Better Safe than Sick

Do you like to be sick?  Does the notion of waking up with little ability to breathe and practically no ability to move or function mentally just make you eagerly await the next cold or flu season?  Does the idea of dying of Ebola make you bust out in giggle fits, like a teenage girl thinking about her favorite rock star?  If those were yeses, you might need professional help – for the rest of us, a pandemic preparedness kit is a very viable option.  And a pandemic preparedness kit list is forthcoming.  If people start dropping, it might be best not to go out as much, and to let the disease wind down on its own schedule.

China had a very interesting response to SARS.  In that part of the world, a person can be ordered to stay inside, and they know it isn't an option go outside "for a minute."  As such, their infection numbers stayed very well controlled.  If the government had such complete and unquestioned control around here, you might not need a pandemic preparedness kit.  But since you do, here goes a bit of thought.

1. The basics.
If you have the basic parts of a disaster preparedness kit, such as food, water, changes of clothes and prescription medicine, this is pretty redundant.  Anything you use at least once a week (and couldn't go two weeks without) needs to be in your kit, obviously.  But a pandemic will present its own special set of needs.  Make sure you keep a larger amount of food than absolutely necessary, in order to keep up your immune system functionality.

2. A set of masks.
While masks may or may not protect you from infection, they can prevent the spread of some airborne pathogens.  With almost everything in our lives, it is always better to be safe than to be sorry.

3. A defense against carriers.
When a pandemic strikes, by nature it exists over a large area.  And since some people are naturally carriers of any given illness, make sure you limit contact with people.  While it is unfortunate that people can only be trusted so far in a survival situation, they may not be trying to harm you.  They may be completely innocent in their intentions, but may betray you through no more than biological chance.  So think carefully before you accept anything from anyone, or open your door to anyone.

Remember that the Black Death scored very few lives in Verona, Italy.  This most likely had something to do with how their custom was to literally "brick in" the homes of those infected.  Hopefully, your pandemic preparedness kit will be enough that such drastic measures will not be necessary in your home town.