In the past week there have been a number of efforts to help us prepare for an upcoming flu pandemic. Revere of Effect Measure, Melanie Mattson of Just a Bump in the Beltway and demfromct of The Next Hurrah are about to launch a bird flu wiki:
[...] Many knowledgeable people believe a serious pandemic from avian influenza is possible in the near future. In a highly interconnected world, the consequences could be grave, with widespread illness and mortality accompanied by major stress on the social system in almost every affected locality. Few, if any, national governmental authorities have prepared for this, despite adequate warning.
Because such an event would be geographically widespread it will leave each local area to cope with and solve problems on their own. In such a circumstance, any preparation, however limited, can save lives and suffering. And to make these local preparations, knowledge is not only empowering, but essential. Rather than leave these preparations solely to governmental authorities and rather than restrict knowledge to designated "experts," both of whom have failed to prepare adequately, it is necessary to begin to undertake many needed tasks ourselves. The Flu Wiki is our first try at a mechanism to facilitate this.
In a different kind of effort Randall Parker at Future Pundit offers his "to do list" when it comes to being prepared for a flu pandemic. The "deluxe" plan for protecting your family includes:
- Stockpile about 50 or 100 times more Tamiflu than you or your family could use. You can use it to barter if food and other distribution systems break down. Or you can use it to help every friend, acquaintance, and business associate you have. Want to get great deals from a supplier? Give him some Tamiflu and save his life. He'll remember.
- Stockpile thousands of 3M N100 and P100 face masks. Again, they will make valuable barter material. Or you can give them away to people who do work for you.
- Stockpile a couple of years of dried and canned food in a dry cool place. I'd also suggest a couple hundred pounds of salmon filets so you can eat healthy even as the supermarkets go empty.
- Buy a house in the country so that you can avoid contact with other people.
- The country house should be self sufficient. That means it should have a well, two or three electric generators, and enough fuel to run the electric generators for several months. Photovoltaics in the roof and/or a windmill for electric power would be prudent.
- If you have to stay in the suburbs make sure you have an extremely well sealed house and high quality filters on air brought in from outside. Though the odds are pretty low you'll get sick from a neighbor's cough.
- Whether in the country or suburbs make sure your house can function without maintenance for years.
- Stock your house with whatever else you might need for 2 or 3 years (e.g. seeds and fertilizer for the garden).
- Be extremely ready to drop everything and isolate yourself with less than a single day's notice. Avoidance of exposure is the best defense. The news says an outbreak is ripping through Tokyo or Shanghai or Calcutta? Time to quit going to work and head for the country or at least stay in your suburban home.
- If you need to travel to get to a hideaway best to have a lot of gasoline in a small towed trailer to make the trip since you won't want to fly and even exposure at a gasoline station is best avoided (and under panic conditions you can't count on finding gasoline to buy anyway).
Randall Parker's post is also a good overview of the broader developments with avian flu, read the rest here.
