Jim,
I am a regular reader with 40+ yrs of prepping and a 10 Cent Challenge subscriber. My current career is as a Hospital Staff Respiratory Therapist.
We recently had a seminar on the coming Avian Flu Pandemic that scared the heck out of me. The timeline for human to human vector is 3 to 5 years, if it follows the current rate of mutation. It will probably come out of Thailand, and with air travel, will quickly spread around the world, with entry to the US through the major international airports. With luck and area quarantines, they may be able to limit the spread.
When it hits, they expect a desertion rate of at least 30% of all services: Health Care workers, Police and Fire, even National Guard.
CDC, FEMA and individual hospitals are stocking up on supplies in anticipation of a mortality rate of 10% to 20% of infected cases. Hospitals may become armed camps to control the panic. Basic hospital services will become limited and rationed, no elective surgery, etc.
Hand washing, use of a particle mask and eye shields will be your best defense.
And that’s the good news
The world and even the USA is not prepared for such an event. It may take 3 to 6 months to develop a specific vaccine for the flu mutation, and the flu may mutate even more.
We do not have the capacity to handle the death rate. Figure bodies stored in Refrigerated Trucks, mass graves, or cremation.
We do not have the hospital beds to handle a Pandemic. We may have to go to a ward set-up again.
If you bring in a family member, you may be drafted to help provide basic care, and you may be the best way to have good care for that person. The professional staff will be overworked.
The main killer for the Avian Flu is Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome (ARDS). ARDS requires intubation and use of a ventilator for survival. We do not have enough ventilators, and we are being inventive and are thinking outside the box for this one. We may have to “gang” patients on Ventilators, or recruit people to hand squeeze AMBU bags to keep people alive.
We may have to “Triage” patients and use the available resources to try to save the salvable. Factors such as chronic illnesses, morbid obesity, or even advanced age may resign patients to the “sink or swim” ward. We staff may have to do this to our own friends or family.
Contrary to my own survival instincts, I intend to be on the job when it hits. They tell us that the staff may take double the percent casualty rate of the general populace. I will keep you updated to any useful information that comes my way. – Sput