FluSCIM

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FluSCIM is the name of this documents. It’s stuff I wrote circa 2010 for a severe flu pandemic. Just in case there’s one after COVID-19… or even during COVID-19.

Main insights, if you don’t want to read the 6-page summary, the 69-page full document or the 2.5-pages index:

• Needs are non-negotiable wants. It’s not that you want oxygen. It’s that, if you don’t have it, you die. At most, you can negotiate how long you can do without… Say while you’re saving someone else who is drowning. But never indefinitely. That’s what makes it a “need”. Some needs are vital (you “literally” die) and others are important (education in a pandemic is important… but you have to be alive first).
• We supply for our needs from different levels: food from your garden, from a community garden… etc… from the other end of the world.
• Those levels have people who have some control over them. You may have some control over your garden. Shared with your family and your pests, but you do have some control. You access international markets by going to the local supermarket, but it’s international, meaning you do not control it: if climate kills crops or trade stops, etc.
• It’s needs, not systems. The “system” is whatever currently serves your need. No system is perfectly reliable. It’s a good idea to rely on more than one system for vital needs.

Here are some new insights learned from COVID-19:

• Masks do have an effect, and protection substitution (people dropping other precautions like distance because they are wearing masks) seems to not happen, but you know, has to be checked.
• Ventilation is important. As is, if you can afford it, air filtration with HEPA filters.
• Do things early. Consider not waiting for governments, who may or may not react in time, and who may or may not do their part (developing tests, paying for people to do contact tracing or stay at home, etc).