Category: Plagues and Pandemics

A Physician’s Perspective on COVID-19 – Part 1, by Doctor Dan, M.D.

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Was the Threat Real? I’ve been asked by skeptical friends whether COVID-19 was a hoax/conspiracy, or if this was a real threat. Based on what I saw firsthand practicing in the frontline medical specialty of Anesthesiology and Critical Care, the threat of this disease is very real. People indeed died, and the deaths were often particularly unpleasant. The health, psychological, and economic impacts of this virus will be felt for years to come, and may impact the 2020 elections (with all of the subsequent consequences this will carry). However serious the disease may be, it feels that we have now …


Some Thoughts About COVID-19, by The Novice

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Introduction COVID-19 has a big impact on each of our lives. We make decisions daily regarding COVID-19 that influence the lives and futures of those we love and care for. As a result, I have been giving COVID-19 a lot of attention and thought for many months now. I would like to share some thoughts, opinions, and speculations about COVID-19 that may spur your thinking. I invite you to share your thoughts, opinions and speculations as well, in case they may be helpful to me. The Bottom Line COVID-19 is a new virus, to which none of us has prior resistance. It has …


Preparing – Practicing & Preaching, by TJ in Georgia

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Regardless of who you are now, who you were in the past, or who you will be in the future, I think everyone will now be a ‘prepper’. Please consider this: We’ve all had a taste of doing without something in the past month or so, and I for one don’t look forward to this time in history becoming the new normal. I was in Girl Scouts from about 2nd grade until 7th grade. We learned many skills such as hiking, cooking outside, sleeping outside, fire starting, selling cookies (yes, that is a skill) and being a responsible citizen. In …


100 Days of Final Preparations – Part 1, by Elli O.

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I’m writing this as a stand-alone article. However, if you would like to read more about our journey through the world of preparedness and our homestead, please see my previous article in the SurvivalBlog archives for November 26-27, 2019. As a follow-up I am writing this to explain what we have done just in the past 100 days and how the global pandemic and possible near-future economical collapse has impacted us and our preparations. 100 DAYS OF FINAL PREPARATIONS For as long as I can remember, I have always had a mindset of preparedness, partly because of my background as …


Wu Flu Versus Spanish Flu, by Steve Coffman

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I’ve long been unhappy with the way COVID-19 and the Spanish Flu of 1918 have been compared. Obviously it is a short hand way to compare quarantine and stay at home measures of today with 1918, as opposed to the lethal nature of the sickness. For the record, the Spanish Flu was a far more terrifying and deadly disease than the Coronavirus. On the subject of quarantine though, there are reasonable comparisons but only to an extent. While the Spanish Flu shut down many places, it did not cause the same crippling economic impact that we are seeing from Coronavirus. …


Avoiding Prepping Tunnel Vision – Part 1, by T.Z.

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Both news media and social media have the ability to quickly spread information all throughout the world. When news of a disaster reaches preppers, we like to quickly find solutions to mitigate risk to ourselves and our loved ones. However, in their zeal to find solutions, many preppers get tunnel vision. They only focus on one or two kinds of disasters, failing to consider the unanticipated consequences that a disaster might have. It is interesting to note that many preppers stockpile food, water, and ammunition, yet underprepare for the second and third order effects of the disaster. In this essay …


The Survivalist’s Odds ‘n Sods

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SurvivalBlog presents another edition of The Survivalist’s Odds ‘n Sods— a collection of news bits and pieces that are relevant to the modern survivalist and prepper from “JWR”. Our goal is to educate our readers, to help them to recognize emerging threats and to be better prepared for both disasters and negative societal trends. You can’t mitigate a risk if you haven’t first identified a risk. Today, we look at the need for oxygen concentrators to treat Wuhan coronavirus patients. Coronavirus Patients Need Oxygen Reader S.O.G. sent us this confirmation that finding used oxygen concentrators is a good thing: Covid-19 had …


Pandemic Policies are Destroying the Economy and our Liberty

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I am deeply troubled by the cascade of events that we have seen in these United States since February of 2020.  The rapid spread of the Wuhan coronavirus has caused politicians to veer off into panic mode policies.  They’re acting like a herd of anxious Soccer Moms at Costco.  They see the threat, and they instantly decide: “I’ve got to do something!” But instead of just holding a credit card to buying toilet paper rolls, they can write extra-constitutional policies “for the public good.”  The end results are absurdities like having police breaking up funeral services or arresting lone surfers. …


Alaska, Coronavirus, and the True Church – Part 2, by J.P.

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(Continued from Part 1. This installment concludes the article.) First – ​Narrow our Focus First, we must narrow our focus to what we are actually capable of doing, while distancing ourselves from all those entities over which we have no power or authority. Lamenting the direction of the United Nations, FEMA, or even the cumbersome nature of the U.S. Government will only consume our energy and cloud our focus. It’s a tough call, but at this point in the game I believe it’s time to release our friends, family, and even churches that just don’t get it. This could be …


Alaska, Coronavirus, and the True Church – Part 1, by J.P.

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Have you ever thought about just how far it is from Seattle to Alaska? Probably not, because for a long time the world rightly assumed it to be a long way. Early pioneers came to Alaska by steamer, horse-drawn sledge, and on foot; a long and arduous journey. Modern conveniences changed all that. A scenic ride on a ferry can take between three and seven days. By car, between Seattle and Anchorage, it’s still a serious three day drive. A commercial flight will average just under four hours. That’s still a long way even in modern day thinking. So, in …


Working From Home: A Forced Sabbatical, by D. Glen

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I work for a Fortune 100 company in the Midwest and work in the area of Research and Development (R&D). Late during the week of March 8th, we began to hear rumors that our facility and other staff locations throughout North America would be closing soon due to the CV-19 outbreak that was beginning to spread across the country. During the afternoon of Friday, March 13, the rumor was confirmed in that my supervisor stopped by to inform us that our facility was closing immediately and would remain so for three weeks until April 6th. Per the rumor, the closure …


Consider Horde Mentality in Your Planning – Part 2, by Ani

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(Contined from Part 1. This concludes the article.) If it were spring or summer, I would also expect many refugees to head to what they perceive of as a good place to pitch a tent and set up “camp” such as farm fields, your “back forty”, the woods behind your house, any stretch of land that appears “unoccupied” etc. I know for sure that many urban/suburban people don’t view rural land as being “owned” in the same way they do their apartments or front lawn/back yard. They also see this as being way more than anyone needs. So why not …


The Gun-Buying Frenzy: Holding The Line

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A special note from SurvivalBlog Editor JWR: As most of you know, my web-based antique gun business is called Elk Creek Company. Despite the current frantic “run on guns” at gun stores, nationwide And despite galloping prices at both gun shops and on-line auctions And despite NICS system interruptions And despite unconstitutional gun store closures in many cities… I’m still very much in business and I’m defying any unconstitutional gun restrictions by local petty tyrants. I am stating bluntly: Your non-legislated fiat decrees create no jurisdiction over what I sell here.  And as far as I’m concerned, when I make …


Consider Horde Mentality in Your Planning – Part 1, by Ani

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As a prepper for many years, I’ve put some consideration into trying to understand the mentality of the “hordes” who might be forced to leave their cities and heavily populated suburbs, in the event of a major disaster. I think that while we may not know how things are going to unfold or what sort of disaster might provoke people into leaving and essentially becoming refugees, we can consider some of the more likely to occur scenarios. Doing this will let us examine how well-situated we are in our own homes, the risks that we might be most susceptible to, …


Letter on the Wuhan Virus, by ShepherdFarmerGeek

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The following are my comments to the SurvivalBlog article Post-Exposure Prevention (PEP) Protocol, by JJ in MI. This is great to be considering post-exposure treatment. Our protective gear is likely to be *less than perfect*, and if we know we’ve been exposed we need a Plan B! This study supports the use of PVP-I as an antiviral, although I do wonder about swabbing my nose with it! Thinking in terms of what we can do *on the scene* when we realize we’ve been exposed, I’m wondering if it would be more convenient to use a Betadine spray, into our mouths (don’t …