To think we are being lined up for something?

Sadly there are a few possibilities! Biological or nuclear attack, water supply contamination, food shortages, H5N1 flu, unusual covid variant. H5N1 is becoming a growing concern as more red flag situations occur. Increasing numbers of dairy herds in the US are now affected, at least 2 farm workers diagnosed, and sporadic cases like the kid returning from India to Australia and being diagnosed with H5N1 with no obvious exposure to animals or sick people, which suggests wider levels circulating undetected. It’s really been a case of when not if for a while but the risk of an H5N1 pandemic is concerning, and after covid people are unlikely to be accepting of masking, lockdowns or other methods of infection control which makes the situation far more challenging.

If war is coming what good is some tins of beans & tuna?

Surely it’s more a case of further water contamination etc & the gov needing more time to organise themselves.

I don't know what I would do with my cats

Bird flu is jumping the species barrier in US cattle so everyone needs to eyeball that. But its still a posabilty it won't jump to human to human transmission. But that being said we are ever increasingly getting closer to next global pandemic and that's nothing new.

The general election was due anyway, save a few months whatever but it was looming.

I'm not worried about anything secret or new. I'm.worried ( very low level) on what I can easily read on the bbc tbh. Worrying shit 360 rubbed in your face.

I have just found more info here on the BBC but whether it’s a cause for concern or not I have no clue!

https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20240515-how-a-human-bird-flu-vaccine-could-protect-against-avian-influenza

I broadly agree. I'm just musing.

Well, that's a can of worms indeed.

What I'm getting at us that on MN there were threads about what might be incoming as Covid spread in January and February which were scoffed at as scaremongering then we did actually have lockdowns etc. So I'm a little less sceptical because I never imagined I'd see such administrative chaos in my lifetime. Fool me once and all that.

It’s not linked to the contaminated water situation in Devon is it? Could water supplies be targeted?

Well it could happen, war here. Maybe it's just routine in the circumstances.

We have always had a stock of stuff, anything could happen anytime, it's a shame people need to have the government tell them this and they can't use their own common sense

I don’t want to scaremonger but I did hear something on the international news about some form of bird flu jumping in to humans for the first time. The person just got conjunctivitis and recovered though!

Don’t quote me on this please because I have no expert knowledge whatsoever.

Hopefully another Mumsnetter will be along soon with better info!

But this is what I have Googled from the US CDC:

[1] first human case of A(H5N1) bird flu in the United States linked to an outbreak in dairy cows was also the first likely case of human infection with A(H5N1) from a cow globally. This was reported on April 1, 2024. The person reported eye redness as their only symptom, consistent with conjunctivitis, and recovered.

Well if you've got a shed full of beans you're going to need all that bog roll innit

Funny how the narrative changes and so quickly sometimes. One minute you're a nutter if you've got a shed full of beans and bog roll, the next it's just common sense and we should have been doing it for years just like all our European neighbours.

Nuclear or biological warfare then?

But 2020 was scaremongering nonsense!

But we have been here before, with the same idiots.

Yep, if you’re talking about this thread

rolls eyes

Yes this. It was reported in The Times this week too - recommending that everyone should hold 4 days supply to improve the country's resilience, using an example of a sulphur cloud from an Icelandic volcano meaning everybody would have to stay indoors for 4 days

There was a time I might have agreed with you. Before 2020 that is.

I has felt like there’s something a foot this week but there have been other recent times that have felt the same and not come to anything.
Inflation is lower now and a bit of stash is useful. Can always use it up over winter when energy bills are high so I’ll probably stock up on a few things. Only tinned food that we actually eat though. Toothpaste,loo roll, basic meds I’ll make sure I’ve a reasonable stash.
It will probably come to nothing though.

Scaremongering nonsense!

Brexit nonsense has already been, largely, costed for.

It’s got nothing to do with “costing”. If you’re working in food supply chain and not aware of the Brexit related legislative changes for imports coming into effect throughout this year, then I think you just started a new job yesterday!

It's not "weird", just what many other countries around the world have been suggested to do for years. The UK just seems to be lagging behind everywhere else.

I've always found it a bit weird that we don't do this, it's entirely normal in Scandinavia etc to follow emergency information and have an emergency bag/food etc. I once worked with communities looking at emergency plans in case of a disaster (flooding, wildfire, pandemic etc) a lot of communities were very wary of asking households to hold a stock of non perishable food, wind up radio and torch in case it started people panicking. We've lost touch with looking after ourselves and being self reliant.

I mean, it's all a bit vague - keep calm, carry on but be prepared just in case. The pandemic should have taught them plenty about how to communicate with the public and avoid headless chicken responses. Oh wait. Doh.

General elections always create disruption

Supermarkets are just trying to be prepared