The Woodpile Report - Issue #617, 25Feb2020 - (Comments on the Coronavirus)

Woodpile Report ^ | 2/15/20 | Ol' Remus

[LibWhacker]

Your own best judgment determines what you do, if anything, to prepare for an epidemic of the Wuhan coronavirus. For myself, each round of information, as unreliable as it may be in its specifics, suggests an notable epidemic is more likely than not.

There are a few things known with certainty. Pneumonia is, as with all flu, the common mode of fatality. 61.5% of patients requiring hospitalization and intense monitoring ended up becoming "non-survivors". Wuhan coronavirus has an incubation period of three to twenty-seven days, i.e., infected but without symptoms. Fourteen days is typical. Fever and cough are common, diarrhea is not. Recovering from Wuhan coronavirus does not confer immunity, it can reinfect and cause further damage, including heart failure.

Only three of the more than 100 public health labs across the country have verified the CDC test for use . It means no one has been tested for this coronavirus in forty-seven states. The kits CDC distributed are flawed and none have yet been replaced. What are the real numbers of coronavirus cases in the US? As we say around here, "you can't find what you're not looking for".

One chilling thought. We may be seeing the first of multiple waves of the Wuhan coronavirus. Victims of the 1918 flu's "second wave" experienced their first symptoms and took their last breath all in the same day.

One other thing, from Centers for Disease Control, via CNBC

The virus is proving to be far more contagious than the flu, having spread from 300 people in mid-January to more than 75,700 as of Thursday morning.

As I've said elsewhere, I'll almost certainly be my own caretaker so I've bulked up my "flu kit". Flu pharmaceuticals are likely to disappear in the panic that accompanies the moment of general recognition. I shall make a checklist of symptoms, the appropriate medicine, the dosage and the interval. Living where I do I'm already in compliance with Remus's Most Excellent and Inviolable Rule One for Survival, namely and to wit:

Stay away from crowds.

It's said aspirin is contraindicated for flu. I find the evidence convincing. It's said Sambucus may initiate or exacerbate a cytokine storm specific to the Wuhan coronavirus . I shall exercise caution until the question is resolved.

An epidemic may be disruptive enough to force the prepper to rely on his back room stash for a long while. Should a massive uncontrolled pandemic occur, a catastrophic breakdown of utilities, services, transportation and industry may follow. This would be the collapse, the black swan. The prepper would become a survivalist, forced to rely on his deep larder and other doomsday preparations. That's another subject, but as I've asked in the past, if you're not preparing for the worst, what are you preparing for?

[LibWhacker]

Excerpted because I just wanted to post his comments on the Coronavirus, especially about the "second wave" of a flu; namely, in particular, during the second wave of the 1918 flu, many victims drew their last breath the same day their first symptom appeared.

What happened to their immunity after the first wave? Gone.

If this virus doesn't have at least some hallmarks of a bioengineered weapon of war I'll eat my hat.

[laplata]

Thanks for posting this.

[Jane Long]

Ping!

[duckman]

“...If this virus doesn’t have at least some hallmarks of a bioengineered weapon of war...”
Without getting into the weeds, how is that done?

[Nuke From Orbit]

Is there a thread on FR that has a guide for prepping for this mess. I have the feeling this will be on our shores but a different strain.

[Fresh Wind]

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/bloggers/3819141/posts

[duckman]

Not to my knowledge. All I know is I will be doing much more daily praying. SERIOUSLY.

[sauropod]

.

[BobL]

I’m preparing for Uncle Sam to show up at my for and take care of me.

[BobL]

... show up at my DOOR...

[null and void]

FYI, FWIW...

Bring Out Your Dead

Post to me or FReep mail to be on/off the Bring Out Your Dead ping list.

The purpose of the “Bring Out Your Dead” ping list (formerly the “Ebola” ping list) is very early warning of emerging pandemics, as such it has a high false positive rate.

So far the false positive rate is 100%.

At some point we may well have a high mortality pandemic, and likely as not the “Bring Out Your Dead” threads will miss the beginning entirely.

*sigh* Such is life, and death...

If a quarantine saves just one child's life, it's worth it.

[null and void]

“take care of me” may mean a far different thing to Uncle Sam than it does to you...

[NewJerseyJoe]

P4L

[Grampa Dave]

I posted this a couple of weeks ago and mailed it to our relatives and friends asking for our advise:

“Debating if I need to start prepping in case this virus goes full blown.”

We had a few relatives in the midwest and eastern states ask us since we live in the land of disasters, aka California, with year round disasters:. Fires,earthquakes, floods and ????.

What type of preparations should they think about. So we put this together yesterday as a semi joke. We got thank you’s back from many relatives and friends some good suggestions. Which we added.

With the modern curse of next day delivery of food, water, medicine and other necessary items, There are no basic inventories past a couple of days before outages.

My wife has 40 plus years of being an RN, and I can spell MBA.

Here is our modest prep plan for even Californians:

What, would happen if your community was basically shut down for 2-4 weeks due to a quarantine.

No one could leave or get into your community for 2-4 weeks.

What you and your family eat and drink

When would you have power failures and maybe natural gas shutoffs. Cooking might be impossible without power. Keeping food fresh and edible in refrigerators and freezers becomes a 24/7 challenge.

Living in California, besides our grab/go bags, we keep enough water and food for 2-3 weeks. Also, food that doesn’t have to be refrigerated or frozen. Also, you need 3-4 weeks of your rxes and otc drugs.

Food that is in our combo refrig/freezer lasts for 2-4 days to a week if we get in and out quickly. The freezer on the bottom has frozen bottles of water on the top shelves. Food is still edible after a few days.

Our standing freezer with frozen water bottles on top inside shelf, has kept food frozen for 5-7 days with the get in and out quick action.

So, you eat your refrig food first, your freezer food next and then your non refrig/freezer food.

If this thing goes full viral, you need to have 2-4 weeks of food and water handy. Food that does not need refrigeration.

[thesearethetimes...]

Good tip on the freezer 😇Thank you!

[LibWhacker]

I don't claim any expertise here. Definitely not in biology. But I'm sort of operating on the same suspicions that Michael Rubin does in this article.

Those suspicions are supported (I claim) by the unlikely series of coincidences that have tagged along with this story from the very beginning: 1) Wuhan has a big bioweapons lab and is known to have been working on the coronavirus, 2) China's outright lies about what was happening, 3) if you were going to develop such a weapon, you'd want it to have a long incubation period, not allow victims to develop any long-lasting immunity, be extremely lethal, hit your enemy in a series of ever more deadly waves.

All the points, check, check, check. I'm just a suspicious dude, that's all, lol. Especially when it comes to the China!

[Grampa Dave]

Last fall we were out of power for 5 days.

My wife had refilled every water bottle we drank for about a month and put them in the top of the freezer shelves or the freezer. So when the power went off, we were prepared.

We threw away a home packed frozen salmon and that was it in the freezer. A few items in the refrigerator did appear to spoil.

The other key is 16 oz cans of veggies/fruits that basically are eaten in one meal by two people with no left overs needing refrigeration.

The other key is 8-12 0z of canned fish, tuna, meat, spam and other high protein stuff. Again divided among 2 there is minimal if any leftovers.

Water is key if we lose power.

[AF_Blue]

... and a manual can opener.

[backwoods-engineer]

Thanks for posting this. EVERY FReeper should be reading the Woodpile Report every time it's posted (mostly weekly).

Mail me if you want one of the older editions, older than his on-page archives. I have about two years' worth.

[thesearethetimes...]

All good as well Husband is celiac,so I am picking up a lot of his favorite soups, canned chicken and peanut butter every shopping trip 😉 Prayers none of us will need it between the virus, and the upcoming hurricane season 😮