Bug-In or Bug-Out? [Part 1]

The current pandemic spread across the globe and consuming our daily lives with most staying home and the media coverage being almost exclusively about COVID-19. Many are currently practicing a form of Bug-In. Bug-In means staying home and safe during an emergency. Having to leave in circumstances, such as floods or hurricanes is a form of Bug-Out. These two terms get a negative perception, but they are things we practice for regular occurring emergencies, but also apply to larger issues, such as this pandemic.

For Bug-In, this is one of the easier options, but only if you have prepared for this. If you have been conscious about having basic supplies and items needed for at least a few weeks, you would not be hit by the onset of the conditions causing the need to Bug-In. For example, with the onset of this current issue, most people were unprepared and began panic buying. As we have seen toilet paper and other paper products were immediately bought out and are bought out immediately after being restocked. This is panic buying driving more panic buying, as the current illness is not a GI track related illness and should not be a cause of tp shortages. As the first panic buyers began grabbing as much tp as they could, others who also were in a panic mindset followed suit and have now caused even clam level minded people to hunt and grab tp whenever they can due to the shortages.

Being prepared before the onset of an emergency will help you remain calm and be a better shopper [if you have to] during these times. At my house, we generally do weekly grocery shopping, but we also make sure we have a couple of weeks’ worth of items in case we do not get back to the store the next week. This allowed us to minimize how often we go out to the store and prevented us from being desperate for certain items [such as tp].

Now is not the time to begin those preparations, as Copper discussed in his article last week [https://www.rathdefense.com/single-post/2020/04/11/Staying-safe-during-a-global-pandemic-means-more-than-being-armed], prices are elevated due to “supply and demand” and outright gouging in some cases. At the same time, make sure you are noting what items you needed most, used most, or really wished you had during this time. You can write these down and make a journal or even create short videos, but make sure you use these to make future preparations when things return to normal.

Moving on to Bug-Out, while there are many reasons to Bug-Out, but right now where you can

bring illness with you, it is probably not the best time to Bug-Out. Many people have been leaving highly infected areas, like New York City. People leaving these infected areas may or may not be sick [there is a long delay between contraction and symptoms], and when they go to smaller communities to “escape” the city, they are not immediately welcome because of their unknown health status is a threat to that smaller community. So, if you have been trapped in an infected area, you really need to be sure about where you are going. If you do go to a smaller community that you may have family or a second property in, make sure you take precautions to ensure you do not bring or spread illness. With the current pandemic, it has been reported to be approximately two weeks between contraction and symptoms, so if you do have to move to make sure when you get there you do a self-quarantine for the duration of the incubation period to ensure you are not sick before you go out and about in that community to “escaped” to. If you do not take precautions you may be driven out of town if the community begins to panic, or you may spread the illness and create a new hot spot [which is what you were trying to escape].

This exemplified in the political sphere as well, when people “flee” their home state because of economic/policy failures, move to another state and vote for the exact same policies. Arizona experiences this with many from California, while many of the Californians remember this, there are just as many who do not. Do not move into a new area and create the problem you were “escaping”. This applies to pandemic issues, as well as social and economic issues.

With Bugging-Out, you also need to make careful preparations and face the same pricing and supply issues if you were not prepared before the pandemic hit. You need to have gear and provisions that will meet your needs

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We will discuss more on Bugging-Out in Part 2 of Bug-In or Bug-Out

Copyright RATH-Defense, LLC, 2020