So far, Canada has been relatively unscathed through all of this hysteria. With only a handful of confirmed cases and only one death, we’ve been lucky so far. There are lots of lessons to be learned from this though…
The Good
Preppers are taking this seriously. While this may be a less than apocalyptic event, it does have the potential to get real serious, real fast. Having taken a hard look around the prepper community, I found that a lot of us took a more serious look at our preparedness level. Many of us realized that we weren’t as prepared as we thought we were, yes, me included. This will be a wakeup call for a lot of us. I’m betting most preppers will be taking a more serious look at our situations.
New preppers are popping up as always happens with these types of events. Whenever there is an emergency situation, a portion of the general public starts to think about being ready, just in case. The more people that take personal responsibility for their well being, the less of a strain is put on resources. Always a good thing!
The Bad
Even though we are seeing a surge in those that want to be prepared, many of these people only want to be prepared for this specific event. Unfortunately, most of those people now stocking up on supplies in case of quarantine measures, will simply go through their supplies and forget all about this once it’s over.
With every new prepper out there, it seems as though there is an anti-prepper as well. I’ve seen countless examples of this on various Facebook groups. These anti-preppers seem to go out of their way to counter every point that preppers try to convey to the newbies. While the impact of this virus on Canadians has yet to be determined, this very well could be much less serious than it could be, but this does not mean that preparedness is useless. Countering these anti-preppers isn’t as easy as it seems, and one must take a measured approach. Going all “apocalyptic prepper” on these nay sayers will only drive new preppers away, not to mention help prove the point that preppers are crazy.
The Ugly
The ugly, oh the ugly in all of this. Forget the nay sayers with the standard “this is just the flu” line for a moment, there is a much bigger problem going on. Conspiracy theorists are still considering themselves an important part of the preparedness community. Tell me you haven’t heard at least one of them say that this is a fake virus, a manufactured imaginary emergency purported by the (insert nefarious secret organisation here) to (inset nefarious secret agenda here). Doesn’t anyone remember Alex Jones and the fake Sandy Hook shooting incident? These shock jocks will say just about anything to get clicks and views…unfortunately, it works!
Even worse still, is the camp that believes that this is a bioweapon released intentionally in order to blah blah blah. OK, sure…I’m not here to tell you what to believe or not, but I am here to tell you that is doesn’t amount to a hill of beans in relation to preparedness. Honestly, if Covid-19 came from bat soup, poor wet market conditions, or the Chinese government, that information does nothing but distract from preparing ourselves.
Let’s take a look at the general public too. We are seeing videos of panic buying of toilet paper at Costco stores. Seriously? Toilet paper? People are actually coming to blows over this and it hasn’t really hit us yet. This goes to show that preppers were right all along…society really is fragile and the masses will panic when caught off guard.
Prepare yourselves for the possibilities before they happen, mentor those that are new to preparedness with rationality, encourage them to continue even after this crisis comes to an end, and stop fighting over toilet paper!