Ebola Virus

namelessfly wrote:Your shelter in place advice is right on unless the industrial infrastructure that supports you breaks down. Unless you have a well with a hand pump or have stockpiled water and fuel, canned goods and jerky rather than frozen foods, your preparations might be in vain. If rioting becomes widespread (happening now in Missouri), you will have your supplies taken from you and may be get infected too.

One horrific feature of Ebola is that it can be spread through semen, so anarchy could enable the fraction of male survivors to spread the disease through rape.

Shelter in place with your stockpile of supplies, but those supplies better include guns and ammo.

Well, I did say it did not guarantee survival, only that it was better than zero resources. It expands one's options. Short of utter catastrophe some sheltering at home is what has worked in the past as well as anything. Is it proof against riots etc on my street? Of course not.

If a meteor crashes thorough my roof I'm a goner also. No point gaming that I die, eh? In fact we do happen to have water resources and wood heat resources and are not in a city. Most of our food is not in a freezer.

However, one small freezer tip for power outages. Cook your meat before freezing it, then pack it in meal size packages for your household. Example, buy a big pork roast on sale. Roast. Cut and package. Saves you money and if the power goes out for a while cooked meat keeps longer than raw meat. Hopefully you have handled it in a hygienic manner and thus it is also much less germy than raw meat. This is also convenient for making dinner in perfectly normal times. Already cooked roast or whatever, in right amount for you, only needs to be thawed and thoroughly reheated.

With the power out you can also reheat thawing meat supply. Keep the lid on it with steam coming out. It is fairly sterile in there as long as you do not open the lid. After serving a meal from it put the lid back on and reheat well. Sterile-ish again. Got a wood stove or camp stove or grill, and fuel for it? There ya go. And have blankets etc to put on the freezer in power outages. Will stay cold a good long time. Doing this stuff in advance is better than just sitting there crying and wringing one's hands, watching raw meat spoil, etc. eh. We get storm power outages every darn year here.

Should I talk about fairly sanitary toilet substitute? 5 gallon pail, dry grass or peat or coir brick blocks -garden center item - sprinkle the dry stuff, sawdust anything like that on your ... donation to cover it. Cover pail with lid. surprisingly fly and stink free. See book, The Humanure Handbook, by Joseph C. Jenkins.

One hopes one never needs this, but if you do.... yeah, good to know how to deal with it.

It is scary to me how few folks have any fall back capacity at all, not even a few days. But, hey, they are big boys and girls and I sure cannot make anyone do anything, nor do I want to do that.

I also suggested having a bug out capacity. Full gas tank always, back pack of essentials and good shoes for walking should that be needed. Paper maps. I didn't say blankets and tarp etc in car but those do not hurt and might help in something or other ... including a winter wait for AAA to show up

In bad times do not announce you have resources -duh - . Do not grill outside. Cover your windows. Keep the lowest possible profile. If the neighbors are congenial, align with them for a neighborhood watch sort of thing if it seems useful in whatever the situation is. Have guns? Have them handy. And lots of ammo. Remember, I'm ex Navy and so is my hubbie. We are not pacifists, ok?

The Spanish priest died today in Madrid.

I do not have a cow's foggy if Ebola ... or anything else ... is gonna try for being a pandemic this year, here. Not psychic. I'm just in favor of being a bit more... having a few more options and resources on hand all the time and being situationally aware without turning into a paranoid, stressed out, tin foil hat person.

Call it a little insurance policy I wrote for us long ago and have kept current for over 45 years now. Perfect? Nope. But sure beats nuthin'.

edit by moi I have just read that people with Honorable discharges are former rather than ex. Ok, so hubbie and I are former Navy

The E wrote:

cthia wrote:No, I am not mixing the three. Perhaps I should have stated that Monet was infected by Marburg, however, I have pleaded for many to read the book for themselves. Marburg, though not considered to be Ebola, is in the Ebola "filovirus" family and yes it is considered to be the mildest of the "filovirus" sisters. But in the filovirus family with Ebola. BSL-4!

So? Ebola != Marburg, just as Tiger != Housecat. Same family, different genus, different epidemiology. It's a BSL 4 agent, yes. But it's not Ebola. It doesn't spread through aerosols, and it certainly doesn't originate from that one cave alone. Facts, cthia, not speculation.

Again, Hot Zone is a very good book. But it should not be your only source of information.

Another book. Level 4: Virus hunters of the CDC, by Joseph B. McCormick. For another take on this stuff.

also, Virus Hunter, by C J Peters

The Coming Plague, by Laurie Garrett

search Ebola on Amazon and find more if you want. I have these and they were well done and informative.

I recommend LUCIFERS HAMMER by Niven and Pournelle for survival tips.

THE LAST CENTURION by John Ringo offers good insight.

The good news is that the African countries are doing things right.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/13/scien ... areas.html

The bad news is that this is the right way to do things.

The next Elk we bag is going to become jerky.

We could hunt in bad times, allowing our emergency meat to stay on the hoof, but outsiders might bag it.

Northstar wrote:

namelessfly wrote:Your shelter in place advice is right on unless the industrial infrastructure that supports you breaks down. Unless you have a well with a hand pump or have stockpiled water and fuel, canned goods and jerky rather than frozen foods, your preparations might be in vain. If rioting becomes widespread (happening now in Missouri), you will have your supplies taken from you and may be get infected too.

One horrific feature of Ebola is that it can be spread through semen, so anarchy could enable the fraction of male survivors to spread the disease through rape.

Shelter in place with your stockpile of supplies, but those supplies better include guns and ammo.

Well, I did say it did not guarantee survival, only that it was better than zero resources. It expands one's options. Short of utter catastrophe some sheltering at home is what has worked in the past as well as anything. Is it proof against riots etc on my street? Of course not.

If a meteor crashes thorough my roof I'm a goner also. No point gaming that I die, eh? In fact we do happen to have water resources and wood heat resources and are not in a city. Most of our food is not in a freezer.

However, one small freezer tip for power outages. Cook your meat before freezing it, then pack it in meal size packages for your household. Example, buy a big pork roast on sale. Roast. Cut and package. Saves you money and if the power goes out for a while cooked meat keeps longer than raw meat. Hopefully you have handled it in a hygienic manner and thus it is also much less germy than raw meat. This is also convenient for making dinner in perfectly normal times. Already cooked roast or whatever, in right amount for you, only needs to be thawed and thoroughly reheated.

With the power out you can also reheat thawing meat supply. Keep the lid on it with steam coming out. It is fairly sterile in there as long as you do not open the lid. After serving a meal from it put the lid back on and reheat well. Sterile-ish again. Got a wood stove or camp stove or grill, and fuel for it? There ya go. And have blankets etc to put on the freezer in power outages. Will stay cold a good long time. Doing this stuff in advance is better than just sitting there crying and wringing one's hands, watching raw meat spoil, etc. eh. We get storm power outages every darn year here.

Should I talk about fairly sanitary toilet substitute? 5 gallon pail, dry grass or peat or coir brick blocks -garden center item - sprinkle the dry stuff, sawdust anything like that on your ... donation to cover it. Cover pail with lid. surprisingly fly and stink free. See book, The Humanure Handbook, by Joseph C. Jenkins.

One hopes one never needs this, but if you do.... yeah, good to know how to deal with it.

It is scary to me how few folks have any fall back capacity at all, not even a few days. But, hey, they are big boys and girls and I sure cannot make anyone do anything, nor do I want to do that.

I also suggested having a bug out capacity. Full gas tank always, back pack of essentials and good shoes for walking should that be needed. Paper maps. I didn't say blankets and tarp etc in car but those do not hurt and might help in something or other ... including a winter wait for AAA to show up

In bad times do not announce you have resources -duh - . Do not grill outside. Cover your windows. Keep the lowest possible profile. If the neighbors are congenial, align with them for a neighborhood watch sort of thing if it seems useful in whatever the situation is. Have guns? Have them handy. And lots of ammo. Remember, I'm ex Navy and so is my hubbie. We are not pacifists, ok?

The Spanish priest died today in Madrid.

I do not have a cow's foggy if Ebola ... or anything else ... is gonna try for being a pandemic this year, here. Not psychic. I'm just in favor of being a bit more... having a few more options and resources on hand all the time and being situationally aware without turning into a paranoid, stressed out, tin foil hat person.

Call it a little insurance policy I wrote for us long ago and have kept current for over 45 years now. Perfect? Nope. But sure beats nuthin'.

namelessfly wrote:I recommend LUCIFERS HAMMER by Niven and Pournelle for survival tips.

THE LAST CENTURION by John Ringo offers good insight.

Lucifer's Hammer is a terrific read Haven't read the other one.

Elk jerky... yum. Elk roasts, elk...enjoy, nameless.

Just finished John Ringo's To Sail a Darkling Sea. As always from him a page turning high speed action story.
Only well thought out zombie apocalypse story I've seen. A flu type virus that is highly contagious leaves its victims physically intact but with no sentience, and about as much intelligence as a dumb dog. A team of US marines led by an Australian (naturally) is the only hope for the survival of the remaining few thousands of intelligent humans.

Steve Stirling's Emberverse series isn't about disease as such but does have excellent post apocalyptic survival techniques at its centre.

The WHO admits that the Ebola outbreak may be worse than admitted to? It's better to be prepared for the end of the World but praying for the best result. If the virus outbreak dies down, it has changed my thinking on how I live my life.

One, I should build a home that last several years off the grid and able to to dispose of wastes that are created. I was thinking of building house that could treat the sewage that could be used as a way to water fertilize the yard. Also, I want the ability to generate my energy and live off the grid. Two, I want a victory type garden or larger for my own family use. This is way to supplement my food supply in case of trying times. Third, I wish to own my little armory. I have decided to buy 3 AR-15 and 3 glock pistols. My hope is that these times will change to the better but if not I'm prepared for the worse. Fourth, I think I am going to study to become a ham radio operator. I know nothing about it and I understand it's expensive but that ability could mean the difference in survival and death. Besides, it might become a fun hobby! I realize that this is an overreaction to the outbreak but somehow it feels right in the soul for myself and my family.

smr wrote:
The WHO admits that the Ebola outbreak may be worse than admitted to? It's better to be prepared for the end of the World but praying for the best result. If the virus outbreak dies down, it has changed my thinking on how I live my life.

One, I should build a home that last several years off the grid and able to to dispose of wastes that are created. I was thinking of building house that could treat the sewage that could be used as a way to water fertilize the yard. Also, I want the ability to generate my energy and live off the grid. Two, I want a victory type garden or larger for my own family use. This is way to supplement my food supply in case of trying times. Third, I wish to own my little armory. I have decided to buy 3 AR-15 and 3 glock pistols. My hope is that these times will change to the better but if not I'm prepared for the worse. Fourth, I think I am going to study to become a ham radio operator. I know nothing about it and I understand it's expensive but that ability could mean the difference in survival and death. Besides, it might become a fun hobby! I realize that this is an overreaction to the outbreak but somehow it feels right in the soul for myself and my family.

You may be interested in this ...
http://earthship.com

smr wrote:The WHO admits that the Ebola outbreak may be worse than admitted to? It's better to be prepared for the end of the World but praying for the best result. If the virus outbreak dies down, it has changed my thinking on how I live my life.

One, I should build a home that last several years off the grid and able to to dispose of wastes that are created. I was thinking of building house that could treat the sewage that could be used as a way to water fertilize the yard. Also, I want the ability to generate my energy and live off the grid. Two, I want a victory type garden or larger for my own family use. This is way to supplement my food supply in case of trying times. Third, I wish to own my little armory. I have decided to buy 3 AR-15 and 3 glock pistols. My hope is that these times will change to the better but if not I'm prepared for the worse. Fourth, I think I am going to study to become a ham radio operator. I know nothing about it and I understand it's expensive but that ability could mean the difference in survival and death. Besides, it might become a fun hobby! I realize that this is an overreaction to the outbreak but somehow it feels right in the soul for myself and my family.

Nothing wrong with being prepared. For most people it's the lack of power that would be the problem. No power means no refrigeration and no food. Too many people don't have food stores in their homes. There are few ways to generate electricity. Solar panels can be expensive to set up (I have no idea how long they last), and unless you have a year round stream of water flowing nearby, that's not going to work either. Gas/diesel generators would be expensive to run, not to mention they will run out of fuel eventually. Water is another concern. Having a shallow enough well so a hand pump will work is a good idea, but the deeper the well, the more expensive the set up can be.

The Emberverse books mentioned earlier have a LOT of useful ideas for possible survival things, including the basics on food preparation, what to look for, some of the effort required to plow and plant and harvest food. How to make weapons and armor, including how to make swords out of car/truck leaf springs, bows, spears and such. Even how to make walls around your homestead for protection (assuming you have time) Other books have other ideas, ones on country living, old books on old style living can be a huge help. Even if it's just a lot of pictures, being able to actually see what they did back then can give you an idea of how to make old style equipment. Pick some of those books up. I also suggest finding as many ideas as you can on the internet, reading them over, then copying them out and making a book for yourself so you have that information on hand, because if the power ever does go out, there wont be any internet to search. And you can find all sorts of 'do it yourself' survival stuff online. Just be prepared to be put in the 'prepper' category by certain agencies.