People have a right and a duty to take what they need from shops and the like in a situation like this.

Talk about "looting" when people are doing that, or salvaging stuff that is otherwise going to go to waste, is absurd.

I suppose when Robinson Crusoe took all those tools and so forth from the wreck of his ship, that was looting... This is a kind of shipwreck, but on an enormous scale.

I'm sure there's real looting going on in among this, stealing personal belongings from temporarily abandoned houses and stuff like that, but talk about "zero tolerance for looters", and "shoot to kill", as if everyone grubbing around for the necessities of life were like that is crazy talk.