Why Preparing for Biological Threats is Incredibly Important
Surprisingly, preppers tend to put biological threats at the bottom of the list when it comes to their preparedness strategies. However, these threats represent a danger to humanity that exceeds that of terrorism, natural disasters, nuclear war, economic collapse or any other SHTF scenario. In fact, if you look at the raw numbers, biological threats have taken more lives than anything else combined.
Influenza
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Influenza hands-down is the biggest taker of lives on the planet today. Forget Ebola, Anthrax or any other biological threat that comes from natural or man-made sources. In fact, hundreds of thousands of people die every year around the world from the flu. Periodic outbreaks, which usually happen about once or twice a generation can take millions. Look at the Spanish flu that killed over 150 million people in Europe in the early 20th century. A couple of Asian flu outbreaks in the latter half of the 20th century took a couple of million lives.
Considering how easy it is to jump on a plane with no symptoms and be on the other side of the world before symptoms develop, it’s only a matter of time before we are facing a crisis of immeasurable proportions. While governments are doing a halfway decent job at monitoring for outbreaks and trying to contain them, the simple truth is that the international aviation industry is not going to allow itself to be grounded unless absolutely necessary.
Furthermore, influenza doesn’t need to start in a far-off country in order to impale our society here. There’s plenty of strains in our own back yard that can create a deadly crisis. Never underestimate the power of the influenza virus, and take every possible precaution to minimize its spread.
Smallpox
The smallpox virus was thought to be eradicated until recently. This is due, in part, to the fact that many people have stopped getting vaccines. Now, there is a powerful argument to be made for not getting a lot of vaccines, and this article is not meant to challenge those who decide to opt out. However, when you add a + b to get to c, it’s easy to see that people who are not inoculated against smallpox are the ones that are capable of transmitting and catching this nasty and highly-fatal bug.
The mortality rate for smallpox has historically been around 30%. However, if and when the virus makes a resurgence, it is unclear as to its effects on the otherwise unexposed population. There is no known cure, and it is likely that the virus will either come from either a terrorist attack or a SHTF scenario where large portions of the population are not able to be vaccinated. This disease is one of a handful that have the potential to be a game changer in terms of decimating a large portion of the global population.
Keep in mind that vaccines have about a 10 year shelf life, and people need to get re-immunized in order to stay protected.
Zika Virus
The zika virus is getting a lot of attention due to its alarming spread and unknown long-term health effects. We know that it causes birth defects if pregnant women catch the virus. What we don’t know is how fast it will spread, how many babies will be impacted and the risk that carriers of the virus will pose to others. Some public health officials fear that the zika virus can have more deadly potential than influenza or smallpox combined. Only time will tell.
These are just a few extreme examples of a ton of bugs out there that have the potential to eradicate significant portions of the population. However, we are doing very little to evaluate the risks and prepare for the worst. Learn more about how to protect yourself against biological threats, because there is a really good chance that this is what doomsday preppers will be facing in a catastrophic SHTF scenario.
