Civil Pandemic Response Corps
In light of the fact that the UK government completely messed up the response to covid, while the media/scientific/medical establishments consistently lied about it – and none of those involved seem interested in course-correcting – I think we would do well to set up some kind of grass-roots movement to prepare for the next pandemic.
The name that came to mind is “Civil Pandemic Response Corps”, but I would be open to other suggestions. I was pretty pissed off at the time, and something vaguely military-sounding but also virtuous seemed appropriate. Like “we’re the good guys, but if you try to stop us from going to the beach again to avoid a virus that doesn’t transmit outdoors, we’ll quietly gather up whatever weapons we can find and start politely but firmly dismantling power structures”.
The main activities in non-pandemic time would be maintaining a stockpile of basic supplies – a moderate form of prepping – and building cameraderie through group fitness activities. Come pandemic time, we’d quickly assess the threat and come up with our own mitigation strategy based on minimising overall suffering and death – including the suffering and death that would come from shutting down the economy and making everyone sit at home alone.
Aside: when I think about stuff like this I always reach the conclusion that what we really need is local community-building, and from there I get to the conclusion that modern society doesn’t really allow for the kind of community structures that humans do best in. We’re supposed to be hunter-gatherers, living in small nomadic bands. We’re not supposed to see a thousand people we’ve never seen before every day. Still though – maybe there’s a way to set something like this up that works over long distances, and can withstand the distractions, to move the needle in the direction of people doing stuff together and taking responsibility—and therefore power—over how we handle the next pandemic.
Draft mission statement/flyer:
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2020 showed us that we should not rely on the government to enact sensible containment measures in the face of a time-sensitive pandemic threat.
How can we do better? The CPRC believes that preparedness is the answer, and that even a small amount of preparedness can allow ordinary people to mount a decisive response against the next pandemic threat.
We also believe that it is important to maintain healthy social contact, and a sense of proportion and perspective, while doing so.
Here are some of the things we do:
- Keep a stock of PPE
- Keep a stock of food
- Keep fit
- Establish communication channels for coordination
- Brush up on relevant knowledge from biology, virology, and epidemiology
When the next pandemic threat comes, our own preparedness and ability to coordinate will allow us the extra flexibility to help others who are less prepared or who are more vulnerable; to slow the early spread; and to reduce the load on supplies and infrastructure – providing a valuable head-start in the global response.
If this sounds sensible to you, get in touch and join our next meeting or team fitness run.
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