This is our history.

For thousands of years, humanity has worked to plant and grow in the spring and summer and harvest in the fall to store food for the winter. 

Were they “fringe” elements? 

No: people used to dry, smoke, and salt meat to store over the winter months. Even before the age of canning and mason jars came about, the root cellars existed; cold storage, and also storage for dried grains such as wheat, oats, corn, and hay.

News flash: that’s “prepping,” or preparation.

Humans were given a beautiful gift: the gift of common sense.

It was that “common sense” that led the rulers of Britain and the United States to ask people to grow “victory gardens” for both WWI and WWII to prepare for times of shortages during those world wars.

We’re in an artificial “biome,” little more than a cage. And when the substance hits the fan, there will be no time to prepare. Your common sense will have been squandered.

Yesterday, self-sufficiency was the norm. It was common sense.

Now, it’s fostered dependency and you better believe it’s fostered! Study Cloward and Piven and their strategy for “top-down, bottom-up” economics. 

At the time, LBJ was the crook-in-charge, and with his help, those two managed to initiate/create the welfare state and look at it today. Look at how the entire economy of the United States is coming apart, akin to a poorly-knitted sweater.

The gross inconsistency with the labeling is that the same people deride those who prepare. They squander their money on entertainment, alcohol, partying, and traveling around. Then they act as if those who prepared are evil. They have the audacity to say, “Well, they have something, so they have to give it to me because I don’t have anything!” They say it’s “hoarding” or “unfair.”

The rulers agree with you – the same vile, corrupt rulers who come after you for every dime while they party at Boca Raton or at Martha’s Vineyard – on taxpayer dollars. FDR wrote an executive order banning “hoarding,” and this was updated by virtually every President in office since then in some capacity. Just take a look at that article I wrote recently, entitled The Government Plans to Survive the Apocalypse…Without Us.

While they have us at each other’s throats arguing about who is allowed to go into what bathroom, they’re quietly stockpiling food, medical supplies, fuel, vehicles, and everything imaginable in underground bunkers all on taxpayer money. Are they preparing, or are they hoarding? Read that article I just mentioned, and see how products that are “removed from stores for safety concerns” mysteriously disappear. If they act as if prepping is common sense, shouldn’t you?

(Knowing how to preserve your own food is common sense as well. Check out our free QUICKSTART Guide to home canning to learn more.)

Now we’re coming to a critical juncture in present-day society. 

The supply chains are drying up. Food production plants are “mysteriously” blowing up or catching fire and they’re being destroyed. Transportation is slowly being ground to a halt. California just made it impossible (and illegal) to operate in that state as an independent trucker. They practically forced the truckers to go into another state to ply their trade.

The supply chain hasn’t recovered from all the business-killing edits by the rulers and the stringent restrictions that have caused, at times, millions of tons of produce and supplies to go bad, sitting on the docks with no way to be transported.

Ask yourself these questions: 

• Do you want to place your fate in the hands of those who are corrupt?
• Do you really think anyone occupying a political office will provide for you or your family when they’re without food?
• Have you done all that you can to make sure your family can eat when those times arrive?
• Will you be able to tell them that you did your best to provide for them and deliver more than just an apology?

Preparation should be as natural as anything else that you do around the house.

It doesn’t have to occupy every minute of your time, and it certainly isn’t something that you have to worry about to the point of panic. It doesn’t take much to truly and accurately assess what you have in your home and what you would do if all of the food deliveries, sales, etc. if they just stopped tomorrow.

It won’t “break” you to buy a case of food per week and some dry goods…in place of that beer or that night out on the town. I wrote one in May entitled Last-Minute Preps on a Shoestring Budget to provide some thoughts and suggestions on the matter. It’s a simple task with a point that’s clearly evident: as simple as Aesop’s Fable, “The Grasshopper and the Ant.” The little ant warned the grasshopper to set food aside for the winter, and the grasshopper paid him no heed. Then when the winter came, the grasshopper came straight to the ant’s door…for a handout.

That’s the way it will be.

You do what you want with your supplies and use discernment to determine how “good” a Samaritan you want to be. Just remember: the helpless beggar might have a whole squad of marauders with weapons right outside in the bushes, just waiting to find a soft heart, and a “soft” target. That’s also a part of common sense: take care of you and yours first, and then worry about taking care of others if it’s not to the cost of your own family.  

Aesop wrote that fable a few thousand years ago, and it stands. 

We’re already “long in the tooth” to be setting stuff aside. There’s still some time. Prepare as best you can, and pray without ceasing. Just as important as the supplies is the mindset that it takes to go with it: you provision for times of shortage before they occur. Do what you can now, and do the best that you can while there’s still some time left. Stay in that good fight, and fight it well!

What are your thoughts regarding preparedness? Is it a natural thing for you? Has it helped you in the past? Was there a time you found yourself unprepared for an emergency? Let’s talk about it in the comments.

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About Jeremiah Johnson

Jeremiah Johnson is the nom de plume of a retired Green Beret of the U.S. Army Special Forces.  Mr. Johnson is also a Gunsmith and a Master Herbalist.  He graduated from the Special Forces course at SERE (survival, evasion, resistance, and escape) School, and is an expert in small unit tactics, survival, and disaster-preparedness.  He lives in a cabin in the Rocky Mountains of Western Montana.

Article cross-posted from The Organic Prepper.

“Once men turned their thinking over to machines in the hope that this would set them free. But that only permitted other men with machines to enslave them.” – Frank Herbert

The science fiction of today is the scientific fact of tomorrow. A good example is Jules Verne’s Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, predicting today’s nuclear-powered submarines. Another would be H. G. Wells sci-fi/horror piece, The Island of Dr. Moreau which examines a world filled with human-animal hybrids. So when we discuss the future of transhumanism, you need to keep this in mind. For though it may seem far-fetched today, it is where we are headed.

Editor’s Note: For the inevitable question, “what does this have to do with prepping?” we believe it’s important to understand potential trends and threats. Being taken totally by surprise when something unfolds doesn’t bode well for survival. ~ Daisy

Transhumanism is an awkward word that can have several meanings. 

It’s not simply a scientific endeavor: it’s a philosophical bent with a completely different standard. It’s a philosophy that, if followed, abrogates virtually all traditional human societal customs and practices. The “trans” portion refers to the “transcendence,” or the “passing” of the stage of humanity we’re currently in – our form, our thinking, and our capabilities. A “leaving behind” of everything, in a nutshell, about us and ourselves. That is what transhumanism is about.

The process of achieving this transhumanistic state involves disciplines spread over many fields: robotics, genetics, nanotechnology, and AI (artificial intelligence), to name a few.  Gene therapy and gene splicing are techniques used in the genetic recombinance of both individuals and successive generations. 

We now have the capabilities to alter the very fabric of our makeup.

So, what is transhumanism, specifically?

Transhumanism is the “revision” of humanity and the fundamental transformation of the human race into something else. It’s the transformation of humanity into a “thing” that cannot be readily identified.

The transhumanists themselves term it as a “transcendence of humanity,” a rising of the human species “past” itself.

The transhumanist proponents want to cure disease, end hunger, and enable human beings to reach their maximum potential – physically and mentally – evolving into a “new” being by augmenting their bodies mechanically or biologically. It can also mean placing their consciousnesses into artificial, robotic bodies with the goal of potential immortality.

Those lofty ambitions, however, are out of step with the means they are pursuing in order to obtain them.

The reality is much more “base” in its ramifications. 

Transhumanism is nothing more than a modified form of eugenics, albeit with a higher degree of “panache” and technology than the days of the Margaret Sanger camps and the sterilization squads.  

Transhumanism is eugenics, and if it’s pursued in full, eventually, it will lead either to genocide or to the extinction of the human race.

Genetic manipulation is not off the table.

Scientists, doctors, lawyers, government officials, oligarchs – all of these number prominently among transhumanists. They want to “change the world” and “usher in a new phase in the evolution of mankind.” Through the use of genetic manipulation and selective breeding, they wish to change the human race. They want to give it characteristics found in the animal world, such as the speed of the cheetah, the strength of the gorilla, and the eyesight of the eagle, to name a few.

As we speak, human-animal “chimeras” are being cultured and grown in laboratories around the world.  Michael Irving wrote a piece on 4/15/21 entitled “Human-monkey chimera embryos created in lab for first time.” Here’s part of it for you:

“Scientists have been experimenting with interspecies chimeras for decades, merging similar animals like mice and rats, and sheep and goats. …researchers from the Salk Institute and Kunming University of Science and Technology successfully created chimeras of humans and monkeys.”

I submit this for your consideration: for each lab we know of, such as this one, there is another lab that we don’t know of. That ratio, I’m sure, is a conservative estimate.

Another article was written on 5/19/21 by Nathaniel Scharping for Discovery Magazine, entitled “Why Scientists Have Been Creating Chimeras in the Lab for Decades.” All of this work by the scientists is (ostensibly) for medical research and pharmacological development. To its credit, the author brings up the moral and ethical issues regarding such manipulations between different animal species. Here’s a segment for you:

“For now, scientists don’t have the ability to create true human-animal chimeras, and only a limited ability to create chimeras of other species. Given the issues involved, it’s unclear how far research into the matter might progress, and how quickly.”

Those words are either naiveties or lies. I prefer to give the author credit and choose the former. The world turns a “blind eye” to these issues. For most people, such moral, spiritual, and ethical considerations don’t garner grants or put “hot pockets” on the plate at the end of the day. Utilitarianism and moneyed interests almost always win, driving moral and ethical considerations into a corner, where they silently expire.

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What do you need to know about the proponents and opponents of transhumanism?

An excellent documentary that you may wish to pick up is entitled Inhuman: The Next and Final Phase of Man is Here, released in 2015 by SkyWatch TV. It contains a plethora of interviews with both camps, especially some of the transhumanists at the forefront of their movement.  Tom Horn is the host of the documentary, and he presents the information in a manner that is informative and non-didactic, in a very comprehensive and objective manner.

Dr. James Hughes, a transhumanist and executive director for the Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies, had this to say for the film:

“Should we seek dialogue with paranoid Christian Fundamentalists…or should we seek more than dialogue…maybe even mock them?”

Not exactly an open, “egalitarian” stance, now, is it? The point I’m making is that these intellectuals are totalitarian Statists of another form. They see themselves as heralding in a new era – Utopia, a paradise – one that removes all of the negatives plaguing society, and potentially obtains immortality to boot.

A book to check out is this one by Steve Quayle, who has done a great deal of research on this topic.

They see anyone not embracing their crusade as being “in the way.”

 More to share with you guys and gals. I’m one of those night owls who listens to “Coast To Coast” with George Noorybetween 11 pm and 3 am, and it delves into a tremendous variety of excellent guests and topics. On 5/18/22, one of the speakers was Dr. Hugo de Garis, a retired scientist, and the subject was on AI. Dr. de Garisdeveloped an artificial brain in the lab, as well as “evolvable hardware” to use in the modification of human beings.

He made a pronouncement that night that chilled me to the bone. Here it is:

“Our days of being the dominant species…is almost over.”

Dr. de Garis created cellular automata in the 1990s, the basic structure that formed the lab-created artificial brain. He went on to say how AI (artificial intelligence) will reach a point where it can modify itself on its own.

At that point, AI will be so mentally “superior” to us that it – they – will consider us as “insects” and get rid of us in the manner of a nuisance. This matched a similar statement by Dr. Stephen Hawking, the now-deceased physicist, who said that AI posed a significant danger to the entire human race.

(Do you know what it takes to evacuate an emergency site safely? Check out our free QUICKSTART Guide if you’re looking for the details.)

Regarding the evolution of AI, there’s a term to describe the “threshold point.” 

Technological singularity is the point at which AI can “reproduce” on its own, forming “offspring” – super-intelligent AI’s. The transhumanist scientists argue that an AI-augmented human brain will be able to perform calculations more efficiently, without the negative, emotional flaws in human beings at present.  

Dr. de Garis wrote a sci-fi book on the challenges about to be faced by humanity that puts forth what he believes is going to come to pass. Entitled The Artilect War: Cosmists vs. Terrans, it details the battles between AI-enhanced humans (the Cosmists) and an unenhanced (normative) humanity. A super-AI then inevitably rises, called Artilects, and the battle is joined in a world war to determine who rules the Earth.

Science fiction? For now, perhaps, but when a world-renowned scientist makes a statement (pertaining to his field, no less) that the human race’s control over the planet is almost at an end? It behooves us to listen. He translated that vision, that forecast, into a book that incorporated his life’s work in the field of AI. It’s possible, and we should take it as a warning.           

The ones who will be enhanced, how, then, will they view the ones who are not? Either as “impediments,” or worse: as enemies. Where does “Big Daddy” fit into all of this? The rulers, “government,” if you must, is a driving force behind the funding and research, as well as the end results. Why?  

The end results of transhumanism will leave the rulers in control of all of humanity – to a degree barely imaginable at present.

Why does the ruling class want transhumanism?

They enable the funding of projects and then buy the scientists. They don’t need the “consent of the governed.” Why would they? The masses don’t even understand it, and if they did, they would never consent to it. 

That’s how “black” projects are germinated and how they reach their fruition.  

This is how it works:

1. The rulers find something suitable for their aims (in this case, enhancement of human beings through biomechanical means)
2. They set up a grant for a private corporation to undertake research and contract with it to conduct said research – under supervision, naturally, by government agents or officers
3. The results are “shared” by the scientists/corporation with the government
4. The contract flips over indefinitely until the maximum amount has been derived from the program, and then the corporation disbands the department for the project
5. At the project’s end: Nondisclosure agreements, oaths, promises, and the usual paperwork is signed, and all participants are made aware of what will happen if the information is divulged.

This is why it works:

1. The government contracts with a private corporation to do work on behalf of the government. Since it’s a private corporation, it shields them from disclosure and from having to reveal to the public all the details of funding, personnel, projects, etc.
2. Everything the corporate laboratory does? The government has a duplicate lab conducting the exact same experiments.
3. Should the “plug” need to be pulled? The experiment continues. Reason: they might hit a “snag” that the corporation and/or the scientists might not tolerate…such as the creation of a monstrous “entity” of some type or a disease that can’t normally be contained or controlled. The government sweeps out/sanitizes the corporation, shuts down the department, and stops the project while it continues the civilian scientists’ work where it left off.

The government uses plausible deniability to contain any leaks, mistakes, accidents, etc., and projects that might never be permitted to take place are indeed completed. The idiot Congress is completely bypassed, except for those few on the services committees who’ve been effectively enabled to live more lavishly than a rajah.

This model is used in practically every “government” service or institution. The postal service (Post Office) is a prime example: a private corporation, now. You can’t figure out (as a “citizen”) where the money is being spent. They’re authorized by the government, but as a civilian corporate entity, they don’t have the disclosure requirements.

The government uses this transhumanist technology.

DARPA (the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) is already beginning to rewrite the DNA of service members. Human gene modification is being studied for use in making “super-soldiers” that can communicate with the use of brain implants (a type of pseudo-telepathy). Research is being done on enhancing strength, endurance, agility, and reaction times on the battlefield.

Why? For warfare, of course. Of course, if these elected officials and their oligarch lackeys can live, say, for 300 years, that makes it even more attractive to them. Imagine people such as Hillary Clinton, or Biden, or McConnell – any of them being in office for 300 years. McCain and Reid came close, I think.  

The point: if the brightest and the best will be enhanced, so will the worst of the lot – the ones in control.

Transhumanism will turn humanity into two classes:

1. An obedient, “superior” class of enhanced humans, or
2. A rebellious, disobedient, “inferior” class of “inferior” humans.

Transhumanism lies, hiding its true intentions: the total surveillance over, complete control of, and systematic depopulation – genocide – against humanity.

Is there a guesstimate on this transcendence?

Another “Coast To Coast” segment was on 4/27/22 with William Henry, a writer, and researcher of mythology and ancient history. He believes the Great Deception will occur when society is coerced into accepting/merging with AI. He mentioned the 20,000 satellites placed into orbit by Elon Musk and the Metaverse dictatorship created by Mark Zuckerberg of Google. Henry had this to say about the AI/transhumanist path:

“Since 2017, MIT [Massachusetts Institute of Technology] has said that algorithms are out of our control. We’re probably less than five years to finding out if we avert it, or if we go extinct.”

 He was referring to humanity as a whole as going extinct, should AI ever gain control over mankind.

James Tunney is the guy you need to read. 

He really covers everything in his book TechBondAge: Slavery of the Human Spirit, his fourth (and most recent) to address the menace posed by transhumanism. Here’s a piece for you:

“Now it seems that the nasty people are those who question the direction of our society, our loss of liberty, our submission to technology, and domination of the security, industrial, military, and pharmaceutical society…”

He discusses the “compression” of the society into constantly-surveilled, downtrodden humanity that is one step away from totalitarian, global rule. He doesn’t pull any punches, and neither should we.

With transhumanism man becomes dirt.

The transhumanists disregard the villainy that is being conducted in the name of man for the aggrandizement of man, above all things. The butchering and experimentation with the animals. 

We bring upon ourselves the destruction we deserve, especially when we don’t learn from the lessons of the past. For humanity to “enhance” itself, it can only do so successfully if it conducts that enhancement internally. 

“Transhumanism,” I believe, is better defined as a transformation into something that denies its own humanity.

You can read about all of these transhumanist guys and gals – Dr. Ray Kurzweil, the “father” of transhumanism, or Dr. Natasha Vita-More, or Dr. James Hughes…all learned doctors with impressive certifications and credentials. When they outline their goals and objectives, they mostly sound the same: grand ambitions and designs – but only for the faithful followers. 

The rest of us fall somewhere between the gnats and pool algae in their eyes.

In the end, I believe it will end up creating a total dystopia.

A dystopia such as the movie Elysium, a world made of have’s and have not’s, who are subjected to the wills and whims of an elite group who are completely removed from the madding crowd, and from any and all restraints. If not, then I believe it will be akin to the Terminator series or the Matrix movies, where the AI will actively attempt to exterminate humanity.

Transhumanism will bring neither utopia nor immortality. 

Even if it worked? Loading your consciousness into a robot for the next thousand years, etc., then to what end? The results of living a decent life and being good to others bring true rewards…in this lifetime and in the next one. In that regard, it’s better to live one good day filled with life’s treasures than to live a thousand years as a soulless automaton.

How long we live on this earth is not nearly as important as how we live our lives. I welcome your thoughts and input on all of this and bid you Good Day – and long life! J J out! 

What do you think about transhumanism?

Do you believe it’s an existential threat or an overblown conspiracy theory? Do you think that it’s a beneficial scientific advance? How do you think this might unfold? Share your thoughts in the comments section.

About Jeremiah Johnson

Jeremiah Johnson is the nom de plume of a retired Green Beret of the U.S. Army Special Forces.  Mr. Johnson is also a Gunsmith and a Master Herbalist.  He graduated from the Special Forces course at SERE (survival, evasion, resistance, and escape) School, and is an expert in small unit tactics, survival, and disaster-preparedness.  He lives in a cabin in the Rocky Mountains of Western Montana.

Image via Shutterstock. Article cross-posted from The Organic Prepper.

OP Readers, as you’re well aware, most of the focus from a medical perspective regarding diseases has been centered on the Covid pandemic. “Sideshows” have also surfaced, such as monkeypox, as well as the reappearance of avian flu (in U.S. poultry flocks and in England). Serious as these are, in a post-apocalyptic setting, they’ll take a back seat to diseases that can prove just as deadly under the right conditions; diseases that most of us either ignore or take for granted.

Let’s jump into it.

Here are the situations that can lead to disease increase…

Nuclear war is the most likely global catastrophe to befall us in the short term. There are other profound cataclysms that can be equal or greater in severity, such as a huge solar flare that can cook the surface of the Earth, an impact by a comet or a giant meteor, a sudden pole shift with corresponding (and immediate) temperature loss, or a pandemic with a much more lethal/virulent pathogen.

Okay. Let’s say that one of these has occurred. The breakdown in “Fisher-Price land’s” infrastructure will be immediate. The loss of power (the electrical grid and the generators themselves), the loss of potable water, the cessation of all transport of food, medicines, and vital supplies, and the immediate deaths of hundreds of millions of people will be too much. The system will collapse in under a day.

All service and support mechanisms, such as hospitals, doctors’ offices, firefighting services, and police departments, will be overwhelmed, understaffed, and will end up “fizzling out” in less than a week. This will occur when the realization sets in that everything will not be coming back.

Conditions are ripe.

The survivors of the initial event must now prepare to deal with a host of different problems. In an instant, the society will have reverted to something similar to medieval Europe, and probably worse. Diseases once thought extinct or “under control” will emerge once more to become constant, prevalent in all nations.

The raw, untreated sewage in all of the urban and suburban areas will be there, as will the mountainous landfills choked with garbage. Hundreds of millions of dead – unburied – will add to this. Ruined municipal cisterns and pipe networks will create biological nightmares. Hand-in-hand with this will be the inability to obtain fresh running water to transport the sewage, as well as for drinking.

The cities will become deathtraps for those who have survived and either haven’t escaped from them or entered them in the hopes of finding refuge and supplies. We haven’t even mentioned radiation, in the case of nuclear war, or all of the different nuclear power plants that will no longer be able to cool their reactors.

A conservative estimate places several thousand bio-research labs throughout the United States, in addition to the “biggies” located at Ft. Detrick, Maryland, Plum Island in New York (now being “relocated” to Kansas), and the CDC labs in Atlanta, Georgia. Containment will go right out the window. Some of the most lethal diseases known to man are kept in these facilities.

In the ruins and in the abandoned neighborhoods and towns, the rodents and insects will begin to spread and multiply unchecked. They will become vectors, a term to describe animals or insects that harbor/carry and spread diseases. Along with the rodents will come their passengers, the fleas and ticks. Scoff, if you will, but Europe lost two-thirds of its population in the 14th century to “The Black Death,” or Bubonic Plague. The disease was never eradicated and as such, it will be the first illness we cover.

Bubonic Plague (Yersinia pestis) and its “offshoots”

This disease is caused by a bacterium. It’s transmitted by the “passengers” listed in the previous paragraph. This is the way it works. The flea contracts the disease, and it closes off its esophageal passage.

Big deal? You bet it is.

The flea’s main food supply is blood, and when it can’t swallow and take in the amount of food it needs? It bites…again and again. In a hunger-maddened frenzy to try to feed, it hops from victim to victim, spreading the bacteria as it bites its new quarries. One flea can infect many victims (people, dogs, rodents) before it succumbs.

The happy rhyme sung by children, “Ring Around the Rosie,” has much darker implications. It’s true (original) words were such.

Ring around the rosie, a pocketful of posies

           Ah-tishoo! Ah-tishoo! And we all fall down!

This referred to the bubo, a pustulent, festering mass usually found under the armpit, neck, or groin (in the lymph node areas), surrounded by a red or white ring, evidencing infection by Plague. The “pocketful of posies” referred to fresh, aromatic flowers to ward it off. “Ah-tishoo” is sneezing, a late symptom of the illness just prior to the victim’s earthly departure…which is the “falling down” part.

But wait…there’s more! The plague can also be transmitted by inhaling the bacteria, in which the symptoms and afflictions are much worse…going right into the lungs…hence, becoming pneumonic plague. Death is almost certain unless it’s treated immediately after infection.

Then there’s the possibility of septicemic plague, where either by a bite or inhalation, so many bacteria go into the bloodstream that the person dies from a form of septic shock.

Symptoms are high fever, nausea, pain in the joints, vomiting, dizziness, and severe headache.

Giardia (Giardia lamblia)

Giardia poses a major problem, especially when untreated, unclean water is taken in. After a post-apocalyptic scenario, the options may be limited between dying of thirst or taking the chance of contaminated water. Boiling water for 30 minutes will do the trick.

Giardia lives in the intestines of the infected person, and one bowel movement will release millions of the organisms, a protozoan. Diarrhea is the biggest (and most severe) symptom. It’s serious because the infected person can quickly become dehydrated. Giardia can also form cysts, and this is what makes it very serious. They are resistant to chlorine (bleach).

Cysts are a robust form that the Giardia can live in when conditions are not favorable for it…and they can remain in this dormant state of near hibernation for months. The surest way to deal with them is by boiling the water, prolonged, for 30 minutes or more.

As you might have guessed, transmission here is the fecal-oral route, and this is why it will be so predominant in a post-collapse environment. With limited fresh water, survivor hygiene will be difficult, and it will be easy to transmit the Giardia if the proper sanitary precautions aren’t taken. We’ll cover those procedures shortly.

 E. coli (Escherichia coli)

We’ve heard of this bacterial infection breaking out plenty of times in the news. My personal favorite was when Roger Riney (the former CEO of Yum Foods) came on TV about 15 years ago to tell everyone that Taco Bell was “safe to eat in once more,” after people ran to the emergency room after “running to the border.”

“Yum” foods, eh? All kidding aside, an E. coli infection can kill. The bacteria produce deadly proteins and toxins. Poorly-cooked ground beef is usually the culprit in the food industry because the organism thrives in cattle. Fecal-oral is also a vehicle of transmission, once again being preventable with good sanitary procedures.

More than 75,000 people per year become ill from it, with around 60 to 70 dying from it annually. Take note: this is under ideal conditions, where hospitals and medical treatment are available. It attacks the intestines and kidneys and can cause renal failure in the latter. Severe stomach cramps and diarrhea occur, and the stool is usually red. This is because hemorrhagic colitis has occurred, where the lining of the intestines is so damaged that the intestines are actively bleeding.

If the bacteria enter the rest of the body? Then the kidneys shut down because of hemolytic uremic syndrome, and high fever arises. The death rate is 15 out of 100 at this stage. Once again, that rate is under current (ideal) conditions, but in “The Day After Doomsday,” that rate will increase dramatically.

Hepatitis A

Here’s our first viral disease. The primary route of transmission is fecal-oral, especially from contaminated water, contaminated utensils, or eating fish/seafood taken from contaminated waters. Usually, the patient will carry it for anywhere from 14 to 45 days before it manifests itself. Sickness of the stomach, fever, fatigue/tiredness, yellowed eyes, and dark urine are some signs and symptoms.

These will last from 2 to 6 months. If you get through it, then you will have acquired immunity from it if you encounter it again. The biggest thing to keep in mind here is proper sanitation and the proper (complete) cooking of your food. In a world similar to the movie The Road keep in mind that a debilitated body is much more susceptible to disease, as well as being sluggish and less inclined to follow proper hygiene and sanitation.

Cholera (Vibrio cholerae)

Another bacterial infection, this one is very serious; a water-borne illness that can kill a person within 24 hours. The primary method of transmission is from drinking infected water or eating contaminated food. The disease presents with a fall in blood pressure, severe pain and cramps in the stomach and legs, and a sudden drop in body temperature that accompanies organ failure.

Within 24 hours, the patient can die without immediate medical treatment.

If the patient makes it, though, he or she can still transmit the disease for up to 15 months by shedding particles of bacteria. This disease runs rampant where municipal sanitation facilities have failed. In 1885, a severe storm with heavy rains hit Chicago. The sewers flooded and then spilled into the city’s drinking-water supply, a lake on the edge of town.

Cholera struck, and more than 80,000 people died from this outbreak.

Those are serious numbers. With cholera, supportive care measures are crucial, such as hydration. Water and salts are the “biggies” that a person will lose, due to the diarrhea, which is crippling and almost uncontrollable, with a “thin” consistency like rice-water.

(Lack of food is a huge cause of disease after a disaster. So, make sure you read our free QUICKSTART Guide to building your 3-layer food storage system.)

Rabies (Family Rhabdoviridae)

For an idea of the severity of the aggressive symptoms and the rapidity of onset, I recommend watching the classic movie Old Yeller. Mammals (both wild and domestic), including dogs, cats, raccoons, cattle, and even bats…can transmit rabies through bites or scratches. The virus moves from the point of infection (bite, scratch) into the nerves and then to the brain via the spinal cord.

Eighty percent of the patients develop severe paranoia, along with an aversion to any water (hence it was termed “hydrophobia” back in the mid-19th century, from the Greek, meaning “fear of water”). Eventually, the victim cannot breathe. The remaining 20 percent have “dumb” leprosy, which renders them sluggish/paralyzed until they pass away.

The incubation period lasts from one week, to up to six years.

An incubation period refers to the time from initial infection, to the time when the signs and symptoms of that infection begin to take effect. Keep in mind: the asymptomatic patient (showing no signs of illness, but they’re infected) can transmit the disease. A person could walk around and not know he or she is infected and still pass on that infection to someone else.

Bottom line: treatment (the Rabies vaccine) is only effective if the signs and symptoms have not started yet, so speed is of the essence.

There are around 10,000 cases or more in the U.S. annually, and few deaths, but worldwide, more than 50,000 people die from it per year. It’s a very serious disease.

Typhus

Again, the flea is one of the main culprits of transmission (a vector); the flea carries the bacteria Rickettsia typhi. Culprit number two is the louse (lice), and they carry the bacteria Rickettsia prowazekii.

Severe headache and fever present themselves by those infected within 6 to 14 days after having been bitten. Within a week, rashes appear on the torso, front and back. Most people recover when these rashes disappear. Others pass out into a coma after renal (kidney) failure.

There are preventative measures to keep you safe from disease after the collapse.

Ben Franklin was spot on when he wrote, “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” Your first step to preventing these not-so-serious-now diseases from taking hold of you or your family: be aware of the conditions that are favorable for them, and know about each one of them individually.

This won’t take too much effort, as the Internet will enable you to download comprehensive information on each disease. Do what I did: allocate a three-ring binder with your diseases in alphabetical order. Research the methods of transmission, as well as the treatments for them.

I’m not going to delve into treatment for them; this article is for informational purposes, to give you an insight into what we’ll all be facing if the “substance” hits the fan. For medical advice, you’ll have to talk to your State-approved, licensed, happy physician, “Dr. Doolittle,” if you can pry him off his golf course and get a straight answer out of him.

We live in a soft-socialist state, transforming into a totalitarian nation by the day. If anything, that is the reason to prepare, and not just with “supplies.” You have to study and learn, because the primary care provider just may end up being you.

The keys will be good hygiene and sanitation.

You have to uphold this for yourself and instill it into others so that they “run with the ball.” Everyone in your family/group has to make these a priority. Let’s throw these priorities into a list to follow to get the ball rolling.

1.  Boil all water: standing surface, flowing, or suspected water prior to drinking it, or washing with it. Boil any water you’re not 100% sure that it’s safe and clean.
2.  Establish a latrine/bathroom point: away from your water and food supplies, and do a controlled burn periodically (no longer than weekly).
3.  Personal cleanliness and handwashing: absolute musts. This will help to eliminate transmission, especially by the fecal-oral route.
4.  Preparation of food: Utensils must be clean and sanitized, and the food must be cooked entirely. The days of Beefsteak Tartar, and Sushi bars will be over at this point. You’ll have enough to deal with, without being bedridden or worse because of some uncooked food.
5.  Sanitize your common areas of living: Clean and air out your bedding, inspecting for any insects that may be vectors. Wipe down surfaces that you may be using to prepare your meals.
6.  Protect exposed/standing water supplies: (water drums, pools, open wells: cover these up with screening to help prevent mosquitoes from producing larvae in the water.
7.  “On the Move.” This means, although you’re prepared and ready with all of your supplies in your fortress in the woods, you may be forced to leave your location. No matter what the situation, you have to carry out those first six steps.

With your research, you’ll learn what antibiotics and medicines to stockpile. Another biggie: if you can’t obtain it over the counter or through regular channels, you better know where to find it. Watch the films World War Z, and Greenland, where the protagonists had kids with medical conditions. Watch the “mob” scenes at the pharmacies carefully.

You may find yourself in a similar situation, and it would be helpful to know where to obtain things in your locale. Enough said on that.

Summary

The greatest insight comes when disastrous situations occur, and you see human nature at its roots for what it is. Yeah, we all “hope for the best,” but start preparing yourself mentally for what may be lurking just around the corner. We’ve outlined some basic diseases, and believe it or not, the best preventative measures are simple to place into operation.

When you’ve lived in the woods a long time, or been in the field on deployments, you understand the practicality (coupled with the necessity) of field hygiene and sanitation. With a collapse – in any of the forms mentioned at the beginning of this piece – you’ll have to rely on your wits and initiative to make it through after the initial occurrence. You’ll have to fight smart, not just hard, in order to defeat the pathogens.

They’re not evil. They’re organisms, trying to survive in the manner that they know how, that is instinctive to them. If you understand that going into it, then your focus can be placed on the steps you must take to defeat them, and to negate the conditions under which they thrive and multiply. These are the basics…the building blocks to lay your foundation with in your survival community, regardless of its size.

Think with your head and also with your heart. Prioritize what we’ve covered. You have to “game” it from a scenario that you may even be caught away from home…with next to nothing, except what is on your person or in your vehicle. “Game” the entire spectrum of possibilities in your mind and on paper. You can do it! Others may be depending on you, so first and foremost, have faith in yourself.

Keep in that good fight, and pray without ceasing. JJ out!

What are your thoughts?

Are there any diseases you would add to this list? Do you have any additional suggestions for preventative measures? Share your opinions in the comments.

Editor’s Note: Again, I cannot stress enough the importance of properly filtered water. Boiling is not enough to eliminate all of the risks. Thankfully, this water filtration system is currently on sale. It couldn’t have come at a better time.

About Jeremiah Johnson

Jeremiah Johnson is the nom de plume of a retired Green Beret of the U.S. Army Special Forces.  Mr. Johnson is also a Gunsmith and a Master Herbalist.  He graduated from the Special Forces course at SERE (survival, evasion, resistance, and escape) School, and is an expert in small unit tactics, survival, and disaster-preparedness.  He lives in a cabin in the Rocky Mountains of Western Montana.

Article cross-posted from The Organic Prepper.