HOW TO PREPARE FOR THE CORONAVIRUS: WHAT TO BUY NOW IN CASE A PANDEMIC IS DECLARED, ACCORDING TO A VIROLOGIST

As the deadly new coronavirus continues to spread around the world, a scientist has released a list of items to collect in case COVID-19 is declared a pandemic—but stressed that people should not panic buy or hoard.

Virologist Ian Mackay, adjunct Associate Professor at the University of Queensland, Australia, wrote in a blog post that, as COVID-19 isn’t widespread in most parts of the world, “now is a great time to make a list, label up a ‘Pandemic Stash’ box, and begin to slowly fill it with items that won’t go off and that you won’t touch unless needed.”