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For those who call themselves "preppers"
Have you watched the movie "Outbreak"? How do you prepare for such event?

In nutshell, it is the story of the out-of-control and lose secretly developed biological agent that 100% kills in 48 hrs after symptoms and it is air born and highly contagious

Containment strategies as implied in the movie:
Isolation of the sick, burning bodies, etc.
Forced Curfew and isolation of the rest of the population.
Cities are under 100% siege, no one leaves the infected area.

And the final solution, a "Clean Sweep" i.e. nuking the center of the disease.

Maybe movie is an extreme version of the reality but nothing is normal when dealing with nasty bugs.

The bad news: Such contagions actually exist outside of the realm of Hollywood.

The good news: They generally kill too fast to pose much of a threat on a national or global scale.

The Ebola virus comes to mind.

50-89% fatality rate anywhere from 2-21 days after being infected. The virus was first "discovered" in Zaire, with another strain showing up in the Sudan, and in 89', in RESTON, VIRGINIA!!! Not cool. Not cool at all.

The Reston strain, unlike Ebola Zaire and Ebola Sudan, mutated, and became an effective airborne virus, which could have had a serious impact here in the states if not for the fact that the mutation made it non-fatal to humans. The Reston strain was identified at a lab that housed primates, and it was later discovered that while the primates became infected and died, the humans working at the lab DID become infected, but experienced little more than flu like symptoms.

There's a very interesting book on the subject called "The Hot Zone", by Richard Preston, that tells about the first discovery of Ebola, and the events surrounding the Reston outbreak in 89'. Good book, but it WILL give you the "willies".

The first chapter of the "Hot Zone" made a friend faint. It is pretty intense.

New movie "Contagion" coming out, seems much more realistic than "Outbreak". "Outbreak" had a magic serum that made it all better, sorry in the real world it doesn't exist.

Only way you can survive is to quarantine yourself and your family, but you have to do it early enough, so that one of you has not been exposed.
Then of course you can't let anyone new in. That may get tough as it could be a friend, relative, etc.

You would have to stay long enough for the virus to have burned it self out. Ebola is such an effective killer it burns out to fast. If it was just a little slower at killing we probably would all be gone by now.

I just finished a novel called "White Plague". It's an atypical apocalyptic story.
Highly recommended

Rex B wrote:I just finished a novel called "White Plague". It's an atypical apocalyptic story.
Highly recommended

Frank Herbert -- same guy that wrote all those Dune stories. The White Plague was a rather interesting story, although the vector was pretty improbable.

philip964 wrote:Only way you can survive is to quarantine yourself and your family, but you have to do it early enough, so that one of you has not been exposed.

QFT

The other scenario that more or less as tough would be a nuclear fallout that would force everyone indoors for long period of time.
In the outbreak scenario, most likely no one will come to the rescue or provide a "treatment" because of none would be available or not enough to be passed around.

For come of the "preppers", one of the novels to read is "One Second After". It is a TEOTHWAWKI scenario. I'm about 1/2 way through it.

chasfm11 wrote:For come of the "preppers", one of the novels to read is "One Second After". It is a TEOTHWAWKI scenario. I'm about 1/2 way through it.

That's the EMP story?

Rex B wrote:

chasfm11 wrote:For come of the "preppers", one of the novels to read is "One Second After". It is a TEOTHWAWKI scenario. I'm about 1/2 way through it.

That's the EMP story?

I was trying not to give away the story because the novel part of it is pretty good, at least by my standards. I'm halfway through it and the cause information has not yet been fully disclosed. The important part of it that a small town is suddenly faced with a massive problem and it is how the individuals in the story deal with it that is interesting.

chasfm11 wrote:

Rex B wrote:

chasfm11 wrote:For come of the "preppers", one of the novels to read is "One Second After". It is a TEOTHWAWKI scenario. I'm about 1/2 way through it.

That's the EMP story?

I was trying not to give away the story because the novel part of it is pretty good, at least by my standards. I'm halfway through it and the cause information has not yet been fully disclosed. The important part of it that a small town is suddenly faced with a massive problem and it is how the individuals in the story deal with it that is interesting.

They talk about an EMP in the prologue so I'm not sure you're giving much away...I just downloaded the eBook tonight.

In regards to the EMP story, which I went and read a synopsis of, I assure you that the outcome would probably be very bad for other nations as well. Just remember that the folks in the subs are very likely shielded from EMP...as well as the silos, to the best of my knowledge (but I do not claim to be an expert in this area). If we have a bad "day" due to something like this, lots of others are going to have a very bad day, as well. It doesn't make you feel any better, per se. BUT if I had to guess, its why no one has tried it yet. MAD, indeed, but we'd be crazier to do without it...

Heartland Patriot wrote:In regards to the EMP story, which I went and read a synopsis of, I assure you that the outcome would probably be very bad for other nations as well. Just remember that the folks in the subs are very likely shielded from EMP...as well as the silos, to the best of my knowledge (but I do not claim to be an expert in this area). If we have a bad "day" due to something like this, lots of others are going to have a very bad day, as well. It doesn't make you feel any better, per se. BUT if I had to guess, its why no one has tried it yet. MAD, indeed, but we'd be crazier to do without it...

In MAD and Total war, who are the lucky ones, those die after the flash-bang, or those who try to survive the nuclear winter?

Beiruty wrote:

Heartland Patriot wrote:In regards to the EMP story, which I went and read a synopsis of, I assure you that the outcome would probably be very bad for other nations as well. Just remember that the folks in the subs are very likely shielded from EMP...as well as the silos, to the best of my knowledge (but I do not claim to be an expert in this area). If we have a bad "day" due to something like this, lots of others are going to have a very bad day, as well. It doesn't make you feel any better, per se. BUT if I had to guess, its why no one has tried it yet. MAD, indeed, but we'd be crazier to do without it...

In MAD and Total war, who are the lucky ones, those die after the flash-bang, or those who try to survive the nuclear winter?

There is some of that conundrum in "A Second After". Like situations that are presented on this forum where others used or didn't use guns in specific situations, an event of far reaching consequences can suddenly bring a different way of thinking. It certainly is a way to bring new focus on values or the lack of them.

I guess my point was lost in what I tried to say. What I was getting at is, though you cannot account for all situations, the bad guys generally look for opportunities where they can get away with causing trouble without having trouble themselves. Bad guys prefer unarmed victims, no matter if it is common thugs or some other nation...