AIBU to think my friend is overdoing emergency stockpiling?

[bagpuss90]

I get that we have been advised to stock up on essentials, though I think it will encourage panic buying. I will probably get a few days worth of stuff at some point . My friend however has, at least in my opinion gone ott about it. She’s stocking up a six month supply of food. She’s bought head torches, a camping gas stove and various other stuff. She thinks I’m being naive …Am I missing something here ?

"On Tuesday, Prince William will launch a new initiative to help communities work together to prepare for emergencies. Ready Together, a National Emergencies Trust (NET) project, will help communities across the UK take simple, practical steps to become more prepared for emergencies. A series of visits will showcase how communities themselves are often the first line of support during emergencies, with local volunteers, businesses & community groups playing a vital role in helping each other prepare for, respond to & recover from crises. The visits will also highlight how partnerships are helping to strengthen preparedness & prevention at a national scale."
Drip feeding the message of individual & community self-help - there is no govt cavalry coming ...

I hadn't heard of the National Emergencies Trust before, it describes itself thus
"Within as little as four hours of a national emergency happening, the National Emergencies Trust will launch a nationwide fundraising appeal to ensure those affected receive financial support as soon as they need it.
The funds raised are shared out as financial gifts to survivors and their loved ones to spend as they wish, according to their own personal needs.
Funds may also be distributed as grants to local or national charities who can offer short and long-term practical and emotional support for those affected, wherever they are."
nationalemergenciestrust.org.uk/about-us/

@RedToothBrushI have just finished " Biological War: a scenario" by Annie Jacobson.
The plague cases in Russia are scarily similar to in the book.
Made my blood run cold when I saw the news report 😲

She's one of those on twitter who is making the loudest noises about the incident in Russia. There's other notable accounts who have commented on it (retweeting Jacobson in many cases) that makes me go 'oh aye this isn't something I'm entirely comfortable with hearing'. Hence me mentioning it in the first place.

@RedToothBrush her books seem to be terrifyingly well researched. I have also read her
" Nuclear war: a scenario"
Well worth reading if you're brave enough.
It makes you realise what a tightrope we walk on.

Going slightly off piste, if you have pets, it's worth thinking about what you would do if you ever had to evacuate your home. I was involved in running a rest centre when an unexplored bomb had been found on a building site. It's really difficult to find temporary accommodation for those with animals. Ideally identify friends or family who can help you out allowing that anyone too geographically close may also be evacuated and anyone too far away may be difficult to get to in weather/ transport events

Day/ night 1 in a rest centre is often quite jolly with some blitz spirit, it gets less fun after that.

Do you remember where you found that first paragraph? I couldn't see it on the website

Someone quote tweeting this https://x.com/royalnews_org/status/2106297040703807770

Um... stop the world, I want to get off! 😱

Btw are we making a follow up thread, not the same title but to continue to discuss all this stuff?

Just remember plague (Yersinia pestis) isn't the terrifying thing it was in the middle ages, it's treatable with antibiotics now which of course they didn't have back then. The Black Death actually resulted in selecting humans with resistance to the disease. I wouldn't recommend throwing test tubes of it around however.

Rumours about Xi Jinping health continue.

Wall Street Journal reporting:
The Chinese asked for a private room in the West Wing so Xi Jinping could take rest breaks, which led to a roughly five-hour gap in the summit agenda

Remember there is no clear succession plan...

I know we are facing diesel issues /fuel prices and Russia threats and el Nino but has anyone worked out what the main risk is yet.

Ie el nino no one seems to be able to say ?

The point that has been said about this is this was from a biological weapons lab and the person who died worked there. In theory it's treatable if antibiotics are given in 24 hrs. So the question is if this was a lab accident as reported why didn't they get those antibiotics and live? The underlying implication being that they were developing an antibiotic resistant strain at the lab.

Part of the point is precisely that it's a perfect storm of multiple threats rather than a single one which makes it somewhat more of a potential issue.

There's no 'main risk'.
That's like saying which illness am I going to get first, a cold, covid, a headache, or a stomach bug. No-one knows.
And the way things are ramping up at the moment we could all get all of them at once.

I'm going to ask my virology contacts about it, they'll have a far better understanding. Yes I know it's bacterial but they cover that as well. What initially springs to mind is that the initial 'dose' may have been too large to be dealt with by antibiotics, after all it wasn't a normal way to catch the disease.

Well just had an interesting chat with a PhD in immunology (BSc virology) friend who was shocked and saddened about the death of the Plague technician and said as a BSL 3 pathogen there's an insane amount of training around working with such a thing. She was very surprised the worker didn't immediately get herself treated after breaking the tube, and the delay would almost certainly result in death as pneumonic plague is very deadly. Prompt treatment would have avoided her death.

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/_chat/5585259-crisis-what-crisis-is-my-friend-over-doing-the-stockpiling-and-am-i-too-continuation-thread-2

Ok I've started a new thread as per a few requests but moved it to chat rather than AIBU as it makes a bit more sense as I suspect this subject is going to end up running for a while.

That's interesting. Thanks.

The fact that there's so shock over the death is useful to know.

The why is the crucial bit in so many ways.

News tonight that Finland has closed off the shopping line in the Gulf of Finland due to a suspicious metal object being seen in the area pending investigation. This is the route of ferries between Finland and Estonia.

I'm guessing that should say shipping? I'm now picturing one of those yellow hazard cones, perhaps with a "till closed" sign on a chain, and a bored teenage staff member pushing a mop around in front of it.

Yes shipping.

Thank you for starting the new thread - good title!

This thread has prompted me to prep. I have ordered 2 wind up torches and a wind up/ solar radio with chargers and a torch. We have a gas canister cooking so will be fine there. Plenty of wood in the shed for stoves for heat and our hot water runs off oil and a Rayburn ( think it will continue without electricity. We are rural and on a village water scheme which has a generator so water should be ok but will stock up on some just in case - loos can be flushed within pond water if necessary. Off to shop today for long life milk and enough stove top supplies for a week's food. We will be sick of pasta and risotto in the event of an extended outage. I'm also going to gather some cash in case of a banking outage/cyber attack. Oh and we have plenty of matches and candles and dog food. Bring it on!

@Mirrorlolo it's a good feeling isn't it to feel slightly more prepared and in control

Especially after seeing the Russian plague pneumonia news story today!