As coronavirus infections spread, demand for oat milk is outpacing hand sanitizer

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Published: March 6, 2020 at 10:01 p.m. ET

By 

Elisabeth Buchwald

Despite the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s recommendation that the general public not use face masks, sales were 475% higher last week compared to a year ago

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NLSN
-1.74% 
COST
-1.40% 

Oat milk sales were 323% higher in late February this year compared to the same period a year ago, according to Nielsen.

 MarketWatch photo illustration/iStockphoto

Hand sanitizer and face masks are high on the list of products Americans have been stocking up on amid the coronavirus outbreak, but there’s another less obvious top seller: oat milk.

Worldwide, there are 102,168 COVID-19 cases and 3,491 deaths as of Friday evening; 57,375 people worldwide have recovered, according to data published by the Johns Hopkins Whiting School of Engineering’s Center for Systems Science and Engineering. In the U.S., 14 people have died — 12 in Washington State and two in California — and there are 328 confirmed cases.

Demand for the plant-based dairy alternative surged in late February as the U.S. absorbed warnings from public health officials that the novel coronavirus COVID19 could soon disrupt their daily lives, according to new data from the market research firm Nielsen US:NLSN.

In fact, demand for oat milk is outpacing hand sanitizer In the last week of February, oat milk sales were 323% higher than the same week in 2019. Hand sanitizer sales were 313% higher than they were for the same week last year.

There is now a limited supply of hand sanitizer available online and in stores — prompting some consumers to make their own in the meantime (although the effectiveness of homemade versions is questionable)

Despite the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s recommendation that the general public refrain from wearing face masks, sales of face masks were 475% higher during that week than the year prior, according to Nielsen

The Top 25 Most Exclusive Golf And Country Clubs In The World Honored With Platinum Status

 Jim Dobson Contributor LIFESTYLE

Photo credit: Getty

Walking along Magnolia Lane headed to the stunning clubhouse at Augusta National Golf Club, I was surrounded by perfectly groomed greens, massive magnolia trees and abundant yellow pansies creating the shape of the Founders Circle. The breathtaking beauty of the club is what contributes to its legendary position as one of the very best private golf clubs in the world. Members are properly dressed, and a few of them wear the coveted Green jackets indicating their prestige and rank. However, you will likely never get the chance to play at Augusta or any of the top private clubs in the world. You will also never be invited to join as a member or certainly afford the extravagant initiation fees.

In order to become a part of the most elite private golf and country clubs in the world, most clubs require members to follow very strict rules. Walking is mandatory, uniformed caddies are $120 per bag plus tip, there is a strict dress code, no shorts, backward hats and absolutely no hats inside the club, no cell phone use, drinking on the course is a tradition and of course jacket and tie for dinners.

Here are the top 25 winning worldwide clubs for 2018-2019 Platinum Club of the World Status.

News

North Korea’s Secret Coronavirus Crisis is Crazy Scary

Donald Kirk

,

The Daily Beast•February 9, 2020

KIM WON-JIN/AFP via Getty Images

SEOUL–North Korea’s not saying a word about deaths or illnesses from the coronavirus, but the disease reportedly has spread across the border from China and is taking a toll in a country with a dismal health care system and scant resources for fighting off the deadly bug.

From Lobsters and Steak to Coronavirus: One Couple’s Surreal Cruise Nightmare

One sure sign of the regime’s fears is that it failed to stage a parade in central Pyongyang on Saturday, the 72nd anniversary of the founding of the country’s armed forces. Last year, Kim Jong Un himself presided over the procession that displayed the North’s latest missiles and other fearsome hardware along with goose-stepping soldiers in serried ranks.

This year, nothing about the nation’s nuclear warheads, much less the “new strategic weapon” that Kim has vowed to unveil. Rodong Sinmum, the newspaper of the ruling Workers’ Party, merely cited the armed forces’ supposed success combating “severe and dangerous difficulties”—and said nothing at all about the parade.

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But reports have filtered out about Kim’s subjects falling prey to coronavirus despite the country’s decision to seal its 880-mile border with China, most of it along the Yalu River into the Yellow Sea to the west, and its 11-mile border with Russia where the Tumen River flows into the Pacific.

Among the first to report fatalities in North Korea, the Seoul-based website Daily NK said five people had died in the critical northwestern city of Sinuiju, on the Yalu River across road and rail bridges from Dandong, which is the largest Chinese city in the region and a key point for commerce with North Korea despite sanctions.

Daily NK, which relies on sources inside North Korea that send reports via Chinese mobile phone networks to contacts in China, said authorities had “ordered public health officials in Sinuiju to quickly dispose of the bodies and keep the deaths secret from the public.”

The victims had crossed the porous Yalu River border despite orders to cut off traffic from China as the disease radiated from the industrial city of Wuhan where the virus originated in December. As of Sunday, more than 700 people had died inside China.

Finance

N.Korea's Kim Jong Un supervises air drills while U.S. and S.Korea postpone drills -KCNA

Reuters•November 17, 2019

SEOUL, Nov 18 (Reuters) - North Korean media reported on Monday that leader Kim Jong Un supervised air force drills for the second time in three days, even as the United States and South Korea decided to postpone their joint air drills to ease denuclearisation talks with North Korea.

The U.S. and South Korea said on Sunday they would postpone upcoming military drills, known as the Combined Flying Training Event, in an effort to bolster a stalled peace push with North Korea. Washington denied the move amounted to another concession to Pyongyang.

The drills, already planned to be scaled back from previous years, would have simulated air combat scenarios and involved an undisclosed number of warplanes from both the United States and South Korea to test readiness.

On Monday, North Korean state news agency KCNA said Kim supervised an airborne landing training of sharpshooter sub-units of the Air and Anti-Aircraft Force of the North Korean army.

Kim "said that it is necessary to wage a drill without notice under the simulated conditions of real war" for "improving the preparedness" of North Korean military units, KCNA said.

On Saturday, KCNA had reported that Kim watched a "combat flight contest" of the flight commanding officers of the Air and Anti-Aircraft Force. A photo in state newspaper Rodong Sinmun showed him smiling amid pilots gathered around him.

It was unclear when Kim oversaw these events, or whether it was on the same day. There were no mention of U.S. or South Korea in the KCNA reports.

U.S. President Donald Trump on Sunday told Kim, "You should act quickly, get the deal done" with the United States, and signed off "See you soon!" on Twitter. (Reporting by Joyce Lee; Editing by Tom Brown)

News

Chile's president condemns police violence after four weeks of unrest

AFP•November 17, 2019

Chilean President Sebastian Pinera addresses the nation in Santiago (AFP Photo/CLAUDIO REYES)

Santiago (AFP) - President Sebastian Pinera condemned on Sunday for the first time what he called abuses committed by police in dealing with four weeks of violent unrest that have rocked Chile.

"There was excessive use of force. Abuses and crimes were committed, and the rights of all were not respected," the president said in a speech to the nation as it marked a month of turmoil that has left 22 people dead and more than 2,000 injured.

Furious Chileans have been protesting social and economic inequality, and against an entrenched political elite that comes from a small number of the wealthiest families in the country, among other issues.

Accusations of police brutality and human rights violations have been levelled since the protests broke out, prompting the United Nations to send a team to investigate. Amnesty International has also sent a mission.

"There will be no impunity, not for those who committed acts of unusual violence, nor for those who committed excesses and abuses. We will do what is best for the victims," he said, referring to protesters first and then the security forces.

Pinera also praised an agreement reached last week under which Chile will draft a new constitution to replace the current one that dates back to the rightwing dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet, who ruled from 1973 to 1990.

Many in Chile see this step -- getting rid of a charter that smacks of a dark, repressive chapter in the country's past -- as a way to help end the crisis. It is a key demand of the thousands of protesters that have been taking to the streets in Santiago and elsewhere almost daily for a month.

The spasm of anger began with a rise in metro fares but quickly swelled into a broader outcry against the status quo in what is traditionally considered one of South America's most stable countries.

"If the people want it, we will move toward a new constitution, the first under democracy," Pinera said in a speech from the presidential palace.

World

Family of Otto Warmbier awarded $500 million in lawsuit against North Korea

Sarah Brookbank

,

USA TODAY•December 24, 2018

Parents of Otto Warmbier, Fred and Cindy Warmbier are

CINCINNATI — The family of Otto Warmbier, the Ohio man who died after being imprisoned in North Korea, has been awarded $500 million in a lawsuit against the country.

Fred and Cindy Warmbier of the Cincinnati suburb of Wyoming, Ohio, requested $1.05 billion in punitive damages and about $46 million for the family's suffering in a motion filed in October in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C.

On Monday, Judge Beryl Howell ruled that the family had established its right to relief, granting the motion for default judgment but not for the full amount. 

"We put ourselves and our family through the ordeal of a lawsuit and public trial because we promised Otto that we will never rest until we have justice for him," the family said. 

► Dec. 17: North Korea warns U.S. sanctions could block denuclearization 'forever'
► Dec. 10: U.S. imposes new sanctions on three North Korea officials
► June 12: Analysis: When Trump met Kim, handshake was more historic than words

Howell ruled that North Korea was liable for the torture, hostage taking, and extrajudicial killing of Otto Warmbier and the injuries to his mother and father. Howell's opinion opened with a mother's anguish.

“What the heck did you do to my kid?” Cindy Warmbier testified in a Dec. 19 hearing, the opinion said. 

"An American family, the Warmbiers, experienced North Korea’s brutality first hand when North Korea seized their son to use as a pawn in that totalitarian state’s global shenanigans and face-off with the United States," court documents said. "Having been compelled to keep silent during Otto’s detention in North Korea in an effort to protect his safety, Otto’s parents have since promised to 'stand up' and hold North Korea accountable for its 'evil' actions against their son."

Howell said the estate of Otto Warmbier is entitled to $21 million in compensatory damages and $150 million in punitive damages. Fred and Cindy Warmbier also are entitled to $15 million in compensatory damages and $150 million in punitive damages.

Otto Warmbier, 22, traveled in December 2015 to North Korea on a tour. As he was about to leave in January 2016, North Korean authorities arrested him, accusing him of committing a "hostile act" that threatened the "single-minded unity" of the country's citizens.

North Korean officials alleged he acted at the behest of a church in Ohio — which he didn't attend — as well as the CIA, the motion states. He was charged and convicted in a show trial of stealing a poster from a hotel.

A month later, all communication ceased. 

Otto Warmbier spent a year and a half imprisoned. 

► June 12: Trump on Otto Warmbier: 'Otto did not die in vain'
► May 2: Trump hints at release of American prisoners held in North Korea

The Warmbiers had been nervous about their son's trip to North Korea. Otto Warmbier, then 21, was a University of Virginia student.

"Otto had an 'open mind' and 'wanted to explore,' and he viewed the trip to North Korea as an opportunity to experience a different culture and way of life," court documents said.