Archive for Pandemic

What if the COVID-19 Narrative is a Lie?

Through experience, I have learned to heavily doubt and question nearly all narratives coming from governments.  However, when it comes to communist governments such as in China, one must be far more skeptical and not believe anything until proven otherwise.  This is the case with the Wuhan Pandemic designated COVID-19.  As it stands, we are led to believe that this virus spontaneously jumped from some unknown species to humans and began spreading through the population in China circa December 2019.  We already know for sure that China lied to the world about everything we can validate from the outside such as when it actually began to spread and the fact that it does spread from person-to-person contrary to China’s initial claims.  What this should tell you is if the easily verified “facts” coming from China were all lies, then it is reasonable to assume they have zero credibility, were covering up, and nothing they said can be believed.  Understanding this should lead a logical person to ask then, “If the Chinese narrative is a lie, then what are the implications?”  The implications are nothing short of massive and could upend everything we have been led to believe about the virus.

Nothing about this virus is what, as an armchair observer, I would consider “normal.”  I honestly do not care if I have an MD before or after my name.  I am a thinking person and reserve the right to use my own knowledge, experience, and study just like anyone else to deduce truth.  Further, let us be honest.  The “experts” have been wrong at about every point in this pandemic so we can dispense with any notion only the scientists can understand this virus.  At the top of my list is the inability to sustain immunity to the virus.  Although not unheard of, most people will develop a lasting immunity to a disease if they survive it.  With COVID-19, it is becoming clear that there is no long-term immunity conveyed.  In addition, this virus seems to affect the body in ways other “flus” usually do not.  For example, this disease goes far beyond the lungs and seems to effect one’s neurological system and heart.  Survivors of bad cases are debilitated for life.  I also find that it can travel and spread for weeks in asymptomatic patients while others get it and fall gravely ill noteworthy.  Why do some act as spreaders with little or no ill effects while others drop dead?  Looking at the bigger picture, I think that China’s lockdown of a billion people was an extreme response if not understood in context. 

This is not an exhaustive list of COVID-19 novel properties, but it certainly should raise questions about what we know and what we are dealing with.  One may expect to see one of these properties, but in aggregate, it suggests that there is something more sinister about this virus.  To me, I have only found one narrative that explains everything we are seeing.  To work, the narrative must explain the lies and coverups, the draconian response in China, and the unique properties of this virus.  Using this logic, my narrative says that the current narrative is false because it fails to explain what we are witnessing and therefore should not be believed as fact.  Everything the Establishment has told us has proved to be wrong or a lie later whether intentional disinformation or simply incompetence.  Second, I am becoming convinced that China was experimenting with deadly pathogens at a lab when one was released. 

The first big clue is location.  You cannot dismiss the fact that a major bioresearch facility is in precisely the place where the pandemic began.  The second clue is the initial claims about the spread beginning in a food market have all been debunked.  The third clue is that China lied and tried to coverup something that if innocent, did not require any coverup.  The fourth clue is the military lockdown of a billion people in China.  The fifth clue is the properties of this virus seem to be a chimera of desirable traits in a weaponized pathogen.  Based on this, I think it is fair to explore the possibility that this was a bioweapon under development.  It certainly should not be dismissed out of hand.  Anyone that says otherwise should be suspect in this conspiracy because by no means has that been ruled out.  A case in point is the World Health Organization, which while taking massive sums of money from China, was complicit in passing China’s false narrative to the world.  Whether this was deliberate or not is not material for this discussion. What’s material is that China was using its mouthpieces to present a false narrative for some specific reason that must be identified. Mainstream narratives also claim there are no signs its genetic code was artificially modified.  This is a big red herring designed to throw anyone off the track.  The qualifier is what jumps out at me.  What it does not say in fact is more telling.  Specifically, the narrative deliberately ignores the fact that no gene editing or artificial process are required to develop a bioweapon.  In fact, natural processes that can be accelerated in a lab would be a rather basic method to develop a bioweapon.  As such, drawing attention to the still unverified “fact” this disease did not show characteristics of gene splicing in no way removes the possibility it was still being developed in a lab.  This is classic misinformation because it makes a true claim that is intended to deceive versus disinformation, which is a factually untrue statement meant to deceive.  I do not see any of this as accidental or coincidental.  This is deliberate with very intended effects.   

The bioweapon theory would explain the coverup.  This theory would also explain why China did not hesitate to use the military to lockdown over a billion people.  Specifically, if China saw this as anything other than a weaponized virus that could have disastrous implications for its country, it would not have turned off its industry costing its economy trillions of dollars.  Let us be honest, China has for many years sought to reduce its population and actively kills dissidents and babies.  Losses from a flu by a communist government that killed an estimated 80 million of its own people simply would not trigger the military response we witnessed in China.  More likely, China knew exactly what it was dealing with and desperately acted to stop it.  Once it realized it could not stop or contain it, China sought to spread the damage to ensure the rest of the world was also brought down a notch.  China certainly could not afford to have its population and economy devastated while its competitors remained unscathed.  I believe this is why China locked down its borders, but actively exported its population via air travel to the far corners of the world.  Finally, and most consequential, this theory explains the unique qualities of how the virus spreads and effects a population.  As such, until such time as information comes forth that can conclusively refute this virus came from a lab, we need to treat it as a plausible explanation. 

Considering the theory as plausible, one must ask what the implications of this great lie would be.  In short, if this is a bioweapon, all bets are off.  We cannot approach a weaponized pathogen in the same way we deal with a traditional pathogen.  Therefore, accurate information is so important.  If this theory is correct, we must recognize that things like an effective vaccine could be a fantasy.  We need to also realize that there could be many long-term negative complications we have not even begun to identify.  This is why I recommend caution to anyone thinking that they are young and healthy and therefore not at risk.  The entire assumption is based on COVID-19 being a natural phenomenon and not a bioweapon.  If it turns out to be a bioweapon and the mainstream narrative was just one more lie in a string of lies, it may take years to discover that having the disease imparts other complications like a compromised immune systems such as with HIV/AIDS.  For example, there are plenty of conflicting studies and reports on whether this is a retrovirus and will flare back up later in life when your immune system and health is far less likely to be able to defeat it.  At minimum, if no immunity is conveyed, as long as the virus is in the population, it does not matter because you are at risk.  This disease may also mutate to a more lethal form, which you typically do not see in natural viruses, if it has been engineered as a weapon.  It could even cause your immune system to have horrible reactions to other pathogens or immunizations.  Remember too that that if this is a bioweapon, there is a strong motive for even our government to suppress the truth.  After all, once the virus is out, what benefit would there be to telling the population they were just exposed to a bioweapon?  Think about it.  A government seeks to control the population.  The fear and panic that would result from this knowledge would make everything that is happening now seem like nothing.  The government will put maintaining control above your safety every time.  The truth is we do not know much about the Wuhan Pandemic and should therefore explore this possibility since the implications are so dire.  These are real questions about real complications and not kooky beliefs.  Until we can definitely answer the questions posed in this article, I recommend being skeptical and taking all precautions very seriously.

By Guiles Hendrik,

July 20, 2020

Will Negative Oil Prices Finally End the Petrodollar… and America as We Know It?

Image Source: https://www.sbcgold.com/blog/will-petrodollar-collapse/

Yesterday, the “impossible” happened.  Oil traded below $0.  In fact, not by a little, but by up to $40 dollars.  Not only is oil now cheaper than water, but it is so cheap, producers are having to pay people to take it.  The energy markets are imploding.  Obviously, this isn’t a sustainable situation and horrific for anyone invested in the energy market.  However, while all the talking heads are focused on the immediate problems this creates, a far bigger financial storm is brewing that no one in the mainstream media (MSM) dares to discuss. This financial storm has a very real potential of spiraling out of control and destroying the reserve status of the U.S. Dollar by disrupting, if not destroying, the Petrodollar.  The impact would not be some distant crisis in the Middle East, but would be the destruction of the standard of living every America has come to know and expect.

Many have heard the term “Petrodollar,” but few understand what it represents and how critical it is to America’s global dominance.  Here are two links to help: https://internationalman.com/articles/timing-the-collapse-ron-paul-says-watch-the-petrodollar/; https://www.investopedia.com/terms/p/petrodollars.asp The very simplified explanation is that almost all commodities (wheat, hogs, gold, oil, etc.) are traded and settled globally in U.S. Dollars.  This represents the broader application of the term Petrodollar, which was originally used to denote just the purchase of oil.  This means countries must purchase dollars to trade.  This arrangement is critical for the United States and came out of the post-World War II Bretton Woods financial agreement that established the U.S. Dollar as the world’s reserve currency.  At the time, the U.S. controlled most of the gold in the world and the dollar was backed by gold and redeemable for gold.  During the Nixon era, the U.S. announced it no longer would back its dollars with gold, which significantly decreased demand for dollars. To protect the dollar’s reserve status post-Gold Standard, the Petrodollar system was established. The system created a reliable buyer of our debt by Middle Eastern oil producers.  Since then, the U.S. has allowed the dollar’s value to float in order to finance trillions of dollars in subsequent debt spending.  This has led to a steady devaluation of the dollar.  In spite of this, the dollar is still the best bet in town and countries continue to use it as the primary means of settling trade and storing wealth. The Petrodollar arrangement, in effect, has allowed the U.S. to create and spend enormous sums of money without massive inflation since there has been a large and reliable source of buyers for our debt in the form of U.S. Treasury Bonds and users of the U.S. Dollar for trade.  Note that treasury bonds are the biggest category of U.S. debt and are backed by the U.S. government’s ability to tax in order to pay back the debt issued through the bonds.  Up until now, this has generally worked since the demand for dollars has counterbalanced the supply of dollars, which has maintained a reasonable stasis in currency value.  However, we have just experienced the most destabilizing impact in modern history on this relationship.

Specific to the Petrodollar, the U.S. has had a longstanding deal with the major Middle Eastern oil producers to buy their oil in dollars in exchange for them to use our dollars to buy massive amounts of our treasury bonds (our debt).  To maintain this relationship, we have “looked the other way” and provided significant political and military protection to these countries; despite the fact they are brutal totalitarian monarchies and about as un-American as it gets.  Now, as oil demand continues to plummet and global commerce vapor locks, much as predicted in previous articles, this is creating a situation where no one has the ability to buy our treasury bonds (our debt). Simultaneously, the use of U.S. Dollars drops off a cliff.  Compounding that situation is the need for nations holding our treasury bonds (our debt) to cash out their holdings to finance covering the cost of their economic losses incurred as the pandemic spreads across the globe.  This is occurring just as the U.S. is creating massive amounts of additional dollars (more debt), which it needs to sell in the form of treasury bonds to finance its domestic bailouts.  This is creating a perfect storm.

Remember, the purchase of our debt by Middle Eastern oil producers has been a critical cornerstone of the dollar’s survival since the currency was removed from the Gold Standard.  Ultimately, there are only two ways this debt is paid for.  It is either paid back by higher taxes or by creating more money and additional debt, which causes inflation and then hyperinflation if no one is able or willing to buy the debt.  The latter appears to be what is developing as the big buying oil producers go broke and no politician in Washington is ready to roll out a huge tax hike on Americans.  Historically, when presented with this situation, governments have opted for printing cash and obliterating the value of their currency.  This has always led to a currency crisis. Once the stability of a currency is in question, people abandon its use. For the U.S. Dollar, this would mean its use as a reserve currency would end or be heavily diminished. This is why the crisis could be catastrophic and no one from the MSM is willing to touch the subject. 

Make no mistake, we are still early in this crisis.  The global impacts are only just beginning to be felt and much is still unknown.  The crisis this pandemic has initiated (I say initiated since the U.S. economy was already in a massive bubble and primed to collapse) will persist for months and years, not weeks.  The economic consequences may well last decades and lead to a total reset.  In addition, few have attempted to recognize the grim reality for what it is and think through the catastrophic consequences of how the collapse of the Petrodollar could play out.  The dominoes have begun to fall and where they lead is truly scary.

So, what could this domino effect look like?  At minimum, the major oil producing countries in the Middle East are facing a legitimate crisis that is likely to topple some, if not most, of their monarchies if the depressed oil prices persist another six to twelve months.  Remember, these dictatorships have used their oil revenue to maintain power through brutal oppression and paying off their populations by generous welfare systems.  Without oil money, these hated regimes will fall and fall fast, which is one of the few silver linings of this unholy alliance with dictatorships.  With them will fall the Petrodollar.  Without the Petrodollar system, the U.S. will be facing staggering levels of inflation and the dollar’s status as the reserve currency will not only be jeopardized, but most likely lost.  This leads to even higher levels of inflation and a rapid collapse in the standard of living.  At this point, the U.S. government will be incapable of funding social welfare programs and sustaining the massive bureaucracy it created.  This leads to an endgame reset with social unrest and political upheaval.  Let’s hope this chain of events can be stopped, but the reality is at best, with close to $30 trillion in rapidly growing debt, the crisis can be only temporarily interrupted and delayed.  The endgame is now set.

Note: I am far from the first to point out the issues with the Petrodollar or suggest the system is or will collapse. However, I believe that unlike previously, we are in a situation where the reality is more likely than ever before. See: https://peakoil.com/business/the-coming-collapse-of-the-petrodollar-system; https://www.sovereignman.com/podcast/the-petrodollar-is-collapsing-and-its-one-of-the-biggest-opportunities-in-the-world-right-now-14975/; https://www.sovereignman.com/trends/the-last-time-this-happened-the-us-went-to-war-to-defend-its-interests-14979/; https://nationalinterest.org/feature/the-end-the-petrodollar-25002

By Guiles Hendrick

April 19, 2020

Absurdities of the Coronavirus Lockdown

Today is simply venting about the absurdities I have witnessed over the course of the last few months.  Feel free to comment and add to what amounts to a lengthy and admittedly far from comprehensive list.  I could care less if you agree or disagree.  This is simply an exercise in mental health. 

To start my list, I am tired of the idiotic retort of “the coronavirus is not really bad because (fill in the blank) kills (fill in the blank) people each year.”  This comparison logic is void of any understanding of the logarithmic spread of a contagious disease.  A fair analogy of this logic would be an officer on the first day of World War I and telling his soldiers that it’s absurd to worry about this new device called a machine gun because only a few people have been killed by them.  How about this instead?  In a matter of just a few months, the COVID-19 has wiped out more Americans than all of America’s senseless wars in the last forty years?  These are thousands of people that would be upright and walking and talking had a very nasty virus not hopped from China to the United States.  All deadly diseases start by killing a single person.  The point isn’t that only a single person has died; it’s how many people could die if it isn’t prevented. 

I am tired of talking about “peak” infections.  Does it really matter if 977 people die instead of 983?  Can we agree that its horrible either way?  As long as we have the virus in our communities it will rapidly spread.  Remember we started with zero infections and within weeks, absent social distancing, we had thousands of infections.  As such, I am curious how it is okay to start with, say 1,300 infections, and think that the result will be any different.

I am tired of people who can’t “deal” with reality.  Get over it snowflakes and toughen up.  Newsflash, you don’t have a right to the world being perfect.  You wanted to socialize everything else, so why not risk and hardship?  After all, that is the result of socialist policies so take good notes.  No matter how much you deny reality, you are not immune from the consequences of your denial.  In fact, it’s healthy your normalcy bias was shattered.  Look at it as being cured of a state of chronic mental illness for free.  Oh, and yes, it is possible you are faced with nothing but bad options.  A statement comes to mind that many grunts can appreciate, “welcome to the suck.” 

I am tired of the Left race baiting and trying to politicize the suffering during this pandemic.  The disease is not racist contrary to the absurd proclamations from these divisive subversives openly operating in the United States.  The disease kills irrespective of race, gender, or class much to the chagrin of these radicals.  Further, whether they like it or not, it kills unhealthy people at much higher rates.  I hope this wasn’t a big surprise.  In particular, if you are obese, chances are you have a pre-existing condition that will be exasperated by this disease whether you are a fat white person that smokes in Appalachia or a fat black person that smokes in the inner-city.  If you don’t like it, I would recommend accepting some responsibility and living a healthier lifestyle. 

I am tired of over-zealous police acting as if they are Gestapo agents demanding “your papers.”  “Voluntary” recommendations should be the operative term.  Going about your life…as in traveling, recreating, eating, working, visiting, etc. is not a crime.  Only in the worst of authoritarian regimes would a human be stripped of what amounts to one of the most basic human rights…the right to pursue the means of subsistence.  How exactly is jailing a person for walking down the street helping to prevent disease spread?   Our bureaucrats do not understand the most basic relationships between cause and effect.  These newly imprisoned people not only present a serious risk of bringing the disease into to the isolated prison population, but also acquiring it and then being released soon thereafter and spreading it back to the public.  Ironically, the unnecessary contact exposes our police and judicial officials to a far greater risk of infection, which may be a form of poetic justice.  The mounting number of government abuses from fines to outright imprisonment of citizens is intolerable. 

I am tired of neighbors ratting out each other as if they are informants for the East German Stasi.  I am all for outing these loyalists to the Crown.  What kind of self-respecting American calls the police on their neighbor for cooking out or playing catch in their own backyard?  Further, how stupid are these people?  Do they not know even the most basic facts about viral spread?  This is chilling.  Please do everything you can to shame these “Karens” into a bit more old fashion anti-establishment American rebellion for the good of everyone.

I am tired of releasing prison populations into unprepared communities.  Don’t get me wrong, I believe many thousands of people are unjustly imprisoned every year and many never should have been jailed.  I am not debating that point.  What is of concern is that thousands of convicted criminals are suddenly being released from jail with no money, no job, no place to stay and no hope of finding any of the aforementioned necessities under the current circumstances.  A thinking person would recognize this is rather destabilizing and could quickly lead to a spike in crime for any community victimized by a sudden dumping of inmates in their backyard. 

I am tired of people that have spent their entire lives supporting anti-gun measures suddenly racing out to buy a gun.  If you don’t own a gun yet, you should be prevented from purchasing a firearm until this crisis has passed.  The only background check should be to see if you have previously purchased a gun and are in good standing with the Second Amendment.  For once, the anti-gun advocates should have to suffer the consequences for blindly stating their entire lives that there is no reason for a person to own a gun.  Further, these people truly don’t know what in the hell they are doing with a firearm and epitomize everything they feared about reckless gun owners.  Now that these hypocrites are forced to admit that security could quickly deteriorate and the government cannot protect them, we shouldn’t let them off the hook before their lesson is learned. 

I am tired of the term “worker” as if we are some type of Bolshevik slaves.  Terms like citizens, employees, managers, business owners, or even a generic statement like people recently unemployed would be fitting, but President Trump unthinkingly taking his talking points from Bernie Sanders is a bridge too far.  Workers of the world unite!

I am tired of how people reflexively turn to the government for an immediate “fix” even though the government’s failures are to blame for the spread of the virus within the United States.  Why would anyone expect the organization most responsible for this colossal failure to have the solution?  Do people not realize hundreds of billions of dollars and entire organizations within  the Departments of Defense and Homeland Security (FEMA) as well as our intelligence agencies and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are specifically tasked with preparedness, early warning, defense, resilience, and recovery in the event of a biological threat?  Further, where are all the open borders activists and globalists demanding we produce everything cheaply overseas?  At what point will these organizations and their leadership be held to account?  At minimum, considering the time and money spent over the decades, the government should have stockpiled personal protective equipment for healthcare providers and the population.  It is simply inexcusable that our nation was caught unprepared and by surprise considering the massive amount of money dedicated to intelligence.  This failure is on par with Pearl Harbor.

I am tired of global corporations and financial institutions that made reckless risk decisions getting trillion dollar bailouts.  These corporate executives are making millions running unprofitable failing companies, but the taxpayers get what?  A bill?  Hell, we don’t even get stock options in these lousy companies.  Let them fail.  Instead of stock buybacks, perhaps they should have built some savings.  How is it that Joe the Plumber is responsible for bailing out a company like Boeing, which was failing long before any pandemic?  Boeing has horrible management made up of former career bureaucrats, quality control levels so poor they are producing aircraft with debris in fuel tanks, and have been producing aircraft more unsafe than jets designed decades ago while charging astronomical prices.  The company should fail or have to radically clean up its act.  Nonetheless, somehow their gross mismanagement is the problem of the taxpayer through a system of cronyism and socialist government policies.  This cannot end well. 

I am tired of hearing how we have the “best economy in history” even though that statement is based on incredibly manipulated numbers and what amounts to complete revisionist history.  We have known for years that we have been living in one of the biggest bubbles ever created.  The financial markets have soared to record highs as a result of manipulation by the Federal Reserve, but are underpinned by nothing.  Anyone with sense knew this bubble would burst sooner or later.  The only question was what would pop the bubble.  Admittedly, this is the subject of an entire dissertation so I will leave it at this.  If it truly was the best economy in history, why did it collapse in a week and if it didn’t, why did it need (as of this week) six trillion in tax dollars to bail it out?    

I am tired of how our government conspires with the Federal Reserve to conjure trillions of dollars out of thin air and then pretends that there are no negative consequences.  Are Americans really so naïve as to believe the middle class isn’t going to get stuck with the bill?  The poor can’t pay and the rich don’t pay.  Put another way, I will be happy to give a two thousand dollar check to any sucker willing to give me ten thousand dollars in “taxes” to pay for me giving them the two thousand dollars.  This is literally what the government is doing to “help” and it appears Americans are truly dumb enough to think this is beneficial. 

Finally, I am tired of people’s apathy and immediate acquiescence to even the most draconian government dictates.  Do we honestly think Google has our best interests in mind volunteering to help track us for the government? This sounds an awful lot like what China does to control its population. For once, many of the “workers” don’t have to be at work.  There is no excuse why we all shouldn’t be marching on our state capitals demanding our Rights instead of sheepishly ignoring the draconian precedents being set daily.  It’s true; no good crisis should go to waste.  However, rather than allowing us to be manipulated by fear into giving up more Rights, let’s use this chance to take back the ones we have lost. 

By Guiles Hendrik

April 11, 2020

The 2019-nCoV Wuhan Novel Coronavirus: Where we stand, what is to come, and what should you do

By now, unless you are already off-grid, you know that a viral outbreak, which began in China, has now gone global. There should be no doubt this is going to cause massive disruptions across the globe, yet due to what many politely refer to as “normalcy bias,” Americans appear oblivious. Even those that are paying attention seem to be under an illusion that the government has a secret plan that will spare the United States from the chaos now spreading across China. Now, as the numbers of infected explode exponentially higher globally, the questions people should be asking are what should I do and when. This is no longer any question of “if” this virus is going to become a pandemic. This pandemic will be a game changer that cannot be averted. So now what?

What should we do is the question I hear most often? As we sit on the eve of a truly global catastrophe, I can’t help thinking that this has eerie similarities to how Americans ignored the warnings as Hurricane Katrina barreled toward the Gulf Coast. In spite of what were very clear warnings and indications Hurricane Katrina was going to cause massive damage, people chose to ignore the ugly reality. Instead of taking action, they found comfort in creating a false reality where nothing changed and everything was going to be okay. Those people died as the levies burst and Katrina’s storm surge poured into the low-lying neighborhoods of New Orleans. The normalcy bias is lethal and you must break free of it mentally. For what it’s worth, Wikipedia defines normalcy bias as “a tendency for people to believe that things will always function the way they have normally functioned and therefore underestimate both the likelihood of a disaster and its possible effects.” The site goes on to claim up to 70% of people display a normalcy bias during a disaster. Americans more than any other people seem to be taught from birth that they have a “right” to happiness and will willfully ignore reality. In fact, many Americans will simply refuse to listen to bad news if it doesn’t fit their created “reality.” Unfortunately for them, denial of reality has never made a person immune from the consequences of reality. As such, the first thing you need to do is realize the gravity of the situation.

How bad will it get is the natural follow-up question. The truth is no one totally knows, but we do have some good insights based on what is occurring in the rest of the world. No one should be under any illusion that people are going to be forced to stay home in mass quarantines of entire cities and regions. All public gatherings will be cancelled. All non-essential travel will be cancelled. Most if not all public transit will be shut down. Businesses and schools will be forced to close. Hospitals will be overrun. Supply shortages will become acute. The global economy will lose trillions. Social unrest is bound to break out and at least limited martial law may be imposed in some of our major cities. The cumulative effect will be big enough to shake up the global order of things. Further, remember disease is an equal opportunity killer and doesn’t discriminate based on your level of wealth. Without doubt, many older people will die. Some of these people will be elites. If you take the government’s numbers at face value, this virus kills approximately 2.2% of those infected. However, of those infected, it kills a much higher number of the elderly and people with pre-existing conditions such as obesity, diabetes, and heart disease. Take a look at our ruling elites around the world. How many fit that category. By time this is all over, many of them could be dead if a vaccine isn’t quickly developed.

At this point, you are already better off than 70% of the population if Wikipedia is to be believed because you now have internalized as fact, things are not going to be the same. You have overcome the normalcy bias. This is key because now you can properly appreciate the growing body of information to know what post outbreak life will be like. That hurdle is literally the most difficult mental jump for most Americans so congratulations. Now, with your eyes opened, you are ready to make a plan and take action. Let’s look more specifically at key areas and discuss what can be done.

The economic impact is going to be massive. There is just no avoiding this one. The stock market is going to crater so consider liquidating equities that aren’t long hold or gold related. After the markets dropped today, it may be too late to sell your stocks and you have to ride out the storm. For those savvy enough to trade options or short stocks you already know there is money to be made as the market goes down. At minimum, the best advice for most people is to simply start pulling out cash. Keep only what you need in your accounts. As the virus spreads, banks could quickly become insolvent. This will almost undoubtedly lead to banking holidays, freezes, and collapses.

Supply chain disruptions will also become common. Businesses will be forced to shut down operations. China to some degree can attempt to force workers to go back to work (doesn’t appear even in China this has been successful), but for liability reasons alone, forcing employees to come to work in the West is a non-starter. This will quickly lead to widespread supply shortages. Anything you think you will need to hunker down and wait out the storm, you should stock up on now. Based on China, one should prepare to go months, not weeks, without essential supplies if you want to avoid sick people. Further, do not rely on delivery services. As soon as the first stock worker at a fulfillment center falls ill, Amazon and others will be forced to reduce or suspend operations. At the top of your list should be essential medications and non-perishable food stuffs. You can tolerate a lot on a full belly, but once you become hungry, things get ugly fast. In particular, Americans simply do not know what it’s like to go without or starve. Expect people to be very angry if they can’t get their soymilk and beer.

Censorship and false information always go hand-and-hand with major disasters. Let’s start with the internet, news, and tech companies.  China has deleted all but a very few stories that were smuggled out.  Even the doctor that initially called attention to the virus was suppressed and ultimately died in China.  It’s not just China though.  In the West, a popular site called Zero Hedge was banned on Twitter for simply suggesting there could be a link between the virus and scientists in China that had worked on similar pathogens https://www.zerohedge.com/.  Most would not have even cared or noticed, but it was enough to send the censors into a frenzy.  Why not allow the readers to make up their own minds?  You see, during a crisis, the governments must control the narrative.  Truth has to be what they create or it will be censored.  We have words for this…propaganda, misinformation, and disinformation.  This isn’t good for you or society and certainly hasn’t helped us prepare for the pandemic.  We have already seen China manipulating data and outright lying about the severity of the outbreak. Further, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the World Health Organization (WHO) have been anything but candid. The WHO in particular seems to be parroting communist party lines and kowtowing China’s demands at the expense of sensitizing the rest of the world to the severity of the crisis. Back home, the CDC hasn’t done Americans any favors either and appears far more interested in suppressing the actual number of infected than preparing Americans. Remember, it is always in the government’s interest to attempt to maintain order to maintain their power. Their interest is status quo. If people get upset and unrest breaks-out, they are not there to help you.  They are there to control you. They are there to ensure they stay in power. In almost every case, this means you are the one that will have to suffer for the “greater good.”

Don’t plan on the government helping you. The government doesn’t have a magic bullet. They simply can’t help everyone. Further, they aren’t good at it as demonstrated by the Department of State’s botched medical evacuations of Americans from China and the Diamond Princess cruise ship in Japan. Instead of helping, expect the government to act in a broad heavy-handed fashion such as locking down entire cities irrespective of the interests of the citizens. Depending on where you happen to be, this may prevent you from escaping the pandemic. In fact, like the people quarantined to the cruise ship, the government’s actions put them at far greater risk. Partial and then full quarantines are almost a certainty and Americans are not going to like it. Also, the “government” isn’t some far off group of superhumans that are immune to this disease. We will be lucky if the garbage men show up to work in most areas. As soon as a soldier shows up on base or at the Pentagon with this virus, the whole place will be closed down. Congress is certainly not going to hold session in D.C. with a major pandemic spreading. Even the White House will be forced to shut its doors and move to an offsite location. Contractors and staffers definitely are not going to be there to support operations. The point is there will be very few people left at work to steer this ship and you are not going to be their priority.

Families are going to be forced to make tough decisions. I can’t make these decisions for you, but you should consider them now. Do you stay together because you or your spouse has an essential job or do you bug out separately? Do you avoid your parents because they are more susceptible to the virus? What about your kids? Who is going to stay home to take care of them? The first child that shows up sick in school will also cause an instant exodus. I doubt many school systems in the U.S. will be able to complete this year without a major disruption. How about pets? Do you have enough feed on-hand to sustain them through a long quarantine?

Where to from here? Is it time to bug out? You ultimately have to make the call. The virus can take weeks to show so by the time “everyone” is sick, it will be too late to bug out. If you are going to go, this week is probably getting close to check-out time if you live in any major city in the U.S. If you are solo or want to risk it, you may get another week, but quarantines can be enacted very rapidly. Now is the time to get things in order, check your gear, restock essentials, and make your plan. Very soon, it will be time to cash out, pack out, and get out.

 

By Guiles Hendrik
February 24, 2020

North Korea to use Chemical and Biological Weapons Against the US

Too many Americans are completely detached from the horrors of war as the US has enjoyed an unprecedented period of peace within its continental borders.  The ability to not know war has been a precious luxury enjoyed for a generation in the US, but is now taken completely for granted.  For most, war is just another form of entertainment like sports games and movies.  In fact, to the average person, there is literally no distinction between the Hollywood war movies and reality.  Why would there be when roughly only four tenths of a percent of the US population is serving in the military and far less have actually fought its wars?  This makes it highly likely most Americans don’t even know a vet.  There are many problems with this disassociation.  However, the most detrimental has been that our nation has become so insulated from war they feel that we can kill with impunity around the globe.  Symptomatic of this condition is the apathy Americans demonstrate to our military intervention overseas.  We now allow our nation to blindly blunder into global conflict without even a debate.  Americans have forgotten the actual human costs and the horrors of what a war is like if it comes to our own shores.  This always ends badly and if a war with North Korea begins, we may very soon learn what it is like to see war again on American soil.

Currently, the Trump Administration has overtly entered or continued US involvement in wars in Yemen, Syria, Afghanistan, and Iraq without any debate, votes, or justification.  Literally, President Trump has picked a new fight every month he has been in office.  My fear is that President Trump is now setting the stage for an unavoidable conflict with North Korea making him five for five.  Let me be clear, I do not believe President Trump has many options left with North Korea.  However, I fear that he will not chose the best courses of action and it will cost the US an incredibly high price.  I don’t say this lightly.  Conflicts in Syria and Iraq have the potential to spread and end in a disaster for the US in large part because they will financially bankrupt our nation and lead to the wholesale slaughter of millions of innocent people.  However, the US has not fought a war since WWII where the adversary had the ability to attack the US mainland.  Am I suggesting North Korea has the ability to physically invade the US and pelt of with missiles?  No.  In fact, North Korea does not have that ability at all.  However, North Korea has the ability to asymmetrically attack the US with some of the most horrendous weapons known to man and you need to be prepared.

War with North Korea is looking more and more inevitable.  Neither side is willing to back down.  If there is to be war, even the best case is still horrible.  The best case would be a surprise US nuclear strike against the North Korean regime and its military installations ending the war quickly and with minimal US and allied casualties.  A far uglier picture emerges if the Trump Administration opted for, even if just initially, a conventional option.  Using conventional weapons would allow North Korea time to deploy not just its conventional weapons, but its chemical, biological, and nuclear weapons.  This would almost guarantee Seoul would be reduced to rubble and tens of thousands of American and South Korean casualties would be incurred within the first 24-48 hours of the conflict.  If the US and South Korean troops had to conventionally fight the entire war, we would be looking at close to a million casualties and our nation utterly bankrupted by the conflict.  Further, this is assuming China doesn’t enter the war, which would truly make it a WWIII endgame scenario and this isn’t at all unlikely.

However, irrespective of the financial cost and the massive loss of life associated with a war in North Korea, Americans, have in their comforts, become totally ignorant of the fact that North Korea has planned for and put in place numerous asymmetric means to attack the US.  To be blunt, North Korea is prepared to attack the US homeland in horrific ways should war break out.  In particular, over the course of time, North Korea is rumored to have smuggled via diplomatic pouches numerous biological and chemical weapons into the US through its United Nations mission in New York.  Disturbingly, once the technology to produce these types of weapons is achieved, and North Korea has achieved it, these weapons are relatively easy to smuggle and very difficult to track.  Adding to the problem is that a very small amount of these weapons can inflict large number of casualties.  If true, literally every city in the US could be simultaneously attacked with a full range of biological and chemical weapons.  In particular, North Korea is already believed to have smuggled VX nerve agent into a foreign country and used it to assassinate a political rival.  In larger quantities, VX could be dispersed over crowded areas to inflict large numbers of casualties and to create massive panic in cities like New York and Washington, DC.  If not bad enough, a far scarier threat exists.  North Korea is believed to have been mass producing anthrax and has likely mass produced other biological weapons such as smallpox, francisella tularensis, and hemorrhagic fever virus.  Any one of these agents could be released in densely populated areas and cause a massive number of deaths.  Finally, North Korea may have the ability to detonate a space based nuclear weapon over the US releasing an EMP capable of blacking out a large portion of the North American grid.  I consider this scenario less likely due to North Korea’s technological challenges and US countermeasures; however, if China becomes involved, the probability of this scenario is 100%.  Should that event occur, the US will effectively be destroyed.  Before the grid could be rebuilt, some congressional studies estimate that two-thirds of the US population or approximately 200,000,000 people would die.  Not even our grandchildren will live to see the US recover from this type of attack.  Let that sink in for a moment.  The war that President Trump is about to start has the potential to destroy the US.

If what I have just written didn’t scare the hell out of you, you are completely disassociated with reality and need professional help.  I am not trying to create panic and I do not subscribe to fear mongering.  Unfortunately, reality isn’t always pretty and as much as we would like to deny the uncomfortable, it is critical we recognize threats and dangers.  North Korea is a very big threat and far more dangerous than Iraq, Syria, and Afghanistan combined.  Remember, President Bush believed Afghanistan was going to be a quick war against some illiterate savages, but over a decade and a half later, we are still mired in his war we have already strategically lost.  Iraq proved to be another example of Washington’s hubris and overly optimistic military predictions.  In fact, the history of warfare demonstrates that in nearly every case, wars prove to be much longer, tougher, and more costly than predicted.  Why would anyone think North Korea will be a war any less costly when all indicators say the exact opposite?  I am curious because as I type, no fewer than three American aircraft carrier battle groups are steaming towards the Korean Peninsula prepared for a military showdown and nearly no one aside from Ron Paul is urging restraint.  I think the answer is that Americans are living in ignorance and have no concept of the hell this war will most likely bring to our lives.  Again, war with North Korea may be unavoidable, but we need to have a national discussion and the homeland must be prepared for the consequences.

As with all articles, I don’t just point out the problems.  I offer solutions.  In this case, the truth is you and I aren’t going to change a damn thing.  All we can control is our actions and to a limited degree help those around us.  Ideally, now may be a good time to literally leave the US for an extended vacation that lasts until either the war is over or North Korea backs down.  I don’t make this recommendation lightly.  However, for those that can’t leave or opt to stay, you need to prep your chem/bio response kits.  Everyone in your group now should be at minimum carrying a protective mask with new filter in day bags.  If you have antidote kits for nerve agents and decon kits for blister agents, those should also be packed and make sure you know how to use them.  You should also have antibiotics ready for a biological attack involving a bacterial agent like anthrax.  However, if the bio weapon is viral, we are looking at an untreatable megadeath situation and the only real option is to completely isolate your group from all other people until the virus has burned itself out.  Wherever you plan to stay, make sure you have an area prepped with provisions and the ability to seal it from the outside with plastic and duct tape at minimum.  You also should have enough chem/bio suits prepared for everyone in your group to at least bug out from the hot zone.  If you are driving to work, you should have at least one complete suit in your vehicle and a contingency link up plan for everyone else in your group.  Listen to me; you need to do this immediately.  A war with North Korea is hopefully avoidable, but literally could be launched at any moment in the coming days to weeks.

As for preparations beyond immediate survival, you need to get as much cash on hand as you can withdraw from the banks.  If you have the ability to move money to overseas bank accounts, do it now.  If you are invested in stocks, you should consider taking profits now and holding them until this crisis passes.  Once the market crashes, feel free to re-enter the market and buy up the cheap stocks.  This will lead to a market shock and crash if a war breaks out.  However, some stocks will likely sky rocket in value.  I am personally seeking out companies that specialize in radiological decontamination and chem/bio defenses to invest in.  Call it Machiavellian, but a crisis always presents opportunities for those with the foresight to position themselves to seize it.  Make sure that person is you.  In the interim, please take some basic precautions.  I pray for the best, but will be preparing for the worst.  We will be very blessed indeed if we can get through this crisis with the homeland unscathed.

By Guiles Hendrik

April 17, 2017

Global Updates July 12, 2016: World Chaos is Accelerating

It has been some time since I posted.  I apologize as a lot has transpired over the last two weeks.  To make up for lost time, I am going to give you the briefing points you need to know.

  1. South China Sea dispute heats up.  For those of you worried about the potential for WWIII, we just got one step closer today when the UN committee set up to arbitrate the territorial dispute between China and the Philippines ruled in favor of the Philippines.  Right or wrong, China utterly rejected the ruling and reaffirmed its self-perceived right to continue to economically and militarily develop the region as it sees fit.  This sets the stage for China to walk away from the international community to protect its interests while many smaller Pacific nations like Vietnam, the Philippines, and Japan will feel emboldened to challenge China.  My prediction is this ruling will only fuel hostilities in the region and set the region on a collision course for war.
  2. The spread of superbugs in the US that are resistant to all known antibiotic treatments continues. For a second time in less than a month, colistin resistant E. Coli has been identified in the US.  The strain in question tested positive for the gene mcr-1, which makes it resistant to colistin, a last resort antibiotic.  Per my previous articles (search antibiotic resistant on the LMS homepage), the spread of resistant bacteria is increasing in frequency and could easily hit a breakout stage in the near future.  Once the mcr-1 resistant gene jumps to other resistant infections such as highly resistant Tuberculosis now being brought into the US by the thousands via illegal immigrants and refugees, it is only a matter of time before a true pandemic sweeps across the globe again.  http://abcnews.go.com/Health/superbug-coli-found-time-us/story?id=40488140
  3. Obama is preparing to use wartime (Global War on Terror) martial law powers to ban and seize firearms for “national security.” Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson has been in secret talks with President Obama and other top officials to engineer “gun control” as a national security issue.  The intent, like with nearly every other “Right” under the US Constitution is to suspend the Second Amendment or make it virtually meaningless by using unconstitutional wartime interpretations and rulings of executive powers.  Their plan, like I have detailed repeatedly over the last decade (see: http://www.lastminutesurvival.com/2015/12/06/the-problem-isnt-islamic-terrorism-it-is-guns-according-to-emperor-obama/), is progressing on schedule.  Obama and his Leftist goons are intentionally inciting division and violence and fully plan to use the predictable violent outcome to justify “federal government” action and emergency powers that restrict firearms for “national security.”  After the events of Dallas and President Obama’s utterly despicable statements, it is clear that this administration is prepared to act as soon as this summer if more violence can be incited across the nation.
  4. Turkey continues to use “terrorist” attacks within its border as cover for supporting terrorists in Syria that vow to kill Americans. It is critical to understand Turkey has been proven to openly conduct false flag attacks against its own citizens to support President Erdogan’s radical agenda.  Most recently, Turkey has suffered a number of major attacks blamed on both ISIL and Kurdish rebel groups, but that is questionable to say the least.  True or not, Ankara wasted no time using the attacks to justify a Turkish military invasion of Syria.  However, the Turkish military has done nothing to destroy radical Islamic groups operating in Syria.  In fact, a closer analysis clearly shows that the Turkish military has instead been used to resupply radical Islamic groups to include the Al Nusra Front and ISIL/ISIS while smashing US backed Kurdish positions.  Ankara is determined to undermine Syrian President Assad and specifically has used its military to push back Kurdish positions in key blocking positions so that it could resupply radical Islamic fighters on the verge of being routed from Aleppo by Syrian forces.  If Syrian forces retake the lost ground and are again about to liberate Aleppo, expect to see another “terrorist” attack inside Turkey that will be immediately used to justify even greater military incursions into Syria to back radical Islamic extremist groups.  As Syria and Russia continue to mop up ISIL positions and approach Raqqa, I fear this could lead to another direct engagement with Russian forces, which could quickly plunge the region into a major war.
  5. US continues to lose ground in Afghanistan. President Obama signed off on increased troop levels in Afghanistan to help combat the Taliban.  In reality, the US completely ceded most of Afghanistan to the Taliban when Obama pulled the bulk of our forces out and our footprint in Afghanistan is getting more and more untenable.  It has gotten so bad, military logisticians plan up front to lose over 20% of any supplies shipped into Afghanistan because of the Taliban.  Further, Special Forces A-Teams are thinly spread across Afghanistan in a vain attempt to train and advise Afghan forces.  This WILL FAIL because the entire concept of training and advising is at best of limited value and at worst, counterproductive, but our brilliant military strategists are too stupid and indoctrinated to recognize the facts.  If a large contingent of forces are not recommitted under competent leadership to Afghanistan, the Taliban will likely begin to capture and hold major cities by years end and begin to directly threaten Kabul on a sustained basis as early as next summer.
  6. Number of US forces continues to quietly increase in Iraq as undeclared war continues. President Obama signed off on additional troop deployments to Iraq to support on-going efforts to recapture Ramadi, Fallujah, and Mosul from ISIL.  Like I predicted (see articles: http://www.lastminutesurvival.com/?s=strategy+in+iraq), none of Obama’s faux “strategy” would prove effective and he would again prove to be a hypocrite and put boots on the ground, which he promised not to do.  To date, none of those cities have been completely liberated.  The long overdue offensive on Mosul is again delayed and most likely also going to fail.  At best, Iraqi forces will blast their way through the city, but will find it impossible to root out ISIL elements because the inhabitants of the city “ARE” ISIL.  The Sunni population in Mosul is hostile to the government in Baghdad and isn’t going to change anytime soon unless everyone in the city is killed.  It is important to note that even at the height of the Iraq War, the US military never fully pacified Mosul and was literally fighting in the city as President Obama unilaterally declared our surrender in Iraq.  The bottom line is this deployment of troops is another vain endeavor that will fail because it is led by incompetents.  No further understanding is necessary to KNOW this ends badly for the US and Iraqis.

By Guiles Hendrik

July 12, 2016

Tuberculosis is reemerging as a major health threat in the US

Following up to my previous articles on antibiotic resistant bacteria, Tuberculosis (TB) has reemerged as one of the major antibiotic resistant disease threats to the public.  TB in particular is highly contagious and is a disease you CAN get just from sitting beside someone on a bus or train.  TB used to be one of the biggest killers in the world until antibiotics all but erased the disease from the US.  However, TB persisted in other nations and is now returning in force to the US via illegal immigrants and refugees.  Unlike before though, the strands of TB carried by these illegals are resistant or highly resistant to antibiotic treatment and pose a huge threat to public safety.  Sadly, because of political correct insanity, our own government has chosen to risk the lives of the population and ignore this threat.

You read that correctly.  Even though antibiotic resistant TB has the ability to rapidly spread and become a death sentence for thousands of innocent American citizens, your government and media have ignored it.  They are more concerned about flooding your local towns with enemy combatants to create chaos and division or to create Democrat majorities in key swing states than they are concerned about your health.  This is deadly treason and will kill more Americans than any terrorist attack.  I have repeatedly warned about this bio-terrorism http://www.lastminutesurvival.com/2014/09/26/obama-administration-is-carrying-out-bio-terrorism-inside-the-usa/.  Even worse, it is completely preventable, but our “leaders” refuse to do a thing about it.  Once resistant TB reaches epidemic proportions the politicians will feign ignorance and will act surprised, but make no mistake, they were fully briefed on the threat while it could still be contained and did nothing. Read more

Age of the Super Bug has dawned: Are you ready for a bio-catastrophe?

Why should you care about what I am writing about today?  “Each year in the United States, at least 2 million people become infected with bacteria that are resistant to antibiotics and at least 23,000 people die each year as a direct result of these infections.” (Source: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)  This is about to get potentially unimaginably worse.

Back in 2013, I wrote an article entitled, “Head of CDC Says It’s Time to Sound the Alarm on Antibiotic Resistant Superbugs” http://www.lastminutesurvival.com/tag/incurable/.  In it, I explained that we were reaching a point where the spread of antibiotic resistant diseases would fundamentally alter our lives.  In a world of resistant bacteria, even simple infections from cuts and scrapes will be deadly.  Modern surgical medicine will be highly risky to impossible because of the untreatable bacterial infections.  Perhaps most terrifying, the resistance will spread to previously eliminated diseases like Tuberculosis and allow for them to reemerge in a much more lethal form.  I warned that if new antibiotics were not developed, we could soon be facing a time where cities become nothing more than death zones.  Now, only three years later, we have crossed a major milestone of the worst case with the confirmed emergence of bacteria in the US resistant to the last resort antibiotic treatments.

Let me be clear.  The US government is in panic mode behind the scenes.  Although, government officials are sounding the “stay calm,” doctors and infectious disease specialists are much blunter about the dire implications of bacteria that are totally resistant to our treatments of last resort.  Lena H. Sun writes in the Washington Post; “For infectious-disease experts, the nightmare scenario is for the gene to spread to bacteria that are now susceptible only to colistin.  That would make them invincible to any antibiotic, unstoppable by the most lifesaving drugs of modern medicine.” (Source:  https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/how-these-biomedical-detectives-identified-the-dreaded-new-superbug-in-us/2016/06/06/96ac8922-2bda-11e6-9de3-6e6e7a14000c_story.html?wpmm=1&wpisrc=nl_most-draw6)  As soon as the resistance is spread to other bacteria and they become more wide spread, the consequences could be catastrophic.  It is so serious; it isn’t a coincidence the discovery was made by the Department of Defense (DoD).  The DoD has conducted research into biological weapons for decades and views the development of last resort resistant bacteria in the US like a nuclear weapon about to be unleashed.  In fact, it actually could be far worse.  Read more

MERS Update Warning: Potential for global outbreak high ahead of Hajj Pilgrimage

In previous updates, I have warned that there was a high potential for MERS to spread rapidly during the Hajj Pilgrimage.  Based on recent confirmed cases of MERS in Saudi Arabia, it appears that MERS may indeed get an excellent opportunity to breakout globally.  If even a very small percentage of the millions that have embarked on the Hajj Pilgrimage return home infected with MERS, we will be dealing with a  potentially global pandemic.

Case and point.  South Korea just spent months aggressively trying to contain a small outbreak. If even a dozen more infected individuals had mingled through Seoul while contagious, South Korea could still be dealing with a major healthcare crisis that overwhelmed their system.  Further, MERS in the opinion of many experts is far worse than even Ebola because it is more contagious and just as deadly even though it hasn’t received the same attention.

LMS is upgrading its safety precautions for the time period beginning this week and extending until 30 days after the Hajj is complete.  For you safety during this period, we recommend that travelers avoid Saudi Arabia.  Further, avoid anyone that has recently traveled to Saudi Arabia or has been in contact with others traveling to Saudi Arabia.  If you know someone that has and they are exhibiting flulike symptoms, recommend they get evaluated at a hospital for MERS immediately and self-quarantine until you know that the person is clear of MERS.  If you begin to suffer flulike symptoms after potential exposure, get medical help immediately.  Remember, once the pilgrimage is complete it will take some people weeks to return home.  As such, medical monitoring during the virus incubation period must be conducted for a prolonged period of time post pilgrimage before one can conclude the virus did not break out of the Middle East.

Respective of hygiene and preventative measures, continue to wash your hands frequently and avoid touching your eyes, face, inner nostrils, and mouth.  Further, use an HOCL compound such as “Briotech” to decontaminate and kill the virus on contact.

http://news.yahoo.com/saudi-mers-infections-soar-ahead-hajj-pilgrimage-100219590.html

 

By Guiles Hendrik

August 20, 2015

 

 

 

Global Pandemic Risk: MERS Update July 6, 2015

UPDATE:  Continuing on my previous MERS reporting it is worth noting the Philippines has now confirmed another case of MERS.  Disturbingly, the patient returned from Dubai on June 19th and apparently is only now being admitted and treated.  Unlike South Korea, which aggressively quarantined and treated patients, it appears the Philippines were slow in identifying this case.  Further, even with South Korea’s aggressive actions, MERS cases are still popping up on the peninsula.  As such, it is likely we will see in the coming days and weeks another local outbreak of MERS, but this time in the Philippines.  Considering the virus comes from the same family as some of the nastiest contenders for a flu pandemic and Asian is densely populated, the virus may spread more broadly.  Although, it does not yet pose a pandemic threat, its ability to continue to spread and avoid being eradicated means this virus could still jump to the US and spread amongst our cities.  As noted in my previous article, MERS has a death rate on par with Ebola and is spread easier so is not a virus to be taken lightly.

Recommendation:  Continue to monitor the spread of the virus, review your pandemic preparedness, and update your supplies.  Currently, MERS is of very minimal risk to you, but this could change rapidly.  As of now, there is no need to modify travel unless you are planning to visit the Philippines.  In this case, take extra flu prevention precautions and monitor yourself closely for flu like symptoms.  In the event I see MERS clusters beginning to appear and spread, I will post new updates and recommendations.

By Guiles Hendrik

July 6, 2015

Prepper Danger Alert: MERS breaks out of the Middle East

MERS, source: CDC

MERS, source: CDC

The Middle East Respiratory Syndrome, “MERS,” is a respiratory virus that kills nearly 40% of people infected and has its origins in Saudi Arabia.  It has traveled beyond the Middle East in isolated cases and so far hasn’t caused a major pandemic, but has eluded being wiped out for over two years.  Recently, the virus has made a major jump to South Korea, which significantly increases the odds the virus will go global.  To put this disease in perspective, it has a death rate on par with Ebola, but is spread more easily than Ebola.  In short, this virus concerns me more than Ebola and Ebola concerned me.  Nonetheless, the facts shouldn’t panic you, but they certainly should concern you.  If MERS mutates or is able to spread to other large cities, it could still pose a threat to your health.

Fortunately, right now there is no need for alarm.  South Korea appears to be doing an effective job at isolating cases and quarantining anyone with a possible infection.  Although it is likely more cases will appear in South Korea, the real issue is whether any cases appear outside of South Korea in places like Japan, China, Europe, or the USA.  LMS will be tracking the efforts to contain this latest outbreak and will continue to update you when/if there is further news.  As a part of our pandemic analysis, you should know that our information comes in part, directly from some of the leading experts in virology/infectious diseases at the forefront of combating the Ebola outbreaks.  These are legitimate bona fides and far exceed what most could get even from the CDC.  In short, like our Ebola coverage, we will be bringing you vetted, grounded, expert analysis that is not motivated by hype or hysteria. Read more

HOCL: Secret chemical the military is buying right now for Ebola decontamination

Decon Shower

Decon Shower

The public is being provided very little information regarding the military’s response to the Ebola outbreak in West Africa.  If large numbers of Americans become infected with Ebola, it will be critical to know what works and doesn’t work to protect and decontaminate yourself from Ebola.  As such, one of the most critical pieces of information to know is what the US military is currently using as a decontamination agent for Ebola.  The public may know about bleach and UV decontamination, but are being told nothing about the military’s latest frontline chemical agent against Ebola.  The Department of Defense (DoD) is currently buying this chemical by the tanker.  In fact, the DoD has essentially bought up the world’s market of this highly effective chemical and yet, you have probably never heard of HOCL. If you haven’t heard of HOCL, you need to.  Read more

Doctor in New York City Tests Positive for Ebola

 

A doctor in New York City who recently returned from treating Ebola patients in Guinea tested positive for the Ebola virus Thursday, becoming the city’s first diagnosed case.

The doctor, Craig Spencer, was rushed to Bellevue Hospital Center on Thursday and placed in isolation while health care workers spread out across the city to trace anyone he might have come into contact with in recent days. A further test will be conducted by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to confirm the initial test.

Read more at: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/24/nyregion/craig-spencer-is-tested-for-ebola-virus-at-bellevue-hospital-in-new-york-city.html

 

Despite WHO’s Confidence, Mali Becomes 6th West African Nation With Ebola

In yet another blow for the doctors fighting the spread of this deadly disease, AP reports, Mali’s health minister says the West African country has confirmed its first case of Ebola. Despite every effort to close borders, quarantine areas, and now send US troops (to do… well we are not sure really), Mali becomes the sixth West African country to report an Ebola case.

To read more go to: http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-10-23/mali-becomes-6th-west-african-nation-ebola

 

The Real Threat from Ebola is Economic Vapor Lock and Collapse

Liberian Military Seal Slums to Prevent Spread of Ebola_ Source: NBC News

Liberian Military Seal Slums to Prevent Spread of Ebola_ Source: NBC News

Outside of three West African nations, which are being ravaged by Ebola, the health threat from Ebola still remains small.  Am I dismissing the risk of further spread? No.  Am I dismissing the fact the numbers infected are still exponentially increasing? No.  Am I even claiming that Ebola won’t return to the US and spread globally?  No.  What I am saying is that for those of us in the US, the biggest danger Ebola poses to the masses in the near term is economic.  In fact, if you want to best prepare for an Ebola pandemic, you should prepare for an economic collapse, which will affect you long before you run a real risk of infection. Read more

Bug Out Bags Part II: Washington, DC

Map of Washington DCFor Part II in our series on bug out kits, I will look at some specifics for planning your kit if you happen to live in or around the nation’s capital.  I chose to address DC first, because it is a city where the conditions that trigger bugging out are likely to occur and it offers some very specific challenges that are applicable to many urban centers across the US.  Hopefully, you have had a chance to read my intro post on building your bug out kit.  If not, first review thin information we posted at: http://www.lastminutesurvival.com/2014/10/13/location-specific-bug-out-bags-part-i/.

Why would you worry about having to bug out if you live in DC? Read more

An Inside Look at the “Ebola” Gay

 

The Ebola Gay...our modern day doomsday plane.

The Ebola Gay…our modern day doomsday plane.

Compliments of Zerohedge.com we get a look inside the aircraft I like to term the Ebola Gay.  I just wonder what the fail safe is for an unexpected cabin depressurization.

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-10-16/peek-inside-ebola-transport-jet

Guiles Hendrik

October 16, 2014