• I heard an expert say this virus [COVID-19] will be worse than the Spanish Flu outbreak on 1918. What should I do to prepare for that?

Three issues; 1) “expert”, 2) reality, 3) preparation.

Expert: Who is the so-called expert and what qualifies him to be called that? Is he a regular doctor? Are they a virologist or epidemiologist or infectious disease physician? Remember 50% of all doctors, and specialty physicians, graduated in the bottom half of their classes. OK, a little humor injected into the discussion but I hope you get that point. And just because they are some world-renowned physician doesn’t mean they are experts on emergency incident management, including virus outbreaks. They understand a very narrowly focused area of expertise. And when they talk/report they usually do so in what could happen (i.e. worse case scenarios).  So I would like you to consider what makes them an expert.  FYI in all my years of emergency management I never met a single doctor who was on an Incident Management Team as a member of the Command and General Staff. If present at all, doctors are usually buried down the chain of command in the Medical Unit…never in a command position.

Reality: Let’s remember that the Spanish Flu was over a 100 years ago. It also infected about 500 million people and killed approximately 30 – 50 million. That is a mortality rate of approximately 6 – 10%. In the United States, we lost almost 700,000 to death from the Spanish Flu. However, there were two strains of the Spanish Flu. The first outbreak was in the Spring, was a relatively mild form and almost everyone recovered from it. It died down in the Summer but mutated along the way and in the Fall when it broke out again it took on the more deadly, highly contagious form.

Here are some of the differences between now and 1918 as it relates to this “panic”:

• In 1918 the primary form of travel was horse drawn. Cars were still pretty much a novelty, they had been invented only three decades earlier. It would be another decade for cars to become common.
• In 1918 airplanes were almost non-existent. Fifteen years earlier the first flight took place…lasted 12 seconds and only flew 120 feet. The vast majority of people had never seen an airplane by 1918.
• In 1918 vaccines wouldn’t be generally available to the public till the next decade. The first vaccines from western medicine appear in the late 1700’s but it wasn’t until the late 1880’s that vaccines took their first big step. In 1918 the first flu vaccine was still 20 years away.
• By 1918 modern Aspirin was only 18 years old. It was patented by a German pharmaceutical company and not readily available to everyone in the world or the United States. In 1918 aspirin was considered a miracle drug.
• Penicillin was the first modern antibiotic…and was still ten years away.
• Phones were available…but the first coast-to-coast telephone call had taken place in the US only 3 years earlier.
• The standard treatment for a gunshot wound to an arm or leg in WWI (1918) was amputation.

So you get my point. There is a HUGE difference between our medical capabilities of 1918 and medical technologies of today. So there is NO realistic or relative comparison between the Spanish Flu of 1918 and COVID-19…its treatment, prevention or any other aspect…PERIOD!

Just to touch on an old sore spot of mine…the loudest voices right crying about COVID-19 are the radical left (Democrats/Liberals/Progressives), some ignorant folks on the right, and a portion of the medical community. And that crying is over less than 6,000 deaths worldwide, less than 200 here in the US. But there is an epidemic in the US that kills well over a million each year. Yup…OVER A MILLION DEATHS EACH YEAR!!!  The loudest voices that I mentioned above are promoting that epidemic. It’s called abortion. We kill over a million babies each year and that is perfectly fine with those despicable Democrats/Liberals/Progressives, most in the medical field, and many Republicans, even some so-called conservatives. Actually, they encourage it, promote it, brag about it, and fund it! But we get 200 deaths and it is a National Emergency?????   Wow…do we have our priorities screwed up or what!?!?

Preparation: Now to the crux of your question…prepare to not contract COVID-19 virus just like you would any other flu or cold virus. Prepare to deal with the hysterical panic of the COVID-19 like I have been writing about for quite a while now…just go read the articles.

 

• Why don’t we put a doctor in charge of the virus battle?

I already answered that in detail in a previous question toady. However, just to be clear…doctors (we’re talking MD’s) are Subject Matter Experts (SME), they tend to not be very good leaders in emergencies because they have a narrowly focused area of expertise…and that breeds tunnel vision. So no, you don’t want a doctor in charge of any virus battle…you want a trained/qualified/experienced/competent Incident Commander in charge with a high-quality Command and General Staff for support. Doctors make great advisors to an Incident Management Team. They also make good leaders of the Medical Unit under the Logistics Section or Medical Response Team leadership in the Operations Section. But that’s it.

 

• Why aren’t you telling us exactly how to prepare for this? You’re supposed to be a preparedness “expert”, right?

Well first off, you have to decide if I am expert or not. I’ve outlined my credentials before but it is your decision on viewing me as an expert or not. And I am not going to take the time to repeat the good advice out there for preventing contraction of the virus or getting over it. I outlined clearly what we are doing here in my family and me personally. What I am providing details on is the spinoff of the virus…dealing with the panic and hysteria.

 

• You aren’t worried because you are all prepared and insulated from all of this virus crap. What about the rest of us?

Let me make this real clear…I am in the perfect demographic to catch the virus in many aspects. Most susceptible demographic over 50, existing lung condition, and have contracted bronchitis and pneumonia before. I am in my mid-60’s, my lungs took a beating as a firefighter and I have some limited lung damage, and I have had lung problems such as bronchitis and pneumonia in the past. So forget some special immunity you think I might have. But yes, I have done everything prudent to prepare myself to avoid getting it…or getting over it…without dying. Now, as for the “rest of us”… Why in the hell do you think I have this website in the first place? I have been providing emergency, disaster, and grid-down advice for over a decade. And doing so for FREE!  You don’t pay a thing to visit my site and read nearly a thousand preparedness articles. There isn’t even an ad that shows up like virtually all the other prepper websites. And I am not selling a preparedness book of secrets to survive an apocalypse. I care about each and every person that visits my site and have provided a huge amount of information to help you through this…or any other emergency, disaster, and grid-down event. You just got to read!

OK, sorry about the rant, no offense intended at all…I am just getting a little frustrated with this panic virus thing. If you have a specific question please ask it through the form below, I will happy to answer any and all.

 

• Where’s the CVOID-19 virus outbreak article you mentioned that you would post?

I decided there won’t be one. Through my SitReps (3/12/2020 and 3/15/2020), my Immediate Action Warning, now a couple of FAQs (3/14/2020) I am getting the information there that I wanted to. Maybe even in a better format this way than a single article. If something changes I might reconsider writing that article but for now I am saying what I wanted/needed to convey to you.

 

• When you were panic buying at Walmart did you really give that Walmart guy $20 to get you some milk from the back cooler?

No, that was for dramatic flair and to hopefully make you smile. In other words…it was strictly literary license for entertainment purposes. As you become more familiar with my writing style you will see that I weave some humor (or attempts at it) into my writing from time to time. Now, whether people actually snicker or laugh…or even smirk at my attempts are another whole story.

 

Ask me a question …

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