E-Mail 'What To Do and Not Do When a Pandemic Starts- Part 1, by Scientist69' To A Friend

17 Comments

1. Scientist69,

   What are your thoughts on the effectiveness of a tyvex suite? They seem like a good low cost layer of protection.

   On a side note, when I’m sick or when a cashier looks sick, I always swipe a credit card myself. Using an iPhone chip for payment may be even better, but I just don’t trust it. If a major virus was a local issue, I might change my mind.

   Thanks

   1. Scientist69,

      Media and government will either hype or downplay the risk. Do you know a public source that posts the r-nought, and other critical information like contagious timelines, and how long it takes for the disease to become symptomatic? That would be very helpful in risk mitigation.

      Decontamination is critical but we will not have test kits to verify that it was successfully executed. So, knowing how long someone would need to be isolated post decom is as important as decontamination itself.

      Thanks

2. Excellent topic which imo does not get enough attention from many. Highly recommend the novel by Steven Konkoly titled, “The Jakarta Pandemic” as a primer.

   1. Great book!

   2. Agreed great book

3. Gloves and masks are great , but please do not forget to wear eyeglasses to protect from getting droplets in the eye. if you do not wear prescription or sunglasses you can get stylish safety glasses for very little.
   http://amzn.to/2GtWmJd

4. Re: getting in your car after shopping – I’d also recommend wiping off your car keys, since those large plastic fobs can carry a lot of germs.

5. Under “protection equipment” I would add protective eyewear. You’ve got a pair of clear shooting glasses. They protect you from a spent cartridge hitting you in the eye. The glasses could also protect you from an infectious airborne droplet going into your eye from a careless sneeze or cough. Just be sure to use the lysol wipe to clean them when you get home. Another suggestion is to designate a single entrance and exit to your house. Alwasy go in and out of the same door in your garage. Put a trash bag just inside to use only for disposal of gloves, wipes, etc. Hang your coat these and perhaps your shoes and pants. Keep possible contaminents from being brought further into the living area.

6. Great article and am looking forward to part 2. I’ve been in health care for 35 years, as I became an EMT at 18, joined the military and became a Corpsman at 19. I’ve been in the field ever since.

   I’ve built up large stores of medical supplies, something not enough people focus on. There’s a lot of emphasis (rightly so) on guns and ammo, and to a lesser extent food, but most don’t know what to buy, or where to buy it, and they sure don’t know how to use it. Having the supplies and skills to use them, along with my military experience, should help in finding a group of like minded folks to partner with.

   I think folks don’t realize how much of these supplies they’ll need and greatly overestimate what they have on hand.

   The one issue I have with the article is that it is very difficult to know WHEN you should stop going to work and take that vacation time, or sick time.

   A pandemic could be out there for a long while, and unless you can take six months off, it’s going to be a problem.

   How do you know when to decide to pull the plug on work and school for a bit?

   Thanks

7. I worry less about MERS, SARS, Zika or Ebola than I do about influenza (bird flu). Todays virulent strain of seasonal flu (H3N2) is pretty nasty but the real concern is with the H5 and H7
   subtypes. They mutate easier and faster than other strains. It is when they obtain a form where person to person transmission is easy is when we have to become real concerned.

   Stick to good scientific sites and you will get good information in a timely manner. The CDC, WHO or the best that I follow, CIDRAP (Center for Disease and Public Policy)(cidrap.mnu.edu).
   Every case or outbreak of any infectious disease is recorded, watched and followed. Go to main page of CIDRAP and click on Avian Influenza (Bird Flu) at the top. You’ll arrive at the page which gives a technical description of influenza and to the right of that (my favorite part) different subtopics which are easier to read and if you do read them will give you more knowledge than 99.9% of the population. All you wanted to know but were afraid to ask.

   The world may be smaller because of jet travel but I believe we could have several months warning as to when a pandemic is approaching us.

   Read “The Great Influenza”, the definitive work on the 1918 pandemic by John Berry. You won’t be able to put it down.

   Read “Deadliet Enemy : Our War Against Killer Germs”, by Michael T. Osterholm. PhD, MPH, and founder of CIDRAP. Basic foundational knowledge.

   I wish that the article’s author had separated influenza from the other viruses because they have different causes. Influenza is bird flu but has the greatest pandemic potential over the other viruses. There is no vaccine for the alphabets but isolation at this time.

   Antibiotics will not work for viruses but if you think you might give antivirals a go then by all means (I’m talking about a 1918 type event when we’ll be low on all medicines possibly). Also, you may have on hand an all spectrum antibiotic and think you wish to be proactive for any bacterial infection which results from the pandemic flu and it is not my place to suggest your course of action.

   Hygiene, hygiene, hygiene. Then isolation when it’s worse. Actually, I’m quite hopeful because I believe preppers are…well, prepared
   more than the general population and forewarned is forearmed. Just read good stuff.

8. I have a supply of essential oils that have ant-viral properties. You can make your own blend from 4 or 5 oils or buy an immunity blend from a reputable company. Recipes for these blends are on-line and are known as thieves blends. One company even sells caplets containing their immunity blend. I take these with me on every trip where I am around a group of people. A good supply of Vitamin D3 and K2 are also in my medicine cabinet for flu season.

9. just recently in the news:

   ht tp://www.foxnews.com/world/2018/01/29/swine-flu-bird-flu-hit-north-korea-and-south-korea-days-before-winter-olympics-kick-off.html

10. Remember that liquid bleach is only good for about 6 months, after which is starts degrading. For a long duration pandemic (and any serious one will be long duration with multiple waves), consider learning how to create bleach from calcium hypochlorite. Some brands of pool shock are calcium hypochlorite with some inert ingredients, so it’s easy to acquire…just make sure you know ratios and most importantly how to safely use and store the calcium hypochlorite. I keep the directions stored with both plastic measuring scoops and the safety gear next to my plastic tub with the sealed pool shock packages.

11. Good topic.

    I’m inclined to believe we are going to experience a pandemic in the near future. Everything seems to be pointing towards one. This current U.S. flu season is an example. It feels like we’ve had a lot of ‘near misses’ in the past few years.

    In conjunction with the transmission part. A new study has come out indicating transmission from just breathing, without sneezing or coughing. It’s still transmission through water droplets. Imagine the impact of an infectious person walking around, but without the standard signs, due to medication suppressing their cough and congestion.
    https://www.forbes.com/sites/alicegwalton/2018/01/26/never-mind-coughing-and-sneezing-flu-virus-can-be-spread-just-by-breathing

12. Does a compromised immune system result from a poor diet? I hear more and more about maintaining a healthy gut.

    Researchers say eighty to a hundred percent of our immune system is our gut, so avoiding gut destruction is my first line of defense.

    I eliminated grains, dairy, pesticides, Genetically Modified organisms. I avoid trans-fats such as the hydrogenated oils in margarine and frying oils. Immediately, I experienced significantly decreased inflammation. No more arthritis. No more allergies.

    Humans dump millions of tons of petroleum-based chemicals on crops. Could eliminating that crud eliminate disease?

    Does healthcare comes from my garden, working in it and eating from it? Fresh local seasonal organic?

    Suggestions in the post and the suggestions by the commenters tend to focus on defenses against infection. I prefer to establish an offense using the powerful anti-viral coconut oil.

    As a by-product of going Paleo in my diet and activities, I lost thirty pounds in thirty days. It was all water, edema from inflammation from unhealthy diet choices.

    I keep doing this because it works for me.

13. During a pandemic, your post office, UPS, FedEx may inadvertently be spreading viruses – remember to use gloves to handle it, and sanitize your mailbox and the outside of your mail before bringing it into the household.

14. ” 0.2 cups (so a little less than 1/4 cup) in a bit over 2 quarts is approximately the same.”

    Uhmmm, this is not correct. This would yield approximately a 2% solution.

    For a 10% solution you would add water to the .2 cups of bleach (i.e. 1.6 oz which is approx 10 tsp) to get a total of 2 cups; i.e. 14.4 oz of water.

    If you wanted a total of 2 quarts of solution, you would add enough water to 6.4 oz of bleach to get that total of 2 quarts; i.e. 57.6 oz of water).

    This also demonstrates why metric is so much easier to use. LOL

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