September 25: Why you Need to Prepare for the Next COVID-19 Outbreak Now

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A wave kicked up by a storm
A wave kicked up by a storm.

The U.S. hit 7 million cases of COVID-19 on Thursday, according to the New York Times.  I am afraid that this will only be the tip of the iceberg.

I predict that we will see a significant increase in COVID-19 cases this fall and winter.  Many large cities will shut down again.  Offices that have re-opened will send people back home.  More businesses will fail.  More people will be depressed and angry. 

This is not just an opinion, but is based on research, on observations of trends in other countries, and other viruses.  Cases are rising in Europe and Chinese-style lockdowns are still the most popular response. Yesterday was set a new global record for 361,390 reported cases of COVID-19.

During the first wave, COVID-19 was a novel virus.  Well, the novelty has worn off.  That’s good news because it means that while case numbers may be higher, deaths won’t be.  Certainly they won’t be higher as a percentage of cases, but they may not be higher in total numbers, simply because we’ve learned a great deal about treatment. 

Check out the chart in this tweet to see that COVID-19 isn’t as deadly as we have been lead to believe.

How to Prepare for the Next Wave

Just as doctors have learned from the first wave, so have I.  I have dark chocolate and Pepperidge Farm goldfish pretzels and cookies sealed away so that I can fulfill my wife and my cravings without leaving the house.  (One of our lessons learned was that we needed more fun foods.) We have plenty of flour and yeast.  Our frozen food stock is low, but that’ on purpose as we don’t want to move frozen food.  We have rebuilt our stock of paper towels and our supply of toilet paper never dwindled to a point where we worried.

Beyond that, we’re prepared to leave or exurb dwelling and relocate to the mountains, assuming that he have not yet moved there full time.

So are you ready?  Are you prepared for another panic at the grocery store?  Have you stock, or re-stocked, your shelves?  Did you learn from the first outbreak?

Put those lessons to work.  If you need for food and paper products, buy them.  If you wished for faster Internet speed, sign up now.  Did you want a pet during lockdown? Visit a shelter and get one new.  If you need hand sanitizer and masks, stock up now while they are readily available.  Get OTC medicines and refills on your prescriptions.  Schedule your doctor, dentist, hair stylist and other appointments before they get shut down again.

2 COMMENTS

  1. Good Points. I’ve been stocking up on Yeast. Now need to get flour, corn beef hash, and pasta sauce. Some other noodles. We do lots of soups. I picked up Dry beans for soup..
    I’m thinking we’ll have bad winter weather in Treasure Valley this year.
    You have any suggestions on storing eggs?

    • Hi Nancy, the best method I am familiar with for storing eggs is water glassing them. We haven’t covered that topic here, but Google “water glassing eggs” and you should see a number of instructional articles and videos on the topic.

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