Keep an eye on the news: Just like with both the MERS virus and the Ebola Virus that are currently making their way around the globe, most pandemics or novel outbreaks will likely start in less developed areas of the world. Start Stockpiling Emergency Supplies: The first thing you need to do, is make sure you have your essential needs covered. In the case of a pandemic, the essentials include water, shelter, food, sanitation, medications, and personal security. During a Pandemic, the less contact you have with others, the better your chances are of staying healthy. Social Distancing is the Key to Avoiding the Outbreak: The best way to improve your chances of staying healthy during a pandemic is to practice social distancing. This means limiting your contact with others, and staying at least 6 feet away from people if you do have to go out. Stay Clean & Practice Good Hygiene: Just like with all person to person disease, the key to prevention lies in good hygiene. Hand washing is obvious, and when used for 30 seconds even a simple alcohol based hand sanitizer, that has between 62 and 75% ethanol, can be enough to kill pretty much any pandemic pathogen. Hospitals & Shelters Should Be Avoided: If you’re sick, then by all means you probably need to consult with a medical professional for medical advice. That being said, hospitals will be ground zero in the war and should be avoided if at all possible. Also, if you can, avoid shelters or areas where large groups of people gather, as disease spreads more quickly in those environments.
Preppers’ PING!!
No one is saying that MERS is our own ‘Black Death’, but here is something to think about if just 1% of the population get ill enough to have to seek medical help that is 3,200,000 people what do you think such a surge would do to our medical system?
We have surgical masks and latex gloves as a part of our "kit." Antibiotics too.
Having said that, as a public service announcement, YOU CAN'T HAVE ENOUGH AMMO!
I feel better now.
5.56mm
Spanish flu, Asian flu, Hong Kong flu
I would not travel to those countries.....
C'mon, obammy can kill that much on one vacation.
My first inclination would be to forego any remedy, shot or treatment the CDC prescribes. In my book, they are a political organization now and with this President, it wouldn’t surprise me if they intended to give me a special “not-my-people Eric Holder shot.”
Don’t trust them, haven’t since the time I mustered out in 76 and they gave me that damned swine flu shot. It screwed me up with pleurisy for 20 years.
Asian flu, the world's first artificial satellites and the movie Around the World in 80 Days--some of the things that concerned us in the early months of 1958.
Satellite Fever & the Asiatic Flu--Paul Perryman (1958)
bttt
1. Slowly panic
2. Increase panic rate to medium
3. All out panic.
Some things to consider. Vitamin C, in the form of sodium ascorbate...buy in bulk, as crystals. Typically a quarter teaspoon is about 1 gm (1,000 mg). Be prepared to take to bowel tolerance. Enough vitamin C could squelch MERS. Intravenous vitamin C would likely stop MERS in its tracks. Find a doctor who will administer IV-C in case you might need him.
Iodine...preferably Lugol’s Iodine Solution, 5%. Take 3 to 5 drops a day in water. Best on an empty stomach. Also supplement selenium, 200 mcg (micrograms) a day. If water supplies are interrupted, you can take water from a lake or stream, filter it, and treat it with iodine, several drops per liter of water. Use either Lugol’s iodine or SSKI (saturated solution of potassium iodide.
Iodine, either Lugol’s or SSKI, may be used externally on any kind of abrasion or cut. Very antiseptic. 60 + years ago doctors’ routinely used iodine to swab wounds, and your mother probably had some in her medicine chest.
Colloidal Silver is another good thing to have available. Very antiseptic. May be used both internally and externally. Buy your colloids from a reputable source. One company sells a ‘Meso-‘ brand, 20 ppm, and it is good stuff. Price is reasonable if you buy it by the gallon.
These are just a few things to stimulate your thinking and your research as you prepare for what might be coming.
M4L
“Spanish flu killed $40-50 million in 1918”
I was going to have some fun with this typo, but someone else beat me to the punch...and did much better than I would have.
Anyway, the need for water is questionable until the pandemic is starts to get widespread. I would say that having a means to store fresh water, and then purify it (or purify rainwater) is sufficient for a pandemic and many other bad things. It’s likely that municipal water will be around well into a pandemic. So, if it starts to spread...then get ready, if it spreads big, then get to work opening your taps.
If there’s a threat of a pandemic, authorities will have the authority to force people into quarantine facilities. It’ll be up to authorities to determine when people get out of quarantine. It will not be a healthy place to be for those who had some symptoms but didn’t actually have the disease.
Anymore, hospitals are like daycares—damned if ya do and damned if ya don’t.
Add a single disposable N95 face mask to your wallet. They are thin and light, yet if you see mass coughing (or worse) out in public, you can don one to get you home safely: http://www.amazon.com/N95-Mask-Box-Masks-Particulate/dp/B00DY7PNXK/ref=sr_1_6?s=hpc&ie=UTF8&qid=1400482706&sr=1-6&keywords=N95+surgical+mask
Glasses (full cover if possible) are also recommended.
Natural honey. Eat a tea-spoon a day to build your immune system. Double up if you see signs of an outbreak: http://www.amazon.com/YS-Organic-Bee-Farms-Premium/dp/B000U0MTMW/ref=sr_1_2?s=hpc&ie=UTF8&qid=1400482822&sr=1-2&keywords=natural+honey
Carry hand sanitizer. Use it before touching your eyes, nose, or mouth (or eating): http://www.amazon.com/Purell-instant-hand-sanitizer-bottles/dp/B005KE2ZH2/ref=sr_1_5?s=hpc&ie=UTF8&qid=1400482921&sr=1-5&keywords=hand+sanitizer
Put iodine on any open wound: http://www.amazon.com/Swan-Iodine-Tincture-fl-oz/dp/B001TL0BWG/ref=sr_1_6?s=hpc&ie=UTF8&qid=1400482992&sr=1-6&keywords=iodine
Before there were IVs in hospitals, doctors would use re-hydration therapy...sugar and salt mixed with water, given orally to patient 1 gallon per day. If a virus gives you diarrhea or mass vomiting when you are unable (e.g. military quarantine) to reach a hospital, then use sugar+salt water daily. Without re-hydration, a virus can kill you. With re-hydration, you can outlive many types of virus attacks (of course, not all).
If you are ordered to remain inside your house, be sure to fill all tubs+sinks with tap water early for emergency water storage if the municipal water is cut off later. Boiling all water prior to drinking is recommended.
Use buckets outside your windows or wherever possible to collect rainwater, but consider all water impure until boiled during a military quarantine (e.g. airborne virus). A tiny pinch of bleach or chlorine or iodine per gallon (at least 8 hours prior) in addition to boiling the water would give extra security.
**IF** your only source of water is dirty or muddy water, then keep it in the same container on a shelf while you run a cloth or old shirt from it into a clean container below. Allow natural syphoning+evaporation to slowly wick through the shirt from the dirty container into the clean container (never pour!), then boil the “clean” water before drinking.
The longer that you can hold out in an outbreak before going in public, especially going out without a mask+glasses, the better.