limits to prevent would-be hoarders from wiping them clean of the essentials, CNN reported. At Kroger, customers can buy a maximum of two such items, according to a spokesperson who told the network that the limits, which began this week, apply in stores and online. Meanwhile, Christopher Brand, a rep for the Northeast chain Giant, said the company was “seeing little evidence...

Americans buying guns alongside their toilet paper and canned goods in anticipation of Nov. 3With just four days until the 2020 presidential election, early indicators show American shoppers concerned about political fallout, a spike in coronavirus cases and the possibility of more lockdowns are stockpiling goods. As tensions run high, toilet paper, cleaning supplies, and other basic goods are reportedly flying off store shelves once more in anticipation of a night of civil unrest next Tuesday. Approaching the close of a chaotic year, in which social and racial justice protesters have frequently clashed with federal law enforcement, uncertainty has served...

Diners at two Los Angeles taco stands have screamed, cursed and thrown drinks on employees trying to enforce a “no mask, no service” policy, the Los Angeles Times reports. It’s become so exhausting that Hugo’s Tacos has closed down both shops to give workers a break, owners wrote in a post on Twitter. “All because of a simple question: Can we ask you to put on a mask? Can we offer you a mask?” said part-owner Bill Kohne, according to the Los Angeles Times. The company has been serving tacos for 15 years, owners wrote in the Twitter post. Incidents,...

Toilet paper from China wouldn’t even have been a product to contemplate in the before-times. Back when people could buy goods and services, in exchange for paper representing currency. Amazon could fulfill any order any time. Back in the before-times. Then came the lockdowns in response to the CCP coronavirus pandemic, and life as we knew it ceased. Lots of people engaged in panic shopping. Toilet paper was, inexplicably, one of the first products to experience shortages, and it’s still not fully back in stock on store shelves two months later. Some folks got out ahead of the curve and...

Earlier today Dr. Nancy Messonnier, an official in the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), held a conference call with media and pushed a panic narrative around the Coronvirus that ran counter to the Trump administration. What makes the statements by Dr. Messonnier even more interesting is the fact she is the only sister of former DOJ Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein. Dr. Messonnier, director of the CDC’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases (link) told reporters on the call: “We are asking the American public to work with us to prepare for the expectation that this could be bad.”...

I have been working on a knowledge base of topics related to prepping and SHTF situations. It is geared towards making people more self sufficient with topics ranging from unarmed self defense to small space gardening to how to sew your own clothes. I'm one of those types of people who believe that we are going to go out with a whimper, not a bang, so there is a lot of content on how to do your own repairs, build your own stuff and live a more frugal lifestyle. In order to get access you need to send me a...

Found this in some blog comments: "Some smart people have analyzed the toilet paper hoarding and concluded it isn’t that at all. Their view is that there are two “channels” of TP production – commercial and domestic. The TP manufactured for commercial purposes is more utilitarian and less luxurious, is made to fit more industrial dispensing methods and is consumed by the pallet. Domestic TP is designed to appeal to one’s sense of comfort and luxury, a single roll at a time and is available in small multi-roll packs, generally. Only a few manufacturers produce for both demand streams, and...