I’ve been thinking about this for sometime since they found MERS in the air of a camel barn in Saudi while the Ebola outbreak was growing.
I don’t know if Ebola, MERS or something entirely different will lead to a SHTF event, but with the present ‘Open’ border policy bringing in any number of communicable diseases and the real chance that some carriers could be sent here on purpose as ‘bio bombs’ it brings up a real possibility of extended quarantines being imposed. In fact it may get to a point in which a wise person will impose a quarantine on their family even if health officials don’t.
There are more than a few FReepers who like to point out how silly they see preparing for a ‘Mad Max’ situation is, but what if it isn’t ‘Mad Max’? What if it is something as simple as being able to shelter in place for 30-60 days while an outbreak runs its course? Could you make it through such a quarantine with what you have in your home? If you haven’t thought about it maybe its time.
As the LDS say “When the emergency is upon us the time for preparedness has past.”
Ebola has already been to the US in the Reston, VA strain. There are many strains of Ebola, from Sudan, Zaire, Ivory Coast...
I’m not sure what strain is primarily responsible for this outbreak but a mortality rate of 60% for Sudan or Ivory Coast is pretty much the norm.
Zaire is the most lethal - and that mortality rate is 80-90%. But those rates are also from larger outbreaks in the 1970s when we didn’t know as much about VHF’s as we do now.
If you mean hide out from a Mad max type outbreak where it is each man for himself and you lock yourself in the house and man the guns for 60 days, until it finishes it's pass, then my preps would apply, but if you mean a quarantine like in my child hood, then you would not be condemned to starvation.
Smallpox outbreak, 1950-51
""As children, this venture to our grandparents was something we always looked forward too, lots of nice treats and always a comic and sweets when we left. This particular Sunday we arrived, only to find the door locked and there was a big black cross, painted on the door.
The house in quarantine
My Aunt Alice called out to us from the letterbox. The house was in quarantine due to an outbreak of smallpox. We had to stay away for at least a month, or when we were told it was safe to return. This was the first we new about it, and were told that Brighton was affectedly isolated from the rest of the country. I think that only foodstuff and restricted merchandise was allowed into Brighton, nothing was allowed out until the outbreak had been contained.""