Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee has some advice for Americans facing shortages in bath tissue: use a corn cob (sans corn) instead.

“Those of us from rural south know how to handle toilet paper shortage,” Huckabee, a longtime ally of President Donald Trump, tweeted. “Eat more corn on the cob! The corn isn’t important, but the cobs are free and work great! (Just don’t flush them!) You’re welcome!”

Online retailers and brick-and-mortar stores quickly ran out of toilet paper as Americans stocked up on the product after being warned to stay indoors in the wake of the novel coronavirus outbreak.

The World Health Organization declared the coronavirus, which causes a disease known as COVID-19, a pandemic on March 11. To date, more than 274,000 people around the world have been infected and more than 11,300 have died.

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Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee has some advice for Americans facing shortages in bath tissue: use a corn cob (sans corn) instead.

“Those of us from rural south know how to handle toilet paper shortage,” tweeted Huckabee, a longtime ally of President Donald Trump and the father of former White House press secretary Sarah Sanders. “Eat more corn on the cob! The corn isn’t important, but the cobs are free and work great! (Just don’t flush them!) You’re welcome!”

Those of us from rural south know how to handle toilet paper shortage. Eat more corn on the cob! The corn isn't important, but the cobs are free and work great! (Just don't flush them!) You're welcome! — Gov. Mike Huckabee (@GovMikeHuckabee) March 20, 2020

Online retailers and brick-and-mortar stores quickly ran out of toilet paper as Americans stocked up on the product after being warned to stay indoors in the wake of the novel coronavirus outbreak.

Meanwhile, some retailers like Wal-Mart have imposed purchase limits on essential items like toilet paper, diapers, milk, eggs, baby formula, and more.

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“We know communities are counting on us more than ever and we are determined to serve the broadest number of customers and ensure they have access to the key items they are looking for,” Dacona Smith, Walmart US chief operating officer, wrote in a memo posted to the company’s website.

This is not the first time Huckabee has tweeted about the novel coronavirus. The former governor and Republican presidential candidate also made headlines in February with an outlandish analogy about President Donald Trump and the coronavirus.

“If he personally sucked the virus out of the lungs of all 62K ppl affected & swam to bottom of ocean to spit it out, they’d complain he polluted the seas!” Huckabee tweeted on February 28. He also suggested that “the left & media” dislike Trump more than the coronavirus.

The World Health Organization declared the coronavirus, which causes a disease known as COVID-19, a pandemic on March 11. To date, more than 274,000 people around the world have been infected and more than 11,300 have died.

In the US at the time of writing, 19,285 have tested positive for the disease and 249 have died as a result.

Trump declared a national emergency last week but has since been criticized for misrepresenting information about when a vaccine may become available and blaming the mainstream media and his critics for the continued escalation of the crisis.

In the absence of strong federal guidance, various states and cities have had to take matters into their own hands and introduced sweeping measures to restrict public gatherings and stop the spread of the virus.

The governors of New York and California issued statewide orders mandating that residents stay inside as much as possible and limit their outdoor activity. Across the country, millions of people have been forced to work from home or lost their jobs altogether as nonessential businesses have been ordered to shut down.

Trump on Friday evening approved a major disaster declaration for New York, which has been the hardest hit by the disease’s outbreak in the US.