According to the US CDC (per a Reuters article), the strain of H5N1 that infected two people (and killed one) in Cambodia was part of an endemic clade that’s been spreading for years. It seems to be unrelated to the new strain from 2020, but it’s still not known whether or not the father got H5N1 from the girl. The father’s case has yet to be sequenced. Personally, I don’t know if this is a good or bad sign, or if it just… well, is, if you know what I mean. https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/viruses-cambodian-bird-flu-cases-identified-endemic-clade-2023-02-26/

…frankly the 24/7 doomscrolling and weeding through the bowels of the internet starts to weigh on you. I know that feeling all too well, and I honestly believe it’s a detriment to prepping. How are you going to be calm and collected during disasters if your mental health is drained when there’s nothing going on?That said, thank you all for providing these roundups for the past few years. 🙂

To the news outlets that are spreading this, I don’t understand how they don’t feel bad about causing so much stress and anxiety among their viewers. My guess is that since it’s election season, it’s to drum up support for candidates that say they’ll fix the problem even though it’s a complex, apolitical problem that’s very long-term. I’d say more but that’ll definitely lean into political territory, and I really don’t wanna go there.

I definitely had my suspicious when I saw that “diesel 25 days” statistic floating around social media, especially since that makes no logical sense. Countries are importing and producing oil 24/7. The only thing that’d stop that would legitimately be an apocalypse.Just goes to show that you absolutely need to fact check whatever you see on social media.

“The good news is that clinical trials for these experimental vaccines and treatments are being organized at a breakneck pace, Kobinger says. Researchers hope to start trials later this month, which is in stark contrast to the more than eight months that it took before trials began during the large West African epidemic, he adds.” I’m surprised at the speed they were able to get vaccines/treatments up and running and ready for human testing. Very impressive!Also, thank you for not being a doomsday prepper in the way you explained the article. Far too many people do that imo.

“CDC and WHO made similar statements about COVID for roughly its first year.”That’s definitely true, but I’d put more faith in that statement simply because Ebola has spread for far longer than Covid – decades versus a few years.That said, I absolutely see people thinking it’s no big deal and saying ‘it’s all hype’, ‘it’s not real’, ‘the government is lying’, etcetera should it get to that point. Hopefully the death rate and Ebola’s history would convince people that it needs to be taken seriously, but I honestly don’t see that happening.

I think I got most of these vaccines since my schools required them and my parents thankfully aren’t anti-vax, but I might need a TDaP booster. Even though things like Tetanus are rare as hell (like, only double digit cases per year in the US I think?), it’s better to be safe than sorry. I don’t have a driver’s license, but maybe I could ask a family member to take me eventually.Oh, and I might as well get one of those titer blood tests, as I never actually had one or even knew about it. I’ve been trying to find my childhood vax records, but I’ve had no luck getting them.

Jeez, heat waves have been getting really, really bad everywhere for the past few years, huh…I’m starting to wonder if there’s any real way to prepare for this stuff, especially as someone who believes governments won’t even attempt to assist with this. As a 21-year-old who sadly has no job/income or any preparedness-related things because of that, I’ve been thinking about how catastrophic this all is. Heck, I even blocked that subreddit linked in the article since I’d browse it in school and at home and basically distract myself from doing… anything else, really, which thrashed my mental health.While I’m thankful to be somewhere with a relatively stable (so far) temperature and electrical grid, but more importantly with a family I enjoy being with and the ability to bring up stuff to distract from the chaos surrounding us, I do feel like I might be ‘setting myself up for failure,’ I guess.

I definitely agree with the mass shootings being a reflection of a f**ked up society, and I feel like anybody blaming violent media or saying ‘banning guns will solve everything!’ isn’t seeing the big picture. This is just speculation on my part, but if there were no guns whatsoever, people would just use some other weapon to cause a massacre, like knives or even their fists.While I’m in agreement with there being some limitations added onto guns and the ability to get/use/etcetera them, I would support improving the quality of life in the country far more. I think that would reduce the amount of violence that’s been happening recently because people’s mental health would be in a much better place.But I doubt that’ll happen in my lifetime.

That’s… definitely not lighter news. I think space weather that extreme is worse than the pandemic, the Ukraine War, and Climate Change combined. I mean, we’re talking about a multi-year grid-down scenario where almost everything related to electricity is useless.And the worst part is that it’s physically impossible to prepare for. That alone keeps me up at night.

Your description of “doomers” is extremely accurate! That’s the kind of thinking in the comment sections of YouTube channels that cover space weather. Even though it’s just text on a screen, it ain’t a pretty sight.But, yeah, I doubt they’re into actual preparedness. A system built around commodity money definitely sounds like something more in-line with how societies used to work. Tobacco was (and still is) an example of that, I think.

Hopefully whatever’s taken out of the Reserve is eventually put back in. You can’t take 1M barrels a day and just not refill it. I get why the WH is doing it, but 1M/day for 6mo is gonna remove a semi-worryingly huge chunk…

And now the US has officially announced a ban on Russian energy imports. I know that Russian oil only makes up only 8% of America’s energy (at least in 2021) and that oil companies have already left Russia (which just makes an official ban a political move more than an actual response in my eyes), but… I can’t see this going well for the average consumer. Really gotta buy solar panels or something, or at least a portable charger. The only thing I have is a Midland emergency radio, which has a solar panel+battery alongside a handcrank, but still.

I definitely understand that feeling of wanting to ‘feel safe’ without knowing what you actually want, now more than ever before. I feel like moving to a homestead somewhere on the countryside because I feel like it’ll be safer, despite not knowing a d**n thing about farming. I also feel like my current home in the suburbs is a death sentence, even though preps can be done in any type of community. Like, I feel like just packing up everything and moving to some farm somewhere away from the city or suburbia, but I know it’s just my anxiety talking. I mean, I’m a 21 year old with aspergers, no physical experience besides exercising, no direct financial income since I don’t have a job or even a side hustle, and not even a driver’s license. There are times where I curse being born into this kind of lifestyle.And now talk of nuclear war is going on, far before I even begin to learn prepping skills. F**k me. That’s why I feel like moving to a farm despite knowing no family member that lives on one. Hell, I’ll probably die within the first year of homestead life since I know nothing.

Personally, I feel like nuclear weapons won’t be used by any country since it’d lead to everyone using theirs assuming MAD is still a thing. To me, a country using nukes is basically them signing their death certificate. And everyone else’s since it’d probably go down that route.I can definitely see cyber-warfare being used though. Although, since that might be the digital equivalent of using nukes, maybe that too would end in MAD. I wouldn’t know since I don’t know anything about geopolitics and am just spitballing.

Nice to see! I’m definitely looking forward to taking that when it’s available. Like Eric said, it’s good for people that’re scared off by new tech. It’s obvious that, while the mRNA vaccines work well, there’s a lot of people iffy about it because of it being novel (at least if looking at the past decades of vaccines). I’m not opposed to taking mRNA if it’s the only option, but I’m definitely more inclined to go with more traditional methods. I know that negative side effects from them are rare, but I have a “What if?” mentality with a lot of things; reducing that as much as possible is what I wanna aim for, which I think Novavax will do pretty well. Also doesn’t help that I’m scared of driving too. 🙁

“Instead of a jab in the arm, both vaccines are designed to be inhaled as a fine mist that is deposited into subjects’ lungs. Researchers behind the effort say the goal is to provide protection via the same route that the disease itself uses to enter the body.” Okay, now that is something I’m interested in seeing come to life and not be a fruitless endeavor. I’m really looking forward to either seeing this be deemed safe and effective and come to market or Novavax being available sometime in the new year.Has there been any news on the Novavax front, by the way?

Yeah, endemicity is definitely becoming more and more likely, as does needing countless boosters much like the yearly flu shot. Not necessarily a good thing, but it is what it is I guess.I’m just hoping there’ll be more and more treatment options, like Merck’s antiviral pill or Novavax’s non-mRNA vaccine. Having more options and available choices will be better for everyone in my opinion.

Thank you.Agreed. Healthcare professionals know a lot more than I, just some person on the Internet, do. And, yeah, I’m doing my best trying to base my decision on evidence even though the amount that’s there is lower than normal. I mean, it kinda helps that it’s been a year since the vaccine trials happened, but still. But my problem is that I really don’t know what the wrong choice is. One minute, I’m confident about the vaccines working since there’s not a lot of people with horrible/adverse side effects. The next, I read about a kid in a wheelchair some time after being vaccinated and beyond scared it’s more common that the CDC/FDA says it is, or I’m read something about prion disease from the vaccine’s spike protein and believe it even though it’s from a routine anti-vaxxer. It’s insanely nerve-wracking.

I see. Thank you for telling me your take on this!In any case, I scheduled a vaccination for a few days from now. Seeing all the articles about anti-vaxxers and/or hesitant people (and their families) posting about how COVID f*cked them up or killed them and that everyone should get vaccinated definitely leaned me towards getting vaccinated. Not only that, but I wanna get a job so I might as well vaccinate since I’d be in the public sector, something I’d do regardless of mandates.But… even then, I still have this nagging feeling. Thoughts like, ‘what if there IS a “gotcha” 1 to 5 to 10 years from now?’ or ‘what if I get a really bad side effect?’ etcetera seeped into my mind as I thought about scheduling the Pfizer vaccine for myself. And I can’t determine if that’s me overworrying and being paranoid, or being scientifically-inclined and questioning/researching things to get a clearer view on this. Hell, I’m even starting to think I made a mistake scheduling due to this…