JWR,
I found this article interesting: Protesters Coming Down With the “Zuccotti Lung”. Park conditions put demonstrators at risk for variety of sicknesses, officials say.
The weather and conditions at the “Occupy” protests are likely a microcosm of a post-Crunch refugee camp, along with the attendant diseases and problems associated with lots of people living close together in raw weather.
I think this should give pause to those who believe they can simply pack up and head out into the local woodlot and survive a Crunch-type event. You may leave home healthy, but inevitable contact with other folks will introduce the bugs that can end up killing you. A clean, warm, dry shelter at a fixed retreat goes a long way toward preventing or limiting communicable disease.
Blessings, – G.R. in Texas