So what do you think of the covid 19 right now ! And what do you think life will look like in twelve months time ? What do you see ahead that you feel you will have to address and prepare for because of covid 19 ...if it’s made any difference .....given it’s a global pandemic .
Beginning to burn out.
However SW england showing R number back up to 1 again which is worrying.
The biggest problem is no one knows whats going to happen.
best guess
An upsurge in October/November --- second wave worse than the first
Possible third wave in March 2021
In the context of which I am active, there is pressure to re-open
but my own feeling is -not yet-
task at hand is to stock take of items used in the last few months and restock
RS
Shortage of fresh Veg, coming soon, well to the shops, now that will cause a panic, unemployment at 10M and no money left for bail-outs or Furlough, Taxes will rocket, I can see the Great British Public rioting when Sky turn off the TV's because people haven't paid the subscription, when they can no longer afford to get a takeaway or buy Beer because the banks have cancelled all the credit cards.
We will have another lockdown by August and the Army will enforce it next time.
We ain't seen nuthin yet!
Has the bog roll crisis eased?
Just a thought, but over here we were sitting at around 60k deaths from regular flu during the 2019/2020 season before CV made its appearance, which means we were on track for 100k deaths from regular flu in the U.S. this year up to this present point.
Did the regular flu mortality numbers just get absorbed into the CV numbers?
We cringe at the thought of continued deaths due to CV but flu deaths are a standard mode of death for elderly people and infants world wide and we have become used to the toll.
Once this "crisis" wave is over do we just absorb the CV impact as a normal means of mortality?
Do we go into "lockdown" each year when the death toll, or infection toll, world wide hit "pandemic" status. "Pandemic being a very loosely defined term. In 2009 20% of the world population contracted H1N1. Now that is a pandemic, and the world did not stop turning as it did this year.
If we lose 100k in the U.S. to regular flu, and 50% of the people still refuse to take flu shots, would they line up for a vaccine for CV.
We can not even get all the food service workers to wear masks when preparing and serving food, they are not sick right at this very moment so there is no crisis in their minds.
I went through the "drive through" yesterday and the person bagging the food was wearing their mask under their chin!
After all this hype, agony, inconvenience and loss of income and we still can not convince a dufus, with an IQ the same as the eyelets for his shoe laces, that they need to wear a mask.
I would not disagree with anything you say MB , the response to corona virus appears to be way over the top when you consider the numbers set against other ( standard annual deaths ...flu , pneumonia etc ) who knows where the numbers will actually end up .....thing is ,it’s got most scarred shitless , small businesses will never recover along with normal everyday people about to lose their jobs , then their homes ....in fact everything they have .
The majority do not seem to understand what is taking place right in front of them or they look at the right now which is enough for them to focus on....fair enough ! Why dwell on contemplate on the shit yet to come ( even when it’s taking place in front of you right now ! ) I see no point in adding to RS and Harryhotspurs posts they reflect my views exactly with one exception 2021 will be the grand finally , where we all get shit on from a very great height .....bail in central ! , from a prepping perspective stock up more food ...right now......food shortages are here and about to get far worse plus the prices will go up big time before years end.....act now! You will see for yourselves by October / November if not before......as for a second spike of covid 19 ( it has to happen ) for Full control to take place ......it’s been baked into the plan ! From the very conception ......time will tell ! ......btw grow your own food ..........how many more times ? .
I agree with you SS but there is a problem with the "grow your own food" rationale.
I was just reading the other day that 83% of Great Britain lives in a flat or in a development with 14 houses to the acre.
That means that at the very best only 17% of the population has a hope of growing more than a tomato in a pot on the window still.
Part of that 17% probably has only a 5 meter square, paved back garden.
When people speak of GB only growing 30%-40% of the food needed to maintain the population they are actually saying that only 3%-5% of the population is raising that food.
95% of your population do not know how to poke a seed into the ground, and they have no ground to poke!
Even the people on this forum have only limited access to food growing space, thought they know they need to be planting, there is nowhere to plant.
It is much the same over here with only 2% of the population being full time farmers. The real danger being that the population is not made up of first generation urban dwellers. Our populations are now 2,3 or 4 generations removed from the land with no connection, knowledge or expectation of what to do with a crop.
How many of the present and last generations ever heard their parents talking about what they did while growing up on the farm. They ate their dinner while watching the liberal commentators on TV push the established social agenda, not talking about what work needed done the next day in the fields and why, or what needed to be "put up" for the coming winter for both humans and animals.
The only hope that I can see is to stockpile non-perishables now for next winter. Not having enough space is no longer an excuse.
We old time preppers here in the U.S. have a saying, "stack it high and stack it deep".
Move the furniture around or move it out if you have too, just make enough room for a can of beans a day for the next 365 days and enough bottled propane to warm them up.
BTW, I have not been able to find a packet of yeast locally since the announcement of the lockdown. It is one item that has not made it back onto the shelves as the stores recovered. I have stocked up on baking powder for "quick breads" and have resorted to those forms rather than the ubiquitous "loaf".
Our selections of canned goods and frozen foods is also still limited. They are there, but not necessarily what you desire.
MB, I can appreciate everything you and SS are saying. Personally, I have been a gardener since I was a nipper, and am lucky enough to be able to grow much of the fruit and vegetables we eat at home. We also keep chickens for eggs. I live in the country and, again, we are lucky enough to own a smallholding which could easily provide much of what we needed, in worse case scenario. You are right in saying that the latest generation of humans has lost contact with the basics of growing stuff. I have spent the last week trying to drill knowledge into the mind of a neighbour to help her start on the process of being a "gardener". It has been an amusing and hair-tearing experience. I am beginning to wonder if the DNA of the young'uns has been altered! There is, I suspect, no hope for some of them.
Luckily, here, we have yeast! (I stockpiled it as soon as the dreaded microbe was showing signs of being a problem, along with a load of other stuff).
Yes as MB said many people in the UK only have a small garden or yard and have no experience of growing their own food but it is surprising what can be done with a little ingenuity.
You won’t be able to grow the majority of your fruit and vegetable needs but you can make a great improvement to your diet.
If there’s no where for a veg patch or a raised bed you can use pots, tubs, an old dustbin or grow bags, i’ve grown potatoes in old sacks.
Mary, i’ve never kept chickens but the mother-in-law did (in an old terraced council house), eggs never tasted so good.
This generation has lost much of the self sufficient ways of the WW2 generation. At the end of the war we were growing 70% of our food, surely with modern agricultural practices we should be able to do better.
SS is right food shortages are here and will get worse, food in your pantry is better than money in the bank.....GET SHOPPING.
Pete, we only have 14 houses down our little lane, and since the dreaded microbe reared its head 3 other households have started keeping chickens. Ex battery hens are cheap to buy and often have years left in their lifetimes - feed and look after them ad they repay you in spades! I too grow potatoes in containers - large buckets - and intend to keep doing so It saves a lot of space and there is no danger of leaving little tatties behind to sprout at inopportune moments! I too think we are heading for problems in the food supply. To this end, I regularly check supplies; do a recce of our own position; read the papers for clues, and generally keep alert and ready for action. It's the only way. We have not had a problem at all during "lockdown", but I do not for one minute think that the troubles are over; quite the contrary. But then, is this not what we prep for??