Your Strategy & Tactics for Surviving this SHTF Movie?

[bruss01]

ABC TV is airing a drama based on what some experts think an Avian Influenza pandemic may look like.

The made-for-TV movie “Fatal Contact” will air on Tuesday May 9th on ABC (tonight). It depicts a convergence of worst-case-scenario circumstances which could plausibly result from a nationwide pandemic similar to the 1918 influenza in severity. This follows on the heels of several mainstream media documentaries, including NBC’s Dateline, which have addressed the topic.

The US Dept. of Health and Human Services has produced a “Viewer’s Guide” to this film. While they differ on some points, many of the scenarios and circumstances depicted in the film are being described as possible, plausible and credible. The HHS Viewer’s Guide mentions the plans that are being put in place to cover such contingencies, should they arise. They are stressing the need for local and individual response and preparation, cautioning that Federal response is expected to be minimal.

http://www.pandemicflu.gov/news/birdfluinamerica.html#guide

 

[bruss01]

This movie is going to connect the dots for a lot of people who have been only peripherally aware of the developing situation. The talk-shows and documentaries have been placing the dots in front of people.The average American, who has the attention span of a gnat these days, is quickly bored with a simple dispensing of fact1, fact2, fact3. It is the exceptional person these days, I believe, who is capable of connecting these facts into a pattern and following them through to the logical conclusion4. I think we will see a lot more people envisioning the scenarios that have been blatantly obvious to the preparedness-minded community for months (or years) now. There will be a mixed chorus of jaw-dropping mixed with scoffing. For some people, denial is the only mechanism they have capable of responding to this input. For others, it will be a true eye-opener. How will they react?

Will this movie have any effect on the consciousness of the American public regarding potential pandemics and their consequences? Will there be a run on basic supplies, generators, firearms and ammo? Will shortages of some things occur? Will prices skyrocket? That remains to be seen. What will YOU do, and how will people you know likely respond?

 

[MGK]

I haven't move to the fortress of solitude yet with it's ten year supply of rations and ammo. I am watching what happens and see what makes sense to do. Practical and useful advice is always worth considering. Staying aware.

 

[Hardware]

When H5N1 mutates into a human to human communicable form, then and only then will the SHTF. In the meantime, reasonable precautions should be sufficient.

 

[Cosmoline]

There is no bird flu now. There's a BIRD'S flu that sometimes crosses over to people who are very very close to the infected birds. And so far there are no infected birds in the US. So unless you're around a lot of poutry it's not a big threat. The problem will only arise if the flu mutates into a new human flu with a human-to-human vector. Who knows if that will actually happen.

As far as the next flu pandemic, basic precautions are still tbe best. That means washing hands and keeping food sources infection free. If it actually hits the fan, avoiding all restaurants and theaters for awhile is also a good idea.

 

[Frohickey]

12gauge and lots and lots of bird shot.

 

[mongo]

Sad to say Warrior14, but sometimes they suggest that perhaps we should have them confiscated! ala New Orleans/Katrina. I guess they forgot all about that little ol' second ammendment.

 

[BerettaNut92]

I ate lots of McNuggets today.

Good thing they aren't real chicken.

 

[Biker]

In truth, it appears that a whole lot o' fear is being sold daily. Gotta wonder why and who will reap the benefits.
Don't even need my tin foil hat for this one.
Biker

 

[444]

I work full time as a paramedic.

About halfway through this movie, people will begin calling 911 because they are convinced they have the flu now. The power of suggestion will be working it's magic. Because of personal injury lawyers, these people will be transported to the Emergency Room (can't just tell them they are OK and are just upset). The ERs will be overrun, they will have every bed filled with beds lined up in the hallways. Every bed they can produce will be filled. At this point, ambulances will no longer be able to off load their patients. So, those paramedics will have to stand in the hallway waiting on a bed. They can't just drop off the patient or leave them on the gurney unattended because of personal injury lawyers (they might fall out of bed, they might..........whatever). This means that those paramedic ambulances are effectively out of service. The hospital staff obviously will not be able to maintain any kind of reasonable ratio of health care providers to patients (and if anything happens as a result, they will be sued). When critical patients are brought in, there will be no where to put them. Critical trauma patients and cardiac arrest patients will be worked on ambulance gurneys in the hallways using the paramedic's equipment (and if anything negative happens as a result, they will be sued). The paramedics waiting on beds will bring their gear into the hospital just in case this senario plays out and they need their gear because the hospital staff is overwhelmed. Portable oxygen tanks will run out of oxygen in 15 or 20 minutes of waiting (and if anything negative happens because of it, they will be sued). The hospital will have some bigger, portable tanks but only a couple. When other people call 911, response will be delayed. Fire Department communication channels will be filled with requests for ETAs on transporting ambulances. If they have transport capability, they will load the patient onto the fire department rig and transport themselves: and they will then be waiting in the hospital hallway with a patient on their gurney. They can't leave the patient unattended either because of personal injury lawyers. The ones that continue to wait on scene for a transporting unit can't clear those calls until the ambulance gets there because of personal injury lawyers. So, when people call 911 both the private ambulances and the fire department paramedic units will be tied up on other calls. If it ever gets to the point that there are no paramedic units to send on calls because they are all tied up on calls already, the lawyers will have a field day suing because no one responded at all.
Now imagine if they really had the flu.

This is NOT, in any way, shape or form an attempt at humor. This is my honest accessment of what is going to happen based on over 20 years of experience in the field as a full time paramedic in a high call volume city. Similar events have happend many times in the past: many times a year (starting with every holiday). This is not fantasy.

 

[Professor Gun]

I think this has been pumped up tremendously by people in the media who have minimal to no understanding of really basic biology because it is a way for them to stay on the air.

I am not worried about bird flu; I am not a bird and I do not live with a bunch of chickens in my house as is the case in the areas where the virus has succeeded in infecting humans.

 

[444]

You should be worried about it because you having the flu is only one small aspect of the problem.

 

[sm]

-I do not personally own a TV.

-Last "movie" I watched was in a IT class dealing with TCP/IP - off a internet connection.

-Last "video clip" I viewed was again via internet connection, "self defense" theme.

-Last Movie I actually attended at a Theater - Collateral

-I would like to view some "movies" I have on VHS, tape, only problem them suckers do not go into a CD/DVD player worth a flip. I have a laptop...and anyone else I know has only CD and DVD players...

Picking fly poop out of pepper - at least you know you have fly poop and pepper, with TeeVee movies, you really do not know what you have, and what is truth, propaganda, indoctrination or anything else...

I have better things to do with my time, so my Strategy & Tactics : Ain't gonna watch it.

I like simple.

Steve

ps.

Growing up we had Civil Defense Drills and CD places to go - even booklets and movies. I mean we had the Barrels and boxes of supplies in my grade school on site. At /in basements of downtown stores and you name it....

Then again back then folks were self reliant, had all the stuff most anyways...we didn't have .gov meddlin like we do today, no 911, no nothing.

Well...we did have common sense...

I survived a flood in '78, no gubmint nowhere. Survived fires, tornados too...worked in a main OR and used all Protocols...okay so I did triple glove when a MRSA patient was in a room, had on a "spacesuit" too...and I was just observing! ( should have seen me scrub after...before was one thing, after...I scrubbed but good!

They do a movie on common sense someone email me...I 'might' venture out and find a TV to view this if they do...

...maybe...

s

 

[beerslurpy]

If it mutates to a human transmissible form, killing birds wont matter.

Right now the main risk is that if several billion birds become infected, at least one of them will produce a human transmissible form of the virus and give it to a person. That person will then go on to infect (directly or indirectly) nearly the entire human race. Right now we are massacring birds to hurt the virus by denying it hosts. Once it jumps, there will be no point because you cant massively cull humans to prevent the spread of disease. It isnt socially acceptable.

Once humans become infected, the virus will probably circle the globe within days. If incubation time is long (2+ weeks?), nearly everyone will be incubating before the first people begin to die. In such a scenario, it will already be too late to head for the hills. A more likely scenario is that there will be carriers who dont get sick but can infect others for a while. There will be warning time, but not much.

The good thing is that a virus that kills its hosts will burn out relatively quickly or end up mutating into a non-deadly form that grants immunity to the deadly form. This happened in 1918, where the virus eventually became relatively inert. You got really sick with the flu, but you didnt die of pulmonary hemmoraging. You became immune to the original virus and since you didnt die, you got to spread the non-deadly version further than the people that keeleed over from the original. So this isnt likely to be an extinction level event. But it could have noticeable social consequences if enough people die.

 

[psyopspec]

After a minute of this, I'd had enough. My plan: Brush up on my thesipian skills. It seems that only bad actors are immune to this thing.

 

[caliber729]

The 1918 Influenza was all to real. Ignoring or denying the possibility of another outbreak will not make it go away. Just think how modern air travel will speed up the spread of the this nasty virus. Your guess is as good as any for how this could play if the H5N1 mutates to a human killer form.

After experiencing just a couple of days of the August 2003 blackout, I can say that most people are very unprepared for even the slightest hiccup in our just-in-time society. Most people don't prepare for their next meal let alone prepare for a months worth of meals.

I agree with beersupply, once the public becomes aware that an outbreak has occurred, running for the hills will not be an option. The gov't will probably impose serious travel restrictions and even quarantines.

Once the unprepared start to run out of food and water, watch out.

However, it is still only a possibility, just a boogie-man-virus for now. Best to prepare for it like a natural disaster just like the experts and the gov't keep saying. Staying put, and avoiding social situations should be the rule.

 

[Manedwolf]

Wow, what a dumb movie.

Yeah, I want to SEE some soldiers just back from Iraq yell "hands up!" and not fire AFTER a gang plows a semi into their convoy...to wait till they're fired on and not even find cover. And, of course, single hits with a .223 makes each BG fall to the ground instantly dead.

Gah. Hollywood...

 

[mr.trooper]

I like birds! And ABC is a dumb network. I should sue them for slandering birds!

 

[Kamicosmos]

Vincent Vega: "I don't watch TV."
Jules Whitburn: "Yeah, but you're aware of the invention called television, and on this invention, they show shows?"


IOW, I don't watch TV, so I didn't see this 'movie'. As far as what am I doing to prepare for Teh Dreaded OMG Burd Flew?

Nothing that I don't normally prepare for when it comes to a possible 'stuck in my house' situation. Which, sadly, ain't much.

 

[CAS700850]

All of this "bird flu" concern is frankly amusig to watch, because suddenly it is popular to talk about "what if". This type of risk has been in existence for decades. Probably more like centuries, though not quite on the same global scale, due to ease and speed to travel. Think about this, what if Ebola became an aerial transmittable disease. Talk about a pandemic! Clancy used this as a plot in Rainbow Six. Scary stuff. As for me, I didn't watch the movie, I played with my kids until bedtime, then did some gun cleaning. How am I preparing for the Bird Flu? Well, we're city people with no birds as pets (wife hates birds, unless properly cooked with some white wine and garlic, or some other yummy way). Poultry always gets cooked well, which is supposed to kill off any virus. Stocked up on food and ammo (wait, I already did that on a normal basis). Other than that, I guess I'll just live my life day by day, and take my chances...

 

[armoredman]

.

 

[BigO01]

.

 

[Biker]

Biker

 

[hso]

The issue is less the disease than the collapse of the supply chain. They made this point several times from the opening comment about "Just In Time" supply/shipping issues to the grocery store runs to the death of the VA Govenor's son not having enough insuline.

Masking, gloving, hand/face sanitizing would go a long way to prevent contracting/spreading any bug, but when the food doesn't get shipped because the power's out to run gas stations that are out of gas because it couldn't get piped to distribution points because enough operators are sick or staying home everyone's impacted whether sick or not.

Most people don't think that keeping a supply of essential foods and medicines on hand to last several weeks is something that can be done, but the emergency food supplies don't have to be tasty, just cheap and sufficiently nutritious.

 

[Jeff White]

Since the members are unable to follow a couple simple rules and several of you seem determined to drag this forum down to the level of discourse that is in Legal and Political, SHTF threads will be closed on sight.

Apparently the moratorium wasn't long enough for many people to get the idea.

Jeff