The vast majority of people believe they cannot afford to set aside emergency supplies, thus they hope the pandemic never comes or that the government will step in and meet all their needs, at no expense to them, if it does. Before we can ever hope to get community plans in place, before any of the other grand schemes can occur, we have to get all people to be properly prepared to isolate themselves for 3 to 4 weeks. If this does not happen, the rest is complete chaos. In line with that thinking, I have come up with a “Budget Pandemic Preparedness Plan”, a bare bones survival list which would keep people hydrated and fed for 30 days at an affordable price. (about $225 for an individual, about $540 for a family of four.) This is do-able for most families, especially if they set it aside in increments, like 1/4 of the supplies each week for a month. Perhaps once they start, they will be inspired to continue adding to the supplies to make it a little more complete and comfortable. But even without additions, it would do. You can find this list on my website on the services page, under “budget pandemic.” Go to www.freeoriginalbooks.com.
I also wrote letters encouraging FEMA to distribute emergency supply cards, sort of like food stamp cards, to low income families. These could be used to buy emergency supplies such as those on my list, and would be activated by the government for use only when WHO raised the pandemic alert level to a 5 or 6, still giving these families a window of opportunity to prepare before the flu hit. If you think that is a good idea, please write FEMA and other congressional representatives to support this plan.
“when WHO raised the pandemic alert level to a 5 or 6, still giving these families a window of opportunity to prepare”
Don’t bet lives on that happening! We might never get official notice, until after pandemic is here already, and, Dr. Nabarro said phase 4/5/6 could happen very rapidly.
(Do such emergency stockpiles even exist?) But yes, telling the public pandemic is a real threat and they cannot expect any federal or state or local aid might convince some to budget for essentials.
The public could have been told this 12 months ago, when the WHO and US pandemic websites went up, if there had been political will to do so.
Good job Mary - your chart shows that it is not so hard to do basic preps and it is affordable.
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