Prepping for COVID?

There's an old saying: Stay one step ahead of the crowd, and people will call you a genius. Two steps ahead, and they'll call you a crackpot.

I've been in crackpot range for a long time now, and I've gotten used to it. My kids like to tell their friends that I grew a lot of their food and made a lot of things from scratch "before it was, like, cool to do that." (To finally achieve coolness in my kids' eyes is perhaps the greatest achievement of my 50s.) 

And now, I've probably re-entered the crackpot crowd. I've started stocking up on a few things for COVID, just in case.

First of all, let's talk reality: The COVID virus is going to be no worse than a really bad flu season, for most. For age groups like mine, it's about 98 percent non-fatal. But non-fatal doesn't mean easy. The virus spreads very easily among people, and can knock you on your ass for awhile. 

So in my mind, it's good to be prepared, in case the hospitals are overwhelmed and businesses are closed for awhile, as they have been in cities in Asia and Europe where COVID has been found.

So how to best stock up for a period of semi-quarantining? I ran two scenarios before deciding what to buy -- in one scenario, we are healthy, and in the other, one or both of us is sick, but not sick enough to need hospitalization. 

For the healthy scenario, I spent about a week noting what things we used each and every day. For a lot of stuff, I just have been picking up an extra bag/bottle/package of whatever I'm buying, to set aside and store. Easy. I made sure we have a lot of food on hand that we like (we will have champagne, wine and craft beers with dinner because that's how we roll in disaster).

But honestly, I did also buy a few things we'll only use in a real emergency, like canned veggies and chicken, Spam, bagged beans and rice. We're lucky to have fresh eggs available, and hopefully summer garden vegetables to supplement what we're eating, plus a good assortment of spices to experiment with and make meals more varied. But if the runs on the supermarkets look anything like they did in Italy this week, you may want to make sure you have enough to eat, from stuff you love to stuff you'll tolerate. And in case of nutritional holes, I also made sure we have good multi-vitamins on hand -- enough to last a few months.

There's also our pets. I would guess the most expensive items I bought this week, other than medicine, was a healthy backstock of dog food, cat food, chicken feed, and cat litter. But if you're trying to stay out of the madding crowd, you're as likely to need pet food as you are human food so it makes sense to take care of your pets and livestock while you're stocking up. 

The next area I looked at was paper goods -- things like toilet paper, obviously, but also paper eating and drinking utensils (I figure if one of us is sick we may want the infected person to eat off single-use plates, bowls and cups for sanitary reasons). Next, I picked up hygiene items, like Lysol, liquid bleach and wipes. And trash bags, aluminum foil, wax paper and other household goods we use all the time.

And finally, medications. I thought about what I like to have around when I get sick, so we now have extra Nyquil, Mucinex, ibuprofen, and Gatorade. And I always keep a course or two of antibiotics stowed away in case of antibiotic-treatable infections or issues. (Again, this is to avoid going to a potentially COVID-overcrowded hospital unless absolutely necessary). 

So what about masks? I'm not sure of the efficacy of masks, but again, better safe than sorry, especially if one of us gets sick and must care for the other. So yes, we have N95 respirator masks on hand, and gloves. But if you want some, get them now, because they are already in short supply at the local home improvement stores. There are more crackpots out there than you realize.

Normally, I'd say the biggest enemy of being semi-quarantined would be boredom. But with cable TV and the internet, that won't be as bad as it might have been for people trying to avoid the Spanish Flu in the early 1900s. And at least since we're in a more rural area it's probably safe to step out in the yard for some fresh air and sunshine. And maybe start learning Italian or Spanish via computer when I'm not beating Big Ag at Scrabble. (Gano de neuvo, Señor.)

You know, really, it's probably not so much the end of the world for the vast majority of us, but it may be a weird and significant bump in the road of 2020. So start up your crockpots, crackpots. Things may get very interesting from here on in.