Preppers stocking up in fear of next pandemic

Five years ago, in January 2020, many health experts were sounding the alarm about a virus that was spreading rapidly in Wuhan, China. The virus was COVID-19, which the World Health Organization (WHO) declared a pandemic in March of that year.

According to Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, COVID-19 killed over 6.7 million people worldwide — including over 1 million people in the United States. COVID-19 is still highly contagious, but it has long since ceased to be a pandemic — and many of today's COVID-19 infections are much milder than the deadly COVID-19 infections of 2020. Moreover, vaccines have made COVID-19 much less dangerous than it was in the past.

Many health experts have warned that it's not a question of whether or not the U.S. will eventually suffer another pandemic — it's a question of when. And according to Salon's Nicole Karlis, some preppers fear that bird flu, a.k.a. avian flu, could become the next major pandemic.

READ MORE: Americans’ rage at insurance companies goes beyond health coverage

In an article published on January 8, Karlis reports, "On Reddit, there have been several discussions in the r/preppers channel concerning people anticipating for a bird flu pandemic. In these conversations, people swap tips, share what they've been doing to prepare, and share what they think will be most helpful in a bird flu pandemic."

Karlis continues, "At the moment, most experts don’t believe a H5N1 pandemic is an immediate threat, (but) it’s completely possible in the near future, especially as cases continue to rise. Unlike the once 'novel' coronavirus SARS-CoV-2, H5N1 is nothing new and has been documented since the '90s. But in 2024, officials confirmed that the virus had jumped from birds to cows to humans, all while massacring millions of wild animals and tearing through dairy and poultry farms across the country."

One of the bird flu preppers Salon interviewed, North Carolina resident Desiree Moffitt, described the steps she is taking in case bird flu becomes a pandemic — which include stockpiling gallons of water and extra toilet paper and keeping dried foods on hand.

Moffitt told Salon, "I decided after that experience (COVID-19), I was not going to put myself in that same confused category again. So, I've learned everything that I can — and it's not just bird flu, it's any event that could happen at pretty much any time."

READ MORE: Highly pathogenic bird flu detected in a human for first time in Iowa

Moffitt, according to Karlis, is keeping a first aid kit and a "water filtration set" handy and "recently purchased a $3000 freeze dryer."

Moffitt told Salon, "A part of me is a little bit embarrassed because it sounds extreme. But the other part of me feels that that is such a practical evolution in my thinking."

READ MORE: Rage has long shadowed American health care — but it’s rarely produced big change: analysis

Read the full Salon article at this link.