Kong Sez:

    Here we are at the Chembio Headquarters located in the Alps, trying to persuade the Gulf Coast Headquarters to move all operations to the Alps promptly. Things appear to be heating up in regard to the Great Gulf Coast Oil Spill (GGCOS), what with one of BP's robotic operators damaging the well cap, and with the possibility that a huge methane bubble located deep beneath the rock that lies deep beneath the ocean that lies deep beneath BP's blown-out well, may erupt "like Mt. St. Helens" and send a tsunami clean over to Florida.

    Folks, I believe this GGCOS might be one of those "black swan" events, an unexpected event that changes everything. Dr. "B" spoke of this in previous editions. Even if nothing happens, other than that the oil just keeps on flowing for months to years, it has altered everything on the Gulf Coast and has wrecked livelihoods for millions of people.

    In fact, one of the major alterations that we see few people talking about is the fact that the federal government is attempting to do to the oil industry what it did to the automobile and housing industries—take it over so it can tell it how to do business in the future. It is a known fact that in order for the government to expand its power, it needs a good crisis. We can't think of a better crisis than the GGCOS, because it can be used for so many things.

    I have been having daily conversations with Dr. "B" since this oil spill began, and he has told me many things people need to keep in mind as they follow the news. The first thing, he says, is to realize the government is not telling the truth, and neither is BP. The truth would scare the residents of the entire Gulf Coast into a panic, and not even the federal government could handle that.

    Dr. "B" warns that Gulf Coast residents should have their "run bags" or "bug-out bags" packed for two reasons: (1) It is hurricane season, and (2) the GGCOS could turn nasty. If you should have to run, you don't want to rush off in a panic and forget crucial items.

    However, Dr. "B" believes that most residents, especially those living further inland, should be prepared to hunker down if things turn nasty, and they should be prepared NOW as if expecting a Category 4 hurricane to hit tomorrow. In other words, have your battery stocks, candles, gasoline, generator, food, and water already prepared. If the GGCOS turns into an "oil volcano," you do not want to have to rush to stand in line at the bank, the ATM, or the grocery store, because everyone else in the city will be there before you.

    Dr. "B" said the following, which made chills run down my spine:

"Kong, what will happen to all these Gulf Coast residents if events worsen and a mandatory evacuation of the Gulf Coast areas is declared? Think about it."

    I thought about it. "The highways leading north will turn into gigantic parking lots?"

    "That's for sure," Dr. "B" said. "But more to the point, where will all these tens of thousands of Gulf Coast residents go? Millions? Who will take them all in? Remember, most people don't have any relatives in other states ready and able to take them in."

    "That's easy," I said. "FEMA and the Red Cross will open shelters, like they always do in hurricane evacuations."

    Dr. "B" made approving sounds. "And what will happen if the situation turns out to be like New Orleans after Katrina, where the people can't go home again?"

    He then gave me a lecture, the likes of which I have never heard, on the subject of Quarantine and how people are likely to react to it.

    Then, he stopped me cold with, "If disease or a biological threat happens during this time, and it can't be controlled, it is on the books for FEMA or the U.S. Government to Cauterize that city."

    "What!" I screamed over the phone. "Cauteri..." and he broke in..."This is the process whereby they drop a hypobaric fuel air bomb and wipe out a city!"

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    Folks, "Dr. "B" has allowed me to reprint this section out of his unpublished book, Chemical/Biological WarFare: How You Can Survive, Fourth Edition, in which he discusses Quarantine.

    Read it and resolve that you will not allow this to happen to you. Most of all, take the necessary steps to see to it that it doesn't.

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Quarantine

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The Model State Emergency Health Powers Act (MEHPA) gives each governor the power to quarantine if he feels the need exists.

What "Dark Winter" and "TopOff" and other scenarios, as given in the Associated Press releases of February 16/21, 1999, pointed out is that quarantine is a certainty.

Do you really know what this is? How quarantine affected the people quarantined…how they felt about it…what they tried to do about it?

Areas in Africa where quarantine was applied, it devastated the economy. Quarantined people tried, and some did, to slip "under" the quarantine blanket where it was applied when Ebola struck. The intense mistrust of the peoples under quarantine often undermined medical interests because they were kept by the military under armed guard, even in the hospitals. This prison–like sequestration created hatred, mistrust, fear, and panic in an already bad situation.

Economic deprivation would be devastating to the quarantined. This means municipalities would topple. Little or no commerce can take place, leading to loss of income for most inhabitants. Quarantine would create unnecessary panic.

When bubonic plague struck the Indian city of Surat in the state of Gujarat, September 20, 1994, paramilitary personnel with riot sticks, garbed in camouflage apparel, guarded hallways and exits to prevent victims from fleeing the hospitals, though medicines were as rare to find as doctors.

Hundreds of panic–stricken people crowded train stations, wearing handkerchiefs or any cloths they could lay their hands on over their faces. Three–hundred–thousand people bolted from the city. A week later, September 27, approximately 600,000 frightened people fled to cities and states near and far, according to the Indian state government of Gujarat.

When this was confirmed, world public health authorities were alarmed that a pandemic was in the making because it was corroborated that a number of the bubonic cases were pneumonic in nature. Pneumonic plague is easily transmitted by fits of coughing and sneezing. With jet travel, in a matter of hours, it could be spread to various parts of the world. Quarantine was the answer.

In 1976, when Ebola struck Zaire, a republic in central Africa, the military had quarantined the Bumba village. Panic was widespread in the city of Yambuku. Fostering the spread of panic were stories of birds falling from the sky dead over the city. Factual stories got out that people were vomiting blood and defecated dark, tarry stools. Many, near death, were dehydrated and dazed. Normal tissues turned to ooze—they melted. Those dying simply developed a stare, but strangely their minds were clear but frightened. They bled from the gums, bowels, nose, and some women from the cervix of the uterus. Those who recovered had totally lost the skin of their hands and feet; the hair on their heads, and the nails of their fingers and toes.

In the capitol of Zaire, Kinshasa, where the international airport is located, you could fly to all parts of the world in no less than 24 hours. If the hemorrhagic fever (Ebola) erupted on the capitol city’s streets, an international quarantine of the entire Zairian country would go into effect. Their shaky economy would topple with escalating devastation. It would be a catastrophe.

Dreadful as quarantine is, under such circumstances, it would be necessary. If this viral infection had escaped to the world….

What Kind of People Break Out of Quarantine?

The panicked—afraid of the disease or what may happen to the city with them in it. You panic when you have little or no knowledge of "what’s going on?"

The resentful want out because they think nobody has a right to make them suffer restraints and tell them what to do. America has never really had quarantine on a major scale. There have been containments when tuberculosis was diagnosed in patients, but not wholesale cities isolated, or entire states.

The unprepared physically, mentally, and spiritually will also want out from being sequestered. They haven’t prepared for this by even thinking of the possibility, but the signs have been out there for some time through "Dark Winter, TopOff," and various other scenarios. They avoid thinking about it because they think it can’t happen here in America.

The naive also may flee quarantine because they don’t realize, nor understand, that quarantine is designed to be helpful—not to be mean, hateful, or ugly. It is necessary to isolate and stop the spread of infectious disease. History is replete with this during the Middle Ages (500–1500).

Why flee quarantine when there is the possibility of getting medical aid? This is a judgement call. Learn all you can about what this book is discussing. Know the Signs of the Times as to whether there are going to be enough drugs; if not, what are the containment measures? Will the contagion burn itself out? Will the "bomb" be used if several cities have a plague that is growing to other areas?

These are not easy questions, nor do they have easy answers. Have you forgotten about acceptable losses, even for millions of people if need be?

What To Do If You Are Quarantined

You should have enough food and some means of purifying water for several weeks if your neighborhood or city is quarantined. This entails staying in your home, and you don’t have to go a quarantine center. Plagues often burn themselves out. You want to stay alive and isolated from the sick especially, and also those who may have become infected and who have yet to show symptoms. This means you may have to avoid everyone for awhile as you have no means of knowing who may be incubating the disease.

If you are forced to go to a center isolated for such purposes, you still need to apply the suggestions given below as much as possible. According to The Associated Press, Tuesday, July 9, 2002, you would be placed in such a center "…where people would be kept while waiting for officials to confirm a small pox case and, if necessary, administer vaccinations." What if you are one of those who can’t take the smallpox vaccinations (see Smallpox section)?

This requires that you must understand and apply barrier nursing or isolation methods. This entails gloves and mask—just a simple cloth surgical–type mask operating doctors use. Get them at your local medical supply house. Even a dust mask sealed with petroleum jelly between the skin and edges would be acceptable if nothing else is available. Wear these when you must go in public and if a member of your household becomes sick, isolate him immediately and use barrier nursing modalities. However, the surgical face mask used regularly by medical teams will not stop a virus.

Avoid secretions of sick or infected persons. This would be sweat, saliva, blood, urine, defecation, including coughing and sneezing mucoid droplets. The aerosolization of infected particles striking the eyes can be protected against with wrap around goggles. Handle your family or anyone under your care applying barrier nursing precautions. Be sure and use good quality medical gloves. Or, get neoprene gloves from your local hardware that are resistant to harsh chemicals.

Remember, chlorine bleach, such as Clorox has proven effective against Ebola and other viruses. Decontaminate everything with it by swabbing and leaving the surface area damp with the chemical to give it time to do its thing, sterilize.

If you are in the medical profession, and have access to cap, gown, boots, gloves, goggles, and mask—good. In Africa, it was ascertained that goggles, mask, and gloves were often sufficient to protect against Ebola. For you, taking care of someone at home, the latter three are important. The goggles are necessary because the eyes are a "portal of entry," if you recall earlier in the book.

You are going to need some means of money, especially if quarantined for several weeks. You will have to buy food, if you did not store any. A few old silver coins would not be out of place either if you can get some now from your local coin dealer.

Do not expect things to work the way they are now. City services will break down; confusion, panic, and fear will reign. The under element will take advantage of this. There will be gouging, price inflation, if supplies get to your city—and they should unless a number of large cities are struck with an emerging plague.

There will always be those who will rape and pillage if the opportunity presents itself. And make no mistake about it, under these circumstances, it will happen.

Thus, you should have some means of physical protection. Jesus said, "Get two Guns," Luke 22:36–38.

You will need to have on hand any medicine you normally take if a quarantine takes place. Don’t expect normal deliveries of food, goods, and medicines. The authorities will try to do their best, but remember "Dark Winter," "TopOff," and the scenarios released in the Associated Press stories—there was a total breakdown of services on every level. "Who’s in Charge?" was the question. And what about the "pushy politicians," who will be in a state of heightened anxiety, trapped in a city and can’t get out? You read what was said in the scenarios created by top scientists, researchers, and others trying to deal with what is coming.

Get prepared. Be physically fit. By just reading this, when you see it going down, you will have some mental preparation, because you have been advised and are aware it can happen—it will. Do the physical preparations now and this will help prepare you for the sights, sounds, and odors you will witness "when the hell breaks."

Should You Flee a Quarantined City?

What happens if you become infected and don’t know it, but panic and flee during the incubation period? You serve as a "carrier" and disseminate the infectious disease. You may be the sole spread of the disease. What happens if you arrive at a relative’s home and fall out at the door with the acute stage of the disease now manifesting? You may cause the death of countless others, and you probably haven’t saved your own life either.

If Communications Are Cut Off

It would be advisable to join a ham radio club and get your license and be counseled on battery operated ham radio equipment for emergency use. Cell phones may not work for a number of reasons. If your city is sick and dying, there may not be personnel in that area to "make the phones work."

Quarantine: How It Came About

In order to limit a sudden and possibly lethal exposure to a virulent disease, certain lines of demarcation must exist to define that limitation.

The natural method to limit exposure for the naive is to "bolt" from an area when a strange disease manifests and starts killing the inhabitants. Or, authorities may decide to quarantine such an area. By fleeing an area, the infected may carry the plague far and wide, thinking they are running away from death and sickness, whereas quarantining infected areas may tend to limit the spread of an infectious disease. This contains it and allows it to burn itself out without spreading the virulence.

The ancient idea of quarantine projects from Biblical proscriptions written 1000 to 500 B.C. in the Old Testament and followed into the New Testament. Lepers were avoided and ostracized, often relegated to a leper community. They had to step aside when passing others on a road, shouting "Unclean…unclean." In the Middle Ages, lepers were forced to wear particular garments to set them off from others. They also had to announce their presence with a rattle, horn, or clapper. The leper was condemned to a world of isolation. He was prohibited from entering taverns, inns, or public places. All of this was a form of isolation and quarantine.

Leprosy was highly prevalent in Europe during the Middle Ages, including the time of the Black Death. In the 14th century Dark Ages, when plague roamed Europe, especially the Mediterranean area, people with plague were treated as lepers, and this was generally accepted. The exception was that plague sufferers were isolated for forty days. At the expiration, they were either dead or over the contagion. It had run its course in a community and survivors couldn’t seem to catch it again nor give it to others not infected. They had developed an immunity (antibodies), which was not known at that time.

No one knew about rats and fleas either in those days as being carriers of the disease until the early 20th century (1921–24), so quarantine didn’t always work, nor did the people always follow it, and only weakly was quarantine ever enforced. The rats, not under quarantine, with their fleas moved about freely and carried the contagion with them.

The number "forty" was arrived at after the arbitrary number of thirty days’ isolation had been enforced at Ragusa for a number of years for ships, travellers, and merchants coming from areas struck with the plague. The term "quarantine" was derived from the words quarantina (Italian), and quarantenaria (Latin), meaning a space of forty days.

In 1127 at Venice, Italy, an Adriatic sea port, forty days was first used. But according to Hecker, forty days was established because in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, it was considered that length of time a disease went from acute to chronic.

The Bible had older significance from which to establish a time period. Jesus fasted forty days and forty nights; the Flood was for forty days; and other events in the Bible went for forty days, so it was antecedent to choose this time scale.

But in the 1300s, this was man’s way of doing something about the plague and it helped them mentally, even if they still became infected.

From the lepers being isolated and quarantined at leprosarias, which one estimate places at 19,000 in the 1200s or thirteenth century, one can easily understand that quarantining was not a social stigma as it would become if suddenly introduced today throughout America. It had been in existence for centuries in the Old World and a century prior to the emergence of the Black Death.

In order for communities to protect themselves from plague, they denied admission to anyone coming from known infected areas. If the area was even suspected of plague, persons coming from there were not allowed to enter the villages or towns in the 14th century. The experience acquired from the isolation and treatment of lepers was carried over to plague victims.

The early Dark Ages’ main defense was to avoid the infectious and isolate those who showed signs of infection. This isolation principle developed rapidly within a community. Any persons who had the disease were required to show (1) themselves to public officials designated for this. Upon examination, if found to be sick with the contagion, they were (2) isolated in their homes until the sickness cleared or they died. Any (3) house with a person so infected was banned also. Anyone (4) who came into contact with a plague victim was also placed under isolation. In 1374, at Venice, anyone tending a plague patient had to be quarantined for 14 days, at such time if he did not show signs of illness to public authorities, he could resume social activities. The Venetians were, it appears, the leaders of trying to contain an infectious disease. The year 1000 records they had public officials with authority to quarantine persons, ships, goods, animals and materials during periods of epidemics.

Food and essentials of life (5) were dispensed by urban officials. The dead (6) were passed through windows and taken away on "dead carts" and buried (7) away from the city to prevent the disease from returning. Burial details in the London plague of 1665, used ten–foot poles with hook attachments to rake off the dead into large common burial graves. From this probably came the expression, "I wouldn’t touch that with a ten–foot pole." The men doing the burials smoked large bowled pipes giving off noxious and smelly fumes to keep the disease at bay, since the epidemiology of the disease was not known until 1897. At that time, it was definitely established that bubonic plague was transmitted to humans by rats harboring rat fleas that would bite man, causing the contagion.

When a plague victim died, the house was (8) fumigated, such as it were, aired, and whatever (9) belonged to the victim was burned.

These were procedures used to limit the Black Death within a village, town, or city. From this, the community developed rules to prevent plague from entering into its district. And again, isolation was the key to try and keep the disease from spreading to its vicinity. All suspected persons were observed for signs of illness under quarantine conditions for a designated period of time until it could be ascertained they were free of disease. This quarantine included their goods also.

Because of this association with sickness, death, and quarantining, quarantine regulations were established in 1465 at Ragusa, a city in SE Sicily, along the Mediterranean Sea, and Venice, Italy (1485), a trading port in the Adriatic Sea. From this grew the first practical rules of quarantine that were expanded and reproduced throughout that seafaring area.

The rules were that any ship coming from a port infected or even suspected of being infected with the plague, had to drop anchor in an isolated place for forty days. No communication was allowed to or from that ship until said time elapsed. If a ship was infected, the disease would have run its course and then could sail into port for exchange of goods and ship’s company as need be.

There were two problems with this: not always were the rules enforced, and the black rat (Rattus rattus) with its fleas had no rules protracted against him and his kind (other rats and rodents can carry Yersinia pestis, formerly known as Pasteurella pestis). Also, the black rat is an excellent mooring rope climber and descender—they came and went at will.

The quarantine rules were well–accepted by the Christian shipping community because of the Christians’ prior heritage of quarantine from Biblical history.

Plague fears and just rumors of the disease often gave rise to all suppressed fears, hatreds, and grievances. This had to have an outlet, and the poor often directed their suppressed resentments toward the rich. This would erupt into riots and home and business invasion by the terrified mob. The mounting deaths in the 14th century from this dreaded scourge was the trigger that set the looters and tumultion into action.

With quarantine measures for rich and poor alike, those remaining in good health found a new and acceptable way to express their fears through quarantine measures, defusing a potential bedlam situation because the fear of the plague was "quarantine" somewhat, and this helped stemmed the flow of civil violence that could erupt.

The real reasons that plague died out in Europe, after being hit with it a number of times, involved a number of factors. Quarantine, including other public health modalities did not have as much to do with it as some may believe.

As the population grew, wood became scarce; they started building houses of mortar and brick which was not conducive to rats living between the walls (often solid stone and mortar); this added isolation between the people of Europe and the rat flea. After the Great Fire of London in 1666, thatch roofs were replaced with tile ones. The rat "nest" were no longer available and separated occupiers from fleas. London had a Great Plague in 1665, but after they changed from thatch to tiles, it never returned as such. Europe started with tiles too, and fleas could no longer leave a dead rat and drop to a human below. The gray rat invaded Europe in the 1700s, and tends to be wilder and live in burrows in the ground outside, as opposed to its cousin, the black rat, who likes living close to humans in their homes. But, the grays can still carry bubonic plague as R. rattus does.

The plague had raged in Eurasia for centuries and now people were developing antibodies to the disease. The patterns of infection were changing in subtle ways in the northwestern portion of Europe. A false tuberculosis developed that was actually a mutated form of P. pestis that became known as Pasteurella pseudo–tuberculosis. It was similar enough to the microbe that causes the black death, but usually caused no fatalities and was easily communicated through droplet transmission. It had the appearance of typhoid with gastrointestinal disturbance and high fever. Some microbiologists contend this form of pestis conferred partial immunity to the Black Death and is another riddle as to why the disease has died out except for periodic manifestations.

Changes in lifestyle involving sanitation and potable water, housing, and shipping practices also changed the interaction of rat to flea to human. Again, these were new forms of quarantine that gradually evolved from increasing modernization.

Leprosy contagion had a strange phenomenon attached to it also. It started dying out of Europe as a significant disease when plague became well–established. Leprosy seemed to die out abruptly in the 14th century, and could not be easily transmitted. The thought on this is that more vitamin C was available in the diet, which hinders leprotic processes.

Also, there was competitive inhibition between leprosy and plague in that at this time a rising tide of tuberculosis of the lungs was being manifested in Europe. Exposure to one infectious disease often increases host resistance to another. It is felt that competition existed between leprosy and the arriving pulmonary tuberculosis. It became harder to contract leprosy and only through prolonged communication with it. But tuberculosis (TB) is spread by droplets through aerosolization by means of coughing and sneezing from people infected with TB. The leprosariums started becoming empty and being reused for quarantining of persons thought to be infected with plague.

What Should You Do

Know in advance the Signs of the Times. If you can’t get out of the city, or it may be best not to because you may go right into harm’s way, then hold tight. Sit still. If the "bomb" is not used, then by preparing now, knowing what to do, and if you do leave before quarantine is enforced, do so with your preparations. If you stay, hunker down and wait it out. Remember about barrier isolation! Also, a plague virus, experience shows, tends to burn itself out in an area in several weeks. There are a number of reasons for this: As host victims are killed quickly, the infection dies too because it doesn’t have time to spread, as was shown with the viral hemorrhagic fever, Ebola. Provided of course, there are no natural vectors in nature that you can contract it easily from.

If the virus is extremely virulent, then it is less likely to wipe the slate clean (kill large numbers of people), we hope. It kills so quickly, it can’t kill large numbers of people, because the infected people don’t usually live long enough to infect others.

Another thing is that if there is not enough infectivity over a large number of people then the implication is that the disease is not aerosolized (airborne). Recall an airborne disease spreads very rapidly from person to person, especially if the "portal of entry" are the lungs. This is the form of a highly infectious disease that experts fear most.

When Ebola is compared to bubonic plague in the Middle Ages, plague was highly infective, which implied it had to be aerosolized, and as such, this did wipe the slate clean.

However, Ebola, although it kills rapidly and dreadfully, doesn’t tend to spread very far. It is the fear of the disease that sends people fleeing that tends to spread the disease, and not the inherent infectivity of the disease itself.

So, be aware, be alert. Know what to do now so you can do it then.

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Another Matter Be Advised!

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Kong Sez:

    If things get quite rigorous and the pestilences follow, there will be no doctors. Most will be dead or not practicing, or will be forced to practice where they don't want to by the government.

    "Doctors," he advises, "store medicines now." This will be primarily for your own family. When you need to treat your own family, there may be nothing available to treat them. Those in power will have complete control of all medicines, and the medicines will be for them. You'll find out what this means in the not–too–distant future. Your family may not be on the "preferred" list.

    The Microbiology of Foods will be very evident on the minds of the knowledgeable when the Pestilences arrive in their full rigor. We are now seeing more emerging bacterial and viral diseases. The latest textbooks are writing about this. Food and Water Borne Diseases will take a toll on the very young and the elderly. However, Dr. "B" points out, "With all the endocrine disruptors out there in the food and water, and the exhaustive toxic fats having being ingested for years now, those in their prime will also add to the dead!"

    He suggests for Physicians to store food, water, guns & ammo (doctors will be prime targets for those in search of money and drugs), and especially tetracycline (a broad based antibiotic excellent for Gram–negative and Gram–positive bacteria, Chlamydia, Rickettsiae, etc.), streptomycin, erythomycin (for Campylobacter jejuni—milk borne, food, water disease), and for typhoid (have the antibiotic ceftriaxone), ampicillin (for Listeriosis) for many of the increasing and emerging gastroenteritises they will be personally facing in their immediate families.

    Store that which you feel will be necessitated by harsh conditions coming. Medicines will be scarce. Also, go to Save Sweat and save to the printer Easy Oral Rehydration Formula. The profuse diarrheas associated with gastroenteritis deems one know and have Oral Rehydration Formula makings at the ready.

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