Prepping for pandemic...

[wheresmymojo]

I was quite blasé about the novel corona virus outbreak but things I've read today have changed my mind.

I'm not usually a prepper but best things to stock up on for a pandemic?

Surgical face masks?
Latex gloves?
Anti bac wipes and hand wash?

I have a 'proper' mask, it was fitted when I worked in ITU

they had to be individually fitted for each nurse and dr, we had to wear a big thing over our heads then they would spray stuff into it. Depending on when and what and if you could smell then you were issued that mask

So preppers what do I need to get myself ready???

The best things to do are the same things you would do to protect yourself from any illness.

• wash your hands frequently
• avoid touching your face
• if you do get sick, and think its the coronavirus, report it and stay in isolation until you receive instructions from the disease control centre or emergency services

Lots of the cases of deaths are in people who already had prior health conditions, the others seem to be recovering with the right treatment.

The best prep would probably be to stop reading the daily mail.

Who do you think is reading the Daily Mail Auslass?

Most of the information being shared is from public health advisors, epidemiologists and similar...

Just seems like a load of people are panicking and it seems overly hyped. The mortality rate is so far low, the virus is responding well to the right treatment.

Coronavirus isn't actually new, the common cold and influenza are in the same family.

Overwhelmingly, the strongest medical advice in the profession is to remain calm and practice solid hygiene and to seek treatment early if you do get sick.

Sorry to offend, my family are panickers and have gone nuts with this. So I'm jaded. They told me to stay away from bridges after the last knife attack in London. Sigh.

@Smilethoyourheartisbreaking it was a plane full of predominantly Chinese people, igoing to China! If you've ever travelled there you'll know what I mean.
If you want to say a plane full of citizens from south east Asia then that's fine, but that would still include Chinese and they still don't follow instructions well which was my point 💁🏼‍♀️

Ps I can manage a bit of Cantonese

www.who.int/docs/default-source/coronaviruse/situation-reports/20200128-sitrep-8-ncov-cleared.pdf

And they are reporting severe cases as running at 20%. Their definition of severe is very severe and would need significant hospital intervention.
No healthcare system could look after 20% of a flu level spread.

Placemarking. I never usually take any notice of these scares, except my sister in law thinks it's worrying. She is a vet, and has never before ever got carried away by a health scare before. I might start prepping at the weekend.

Following this with interest.

Apart from keeping cupboards stocked and reminding everyone to wash hands when they get home I don't see much can be done by individuals.

I'm a vet too, and not worried as such but definitely concerned and watching carefully. I have been braced for a viral catastrophe for years, so have various plans! I read a book written by a journalist who worked with the WHO during the initial outbreak of bird flu , and it terrified me at how close we were- only the low morbidity/ transmission rate of Bird flu saved us. In every circumstance infected people and their in-contacts ignored advice and disbelieved the risk, wandering about out of their quarantine zones, refusing to take the antiviral drugs etc.
I certainly do not trust people to comply and take it seriously. For some reason people (like those scoffing at preppers on this thread) refuse to accept things happening until it's too late. There were people sitting eating in the canteen of the Zebrugge ferry with water around their ankles, looking at people escaping as though they were mad. People carried on working in the twin towers.
I've got 2 full gas masks, stacks of medicines, thanks to my job and lots of non perishable food. Surgery is also well stacked with lots of high grade disinfectant and other medical supplies, so we can hold up there if things get hairy. Hopefully won't come to that, but those who are prepared will be better positioned to ride it out than those who refuse to believe it is happening to my thinking

That is true Smile. It will be some time before true figures are known and probably not all unless it gets a foothold elsewhere.

@Smilethoyourheartisbreaking but we weren't talking about this issue
We were talking about people following instructions

FGS why does everything have to be racist or ignorant
It's no different to saying the Europeans don't queue

I work in healthcare, public facing job, no possibility of working from home. Was discussing with colleagues the following...
If you work in healthcare, how will you manage your employment if there is an outbreak? Would you take leave? What if all leave was cancelled?
Apart from PPE provided by your workplace, would you happy to bring your uniform home for washing?
Would you rather be housed away from family for the duration or return home as normal?

I live rurally in a country where we have frequent, prolonged drought and natural distasters so we're prepped with food, water, medication and fuel as a way of life.

@Jozen a lot of critical staff stayed at the hospital during the height of swine flu
Also when the weather is bad so there's staff for 1:1 care
They were sleeping on trolleys in day surgery unit

So Germany is now 4 cases from the one person who bought it over.

Ouch. Germany was a fairly recent country on the list.

Hope the Birmingham guy wasn't v infectious when he was recovering.

You do go back to work after flu. It is only just recently been more in the news, so if he had been ill not paying attention he would not have connected the two.

People are selfish over chicken pox... there isn't going to be much different over this.

Those coming home may think it is ok to pop into the corner shop for milk on the way home. Or order a take away o be delivered...

Those rescued should be put into isolation until sure they are not unwell.