The pandemic has illustrated the resiliency benefits of keeping extras on hand. During the grocery panic, when everyone was trying to stock up on weeks' worth of groceries at the same time, people who had extra set aside didn't need to go out to a potentially dangerous environment. Similarly, by avoiding shopping at this time when there was sudden massive demand, these people were able to help blunt the shock.

It's far from over, but at least around here the supply chain seems to mostly have recovered. You still can't get N95 masks, but there's no trouble getting flour, rice, beans, toilet paper, etc. If you've let your supply run down over the last few months, or didn't have extra set aside to begin with, now would be a good time to think about fixing that. Not only could the pandemic get worse in a way that starts to threaten the supply chain again, but many more conventional disasters, like earthquakes or hurricanes, could be much worse with the pandemic as a background.

As I wrote just before the pandemic, it's worth putting time into thinking about potential disasters and getting at least somewhat prepared for them. Lots of links in that post if you're looking for advice on how to approach this.

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