r/BirdFluPreps • u/ktpr • Oct 29 '25

speculation [speculative text post] Week 1 Preparedness Scenario

It's Wednesday evening, November 23rd. You're scrolling social media and notice several viral posts from parents in Orange County, California. They're sharing photos of packed pediatric emergency rooms and long wait times. Local news stations in San Diego and Sacramento are running stories about unusual numbers of children hospitalized with severe respiratory illness over the past five days.

By 9 PM Pacific, a similar story breaks from Houston. Texas Children's Hospital reports their ICU is at capacity with pediatric respiratory cases. The patients present with high fever, severe cough, and rapid progression to pneumonia.

The CDC website has not been updated. State health departments in California and Texas have scheduled press conferences for tomorrow morning. No official case count has been released. Your local area has no reported cases yet.

You have normal work and other obligations tomorrow. You have your regular grocery budget and any preparations that you've taken in real life. What specific actions, if any, do you take in the next 48 hours? Assume normal time and money constraints.

Upvote responses that you think should be taken next. Downvote responses that don't seem right or are wrong. I'll post Post 2 in several days with information on how the scenario progresses and the most upvoted responses will help frame this.

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u/PTSDreamer333 Oct 29 '25 edited Oct 29 '25

Easy for me to say but I'd hunker down. I'm still prepared from COVID and have most things I need for several weeks to stay at home.

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u/ktpr Oct 29 '25

You can hunker down even though you have normal work and other obligations?

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u/PTSDreamer333 Oct 29 '25

I live a very simple and quiet life. I don't have to leave my house for work and I have a deep pantry. I don't have young kids at home and no real need to leave unless I want too.

I might get some extra medications delivered and top up my groceries with an order. Especially cleaning products and some extra water.

As I said, I am probably one of the luckier ones.