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Category: ebola

Sun. Jan. 26, 2020 – did I mention I had two extra 10yo girls last night?

Cool and rainy. [63F and 99%RH]

Rain started late last night, around 11pm. It wasn’t bad during the day with mostly overcast skies and shirtsleeve temps.

Last night was sleepover night for two of my daughter’s school friends. They were up late, scaring themselves. There is a self reinforcing behavior spiral that they get started on. Not just convincing themselves that there is a monster outside, but for other things too, like guilt. Not fun to short circuit that.

And the Girl Scout cookies arrived by the van load during the day.

I was out, doing deals and stocking up. I’ve got a craigslist sale later today. Finally.

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I’ve said before, I’m treating this coronavirus as an incoming Cat5 hurricane. It FEELS a lot like the start of the zombie apocalypse in the John Ringo novels. My biggest concern is that the actions the chinese are taking do not match the numbers or the reported threat levels.

Aesop, who was a voice for MAX RESPONSE during the first Ebola epidemic is the voice of moderation in this one. He’s got training, experience, and is on the front line,so I’m not discounting his opinion. I’m considering that he’s basing it on info out of china, though, and if that info is bad, so can the conclusions be…

My personal red line for this will be the start of person to person transmission in the US. Right now, it seems that every foreign infection started in China. Once we have it in the wild in the US all bets are off.

So, touch up those preps people. And stay tuned.

nick

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Fri. Jan. 24, 2020 – another week gone bye bye bye

Cool and damp. [39F and 99%RH] Of course.

It stayed a bit coolish and dampish all day yesterday, although the rain mostly stayed away. I’m hoping for no rain today. Temps were 44F when I went to bed.

Busy week for me, and it didn’t leave much time for preps. I am feeling caught off guard by the sudden change in the china virus status. Fortunately the extreme case has the same preps as our old friend ebola, without the blood. Unfortunately, I think people won’t be as freaked out without the whole ‘sh!tting yourself to death while your eyes bleed’ aspects and won’t isolate themselves appropriately.

I don’t have anywhere near enough PPEs to interact with people in a mostly normal way if that is what’s needed. I intended to severely limit any contact at all, not don a mask and go shopping….

I guess we’ll see how things progress, but we should have at least a couple of days before any panic starts here. Think hard about stocking up on some stuff, like any masks, tyvek, bleach, wipes and hand sanitizer, and snivel gear for dealing with flu symptoms. I haven’t seen much about actually treatment/care for patients, but you can be sure that it won’t take long if there is an outbreak to saturate available care facilities. I don’t even know if we ever got restocked on IV fluids after the shortage. Puerto Rico has had their own issues and that’s where most of it came from.

I know our Habitat ReStore has shelves full of 3M surgical style face masks and they are cheap. I’ve already bought what I thought was a good amount, but now I want more. I don’t think there will be a run on them at the ReStore. (or anywhere in the US, yet). That said, I’m headed there today and I am going to stock up if they’re still on the shelf.

I’m going to treat this as if there was a hurricane headed straight toward us. I REALLY don’t like the way the numbers are quickly ratcheting up, or the revelations about the spread. I’m aiming for ‘better safe than sorry.’

I know, it’s always something, and the sky doesn’t usually fall, but this feels weirder than normal.

Lots of driving around today, so I’ll be out of the loop on news, and updates. Keep an eye on it….

n

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Thur. June 20, 2019 – month is slipping by…

80F and 98%RH this morning. Broken clouds and hot is the forecast. It was certainly hot yesterday, and no relief from the sun.

The march to war continues–

“Tensions between the US and Iran flared on Thursday when the Iranian Revolutionary Guard shot down an American drone that was said to have flown into Iranian airspace (the US claims the drone flew over international territory). The drone was reportedly flying over the Strait of Hormuz – that critical chokepoint for the global oil trade – not far from where two oil tankers were recently attacked.”

Iran is supposedly a major state sponsor of terrorism. Open war with Iran would increase the risk of a major terror attack dramatically, imho.

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And remember all the posturing in Uganda that they were ready for Ebola, well equipped to deal with it? — they didn’t even have access to the vaccine for treatment and won’t for another two weeks according to this article… https://allafrica.com/stories/201906190375.html (although the article says they are vaccinating people, so they must have some vaccine for prophylaxis).

“If you use them, the number of those who survive increases compared to supportive treatment where they mainly use fluids and nutrition,” Prof Kaleebu stated.

Uganda has not registered any new confirmed Ebola case, but there are two people displaying Ebola symptoms who have been put under isolation at Bwera Ebola Treatment Unit.

“Currently, 92 contacts to the confirmed Ebola cases in Kagando and Bwera are being followed up daily,” the press statement issued on Tuesday states.

By Monday, a total of 128 contacts and non-vaccinated frontline and health officers had been vaccinated.”

This is a country where the health minister advised ‘if you have access to gloves, you should use gloves…’ Top men.

Swim meet today, last normal meet of the season. LONG day ahead of me. The competition has been very fast, so my kids are quite discouraged. Oh well, you can’t control the other guy, you can only control yourself.

And that’s a life lesson worth learning.

nick

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Mon. June 17, 2019 – back to work

68F and 99%RH this morning .  Gauge said 1.85 inches of rain before midnight, and it’s only been misty since.  Forecast is for more light rain, and higher temps by late afternoon.  No idea yet if our swim meet will go on.  The pool gets in poor condition with inches of rain and the grounds turn to a muddy mess.

Aesop at RaconteurReport is busy laying in some ground truths about the Ebola outbreak (and I’ve contributed a little bit.)  Today’s report out of Africa is it MAY have made a big leap in Uganda.

TL:DR is – if they don’t get a handle on it there (and they won’t), it will get to the west.  It’s likely to get here at some point, and if it breaks out here, it’s SHTF time.  Best defense is self-quarantine to avoid infection.  That means stocking up.

I’m gonna bring together some of Bob’s posts on getting started prepping into one place.  A lot of good info has disappeared when some other good sites sold out.  A new page here with good links and Bob’s advice should be helpful.

Kids are sleeping in, but wife still needs breakfast, so I’m off…

 

n

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Thur. June 13, 2019 – Friday the 13th comes on Thursday this month

71F and 92%RH.  Yesterday was absolutely gorgeous in the afternoon.  Sure it was hot, but not boiling in the shade and I was driving with the windows open.  FEMA has us forecast as on the edge of a storm system, openweathermap has us sunny and clear.  My money is with openweathermap.

Aesop posted about Ebola getting out of DRC, and I put some links and additional info in the comments.  Particularly interesting is this pdf which details the FedGov plan for dealing with Ebola.

Basically, have frontline healthcare rapidly identify a potential case and isolate.  Transfer to a hospital that can treat them while waiting for confirmation.  Then transfer to a hospital for care.  Backed up by 10 regional Ebola Treatment Centers.  The pdf lists the hospitals tapped for that duty.  In Houston, it’s in Galveston.  Of course, the plan will likely fall apart with the first case.  It’s all well and good to say you’ll take patients when they are offering big money for training and upgrades, something else when your staff walks out the back door.

Note that the updates say the kid’s younger brother and grandmother have both since died.  The rest of the family group is sick too.  They were in the end stages shedding bodily fluids and virus like crazy.  There is ZERO chance they didn’t come in contact with anyone until they were admitted.  So expect some native Ugandan cases soon.  (and thank the rapacious drug companies for the vaccine, which might contain this new outbreak.

 

Elsewhere, things are proceeding with IRAN–

“2 Tankers Damaged After Torpedo Attack Near Strait Of Hormuz; Oil Soars”  

Accusations and denials to follow…

Getting sporty out there guys. Get ready to take care of yourself and your loved ones.  Everyone else is going to be too busy to care much about you and yours, if they’re not actively persecuting you.

n

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