Shootout with a Pandemic

Dear Fellow Survivalist;

There are some things we need protection from, where a gun won’t do us a bit of good. Such is the case with a pandemic. I mean, can you imagine trying to do shootout at the OK Corral inside your own body? Sounds like the cure might be worse than the disease in that case.

If we’re going to defend ourselves and our families from harm, we need to think beyond those situations which can be solved with a gun. We need to be thinking about financial ruin, how to survive without electricity and yes, pandemics. With air travel so common today, we are actually at a greater danger from pandemics, than any other time in history. Diseases can now travel around the globe at 500 knots.

The really scary thing about this is that while medical science has developed a wide array of antibiotics, for use against bacterial infections and disease, there are exactly zero antiviral medications available to cure us from viral infections and disease. It doesn’t matter if we’re talking about the flu, Ebola or the new Coronavirus that has come to us from China.

So, if we can’t shoot it out with these microscopic pathogens, how can we protect ourselves?

Doctors, nurses and other hospital workers encounter these and other diseases on a daily basis; yet they manage to protect themselves from infection, even when working with pathogens as dangerous as Ebola. The same measures they use will work just as well for us outside the hospital, as they work for them, protecting them on the job.

Personal Protection Equipment

For bacteria and viruses to make us ill, they first have to get inside our bodies. That’s not as easy as it might seem. The skin, acting as part of our body’s autoimmune system, does an admirable job of keeping those microscopic pathogens out. The only way they can get in, is through either natural (eyes, nose and mouth) or unnatural (cuts and abrasions) openings in our skin.

Proper first aid, cleaning, applying antiseptics, and bandaging those cuts and abrasions works well to keep infection from entering our bodies through the unnatural openings. But we can’t do that for the natural openings. For those, we need to use personal protective equipment, the same sorts that doctors and nurses use:

• Medial Masks – One of the more common ways that disease spreads is through what is called “aerosol.” This is nothing more than droplets of saliva and mucus, laced with pathogens, that are coughed and sneezed out by people who are sick. Medical masks protect us from breathing these in.
• Eye Protection – The medical mask can’t do much to protect the eyes; for that you either need a face shield, or goggles. Glasses will work to some extent; but these are better. Make sure you avoid rubbing your eyes, unless you are absolutely sure your hands are free of those pathogens.
• Rubber Gloves – We all get lots of bacteria and viruses on our hands, all the time. Just about everything we touch has them on it, and they transfer to our hands, on contact. Then, when we rub our eyes or eat our sandwich, we give them free passage into our bodies. Wearing rubber medical gloves protects us by allowing us to take those pathogens off our bodies and throw them away.

Keep it Clean

The other big gun that we have, for use against pandemics, is cleaners. Yep, keeping things clean goes a long way towards eliminating those things that exist to infect us and making us sick. While normal soap and water works well, a 10% solution of chlorine bleach (the kind used for laundry) works even better.

We want to make sure that we keep our hands clean. Chances are pretty high for us to get bacteria and other pathogens on our hands, just by doing normal things, like opening a door. While rubber gloves work to protect our hands, we can’t wear them all the time. So we need to make sure that we clean our hands before eating, after going to the bathroom and after any time we touch anything that has been in the presence of someone who is already sick with the pandemic.

It’s a good idea to carry around antibacterial hand cleaner, just for this. That way, you can clean your hands, anytime you come into contact with someone who has been sick. For that matter, the grocery cart you pick up when you go through the door of the supermarket might be infected. Clean off the handle, before you start using it.

While keeping the hands clean is important, it’s better to not have those pathogens even get on your hands. That means cleaning and disinfecting anything that has been in the presence of someone who fell ill. Be sure to clean everything, if you have any visitors in your home.

These simple steps can go a long way towards keeping you and your family safe, either from the seasonal flu that’s going around or something more serious. It may not seem as impressive as fighting of the bad guys with a gun, but as long as it keeps your loved ones safe, it’s worth it. So, I guess being ready for a pandemic is just as important as keeping your powder dry and your survival gear close at hand.