There are many who think we’ll be okay in two or three months. Wrong.

Two things to consider:

The fact we have no coordinated federal response to COVID-19 means it will ripple across the country. As New York City flattens its curve, the curve will be shooting upwards in places that are not social distancing right now and where the leaders refuse to take it seriously. We just had a governor claim “we’re not going to be like China” in refusing to not only take action, but trying to prevent local leaders from taking action.

The second factor is that pandemics come in waves like a tsunami. Tsunamis aren’t just a single wave. We’ll see COVID-19 rise up again and again until we have an effective, world-wide vaccine. That will take a while, although that is one bright spot I’m seeing. Several companies are already testing vaccines. However, depending on the type of vaccine, not only will the testing take a while (or else we end up wit I Am Legend), depending on which one it is, the manufacturing could be an issue.

While our globalism helped bring on this pandemic, it is also helping in finding the answers. Scientists around the world are sharing data on open sources. Yes, it’s not peer-reviewed and all that, but it’s data.

I’ve been mentioning long term planning for a while and now that I’m in week 3, it’s time to start talking about it. In The Green Beret Preparation and Survival Guide, I had a base line of preparation. The window for that is sort of past, as most of the items required are out of stock. However, there are two ways to plan now long range depending on outcome. I see two possibilities with the reality somewhere in between:

We get back to relative normal by the end of the year. Not likely. Not just of the virus but the economic ripple effect in the supply line.

Or. Things go totally to shit as the supply line crashes. You think the toilet paper battles were bad, wait until we get to the food wars.

So, I’m going to approach this with both in mind.

First, some things you can get now that I think you should have regardless of what plays out. These are basic survival items and in stock as of today.

Survival radio: RunningSnail Solar Crank NOAA Weather Radio for Emergency with AM/FM, Flashlight, Reading Lamp and 2000mAh Power Bank

First Aid Kit: (You do not want to end up in the emergency room or urgent care if you can help it right now).

M2 BASICS 300 Piece (40 Unique Items) First Aid Kit | Free First Aid Guide | Emergency Medical Supply | for Home, Office, Outdoors, Car, Survival, Workplace

While I said this was a rare disaster where water isn’t a priority, if you’re out anyway, grab at least two cases for each person in your household and store it some place dry and cool. You should have that all the time.

Preparation and Survival manuals. I’m a fan of four. My own, The Green Beret Preparation and Survival Guide, not just because it’s mine, but because I took a different approach than the others. I believe mine is the strongest in terms of preparation. Then the SAS Survival Handbook. What is in there that mine doesn’t have is a lot of pictures of things, especially plants. It also goes into more details in certain areas. Plus, I have a lot of respect for the SAS, after joint operations and given their history. And then, When Technology Fails. That one is for extreme scenarios but its also interesting in terms of studying and learning skills our forebears have. If you have children, My Side of the Mountain, is a fun book to read and teaches many basic survival tasks.

I have links to the first four on my nonfiction page if you click on this image or the one below it for My Side of the Mountain.

More to come, including recommendations about gardening and solar power.

PLEASE! Take this virus seriously.

The Green Beret Preparation and Survival Guide. Also now in Kindle Unlimited.

The Green Beret Pocket-Sized Survival Guide (same as above, minus the preparation part in order to be smaller in print)

Once more, the NY Times has dropped its paywall for information about COVID-19, Coronavirus. Click HERE to go to it. Also, The Economist has dropped its paywall for information about COVID-19 and it does a very good job drilling down on various aspects.