Best 2020 Christmas Gifts

After the COVID Pandemic is the best time to introduce your loved ones to prepping; even those who resist or resent Prepping.  Now they will be open to having a few sensible preparations.... just don't say I told you so.

So here are a few Christmas Gifts that you can get them, because you care.

1. Masks to protect from airborne virus
2. Hand Sanitizer
3. Sanitary wipes
4. Disinfectants
5. Garden Seeds
6. and other items that were "limit 2" per shopper; especially those that are non-perishable or have long shelf lives.  
7. Last but not least:  Ammo
   

COVID-19 did not even make the top 10 list, so it could have been much worse.  Imagine a Pandemic Scenario where 10% of the global population dies instead of 0.01% like on COVID-19.  It is believed that Small Pox wiped out at least 50% of the Native American Population and possibly as much as 90%.  Imagine 9 out of 10 people you know dying..... It could be MUCH worse next time, especially in large cities.

For more information visit our related links below: 

Blog Table of Contents
Prepper Gift List
Pandemic Posts 

Fabricated Coin Shortage

Its the year of COVID-19, a deadly virus imported from China (like most goods we buy), and there is reportedly a "Coin Shortage."

Are you hoarding coins?  Do you know anyone who is hoarding coins?  Then why are businesses requiring we use a credit card, or have exact change, under the guise of a "Coin Shortage?"  There is clearly something they are not telling us. 

 

The Washington Post, one of many extreme Left leaning Propaganda machines for the Globalist Democrats says the following: 

Americans don’t have to look far to see the damage wrought by the pandemic and recession. Car cup holders, sofa cushions, piggy banks and maybe even wallets laden with pocket change are fueling the nation’s great coin debacle.

Is your car cup holder, or sofa cushions suddenly full of coins like never before?  This is because it is a HOAX, with a hidden agenda, controlled by the very richest Globalist, who seek to transform America into their possession.  They already control our foreign owned Media and Democrat Politicans like puppets, and now want to eliminate cash, so they can monitor every financial transaction we do.

Our only recourse will be to Barter with others, but then selling food with out a government license or USDA inspection, is illegal (in most cases), so they can control our food supply (and us) in the name of consumer safety, despite the fact that all the contaminated foods are coming from commercial producers that already comply with these requirements.

 After 20+ years of Americans spending a Billion dollars per day more on foreign goods) like oil from the Middle East and electronics and toys from China) than we sell, these foreigners, rich with US dollars have bought and own over 60% of our country.  

They have a huge vested interest in how our country is ran as they seek to control it through their biased media and businesses who mislead Americans while also donating massive sums of money to Democrats, who want open borders, to Take our Guns, de-fund our police, and eliminate Tariffs, that didn't destroy the US economy like they said it would, but rather boosted to to higher levels than ever before.  

Absolute Free Trade is not fair to US Businesses and is NOT healthy for America.  China, our biggest threat (not Russia) has been cheating Americans with our governments blessing for years, and taking our jobs.  How many things do you buy that say "Made in Russia?"

IF this Coin Shortage does not make you suspicious, then nothing will.  Don't get me wrong, there IS a coin shortage, but it is not because of you or I are hoarding them, but someone else is hoarding a lot of them for some strange reason.

For additional Prepper information, see our:
 
Blog Table of Contents
Free Trade vs Duties 
US Poverty from a global perspective 

Lessons Learned: Pandemic

After the Coronavirus or COVID-19 "Pandemic" there should be some "Lessons Learned".

First, lets put the COVID Pandemic in perspective.  Approximately the same number of people died from COVID, as from the CDC tracked Influenza & Pneumonia deaths that occur each year.

So it is safe to say that as far as a Pandemic, SHTF Scenario, or Apocalypse is concerned, this one was clearly on the "Easy Setting."  Yet there were empty shelves, long lines at many stores, with shortages and rationing of:

1. Food
2. Toilet Paper
3. Masks to protect from airborne virus
4. Hand Sanitizer
5. Sanitary wipes
6. Disinfectants
7. Bottled Water
8. Garden Seeds
9. and much more that was limit 2 per shopper.

Did we over react? YES, in many ways we did, especially the Main Stream Media, misrepresenting the facts and driving fear.  They never put things in perspective, talking about things like the US has the most cases, but not telling you it was low on a per capita basis, and that we had done more testing than any other country, so naturally we found many cases.


While COVID was quite deadly, the early & decisive actions saved many lives.  Before you object, let me provide some numbers from the CDC. In the United States there are about 50,000 people die each week from all causes.  From the Common Flu, during the winter flu season, there are about 500 Americans die per week.  Two - Three weeks after imposing protective measures the COVID death rate peaked at over 10,000 per week after increasing sharply.  With out the quarantine measures, it would have been much higher.

In the US, a Travel Ban from China for non-citizens was imposed 10 days after the first US case was reported and a month before the first death.  Many thought this was premature (including me), but the China actual death rate (not what they report) was likely staggering according to many indicators: Crematoriums running 24-7, Urn sales and cell phone account closures soaring way above normal.

So what are our Lessons Learned?

1. Disaster can be upon us before we realize it.  There won't be much, if any warning, and even if there is, most won't recognize it, until it is too late.  Our Red Flag Warnings may help you recognize a potential disaster is coming, or already here, but if not prepared ahead, this early warning will only help you a little.
2. We must take responsibility for our own safety and well-being. We can NOT depend our our government to protect us from everything. The 2009 Swine Flu (H1N1)  killed as many as 575,000 globally but our governments were still not prepared with enough masks & respirators.
3. Advance preparations is essential. Disaster can come in many forms, but in this case it was a viral infection which is difficult to fight. Only with specific weapons (not guns), like N-95 Masks and sanitizers, along with good practices, can we fight it at all. Helpful habits include things like washing your hands with soap & hot water frequently, not touching your face, wearing a mask, along with social distancing, especially with new arrivals to our group. 
4. Security is important, and gun & ammo stores are likely to be shut down by the government as non-essential businesses.  Those that are open, are sold out, even at list price.  So IF you are ever going to want a handgun, or AR and plenty of ammo to protect your home and family, you better do it before you really need it & before it is too late.  Even if / when guns are banned someday, there is likely to be a grandfather clause, allowing exiting owners to keep them for a while, as long as they register them.  Many countries (like Australia) have been through this slow, gradual gun ban process that is achieved incrementally over many years.  Don't wait!  Act Now.  With out a gun, you will just be saving supplies for someone who has a gun, or a large gang big enough to take them. 
5. Mental health during quarantine or social distancing is important.  Having movies to watch, books to read, games to play, puzzles to work are good, especially if the on-line games & social networking are not working.  Having someplace to get out and walk or workout is important. 
6. In hind sight, we should have only quarantined people over 60 & others in the highest population density cities; but we didn't know that at the time, and the lack of upfront knowledge and the inherit unknown risk can be dangerous in many ways.  The lesson here is that the treatment (or actions taken), must not cause more damage than the problem.

So what do we need to have to be ready; next time may not be so easy.

1. First, look at our Beginners List, then add:
2. Food
3. Toilet Paper
4. Masks to protect from airborne virus
5. Hand Sanitizer
6. Sanitary wipes
7. Disinfectants
8. Bottled Water
9. Garden Seeds and a few garden tools 
10. Have plenty of ammo, and some good Prepper weapons, like a hand gun and an AR.

 Each of these Blue links above have a wealth of additional resources, and Knowledge is Free, so learn what you can by reading.

For more information:

Blog Table of Contents
Lessons Learned series
 
Introducing Prepping to Skeptics 

Pandemic
Prepper Sanitizer

Lessons Learned

Understanding Pandemics 
Pandemic Preparations

Preparing Skeptical Loved Ones
Scenario 1: Pandemic

Top Rated Prepper Handbook Posts of all time
List of Top 10 Lists
Top 10 Prepper Websites
Top 10 Posts
For additional information, visit these sites.

https://www.livescience.com/worst-epidemics-and-pandemics-in-history.html
https://www.healthline.com/health/worst-disease-outbreaks-history#3

Or click on a topic below for additional related articles.

Preparing Skeptical Loved Ones

How do you help loved ones who won't prepare for themselves?

Prepper Supplies

Try again. After the Coronavirus (COVID) Pandemic, they are more likely to listen to you now. 

In our Post:  Introducing Prepping to Skeptics, we laid out some good ideas that I'd like to expand on here based on recent events.

Check on these skeptical loved ones periodically during a minor crisis. Demonstrate tactfully how preparing has you ahead of the curve, by helping them a little, but don't make their life too easy or let them think they can always depend on you for everything.  Refuse to provide too much.  For example, provide a few rolls of toilet paper along with a few reusable wash rags.  When their toilet paper runs out, they will have to rough it a bit and use the wash rags.

After the crisis is over, send them a few more supplies, that they are more likely to appreciate now, where as before they may have resented it and thought you were an ignorant fool for prepping.  They don't think that now!  After a Pandemic scare for example, give them some Masks, Hand Sanitizer, Disinfectant wipes, and offer some suggestions on a few other inexpensive things they should consider buying and having handy like a gallon of Bleach.  After any event, you can send them a can or pail of dried beans & rice or other long shelf-life foods.

In the spring, give them a few packages of seeds and suggest they buy a good garden hoe and plant a few vegetables in their flower beds.  A Budget Garden is a good investment that can turn $2 worth of seeds into $200 worth of food.

In the fall, or at Christmas, give them a portable gas cook stove, with two propane bottles, and suggest that they buy a few more bottles.

You have their attention; now is your chance to convert them to being a Prepper.  Just don't go too fast, and back off if they push back.  Come bearing gifts, and its hard for them to get mad at you.

When they are ready, introduce them to our Beginner Prepper List post and help them develop a more comprehensive Prepper Plan that will allow them to advance one step at a time.

Good luck!

For more information:

Blog Table of Contents

Introducing Prepping to Skeptics 

Pandemic
Prepper Sanitizer

Top Rated Prepper Handbook Posts of all time 

List of Top 10 Lists 

Top 10 Prepper Websites 

Top 10 Posts
 
Or click on a label below for similar topics.

Scenario 1: Pandemic

Pandemics that kill a million or more people globally, historically have a 1% chance of occurring every year, but with increased globalization and travel, this is increasing sharply.

While 1% might seem to be a low probability, the severity is high and the cost to be prepared is low.  Most police officers never fire their gun in the line of duty, but still choose to wear a bullet proof vest for this very reason.  The chance of having your home burn down is 0.125% (pandemic risk is 8X), but we still pay a lot of money for insurance.  Why not give this some thought and invest a few hundred dollars for our Beginners List to be better prepared?

Through out history, mother nature has used disease to control Over Population of a species.  Don't wait until it is too late.

Questions:

1. How might it happen
2. What would you hope to have to be prepared
3. What steps should you take now
4. What steps should you take if it happened

 

Answers:

How might it happen?
With a majority of US medicines foreign made, it would be easy to introduce a slow acting toxin, or biological weapon grade viral infection in the US, possibly through a mandatory vaccine. which can carry risk. Such a virus would be highly contagious, highly fatal, have a long incubation time and be slow acting so a carrier could infect many others before they even knew they had it.  It might also target a specific ethnic or even political group like elderly conservative voters. The attacking country would likely have a vaccine that would protect their people, unless it accidentally escaped, and possibly sell the vaccine at high prices to the rest of the world.

What would you hope to have to be prepared?

From recent Pandemics, we know:

1. Hand Sanitizer, Chlorine Bleach, Disinfectant wipes, N95 Masks, and yes, even toilet paper were in very short supply, with long lines to get in to stores with empty shelves.
2. The highest population density cities were hit the hardest 

So we need certain supplies and a remote retreat we can stay at for long periods, with security against looters who may seek to steal our supplies in a dark period of history. 


What steps should you take now?

1. Start with our Beginner Prepper List and build from there. It has many links (blue text) to more details.
2. Understand the Rule of 3, and develop a  Step by Step Prepper Plan. to meet your needs.

What steps should you take if it happened?

1. Proactive steps from preparing ahead are always the best; again let the Rule of 3 guide you.
2. Know the RED Flag warnings, that it is time to get to a safe place.
3. Here is our SHTF Day One Plan.
4. If you will be stuck in the City visit these links:

Sustainable City Survival
Modern Home Security
Communications
Neighborhood Watch 

      5. If you will will be in the Country, visit these links:

Bug Out Warning
Country Home Security Plan
Random Security
Neighborhood Watch

     6. Last but not least, study and learn.  Knowledge is FREE, so read up.

The 2020 COVID virus scare was minor compared historical pandemics, yet worse than the Common Flu but as a possible biological weapon from China, the risk was high, and you can see what the results were.  Imagine if millions of Americans died, and critical workers like grocery store, health care and police were dying at alarming rates and then started staying at hope to protect their families.  We would be facing massive Riots and Looting with gangs going door to door robbing the supplies of the weak & unarmed. Only a strong group would have a good chance of withstanding the mass of starving hoards that were scavenging for food.

Don't wait to prepare, Start NOW.

For more information:

Blog Table of Contents
Top Rated Prepper Handbook Posts of all time 

List of Top 10 Lists 

Top 10 Prepper Websites 

Top 10 Posts
Pandemic
Prepper Sanitizer

Or click on a label below for similar topics.

Best Prepper Disinfectant

The best Prepper disinfectant is one that would works well, has a long shelf life, is affordable to stockpile and more importantly, can be made at home.

Hydrogen Peroxide (3%) is a great disinfectant, but has an unopened shelf life of 1-3 years.  But once you open the bottle, the peak effectiveness is just over 30 days, and about 6 months maximum useful activity.

Chlorine Bleach with approximately 6% of sodium hypochlorite (NaOCl) is a great disinfectant and good for treating water, but is only fully functional for 6 months, but becomes about 20% less effective as each year goes by.  Mixed with water at a 1:9 ratio (10% bleach) remains effective only for about 24 hours.

Last but not least is Alcohol.  Unopened, rubbing alcohol (isopropyl) has shelf life of 2-3 years. Note you can NOT drink this.

Distilled alcohol (ethanol), typically has a shelf life of 3 years, with pure ethanol lasting even longer and it also has 45 other uses,  AND, you can make drinking alcohol at home by distilling a fermented grain mash made from sugar, water and yeast.

It can also be used in food and pharma applications, like cooking additives or cough medicines.  Four ounces of whiskey, an ounce of soothing honey and two ounces of citrus juice (vitamin C) or Elder Berry juice, is a common home made "NyQuil" type of cold remedy, that soothes sore throats, disinfects & helps you sleep and heal.

This means that a 190 Proof drinking alcohol like Everclear, the Best Prepper Disinfectant.  Ideally, we should practice our Prepper skills, but we should be aware that there are laws that regulate this and insure we do not get arrested as moonshiners.

This would be especially good to remember during a Pandemic.
 

For more information:

Blog Table of Contents
Top Rated Prepper Handbook Posts of all time 

List of Top 10 Lists 

Top 10 Prepper Websites 

Top 10 Posts
Pandemic
Prepper Sanitizer
 

Understanding Pandemics

Understanding the numbers is important.  The first to know about is the R - nought (R0) which tells us how contagious it is.  Basically, it indicates how many other people an infected person is likely to infect.  Greater than 1 means the number of infected is likely to grow.

For example, the common Flu is around 1.3, the Coronavirus (COVID-19) based on early data is 1.4 to 3.9, which is likely inflated due to unreported mild cases.  The common Measles is 12-18.

Values of R0 of well-known infectious diseases
Disease	Transmission	R0
Measles	Airborne	12–18
Diphtheria	Saliva	6–7
Smallpox	Airborne droplet	5–7
Polio	Fecal–oral route	5–7
Rubella	Airborne droplet	5–7
Mumps	Airborne droplet	4–7
Pertussis	Airborne droplet	5.5
HIV/AIDS	Sexual contact	2–5
SARS	Airborne droplet	2–5
COVID-19 (early data)	Airborne droplet	1.4–3.9
Influenza	Airborne droplet	1.3–3
Ebola	Body fluids	1.5–2.5
MERS	Airborne droplet	0.3–0.8

Second, is the deaths per 100,000 people.  Because the number of deaths is generally a small, fraction of a percentage, they are measured on a 100,000 scale.


The CDC estimates that so far this season there have been at least 36 million flu illnesses, 370,000 hospitalizations and 22,000 deaths from flu: but possibly as many as 55,000, with a mid point of 38,500.  How does this compare to to the COVID-19?

 

Makes you wonder, why the panic over the Coronavirus (COVID-19).  The unknown risk from a new variety is a reason to be cautious, but it seems the irresponsible mainstream media is not reporting the whole story, i.e. comparing it against the common flu, to put it in perspective, which is causing unnecessary panic, with stores being overwhelmed and fights breaking out for supplies.  

ADVICE:  

Stock up on supplies ahead of time.  

This is why we are Preppers in the first place.

Visit our Blog often to learn how you can be better prepared.

 

For more information

Blog Table of Contents

Pandemic Preparations

Printable Materials for Promoting Good Health Habits: Flu.gov U.S Department of Health and Human Service American Red Cross Center for Disease Control and Prevention - Influenza/Flu WHO Pandemic preparedness

   http://www.ready.gov/pandemic

Recent updates on the flu can be found at:

https://www.cdc.gov/flu/weekly/index.htm
https://www.cdc.gov/flu/about/burden/preliminary-in-season-estimates.htm

Click on the topics below for more related information.