Guide to Surviving COVID 19. The Coronavirus (COVID 19) has spread like wildfire. Some countries are handling it well; some are not. If you are in the USA – I have some bad news for you. Your country is not. This isn’t a problem exclusive to the United States.
The United Kingdom, Australia, Italy, France have all been slow to respond. Unfortunately, this means things are going to get a whole lot worse before they get better. This has left many people wondering what they can do to protect themselves.
This means thinking long and hard about what you might need to buy to keep yourselves going for the next few weeks/months. There are more important things to buy than toilet paper! This article lists many such things that you might not have considered were important/useful. I can assure you that they are.
Guide to Surviving COVID 19
Why are People Mass Panicking?
There are always going to be diseases that make their way around the globe. We see them all the time. Ebola, Sars, and the Zika virus, just to name a few. So, what makes Corvid 19 different? Its ability to spread quickly and quietly.
People who have the Coronvarius may not get symptoms for up to a week; some may not get any at all. Regardless, they are still highly contagious. The cold weather doesn’t kill the virus. The hot weather doesn’t kill the virus.
This means the virus can live in its host quite comfortably, regardless of its environment. Testing is hard. Typically, testing for a fever is enough to determine if someone is sick. If they have a fever, they are contagious.
This is usually the case. However, with Corvid 19, these tests do very little. As mentioned above, someone may not show any symptoms at all. They might have a perfectly normal temperature, feel 100% fine, but have the capability of killing someone should the virus transfer to a new host.
That’s why social distancing is so important. We have no way of knowing precisely how many people are infected. The only safe course of action is to assume everyone is.
What are the chances of catching the virus?
The chances of catching the virus are unfortunately very high. The distinction that many people fail to make, however, is that getting the virus does not equal dying from the virus. We are constantly bombarded with two numbers.
Total infected and total deaths. What they neglect to include is the total recovered. Currently, the virus has a 1-3% mortality rate across the whole population. Why is this important? Because it shows just how few people will die from this. Currently, there have been fewer Coronavirus deaths than your average flu year.
The number will, of course, rise, but it is nothing to become hysteric about. In that 1-3% of people, many are already ill, and many are very old. If you are under 65 and otherwise healthy, your odds of seeing any symptoms at all, let alone dying, are tiny. Again, you should be as careful as possible. But you don’t need to panic.
What to buy for survival?
When you are deciding what to buy for survival, some items jump off the shelves at you. Some items of obvious importance can disappear entirely in a matter of days once the panic sets in. Just think about how difficult it has been to find toilet paper recently. Toilet paper is essential. Sure. But you will struggle to live very long if that’s all you have to eat. Here are some of the items you may not have considered are essential, but are:
The obvious ones:
The following items are essential for hygienic purposes. Stopping the spread of germs and bacteria is one of the best ways to combat viruses like this. Here are the obvious items you will need to buy:
Toilet paper Soap Hand Sanitizer Babywipes Disinfectant Soup Beans Corn Tuna Fish Pasta Sauces Canned fruit.
What should I buy when the shelves are empty?
Here is where it gets tricky. When the shelves are bare, the stores aren’t getting new shipments in, and you are struggling for supplies – what do you buy? Well, here are some ideas:
Bed sheets can double as bandages in a pinch. They can be cut up and used as compression bandages very easily. Bleach, along with these sheets, can be used as a disinfectant in emergencies. Very few people will buy bleach and bed sheets when there are proper medical supplies available. So there are usually lots available.
Clothing and fabrics. The US does not produce many of its clothes. They are typically shipped over from the east, primarily Asia. What this means is that when the borders close, new clothes are going to be hard to come by—picking up some new shirts and pants now before the price increase is a good idea.
Bicarbonate of soda is another great product that few people think of. Bicarbonate of soda can sustain you when there is very little food left. It can also double as a cleaning supply. Bicarbonate boiled in a dirty pan will clean the pan, bicarbonate, and warm water can be used as it clean kitchen surfaces too.
Sustainability
Lastly, you also want to consider sustainability. Foods that you can make yourself with very basic ingredients. This can be done to supplement your meals or as your last resort in very dire situations.
There are many different foods you should buy, pasta, rice, those kinds of basics. The food you should plan to make yourself, or instead bake, is bread. Bread is straightforward to make. You only need flour, water, salt, and yeast.
You don’t need oil, or sugar, or anything else you might read about online if you mix a tablespoon of yeast in 6 cups of water—a teaspoon of salt in 12 cups of flour. Wait for 15 minutes, then combine.
You have basic bread dough. Flour can be bought very cheaply, it lasts for ages, and is easy to work with. What makes bread taste good is the salt. Merely learning to adjust the levels of salt (and any other herbs you might feel like adding) can drastically improve the quality of your bread.
Check out basic bread dough recipes online for yourself and give it a go. It couldn’t be easier. Hopefully, you now have a pretty good idea about what kind of items, especially food items, that you might want to buy in anticipation of an extended quarantine and food shortages.
