Category: Ebola

What is Quarantine during an Outbreak?

During a disease outbreak, you may need to quarantine your family to keep the disease from entering your home. But it’s challenging to isolate your family if you don’t have supplies on hand to survive for a long time. A lot of people do not know what is quarantine and how you do it.

what is quarantine

You may also encounter a situation where you have a sick family member that needs to be quarantined from the rest of the household. If you don’t come in close contact with a virus, you can’t get sick from it. 

We learned a bit from the worldwide Covid-19 pandemic, and people’s general failure to take social distancing seriously. With older adults, people with a compromised immune system, or other issues? It was life-threatening for many and hard to watch people on “Spring Break” romping on the Florida beaches when we were all trying to be responsible.

Some of these tips may seem a bit extreme but consider the situation. If we are talking about Ebola, they seem more understandable. For those with family members with high-risk factors? It makes a little bit more sense. It pays to plan ahead, as once a pandemic hits? It is hard to find supplies. These tips should help anyone who wonders : “What is Quarantine”

How to Quarantine Your Family During an Outbreak

The purpose of quarantine, then, is to prevent the possibility of coming into contact with a virus that can be deadly and spread quickly – just as the common cold is easily spread.

Keep Disease Out of Your Home

If the purpose of quarantine is to keep a healthy family member well, you’ll need to be prepared ahead of time with all of the supplies you need for food, sanitation, and hygiene. 

keep disease out of your home

You’ll want to seal off the outside entrances of your home using duct tape and plastic sheeting to cover doors and windows. Most people find it helpful to cut out plastic sheeting ahead of time that will fit these entrances so that in times of stress, all you have to do is tape them up. Make sure you label them for ease of the job.

It’s essential to have a designated area outdoors where you’ll place items such as used bags for personal waste. It’s not a good idea to store these in your home because they increase the risk of developing a host of diseases. We really like these Double Doodie Bags that fit a 5-gallon pail.

Once you’re sheltered in place, you’ll want to keep communication lines open with radio communication so that you’ll know when it’s safe to leave your home.

How is your first aid kit?

Make sure your medical kit is up to snuff too – we love MediTac for our supplies – and they have free shipping for all orders over $50. We keep a kit at home, one in the camper, and one in each car.

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What to Do When a Family Member Is Ill

A more likely scenario when it comes to illness is that you’ll have one or more members of your family who have become ill. Those people will need to be quarantined in a room of your home or another nearby place. 

For example, if you have a motor home, cabin, or detached garage, you can use these as quarantine areas. These rooms need to be sealed off with duct tape and plastic sheeting. 

how to make a quarantine kit

You’ll also need to place a sign on the entrance stating that it is a confined area. This sign warns people to stay out unless they’re wearing protective clothing. Right outside the door, you’ll need to set up a sanitation area that contains soap, water, latex gloves, masks, and other protective equipment as required. 

Before people enter the room, they need to put on the proper protective gear. Before returning to the rest of the household, they need to properly dispose of gloves, masks, and other disposable items and make sure they wash their hands thoroughly.

Do You Have kids?

We haven’t seen a lot of the quarantine culture in our country as vaccines have been developed to handle everything from Measles to Small Pox. (thank goodness!) I remember the stories from my own grandpa about signs on the houses, etc. from when he was a boy.

It can be a very scary time for the littles – so maybe practice with a loved stuffy or two prior to any event actually occurring. Once they are comfortable with the concepts, or idea? They will be a part of your team in the event of any real emergency.

Other posts you may find helpful:

what is quarantine article for families cover image of mecial supplies

Panic Buying, the Real Problem

When a hurricane is predicted to hit an area and be a fairly nasty one. When a pandemic hits and locals schools and churches are closed. When a blizzard is expected. That is when panic buying starts to be a key factor in why prepping for disaster is a way to go.

panic buying

Panic Buying, the Real Problem

Let’s look at the COVID-19 Pandemic as an example: panic buying at its best. While you can do a quick Twitter search for the hashtag #Panicbuying and see for yourself, there is a huge selection of photos and videos on shelf clearing, physical fights over things like toilet paper, and hoarders. While the memes make you chuckle for a moment, if you take a second to think, it is sad and scary.

Panic Buying Definition

Panic buying occurs when consumers buy unusually large amounts of a product in anticipation of, or after, a disaster or perceived disaster, or in anticipation of an incredibly large price increase or shortage.

Yup – that is certainly what happened when people realized COVID-19 was a more serious thing than they had originally thought.

Panic Buying Effects

It screws up the balance of supply & demand and then leads to a major disruption of the supply chain. You would then hit empty shelves, and possible price gouging as stores know they have what you absolutely need and will probably pay what they ask for.

Yup – we saw this. A lot of empty shelves, and then places like Walmart raising prices on everything from toilet paper to ground beef.

Panic Buying Jokes

Sometimes you simply need to laugh. We were all scared, there was so much that was unknown, and the information we were living by changed every day it seemed. Humor came to our rescue.

Here are a few of my favorite jokes:

Ran out of toilet paper and started using lettuce leaves. Today was just the tip of the iceberg, tomorrow romaines to be seen.

Yesterday I ran out of soap and body wash and all I could find was dish detergent. Then it Dawned on me.

How did the health experts lie? They said a mask and gloves was enough to go to the grocery store. When I got there, everyone else had clothes on.

What do you call panic-buying of sausage and cheese in Germany? The wurst-kase scenario.

The grocery stores in France look like tornadoes hit them. All that’s left is de brie.

Some of the first things to vanish

Toilet paper.

Not a square can be found on any shelf, in any store. With the COVID-19 being a respiratory illness, that was surprising and something most stores didn’t see coming. Everyone knew the handsoap, hand sanitizer, and disinfecting wipes would vanish quickly, but the toilet paper was a stunner.

panic buying toilet paper

Medical supplies.

Think of what you need when you have the flu; things to help with an intake of fluids and rest. Gatorade, broth, juice, meds to help lower a fever, and Kleenex. These items were cleared out of stores quickly, along with any over-the-counter flu and cold medicines.

Meat.

People were grabbing multiple packs of ground beef and chicken. We saw one lady grab 12 packs of chicken! The poor guy in the meat department couldn’t get stuff on the shelves fast enough, people were taking it right out of his hands or out of the boxes he was pulling items from.

panic buying where stores limit amount of items to be purchased with signs

Canned Goods.

Spagettios, baked beans, and even soup seemed to vanish. Many stores started putting up signs that said “no more than 4 of each kind” to limit the hoarding and make sure everyone had enough to go around.

Bread.

Let’s face it, schools are out and sandwiches are the fast and easy fix for feeding the kiddos. Peanut butter and jelly are a quick go-to for most families, along with eggs and toast. White bread seemed to be the winner over wheat, vanishing faster than you could blink.

Panic Buying Costco

Even Costco was out of things like toilet paper – and soon put limits onto how much of certain items you were allowed to purchase. It took 8 months for the “limit of one” case of toilet paper signs to disappear.

So let’s make a list

Looking ahead, it pays to have an adequate stock of the things we already talked about. You can avoid the panic buying and fighting people at the stores to just pick up your weekly list. Granted, this makes a lot of sense to spread out over a period of time. It is easier on the pocketbook, for one thing.

  • Pain Reliever
  • Fever Reducer
  • Toilet Paper
  • Feminine Hygiene Items
  • Hand Sanitizer
  • Disinfecting Wipes
  • Kleenex
  • Band-Aids
  • Rubbing Alcohol or Peroxide
  • Soap
  • Household cleaning supplies
  • Antacids
  • Canned Meat (easy to do yourself with ground beef and chicken!)
  • Canned Veggies
  • Canned Fruit
  • Canned Soups
  • Vegetable oil
  • Juice
  • Gatorade
  • Cereals
  • Beans
  • Lentils
  • Pasta
  • Pasta Sauces
  • Peanut Butter
  • Jelly
  • Dried Fruit
  • Nuts
  • Powdered Milk
  • Pet items
  • Candy
  • Supplies for Baking like: flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, brown sugar, powdered sugar

There are a lot of other things to consider, and if you join our mailing list? You will get a 52-week stock up plan that helps you build your inventory with a minimal investment each week. You will be prepared for the next big emergency and not have to worry about panic buying. You can stay home with your toilet paper and lookup #panicbuying on Twitter and enjoy and chuckle at the memes and craziness.

Other posts you may find interesting:

panic buying costco

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