Jenny
for later
As far as prevention/treatment, I’m going to full speed ahead on Vitamin D3 today, and am well stocked with Resveratrol, NAC, concentrated Curcumin, elderberry and one or two others I don’t have in front of me at the moment. Encouraging research available for all of these. Off to see the Alpaca show now.
I don’t understand the survivalist thinking here. Are we looking at 5% of the US population dying and every business in the land being shuttered for six months?
Thank you for posting -
90 cans of beans and 3 loaves of bread? But a very good point about having enough matches.
Other sites offer advice as well, perhaps other FReepers would enjoy reading them as well.
http://www.survivalblog.com/index.html (may be a little over thte top for some folk)
http://www.frfrogspad.com/disastr.htm (some comments on real stories of katrina) the site itself is interesting, with lots of good advice.
http://ferfal.blogspot.com/ a fellowing living day to day in SOuth America (Argentina) some interesting observation that may be relavant to a pandemic flu scare.
Just got my “good” antenna hooked up last nite, so will be SWLing today to see what the news is outside of the US.
Im somewhat embarrassed at how much Y2k still has me prepped for this. A few snacks and candy, and some face masks, some hand cleaner gel, clean and refill my water drums, and im back in business! I even have a lot of books to catch up on!
If this doesn’t pan out, i guess there’s always that Mayan calendar thing in 2012,,
Somewhere,, there must have been a fork in the road i missed,,,,,sigh,
Stockpiling all this stuff is good, but not if someone can come up and take it from you. First tip should be: before you take your shopping trip, be well armed.
How does this relate to swine flu (which is what’s been cropping up and was the basis of the Influenza outbreak of 1918)? I mean, I’m sure many things are relevent, but they’re talking about avian (c.2006), which hasn’t quite turned out to be the thriller it was hyped to be.
This is also something to keep in mind. The flu virus lives anywhere from a few seconds to 48 hours, depending on the surface. It will live longer on a nonporous surface such as plastic, metal or wood than a porous surface such as fabric or skin.
I may become more like Monk for a while.
Bookmarking
I have to take issue with this list, as it is just a general survival list for 2-3 months of a generic emergency. Instead, here are some important ideas to have that are specific for H5N1 Avian flu. And the list is generally prioritized from top to bottom.
1) Get hand sanitizer. Walgreens sells it for about $4/qt. Plan on 1 gal+ per person. Also get a few 2oz bottles: one for each person to regularly carry with, one in the ash tray of each vehicle for when you forget your bottle. And you will. Use it when out in public once before you enter a store, and once when you leave. Decontaminate contact surfaces on your automobile as well with hand sanitizer. Handles, steering wheel, etc. Regular soap and water works almost as well as hand sanitizer, and is better for visible contamination.
The optimum spread of influenza through the air is at 40F and low humidity. Higher temperature and humidity means spread is more dependent on contact contamination. Use of hand sanitizer may lower your chances of infection by as much as 60%.
2) Get home cleaning agents. If you have to clean vomit or feces, pour agent on it first, then clean up. If vomiting or diarrhea in a toilet, pour in half a cup of bleach a minute before flushing to neutralize the invisible water spray that wafts up.
3) If you’re going to wear a mask of any kind, you also need clear shop glasses, as pathogens can also gain entry via the eyes. If you wear gloves, remember that gloves get contaminated, too, and can be sanitized with hand sanitizer. Importantly, a “virus proof” mask may be unnecessary, as viruses travel inside much larger droplets of liquid.
4) At the first sign of infection, take 50,000 IU of vitamin D3 (typically sold in 1,000 IU pills, i.e. 50 pills), *unless* you are sensitive to vitamin D. A few people get queasy from as little as 3,000 IU, though most people don’t. This is a one-shot dose, that is then followed up with 3,000 IU a day. The reason is that a breakdown product of D3 tends to erode the protective coating of viruses.
5) Cold-Eeze lozenges contain zinc gluconate glycine, which unlike other zinc supplements, is readily uptaken into the mucous membranes, where it inhibits viral reproduction. It is the only form of zinc given FDA approval to say “shortens duration and severity”.
6) Room air conditioning is inferior to an open window in providing airborne pathogen reduction. A small room set aside as a “sick room” is an old technique for limiting infection in a family. An ultraviolet air sanitizer as well as a humidifier are also good ideas near any sick person, to help limit spread.
7) Leave dead animals and people to the professionals, if at all possible. Many people die in plagues because they cannot resist toying with their dead loved ones. H5N1 is unusual because of the high number of species it infects, so a family pet may become deadly as well.
8) Your best defenses are hygiene, information, common sense and self control.